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Fair call Gnostic. None of our locks are consistently dominating in virtually any aspect of play. Skelton looks like he might be able to have some dominant ball carries but he was nullified last start when he attracted the defense before getting the ball. Who do you suggest Gnostic?

Kuridrani stepped up. I would like to know more about his opposite number so that I could fully judge his performance. And, the French surrendered down under in June 2014, they didn't have the appetite for an away series. I thought they were poor.

I think the 3 best locks are in the 23 and that each of them are struggling to make an impact like Whitlock, Retallick or Etzebeth. Skeltons debut was excellent, but the French allowed him to play a good game. Same for Carter's debut. This weekend is a huge opportunity given that the argies are...

The thing in common with Slipper and Hooper is speed. They are both relatively fast and they are both turning in good performances. One of the weaknesses in the AB's from previous years was their halfback. They have turned it into a strength now with the emergence of Aaron Smith. He is...

I thought Skelton didn't keep up to the pace of the game at Eden Park. His contribution ended up being poor as a result of the AB's playing around him. If this is going to happen then he needs lineout skills so that he doesn't end up being a passenger. He only started about 50% of the time for...

I would like to know how many lineouts Simmons called to himself. Plus how many he called to himself when Carter or Fardy/Palu were relatively unmarked. Was Simmons smart with his calling ( keep it away from Matfield and keep it simple for Hanson). There was a short lineout that looked like...

Here's the litmus test for the forwards with Palu out. He has been the best performer in the tight. Macalman (tight) / Higgers (lose). Can Carter and Simmons lift their output to compensate for the loss of Palu. Who is going to put their hand up as the hard man of the pack? (Please don't let...

What was the story in the lineouts on the Springbok throw. It seemed there were no lifters for Simmons and he was up about 1-2 seconds after the ball had been won. Lead to the penalty for handling Matfield in the air and it happened more than once. Was the instruction for Simmons to try and...

3. Slipper 2. Cowan 1. Kuridrani

Lineout lost. Hanson misses ball on ground. Skills

Restart out on the full. 20-14

Retallick made 7/0, Whitelock 12/1, Messam 7/2, McCaw 9/2, Read 7/1. Simmons made 8/1, Carter 2/1, Fardy 4/1, Hooper 9/4, Palu 11/1. Simmons may have faults, but his tackling is not one of them - he is consistently up near the top, and rarely misses more than 1. Simmons is actually quite...

I agree with your comment regarding players returning from injury. Horwill , Cooper and Genia all fit into that category.

I like this team and your rationale. One question I have in terms of combinations. What are peoples impressions of a Foley / To'omua pairing. Both individually very good but do their skill sets compliment each other? Particularly in attack.

Haven't read all of the 66 pages on the forum. Our forwards were blown off the park. Was there a tactic for not putting too many numbers in the ruck, it seemed that some of the forwards were setting themselves for the next phase whilst the AB forwards were dominating the breakdowns. The...

Do you think Beale was instructed to play deep in the pocket? It sounds to me like a structural mistake given the ball in hand type of gameplan. I didn't see any pressure put on Fekitoa in defense, nor on Nonu when he was injured. Similarly when Barrett was in the sin bin. Izzy was not...

Beales rating might personally be ok for the game but everyone outside him except Horne has got a relatively low rating. This reflects back to Beales game management and his ability to run the attack, which is an essential quality of a 5/8.

34 touches is good involvement

Do you think he got enough ball / touches in the game ? ( from a coaches perspective ?)

Further to my previous post, I predicted the crusaders would play a game where they kicked to the corners and used the lineout to create pressure and ultimately penalty goals. I thought the final would be a game where there wasn't alot of football played. Was it the presence of IF that stopped...