NZ July 2021 Tests (& other matches)

[Dan54]

@1-11 at oranges. Fijians getting stuck in well and truly. ABs I think will be looking at replacing Sotutu, he not having a great one, surprised how good BB and Havili look together, look like they have played together all season.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Great work on the contractual obligation guys.

Some solid perfunctory in there.

Sickenly actually found myself rooting for FIJI.

Just so many AB's in that lineup that I actively dislike.

Cotton Wool Beaudy. Fucks Up Every 2nd Thing Yet Undroppable Jordie. Paper Tiger Pat. Journeyman Havili. Crossword Frizzle. Wifebeater Reece. Bridge To Nowhere.

 

[zer0]

Shannon Super-Rugby-Tarzan-test-rugby-Jane Frizell following his career script perfectly tonight. The only thing that can come out of these tests is playing yourself out of the actual test squad, which just about all of the tight forwards are doing. Including Retallick. These guys are ineffective against Fiji's B team. God help them when you have to play the Boks, French, and English.

 

[Up the Guts]

Paul Williams managing the yellow card period very nicely for the ABs

 

[zer0]

Really bummed that the mob in black managed 50 points. Fiji have been the far more entertaining, committed, and physical side. Hope they back it up next week to really demonstrate some progress for themselves, as well as continue heaping the pressure on Foster.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

FFS the Barrett bros mad, mad love affair with the crosskick is really starting to rile

LOL when youre under the kosh who do you send on? Barely Interested Lomax.

LOL Coles comes on and bails the pups out with 21 pts worth of match-winning maul tries. Then another one. 28 pts. 4 tries in 11 minutes by himself. Final score 29-23 without that. Codie Taylor all brawn no brain

It's surely just a question of whether Will Jordan takes Beaudy, Jordie or Bridges jersey. It is going to be one of them.

That was utter dogshit. If Fozzie was Rennie he'd be "yeah, had a look at him, we'll give someone else a look" and quietly close the door on about half of those mugs

 

[Dan54]

You Jafas have not much idea have you? I know that PT, Sotutu and R Ioane didn't go very well. But if I thought forwards looked like they were playing first test of year, but Fijians were boody good. I thought both Barrett boys went well, Havili apart from YC looked to be pretty good and with him and ALB at 13 we will be ok. I actually though BB and Havili looked like they had been together all year, I would still start RMo, but if this our back up 10 (with DMac 3rd) we ok for rugby players.
Actually liked Blackadder, but he not really a Sam Cane or Dalton type 7 is he.
So you moan at tests of 102-0 being one sided and now 57-23 isn't good enough?
I actually think this Fijian team playing this style of rugby, will cause a few problems to teams in tier 1!

 

[Dan54]

Shannon Super-Rugby-Tarzan-test-rugby-Jane Frizell following his career script perfectly tonight. The only thing that can come out of these tests is playing yourself out of the actual test squad, which just about all of the tight forwards are doing. Including Retallick. These guys are ineffective against Fiji's B team.

How the f*** was that a Fiji B team, who all are all the missing players? They missing the lock who is with the 7s, but who else?
You are in a dream world if you think Retallic played his way out in first test of year, I would bet he would be first picked in almost every test team in world!

 

[Up the Guts]

How the f*** was that a Fiji B team, who all are all the missing players? They missing the lock who is with the 7s, but who else?

Radradra, Tuisova, Lomani, to name a few

 

[KiwiM]

Well that was a lot more interesting than last week - great work Fiji.

A bit of a worry that old men Coles and Whitelock had to bail out the ABs forward pack.

They need to move on from Frizell and Tuipulotu - they both keep getting chances and don't deliver. Sotutu for now would be better suited coming off the bench i think and even then there's an issue as other players have more versatility.

Colour me shocked that Bridge did nothing again aside from letting his opposite run past him for a huge Fiji break. At least he got hooked and they tried Reece at 11.

Christie actually looks better than I expected - not being paired with Black helps.

This AB team constantly feels like they are spinning their wheels - never going anywhere.

 

[Dan54]

Radradra, Tuisova, Lomani, to name a few

To name them all, I think that was a pretty good Fijian team. I know nobody likes to give credit to the Island teams as being any good, but I genuinely think that was a pretty good team. I would add Radrada, but the Locks they played are pretty good. As for Lomani, do you think he better than Kuruvoli, I don't. Tuivosa is good, but once again, the wings and centre for Fiji were ok I thought.
As I said I just think some are not giving a good Fijian team any credit.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Back in the day I knew a guy who classified players as "Saturday" or "midweek", per KiwiM, zer0 & Dismal above it might be time to recognise that PT & SF are midweekers. Vaa'i & Akira to start next week, hopefully AL-B is good to go at 13 & dunno who gets the 11, maybe see how Jordan goes on that side?

Highlights

 

[Dismal Pillock]

my guess for Test 2

1 Karl T. injured. Ofa? NZ are completely rooted at prop. The options have failed to impress
2 Aumua. Taylor needs a rest and Coles is an old classic car that needs to be gently managed
3 De groot?
4 Retallick. I guess to get him back in the saddle. Although really he should be in the gym/buffet line
5 Vaai. just give Sam W a rest ffs. They'll probably persist with idiotic penalty magnate Scrote Barrett here
6 Akira Ioane
7 Dalton Papalii
8 Hoskins Sotutu. yes theyre all Blues but shutup, lets see if it works! They wont do this though, its time for contractually obligated Ardie
9 Christie. of course they wont rest AfterDavid though, the narrative says he runs out for his 100th in Bled 1
10 Richie Mo’unga
11 W.Jordan. he has to learn how to defend this position ffs. Tenured Glory Boy Jordie has ordained himself as the undroppable fullback for the next 10 years.
12 ALB
13 Rieko Ioane
14 Reece
15 Jordie Barrett ffs

 

[Dan54]

my guess for Test 2

1 Karl T. NZ are completely rooted at prop. The options have failed to impress
2 Aumua. Taylor needs a rest and Coles is an old classic car that needs to be gently managed
3 De groot? Ofa?
4 Retallick. I guess to get him back in the saddle. Although really he should be in the gym/buffet line
5 Vaai. just give Sam W a rest ffs. They'll probably persist with idiotic penalty magnate Scrote Barrett here
6 Akira Ioane
7 Dalton Papalii
8 Hoskins Sotutu. yes theyre all Blues but shutup, lets see if it works! They wont do this though, its time for contractually obligated Ardie
9 Christie. of course they wont rest AfterDavid though, the narrative says he runs out for his 100th in Bled 1
10 Richie Mo’unga
11 W.Jordan. he has to learn how to defend this position ffs. Tenured Glory Boy Jordie has ordained himself as the undroppable fullback for the next 10 years.
12 ALB
13 Rieko Ioane
14 Reece
15 Jordie Barrett ffs

Well Karl T is injured, so won't be him. Ross has been bought in as replacement. Papali'i is injured, as is Ardie. I think Sotutu did little to suggest he is a starter after last night, he was a not great. I still like Blackadder as a 6, you know the kind of player that gets stuck into everything. I thought Havili looked to be not bad, and fancy seeing him and ALB together if ALB is ok.
Just out of interest, Frizell had most tackles last night, good to have against these big buggers.

 

[zer0]

Just out of interest, Frizell had most tackles last night, good to have against these big buggers.

Only in part. The tackle count is just that. A count. It, quite obviously, tells you nothing about the nature of the tackles. For that you need a separate metric for effectiveness. For such a metric I suspect Frizell would, once again, fall short.

 

[KiwiM]

Only in part. The tackle count is just that. A count. It, quite obviously, tells you nothing about the nature of the tackles. For that you need a separate metric for effectiveness. For such a metric I suspect Frizell would, once again, fall short.

Exactly this. Racking up passive tackles doesn't help much.


One area the forwards clearly need work is cleaning out at the breakdown - they were both slow and ineffective to clean.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

my guess for Test 2

1 Karl T. injured. Ofa? NZ are completely rooted at prop. The options have failed to impress
2 Aumua. Taylor needs a rest and Coles is an old classic car that needs to be gently managed
3 De groot?
4 Retallick. I guess to get him back in the saddle. Although really he should be in the gym/buffet line
5 Vaai. just give Sam W a rest ffs. They'll probably persist with idiotic penalty magnate Scrote Barrett here
6 Akira Ioane
7 Dalton Papalii
8 Hoskins Sotutu. yes theyre all Blues but shutup, lets see if it works! They wont do this though, its time for contractually obligated Ardie
9 Christie. of course they wont rest AfterDavid though, the narrative says he runs out for his 100th in Bled 1
10 Richie Mo’unga
11 W.Jordan. he has to learn how to defend this position ffs. Tenured Glory Boy Jordie has ordained himself as the undroppable fullback for the next 10 years.
12 ALB
13 Rieko Ioane
14 Reece
15 Jordie Barrett ffs

Brad Mooar has been quoted as saying Ardie, Vaa'i & AL-B are recovering well & could/ should be ok for next week but that Papali'i is still struggling & may not be. Can't see Rieko playing three in a row unless AL-B doesn't suit up & I thought Havili did enough to earn another crack at 12. Left wing is the tough one for mine, Bridge being the only specialist but also probably due to be rotated out.

 

[Dan54]

Only in part. The tackle count is just that. A count. It, quite obviously, tells you nothing about the nature of the tackles. For that you need a separate metric for effectiveness. For such a metric I suspect Frizell would, once again, fall short.

I agree mate, and I say that time and again, just know some take notice of them.
I actually thought Frizell wasn't bad last night though, he did a lot of work in second half especially. Still not convinces whether he should be there or not, I do think Jacobson should start at 8 though.

 

[KiwiM]

Brad Mooar has been quoted as saying Ardie, Vaa'i & AL-B are recovering well & could/ should be ok for next week but that Papali'i is still struggling & may not be. Can't see Rieko playing three in a row unless AL-B doesn't suit up & I thought Havili did enough to earn another crack at 12. Left wing is the tough one for mine, Bridge being the only specialist but also probably due to be rotated out.

They should have a look at 11 Reece 14 Jordan from the start. They could also look at 11 Rieko but they want to keep him developing as a centre rather than switching him back to wing - plus he could use a week off.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ yeah, I discounted Rieko on both counts as well so it's gotta be either Reece or Jordan which might be ok v Fiji but could potentially blow up in our faces v Au, SA (assuming we play them which is by no means certain ATM), Arg, etc. a bit like what happened when Dagg first started being used as a winger.