Bledisloe 2 2023 @ Dunedin 12:35PM Sat 5 Aug

[Brumby Runner]

Thanks for that analysis MPanga. I agree that Pone finished airborne in his last scrum and that Skelton was behind him in the second row. I'd be interested in knowing if our scrum problems in the second half coincided with Skelton coming into the game?

 

[griffins]

The more likely factor was their replacement front rowers, Ofa in particular, dishing up a tired/injured Pone and then a very green Nongoor.

 

[Mark Panga]

Gday Zane’s dad, nice of you to make an account.

Not Nonggorr’s dad but a PNG fan who watched both games.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion - but back it up with evidence - not just vague assertions. At least acknowledge that you were wrong regarding the scrum penalties.
Further - Your view on the Bond v GPS game is also contradicted by one of the commentators on a Roar Rugby podcast who did see and was at said Bond v GPS game and reckoned Nonggorr (and I quote) was ready fit and “Cherry Ripe” for the Wallabies in NZ. Have a look.

Props down for the Wallabies - The Roar Rugby Podcast Instant Reaction | “The conspiracy theorists will point out that Allan Alaalatoa was the one who put the boomerang in response to the haka – and then he goes down with an... | By The Roar Rugby |

“The conspiracy theorists will point out that Allan Ala'alatoa was the one who put the boomerang in response to the haka – and then he goes down with an...

fb.watch

 

[PhilClinton]

The video doesn’t reference anything about his scrumming ability? Mentions he scored a try and there is no one left.

You clearly feel passionately about Zane and his selection, that is great. But you can’t genuinely believe he would be near the Wallabies right now if another 4 blokes were fit enough to take that spot. Again. Not a personal attack at him, but if he’s the best option we have to play tighthead, we aren’t winning test matches.

Will happily eat crow if he plays a big part in a deep RWC run but I doubt it.

 

[Derpus]

To be fair, isn't he at best 5th choice THP behind AAA, Tupou, Pone and Robertson (I think all of whom are now injured).

I don't think our THP depth is a problem actually. We have three very good options and a serviceable one in Robertson. Injuries are, though.

 

[qwerty51]

Don’t forget HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes), he was coming along very nicely but had a pretty big injury which seems to have affected him this year. He’s a beast close carrying to the line too which is what we need, seems like only Tupou is good at this too.

 

[PhilClinton]

To be fair, isn't he at best 5th choice THP behind AAA, Tupou, Pone and Robertson (I think all of whom are now injured).

I don't think our THP depth is a problem actually. We have three very good options and a serviceable one in Robertson. Injuries are, though.

Agreed there are injury factors at play.

I actually think Sam Talakai scrummed better than Zane in the same club game. But that’s subjective and has been a smaller sample size of recent footy I guess.

 

[Derpus]

Don’t forget HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes) (Harry Johnson-Holmes)...

A ways off another test cap at this point you'd think. Agree on potential though.

 

[qwerty51]

For this year yeah, I think he’s even injured, hasn’t been playing for Syd Uni. But next year with a full pre season I’d expect him right back into the mix especially as Ala'alatoa is coming off an Achilles.

 

[molman]

Agree. I'm hopeful that his injuries haven't impeded his progress longterm as he was looking a good prospect before it, but you could see that he clearly wasn't there this year for the Waratahs. I also thought Robertson was starting to round out his game nicely before his injury which likewise was a shame.

 

[RugbyReg]

The video doesn’t reference anything about his scrumming ability? Mentions he scored a try and there is no one left.

You clearly feel passionately about Zane and his selection, that is great. But you can’t genuinely believe he would be near the Wallabies right now if another 4 blokes were fit enough to take that spot. Again. Not a personal attack at him, but if he’s the best option we have to play tighthead, we aren’t winning test matches.

Will happily eat crow if he plays a big part in a deep RWC run but I doubt it.

Got to agree with Mark Panga. This seems a fairly odd and personal attack on Nonggorr. I think he’s been very good all year and I know he caught Eddie’s eye early. When we have five professional teams and one picks a non-eligible THP thé of course Nonggorr is a strong candidate for national selection. He has much better all round game than Talakai and has scrummed well this year.

The biggest issues with the scrum were when Pone returned but was still injured.

 

[Drew]

We need our back up THP to be able to play long minutes if we are going to nurse Tupou through the World Cup.

 

[qwerty51]

I haven’t really seen anyone mention it and whilst it’s hard to say how much of a direct impact he had, but we often hear how good of a scrummager Uelese is and the scrum was absolutely cooked with Faesslar in the 2nd half. I’m sure it’s something Eddie will consider.

 

[Viking]

I don’t think it was that hard to see at all. The Wallabies were playing fast, hard and error free in the first half. All of that was independent of the other team

seems weird to not give any credit when there has been demonstrable improvement throughout the 4 games

I agree improvement were there. Was a great first half. I agree we played fast hard and error free in the first half.
I’m just not getting carried away. I also recognise it was mostly a B string NZ team who didn’t play very well and made lots of errors and poor decisions.
If we were one year out from the RWC I’d be absolutely buzzing, but we are one game from a World Cup.
I’m trying to be optimistic but I doubt there’s enough time based on these performances.

 

[PhilClinton]

Got to agree with Mark Panga. This seems a fairly odd and personal attack on Nonggorr. I think he’s been very good all year and I know he caught Eddie’s eye early. When we have five professional teams and one picks a non-eligible THP thé of course Nonggorr is a strong candidate for national selection. He has much better all round game than Talakai and has scrummed well this year.

The biggest issues with the scrum were when Pone returned but was still injured.

So me pointing out that I don’t believe Nonngorr is test standard is a personal attack? In my opinion it’s more of a criticism of our pathways that a bloke who again, in my opinion wasn’t all that crash hot at club rugby level then gets dropped into a test match.

To clarify, I’d have said the same thing about Talakai most likely if they’d picked him (and I know he was spoken to after the club game about possibly being brought into camp).

Better go back and label anyone who’s said Wright, Vunivalu and Skelton aren’t up to it either as personal attackers if so. Maybe those calling for Quade and White to be dropped?

For the record I’ve never posted anything negative about Nonngorr on the Reds forums either, surely if I had it out for this bloke I’d have chosen before now to comment.

 

[dru]

hey, Phil. Have to say my knee jerk reaction to this was disagreement. But checking over the last few pages you are right. Seems to be a case of argumentative agreement.

our depth is an issue and we had to dig deep at THP. Non gore has taken the opportunity with everything he has and we should laudit the bloke for service to the Wallabies.

I’m really happy he is at the Reds and had this extraordinarily opportunity to be capped.

 

[Tomthumb]

Lack of quality scrummaging tight head props has been an issue here forever. Nonngorr is hardly the worst offender

 

[Dctarget]

Sorta. As others have pointed out he’s our 5th choice right head right now with the first four injured. That’s decent depth.

 

[Tomthumb]

Except none of the ones ahead of him are noted scummager's either. AAA got injured by being monstered at scrum time

 

[BDA]

Finally got a chance to watch the game. Enjoyed it. We really should have won that game but my overall feeling was that it was nice to see the Wallabies really looking like a top tier team for most of the game, even if we werent able to sneak a win.
There has clearly been a bit of learning on the job from Eddie as to what kind of rugby we should be playing and where our points of difference lie. i really like the Tate-Carter 9-10 combo for the world cup. I also think that is the perfect backrow combo for us. The lack of a genuine 7 really hurt us last week in my opinion. At this point leaving McReight out of the team isn't an option. His pair with Hooper makes us much more effective at the breakdown.

If the team keeps trending in the right direction, I could certainly see us contesting a semi final. Of course, we really need to hope that our props stay healthy. The loss of Tupou or Bell really hurts our chances (this game being an example of that).