Tri Nations

[LordP]

That first half was insane - 7 tries and one penalty in 40 minutes.

[QWERTY?]

im predicting aussie will get a smashing this weekend, they almost lost it to the yar yars.

[mr selfdestruct]

I'm not so sure. If Hong Kong gets canned the Bledisloe is back on!

[QWERTY?]

hong kong is getting canned??!

[Koldzy]

Originally Posted by mr selfdestruct

I'm not so sure. If Hong Kong gets canned the Bledisloe is back on!

Why would the Bledisloe be back on if it got canned? We've already won 2.

[Deadmeat]

HK isn't being canned according to the hong kong rugby union. Would be a huge shame as it's one of the best dates for rugby all year due to the massive yet relatively neutral crowd.

[JERI]

Would really be keen to see how the ABs play this weekend without Carter.

[blynk]

Originally Posted by JERI

Would really be keen to see how the ABs play this weekend without Carter.

Yep. That is definitely the biggest thing this week. To see how Cruden goes at this level for a good chuck of the match.

[mr selfdestruct]

for some reason I thought we'd lost one game and it was Aussie, my bad!

[BoyWonder]

So the intention of playing in HK was to showcase the game outside of the traditional countries. Low ticket sales means they are thinking of playing in London instead? Not exactly breaking new ground there!

Why not consider somewhere really ambitious like LA or NY? Both are essentially on the way to Europe which was also part of the HK reasoning.

[Warrick]

A win for the All Blacks would see them achieve a record 10 consecutive victories over Australia. They would also become the first team to win all six matches in a Tri-Nations series.

no pressure ;p

happy that Piri is starting over Jimmy.

[mr selfdestruct]

Play it in New York. And make it meaningful by making it THE Bledisloe clash, winner takes the trophy.

[xor]

Aus to win by 5

[PhX]

The whole 'stop over to make the trip to europe easier' is bs anyway. Are you telling me they cant fly for 26hrs and then have a week to recover? People do it all the freggen time, sure is hard flying first class with a bed and all in't it. Just come out and say that it is a revenue building exercise that isnt building any revenue -- I do like thought that it wont be at a too mental time thus watchable live.

[blynk]

Originally Posted by PhX

The whole 'stop over to make the trip to europe easier' is bs anyway. Are you telling me they cant fly for 26hrs and then have a week to recover? People do it all the freggen time, sure is hard flying first class with a bed and all in't it. Just come out and say that it is a revenue building exercise that isnt building any revenue -- I do like thought that it wont be at a too mental time thus watchable live.

Interesting. I have never heard it as a 'stop over to make the trip to europe easier'.

I've only heard it been described as taking rugby to other parts of the world/make some more money.

[Jenza]

GAME OVER

WINNN

[Know me.]

Great to come back from so far behind, sign of a good team. Dagg was shocking on defence which is a bit of a worry. Backline was shyt all round really. Dufffed a certain try as well as letting in two easy ones.

[Deadmeat]

It'll be interesting to see how much of the first half flair not coming off is attributed to the puppet master not being on the field.

Wicked getting a clean sweep and LOL at Mills jumping up and down as that final whistle for the knockon went

[Lord Pidgington]

Interesting experiment we witnessed tonight. Here are the results:

- Bye bye Aaron Cruden. May you never don the black jersey again. A first five without a boot has no place in the game, and the guy can't goal kick, punt, or drop kick. But he can do sneaky backline runs and has tricks? Seriously, trading that off against having a boot at an international level is suicide. Who's our back up then? Simple, Colin Slade. The dude is reminiscent of Nick Evans. Solid all round skill set and a great first five, but just playing in NZ at the same time Dan Carter is. His first kick off was a peach whereas cruden had been doing low and long all night. Slade is world class and we need to develop him into the #2 man for the WC.

- Corey Flynn sucks too. Oh well, will have Mealamu and Hore by WC so who cares

- Vito's not a loosie. Kaino and Thompson please. Nice of Victor to gift Aussie a try though

Cruden playing #10 means we're stuck with Piri at #9. I'm a Welly boy so don't get me wrong, but Piri is fat and slow. Always takes that extra step to pass. The halfback should primarily provide snappy delivery in this day and age, especially given an attacking backline like ours. Australia are lucky to have had Gregan and now Genia. Cowan's probably our best in this respect. Not ideal for sure, but who else?

We didn't deserve to win that game. Matt Giteau handed it to us with his goal kicking.

How fucking good is Kurtley Beale these days? Had an absolutely stellar tri nations since playing at fullback. Form fullback out there at the moment. Bitched Conrad Smith a few times who is usually Mr Reliable on defence.

GG, but lucky..

[Rince]

Originally Posted by Lord Pidgington

How fucking good is Kurtley Beale these days? Had an absolutely stellar tri nations since playing at fullback. Form fullback out there at the moment. Bitched Conrad Smith a few times who is usually Mr Reliable on defence.
.

and CJ, who had his worst game of his career..... :/

Disagree on your Cowen comment - there's gotta be someone else.

[Deadmeat]

Cruden had a pretty good defensive game last night, and really he'd only had what 15 minutes of game time all up till this point? He was doing a decent job of making the 22 restarts contestable so I dunno about long and low all night.

I could like Beale more if he didn't look so fucking greasy, someone needs to hold him down and shave that crap off his lip.

[Pimp-X]

Soft victory. But we'll take it.

[Rince]

Originally Posted by Deadmeat

I could like Beale more if he didn't look so fucking greasy, someone needs to hold him down and shave that crap off his lip.

Every time I see him, this is what I think of:

[Deff]

Originally Posted by Lord Pidgington

Interesting experiment we witnessed tonight. Here are the results:

- Bye bye Aaron Cruden. May you never don the black jersey again. A first five without a boot has no place in the game, and the guy can't goal kick, punt, or drop kick. But he can do sneaky backline runs and has tricks? Seriously, trading that off against having a boot at an international level is suicide. Who's our back up then? Simple, Colin Slade. The dude is reminiscent of Nick Evans. Solid all round skill set and a great first five, but just playing in NZ at the same time Dan Carter is. His first kick off was a peach whereas cruden had been doing low and long all night. Slade is world class and we need to develop him into the #2 man for the WC.

- Corey Flynn sucks too. Oh well, will have Mealamu and Hore by WC so who cares

- Vito's not a loosie. Kaino and Thompson please. Nice of Victor to gift Aussie a try though

Cruden playing #10 means we're stuck with Piri at #9. I'm a Welly boy so don't get me wrong, but Piri is fat and slow. Always takes that extra step to pass. The halfback should primarily provide snappy delivery in this day and age, especially given an attacking backline like ours. Australia are lucky to have had Gregan and now Genia. Cowan's probably our best in this respect. Not ideal for sure, but who else?

We didn't deserve to win that game. Matt Giteau handed it to us with his goal kicking.

How fucking good is Kurtley Beale these days? Had an absolutely stellar tri nations since playing at fullback. Form fullback out there at the moment. Bitched Conrad Smith a few times who is usually Mr Reliable on defence.

GG, but lucky..

Pretty much agree fully, be quite happy to never see cruden or vito on the field again.

Didn't deserve the win but fuck we'll take it.

Oh and Rince, Cowen over Weepu any day

[Cinclant]

Cruden needs to gift Corey Flynn some of that cancer

[wugambino]

Originally Posted by Cinclant

Cruden needs to gift Corey Flynn some of that cancer

haha call

Originally Posted by Rince

Disagree on your Cowen comment - there's gotta be someone else.

not Ellis or Lennard thats for sure

[Lord Pidgington]

Originally Posted by Deadmeat

He was doing a decent job of making the 22 restarts contestable so I dunno about long and low all night.

You sure about this? I was sober watching the game so memory is pretty reliable for once. The dude can't drop kick properly and kicks too early instead of getting under the ball. As such, he can't give it the height to make it contestable.

Cruden's gotta go, let's just fully invest in Slade for back up #10 for World Cup (i.e. f*ck off Steven Brett). All Canterbury #10's = bankable clutch. Problem is Slade needs to leave Canterbury for the game time. Welly will happily take him

Cowan's it chaps. For now at least. Mathewson's our only hope of replacing him pre world cup. He's super quick, can pick the gaps, and has a bullet pass. Unfortunately he's not part of Ted's gay sex club, so he won't ever get picked

[blur^]

why mathewson aint in the all blacks is beyond me
ted needs to wake up, cowan is shit, piri is better but as above fat and slow

alby trumps them in every aspect of the game except piri's goal kicking

[_Incubus_]

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/r...911-155r2.html

Fucking aussies put together a top XV of the Tri nations....They put McCaw in at 6 and gave 7 to David Pocock...fucking clowns.

[Rince]

Originally Posted by _Incubus_

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/r...911-155r2.html

Fucking aussies put together a top XV of the Tri nations....They put McCaw in at 6 and gave 7 to David Pocock...fucking clowns.

hahahahahahahah

[Koldzy]

Originally Posted by blur^

why mathewson aint in the all blacks is beyond me
ted needs to wake up, cowan is shit, piri is better but as above fat and slow

alby trumps them in every aspect of the game except piri's goal kicking

I'm a big Alby fan, but he's been shit lately. He was dire in the Auckland game.

[Willis]

Originally Posted by _Incubus_

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/r...911-155r2.html

Fucking aussies put together a top XV of the Tri nations....They put McCaw in at 6 and gave 7 to David Pocock...fucking clowns.

Owen Franks at 3 was even more LOL

[Deadmeat]

Originally Posted by Lord Pidgington

You sure about this? I was sober watching the game so memory is pretty reliable for once. The dude can't drop kick properly and kicks too early instead of getting under the ball. As such, he can't give it the height to make it contestable.

Admittedly I wasn't sober, but I remember him slotting a few in that 22 - 10m-line area? Granted Ausi did a good job of closing them down but he seemed to be hitting them where the plan called for them to go. Not to say he won't have a ton of stuff to work on but I think giving him 1 run on and then calling to turf him is rough especially given the amount of actual game time he had leading into the test. I'm keen to see how he goes getting back into ITM.

[drac0s]

I remember one of his 22 kicks which probably was about that area but initial thought was well it's got no distance and we can't recover it so sort of pointless kick. Lack of flight time, or was just to deep to recover only really remember the one.

[badassmofo]

I thought Cruden played well. He made a few little mistakes, but it's not the end of the world, and he didn't exactly have the forward pack getting him on the front foot. It was his first test, and he's hardly played a lot of rugby lately.

Also don't quite know where the Weepu bashing is coming from. Weepu had a pretty strong game. And if you watched Auckland v Wellington on the weekend then it's pretty obvious Mathewson isn't up to it. Ellis is looking to be in some good form, but I wouldn't have him there either. Cowan is rubbish, but he's the number 2 halfback in NZ.

[blur^]

lol judge alby on one bad game, how many bad tests did cowan have?

alby had a better super season then both weepu and cowan

[wugambino]

Originally Posted by blur^

why mathewson aint in the all blacks is beyond me

watched any wellington NPC games this season?

[mr selfdestruct]

Yeah that's a bit rough on Cruden after one match. He wasn't great but he was probably a bag of nerves, you gotta cut gifted players a little bit of slack. Toeava was absolutely HORRIBLE in his first 4 test matches but he really came right after that.

I must admit though, when Slade came on he looked really confident and he was barking orders to the lads like he was their boss BIG time and his boot was strong and true, was very impressed. He reminded me of a young Mehrtens.

And Lord Pidgington, yeah you're right, Slade would get more game time if he went to another Super 15 franchise like I don't know, Highlanders maybe? Oh wait, he already is!

Vito certainly hasn't lived up to his hype, I did think it was odd when he first started playing 15's as a loose forward when he seemed cut from the same cloth as Jonah Lomu when he played 7's, I guess he didn't quite have the speed to be a back?

Dagg looked sharp, I like the idea of 3 fullbacks back there, it's working for the Aussies and it can work for us too. Rocks and Siti are gonna find it hard keeping those jerseys over the next 12 months.

[Koldzy]

Originally Posted by blur^

lol judge alby on one bad game, how many bad tests did cowan have?

alby had a better super season then both weepu and cowan

Alby has been average all NPC. His strength is he gives the backs very quick ball, which suits Wellington.

But this season he's been fucking around forever at rucks trying to organise Schwalger who just ends up dropping it anyway.

[mr selfdestruct]

I lost count of how many wobble around the wide axis of the ball passes Piri threw from rucks, what the FUCK was he playing at? That's the kind of shit that got Taniela Moa in hot water for the Blues and forced him to go crying down to Mount Maunganui to play rugby! This isn't fucking league Piri you can't get away with that shit!