All Blacks v Poms, Test 1 Auckland

[TahDan]

This England series is going to be very interesting, but I think the English players and papers may be getting a little ahead of themselves here.

The critical point I think they’re missing in claiming their 'moral victory' is that England dominated all the stats, but still failed to actually beat the All Blacks, in spite of them also adding to their misery by suffering their usual first test case of dropsies and defensive lapses…

I remember a couple years ago the Irish came out and gave the All Blacks a scare early on, but NZ came home strong and won the last game 60-0 or something... the darkness tends to take a little while to gather each year, but once they do, they often overcome everything.

So in a sense I’m not sure who should be more worried – NZ or England. Sure, the poms have some players to come back, but the ABs have now shaken off a few cob-webs and will be tougher and more composed next week. Meanwhile, the Poms will have to rework combinations now that new guys are coming into the side.

Can't wait for the second test.

 

[Dan54]

Yeah, my bad & corrected above. Wasn't expecting to still be at club rooms at kickoff hence didn't bother recording it & memory a tad foggy.

Did you happen to notice Jane get pulled down short early on? I reckon someone carrying an extra 10-15kg would've either scored or gone close enough to set up a close-range pick & drive. Just saying, lol.

Naa man, Jane just needed to run faster, not be bigger..just saying
What club you tied up with?

 

[Shiggins]

Poms deserved that win. The all blacks got away with a lot. I thought nonu could of been carded at the start of the game And then when the poms were 1m out and the all black tackler didn't release deserved a yellow especially considering the poms had a card against them for the same thing apart from they were 20m out instead of 1m out. Very inconsistent. Terrible knock on alls by Owens as well. All blacks lucky and need to improve a heap to win next week. The poms were much better in attack ad played some great expansive rugby. Best game I've seen from tuilangi at test leval

 

[TahDan]

Poms deserved that win. The all blacks got away with a lot. I thought nonu could of been carded at the start of the game And then when the poms were 1m out and the all black tackler didn't release deserved a yellow especially considering the poms had a card against them for the same thing apart from they were 20m out instead of 1m out. Very inconsistent. Terrible knock on alls by Owens as well. All blacks lucky and need to improve a heap to win next week. The poms were much better in attack ad played some great expansive rugby. Best game I've seen from tuilangi at test leval

They probably did outplay the ABs, but that isn't always enough. We easily outplayed England on last years EOYT but it still wasn't enough...

The question I have is if England couldn't beat the All Blacks when they're playing incredibly poorly AND while dominating them all over the park, then do we think they can beat them when they actually play well?

Next week will be very interesting.

 

[Muttonbird]

Poms deserved that win. The all blacks got away with a lot. I thought nonu could of been carded at the start of the game And then when the poms were 1m out and the all black tackler didn't release deserved a yellow especially considering the poms had a card against them for the same thing apart from they were 20m out instead of 1m out. Very inconsistent. Terrible knock on alls by Owens as well. All blacks lucky and need to improve a heap to win next week. The poms were much better in attack ad played some great expansive rugby. Best game I've seen from tuilangi at test leval

There were major differences between the two tackles which were explained by Owens at the time. May was tackled but was still off the ground when being held. Yarde flopped on the wrong side, was on the ground and tried to steal the ball in that position.

You and Qwerty are peas in a pod aren't ya? Same avatar and everything.

 

[Bairdy]

There were major differences between the two tackles which were explained by Owens at the time. May was tackled but was still off the ground when being held. Yarde flopped on the wrong side, was on the ground and tried to steal the ball in that position.

You and Qwerty are peas in a pod aren't ya? Same avatar and everything.

Rubbish. At 62:05 when Jonny May regathers the dropped ball 5m out from the tryline, he is tackled by Beauden Barrett, Ben Smith and Malakai Fekitoa. May is brought to ground but Barrett, who is now under him holding him up, never releases in the tackle, all the while Fekitoa (an assist tackler) held on to the ball without giving any daylight whatsoever.

That's cynical, ala the following Marland Yarde infringement 6 minutes later. Both deserved yellow cards, and in that sense, Owens was not consistent. For a game that was as close as it was, it is reprehensible that the inconsistency in rulings led to the game transpiring as it did.

 

[Ruggo]

This was a bloody good game. The Poms played with some real intent.

 

[Muttonbird]

Rubbish. At 62:05 when Jonny May regathers the dropped ball 5m out from the tryline, he is tackled by Beauden Barrett, Ben Smith and Malakai Fekitoa. May is brought to ground but Barrett, who is now under him holding him up, never releases in the tackle, all the while Fekitoa (an assist tackler) held on to the ball without giving any daylight whatsoever.

That's cynical, ala the following Marland Yarde infringement 6 minutes later. Both deserved yellow cards, and in that sense, Owens was not consistent. For a game that was as close as it was, it is reprehensible that the inconsistency in rulings led to the game transpiring as it did.

Respectfully I disagree. You even said it yourself - May was off the ground and Owens took that into account when viewing Fekitoa's actions.

 

[Bairdy]

Respectfully I disagree. You even said it yourself - May was off the ground and Owens took that into account when viewing Fekitoa's actions.

May was off the ground because Barrett was lying under him and wouldn't release in the tackle. That doesn't constitute a maul.

 

[Muttonbird]

If you are sure Barrett didn't release then I'll take your word for it but Owens didn't mention Barrett. As far as I understand it, Owens said he could understand why Fekitoa thought he could do what he did (presumably because May was off the ground) and that's why there was no yellow.

Yarde's foul play was altogether a different thing.

 

[badabing59]

Poms deserved that win.

Yeah...nah. The only team that deserves to win at the end of the game is the team that has the most points. You can would've, should've, could've til you are blue in the face, throw what ifs and if onlys in the mix as well, but doesn't change the fact that the team with less points didn't win.
As many say on here, not a pretty win, but we'll take it.

 

[Pfitzy]

That was funny to watch because it wasn't my team.

The YC against Yarde was justified.

The one that didn't go to Fekitoa was borderline - I was surprised until I heard why Owens didn't give it as @Muttonbird says above.

But the first yellow card should have been given to Nonu for holding back when the Poms broke through. I don't care that it was the first couple of minutes. That is Professional Foul 101.

From there the whole game changes, and not necessarily in favour of the Poms, because Nonu was fucking dire.

 

[Paradox]

I suspect the Kiwis will torch the Poms next game.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

I suspect the Kiwis will torch the Poms next game.

I suspected that the Kiwis would have torched the Soap Dodgers in the first game. They performed extremely well and I suspect that I wasn't the only armchair analyst who got the tip horribly wrong.

 

[badabing59]

Joe Marler shares his inspiration from Danny Care on twitter:

 

[Gnostic]

Respectfully I disagree. You even said it yourself - May was off the ground and Owens took that into account when viewing Fekitoa's actions.

You do well interpreting what was in Owens' mind when he said nothing about Fekitoa.

The penalty was against "6 no release".

28:22 is the incident in question.

 

[Gnostic]

The Poms should have won that game on the back of the base errors of the ABs. However for all the line breaks they made they killed their own momentum with poor execution errors. Lancaster has done very well to develop England's play, but many of the players just do not seem to have the core skills to finish what they are starting ATM. Not suggesting they stop, just that it may take a bit more time, and some commitment from their club sides to actually promote that sort of play as well.

Apart from the already over discussed "yellow" and "Non yellow" incidents I thought Owens had a OK game, just not to his usual standards, especially in policing the offside line, with both sides regularly in front of the last feet sometimes by as much as two metres. Really the ARs must take a more active role in this regard.

 

[qwerty51]

I suspect the Kiwis will torch the Poms next game.

Poms will win with their full strength side. 3rd game in a row NZ's pack has been outplayed by England's.

 

[badabing59]

Are the skies always grey and gloomy in your world qwerty?

 

[qwerty51]

Just a realist mate, call it how I see it. England are an exceptional side, it's been building since the last WC. 6N runner's up the last 3 times speaks volumes for their consistency, next year they'll hit top gear blitz the World Cup.