Thoughts on Beldisloe II
So, the Sunday morning thread read isn't nearly as much fun when we win comfortably.
So my random thoughts on the game:
So I think I was correct in thinking we haven't been playing direct this year, however in this must win match we played really direct and smashed them up in the forwards. I think the TWM must be disappointed they had to play direct in this match as I think they were saving it for the cup finals themselves. We also massively tidied up our defence, although TBF last week we just had so little ball that we had to make so many tackles that we were always going to miss a few.
There seems to be a bit of a loss of perspective on the wings. Yes they both played well (Reece especially played better than I thought he would in defence and without the ball, Bridge as I expected) but it's impossible to make a comparison between this week and last week - last week the forwards played like fairies and the backs suffered because of it (and they were down to 14 for 40 minutes) and this week the pack kicked arse and the wings benefited from decent front foot and counter attack ball. I think Ioane would have carved up just like Bridge did last night with that extra space. Can't believe some are genuinely suggesting he'll be dropped.
Coles is getting shit but I thought he played well outside of his yellow and getting a yellow for dumping a mouthy halfback out of a maul which we were dominating isn't too bad in the scheme of things.
The loosies were awesome. Savea spent the first 40 minutes emulating his brother on the wing (the good version, not the fatty version), dare I say it very Fifita like, then spent the second 40 in the middle more making tackles and hitting rucks. I wonder if that was the gameplan.
Also, we may as well just give Ardie the number 8 jumper. He's playing 8, Read is playing 6 and Cane is playing his brand of hard tackling 7 for 60 minutes until they bring Todd on. I still don't get Todd, good rugby player, but 3 7's in the team just seems overkill.
Patty T stood up and didn't get himself red carded so that's a bonus. Whitelock had a new haircut, he doesn't quite look like the missing link as much anymore, and that coincided with his best test of the year.
Beaunga is starting to gel I reckon. I was generally worried when Mo'unga came off injured. Not for the game, BB could easily slot into 10, but for the RWC. Thankfully it looks like it's not serious. SBW and ALB were both good. Smith ran the game well, like he used to.
JB still worries the shit out of me, even though I thought he was decent, but he still looks like he's 30 seconds away from doing something stupid. I guess I have to trust he'll come right like DMac did (who copped far worse from some posters than JB does for arguably less stupidity).
White looked shit this week, Genia looked good when he came on. The number 6 who changed his name was awesome last week, he was terrible this week. My non regular rugby watching Aussie mate picked up how bad he was early in the game and then spent the rest of the game shouting at the screen to get him off. Kervei was irrelevant without as much ball as last week and O'Connor was just left to tackle all day. Beale had his worst test in a while.
Best thing about the win (aside from keeping the Aussies scoreless), my Aussie mate who was in Singapore for last weeks match and spammed the shit out of me for two days after the match was sitting right next to me on the couch for this match. I'd like to say I was a magnanimous winner ... but I wasn't, I rubbed that win in his face all through the match and then for the next couple of hours at dinner, where to his credit he still proudly wore his wallabies jumper (which looks like a soccer shirt) all night.
Edit: Must proof better next time and not start three sentences in a row with 'so'.
Second Edit: How could I forget, how awesome was it seeing our 7 man scrum smash the Wallabies! Rugby porn of the highest order.
@canefan said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@booboo said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@Wairau said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
Hansen is too stubborn and it doesn't look like he'll make enough changes next week.
We still have the players and talent to stay 1-3 in the world, no matter what happens this year.
Razor has the Crusaders playing great rugby. I think he'd be able to do a lot for the ABs. But it's better he coaches the Crusaders for 2 more years then gets international experience.
I would prefer Gatland or Schmidt, or best would be Wayne Smith coming back for 2 years till Schmidt + Gatland are ready to do the job together.....What about Cotter or Joseph? Both very talented and proven...
Who are you changing?
That was ptetty much the number one team.
Given the actual quote was "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here" and then, Houston, we've had a problem" maybe we're over it?
@booboo said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@Wairau said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
Hansen is too stubborn and it doesn't look like he'll make enough changes next week.
We still have the players and talent to stay 1-3 in the world, no matter what happens this year.
Razor has the Crusaders playing great rugby. I think he'd be able to do a lot for the ABs. But it's better he coaches the Crusaders for 2 more years then gets international experience.
I would prefer Gatland or Schmidt, or best would be Wayne Smith coming back for 2 years till Schmidt + Gatland are ready to do the job together.....What about Cotter or Joseph? Both very talented and proven...
Who are you changing?
That was ptetty much the number one team.
For starters I'm dropping the entire front row
Coles & Moody on the Bench Laulau starts at #3
Hemepo starts
Bender goes to #15 with Mo'unga to #22
Laumape replaces Goodhue with ALB moving out to #13
Drop Rieko out of squad with Ennor at #11
Sevu Reece starts at #14
@booboo said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@canefan said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@booboo said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@Wairau said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
Hansen is too stubborn and it doesn't look like he'll make enough changes next week.
We still have the players and talent to stay 1-3 in the world, no matter what happens this year.
Razor has the Crusaders playing great rugby. I think he'd be able to do a lot for the ABs. But it's better he coaches the Crusaders for 2 more years then gets international experience.
I would prefer Gatland or Schmidt, or best would be Wayne Smith coming back for 2 years till Schmidt + Gatland are ready to do the job together.....What about Cotter or Joseph? Both very talented and proven...
Who are you changing?
That was ptetty much the number one team.
Given the actual quote was "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here" and then, Houston, we've had a problem" maybe we're over it?
@canefan said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@booboo said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@canefan said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@booboo said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@Wairau said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
Hansen is too stubborn and it doesn't look like he'll make enough changes next week.
We still have the players and talent to stay 1-3 in the world, no matter what happens this year.
Razor has the Crusaders playing great rugby. I think he'd be able to do a lot for the ABs. But it's better he coaches the Crusaders for 2 more years then gets international experience.
I would prefer Gatland or Schmidt, or best would be Wayne Smith coming back for 2 years till Schmidt + Gatland are ready to do the job together.....What about Cotter or Joseph? Both very talented and proven...
Who are you changing?
That was ptetty much the number one team.
Given the actual quote was "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here" and then, Houston, we've had a problem" maybe we're over it?
Just trying to look for positives.
Not to spoil the movie or anything but the astronauts survived ...
@canefan said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
Considering it doesn't look like the coaches know who the #1 lineup is with one pre-cup test to go, we are looking bad at the moment
Is the game against Tonga only a friendly? 
@LABCAT I know you are on the wind, but anyone who thinks any test match is a friendly need only look into the madness of the Bledisloe 1 thread...
@LABCAT said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@canefan said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
Considering it doesn't look like the coaches know who the #1 lineup is with one pre-cup test to go, we are looking bad at the moment
Is the game against Tonga only a friendly?
Forgot about that one. We need all the reps we can get to try and make the top lineup appear like a team and not like a bunch of strangers
@LABCAT said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@canefan said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
Considering it doesn't look like the coaches know who the #1 lineup is with one pre-cup test to go, we are looking bad at the moment
Is the game against Tonga only a friendly?
It's a "Pre RWC Warmup Match" It's only Tonga 
A good set of Mitre 10 players could come together for a week, put on a ABs jersey and beat Tonga
@MrDenmore said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
My sense is Hansen has had one foot out the door for most of this World Cup cycle and has been content to leave a lot of the decision-making to Foster.
Interesting point and entirely plausible, but if it is the case, when does Mr Hansen say enough is enough, I ain't going down like that.
@Machpants said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@Bovidae but taking ABs laden squad to win super rugby is actually quite impressive the way the ABs are playing
True its not just a matter of the AB's turning out and playing if that was the Case the Crusaders would have won more titles under Blackadder we had McCaw and Carter as well through his reign.
What is impressive about Razor is his ability to stimulate his AB players to play well for the Crusaders instead of cruising waiting for AB duty like in the past.
@taniwharugby said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@MrDenmore said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
My sense is Hansen has had one foot out the door for most of this World Cup cycle and has been content to leave a lot of the decision-making to Foster.
Interesting point and entirely plausible, but if it is the case, when does Mr Hansen say enough is enough, I ain't going down like that.
Hansen doesn't seem the type to mail it in
@Chris said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@Machpants said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
@Bovidae but taking ABs laden squad to win super rugby is actually quite impressive the way the ABs are playing
True its not just a matter of the AB's turning out and playing if that was the Case the Crusaders would have won more titles under Blackadder we had McCaw and Carter as well through his reign.
What is impressive about Razor is his ability to stimulate his AB players to play well for the Crusaders instead of cruising waiting for AB duty like in the past.
Looking back at the Crucaders this season they didn't play all that well from mid season onwards. There were some poor games mixed with games where they did enough to get the points and not much more. Even the final, where they should have been buzzing, was a disappointing performance. And who can forget that shit defensive effort in Fiji against a limping Chiefs?
Were the AB warning signs there all along?
@Crazy-Horse maybe there were signs hopefully not.
That Makes Razors effort in coaching to a 3 peat even more remarkable if those AB’s are declining to a large degree.
To answer the question, yes. Hansen should have gone after the Lions series. He has been there since 2004 and will go down as one of the great coaches. However, since the Lions he has been surrounded by Foster and co. The hard times (for AB fans...so relative but....) we expected after 2015 has come a few years later but the writing is on the wall. The game has moved on and the ABs are not ahead of the game. Our predictable style has become easy to defend against when the forwards don't provide go forward and suck in defenders. Instead of a tactical kicking game, it is run at all costs, run into a brick wall of 15 defenders and put yourself under pressure. And Hansen calls the players dumb. With great respect, I say to Mr. Hansen, the players are being let down at the moment.
@jegga said in Is Japan a WC too far for Hansen?:
I’m not sure it’s Hanson I completely blame , Foster was a terrible super rugby coach that somehow got into the all blacks coaching team and is now touted as Hanson’s replacement.
What did Foster ever do to give the impression he was a competent high level coach?
don't forget Stormy into that mix.. was at a session a few weeks back that Fozzie and Stormy were the speakers.. Fozzie was good.. Stormy i came outta there with ZERO confidence in.. really sounded like he didn't have much of a clue!
Nobody seems to be taking injuries into account. I think that a lot of the changing has been down to the first choice players being injured. A lot of the fringe players have head overseas earlier than they would previously and we are seeing the the depth isn't what it was.
@WillieTheWaiter I like Stormy, he was very good for the Chiefs, but want neither Fozzie nor Stormy near the 2020 ABs. Really think we need a complete change how we think/analyse/prepare.
One of the takeaways from 2015 should have been, that if the head coach wants to step down - then let him, rather than throw money at him. It;s obviously his time, and maybe he doesn't have the heart or stoamach for the fight anymore. Time for some new blood.
