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[2014 TRC] New Zealand v South Africa in Wellington (13/09/2014)
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I just have three things to say
1. What a tough, and bruising encounter, an absolute nail-biter in the true traditions of All Blacks v Springboks rugby
2. Ben Smith, what more can we say. The guy is awesome... is there ANY back-line position he cannot play?
3. Jean de Villiers is an absolute class act, on and off the field.
1. What a tough, and bruising encounter, an absolute nail-biter in the true traditions of All Blacks v Springboks rugby
2. Ben Smith, what more can we say. The guy is awesome... is there ANY back-line position he cannot play?
3. Jean de Villiers is an absolute class act, on and off the field.
RyotoTheDragon
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because we love him haha, he gives us inside info about the springboks game plan
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At the first opportunity, approximately on 74 minutes...
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Thought he was over the top in believing it was all down to the Boks that they ended this match so close!!!
JdV......do not get me wrong, anyone who gets 100 caps is special but what with all the fuss on the pitch?!!
Back to catch up cycling.......
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Vermeulen has become one of the best players we have. Massive game. Pollard was very good i thought. We blew hot and cold really. If we can somehow manage a complete 80 minutes of how we played in the first 40, then we will be hard to beat. Also, what an absolute treat to watch a match with no cards or controversial calls. I thought the referee was excellent.
Thats how I felt after the whistle blew
Never in doubt is not the words I would have used
He was huge, outplayed Read and the amount of turnovers he won was huge. Read played good he just played better.
NZ player of the year for me, and must be a finalist for IRB player of the year.
Well a few kiwis had called it by 20 points but credit to SA they brought it to us, the wheels fell of for them a bit in the end and they looked a little lost, but the AB's were also the cause of that. SA lineout fell apart in the 2nd half, scrums were interesting, we certainly looked rocky but showed some good form as well.
Ben Smith is awesome, felt Dagg had his best game of the season, Dagg, Smith and Savea looks more potent then Smith, Savea and Jane. Jane is solid but just doesn't have that wow factor consistently now. Was good to see Dagg hitting the line and getting involved, he was certainly way busier than usual.
We needed Messam or Kaino out there, also how good was Sam Cane when he came on.
Moody looked good when he came on, he may just have a big future.
Cruden was average.
Nonu needs to break the line more and stop the kicking(or at least learn to kick), bring back SBW.
Initially I was heartbroken, but on some reflection I'm actually pretty happy with the result.
It's certainly a fair one, the All Blacks are a massive team and fully deserved the win, I can't say anything about Ben Smith that hasn't already been said again and again but goddamn. If only he could you had 4 of him so he could play 11-15, Savea is also monstrous, for a winger to make so much ground whenever he gets the ball, space or no space is pretty incredible.
In the end our set piece let us down at some crucial times. Bismark came on at the wrong time we lost three line-outs in very promising positions and you just can't leave it to the last 6 minutes to score against the All Blacks. Also our territorial strategy needs a rethink at least against the All Blacks, it's extremely rare that we win the territorial battle, against lesser teams you can rely on errors but it just doesn't happen and the resulting counter attacks are usually very deadly. That said this is definitely the best we've played in TRC so far.
Pollard is the real deal, massively cool under pressure and a very polished performance.
Willie was poor which is unfortunate because he's really the only player in our back line with the creativity to make something from nothing.
Could be worse, happy with the improvement, well played All Blacks.
Also I thought the ref was great.
It's certainly a fair one, the All Blacks are a massive team and fully deserved the win, I can't say anything about Ben Smith that hasn't already been said again and again but goddamn. If only he could you had 4 of him so he could play 11-15, Savea is also monstrous, for a winger to make so much ground whenever he gets the ball, space or no space is pretty incredible.
In the end our set piece let us down at some crucial times. Bismark came on at the wrong time we lost three line-outs in very promising positions and you just can't leave it to the last 6 minutes to score against the All Blacks. Also our territorial strategy needs a rethink at least against the All Blacks, it's extremely rare that we win the territorial battle, against lesser teams you can rely on errors but it just doesn't happen and the resulting counter attacks are usually very deadly. That said this is definitely the best we've played in TRC so far.
Pollard is the real deal, massively cool under pressure and a very polished performance.
Willie was poor which is unfortunate because he's really the only player in our back line with the creativity to make something from nothing.
Could be worse, happy with the improvement, well played All Blacks.
Also I thought the ref was great.
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Frustratingly close but the accuracy is just not up there as much as it was last year. Credit to the ABs though.
Vermeulen was again phenominal. ATM SA's best player. In hindsight Bismarck on for Strauss cost us a lot of territory and posession. What was it, like 4 or 5 line-outs in a row we lost? Pollard looked good for his age. Hope we stick with him at 10. Pienaar was better today and we actually lost a lot with him going off. I still prefer Hougaard with FdP out but then Hougaard should play his own game. Our 9's being overcoached? Etzebeth going off instead of Matfield also a mistake but I suppose this was his 3rd game back after a year out and the fitness is probably not there yet.
NZ were NZ. Not at their best but enought o get ahead and solid enough to stay there. Man, it looks like all they need to do is give it to Savea or Smith and its huge gains garaunteed. Retallick has been the best lock in the world for a while now. Also a dead certainty IMO to at least get nominated for IRB POtY.
A good game of rugby. A huge relief for me not too have to suffer through another game with sub standard officials. Pity the final game won't count for anything. Unless Argentina have a huge HUGE game at home.
Vermeulen was again phenominal. ATM SA's best player. In hindsight Bismarck on for Strauss cost us a lot of territory and posession. What was it, like 4 or 5 line-outs in a row we lost? Pollard looked good for his age. Hope we stick with him at 10. Pienaar was better today and we actually lost a lot with him going off. I still prefer Hougaard with FdP out but then Hougaard should play his own game. Our 9's being overcoached? Etzebeth going off instead of Matfield also a mistake but I suppose this was his 3rd game back after a year out and the fitness is probably not there yet.
NZ were NZ. Not at their best but enought o get ahead and solid enough to stay there. Man, it looks like all they need to do is give it to Savea or Smith and its huge gains garaunteed. Retallick has been the best lock in the world for a while now. Also a dead certainty IMO to at least get nominated for IRB POtY.
A good game of rugby. A huge relief for me not too have to suffer through another game with sub standard officials. Pity the final game won't count for anything. Unless Argentina have a huge HUGE game at home.
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re Pollard.
Was him that did the wonky left foot kick to touch from in-goal in the first half? If so, then he needs to buy a left kicking foot. Nonu didn't take long to work out he doesn't have one.
Otherwise he had a very good match. The Bokke backs look far more dangerous with him running the cutter than with Morne Steyn.
Was him that did the wonky left foot kick to touch from in-goal in the first half? If so, then he needs to buy a left kicking foot. Nonu didn't take long to work out he doesn't have one.
Otherwise he had a very good match. The Bokke backs look far more dangerous with him running the cutter than with Morne Steyn.
Darwin
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Right, now I've calmed down (slightly) I will add a few more thoughts on the match.
Because of the tight scoreline the match remained interesting to the end, but personally I don't think this will go down as a classic test match. Obviously both sides played some good defense at times, but their were far too many unforced errors, and both South Africa and New Zealand lacked patience on attack. I thought New Zealand created more than enough chances to have a good lead with 20 minutes to go, but those blown chances could really have cost them at the end. Fortunately they didn't.
I felt South Africa dominated the breakdown, and in many way the AB's were lucky not to get penalised more than they were for not releasing the ball. We were fortunate on a few occasions that the South African tackler didn't release the ball carrier and got penalised, as often our ball carriers were getting isolated (and the South African players would have had plenty of time to make a legal steal of they had been more patient). We clearly missed Sam Whitelock's aerial game, both in terms of his lineout ability and kick-off receptions, though I was impressed that we actually started competing (and winning) South Africa's lineout ball latter in the match.
There was a little bit of space in behind the South African backs, but I felt we over-used the short kicking game in the 1st half. Some more variety in the kicking would not have gone astray. For example Hendricks looked completely lost under the first high ball we put up early in the match, but we only kicked it to him once more the entire match I think (which again he looked uncomfortable under). We completely over-used the short passing game among the forwards too. Obviously is a useful way to find space a bit further away from the breakdown, but it was so predictable that the South African defenders didn't even bother trying to tackle the first ball runner and simply ganged up on the 2nd runner (who was predictably given a hospital pass). We really needed to use a "surprise tactic" and actually have the first ball carrier hit the ball up....
A for the players themselves:
- Vermeulen was an absolute beast for South Africa. I've always been a massive fan and I thought he was outstanding last night. He was breaking tackles at will, was a menace at the breakdown, and made a number of big hits on defense. He may have been on the losing side but for me he was man of the match.
- Etzebeth and Louw were a bit quiet, but Matfield and Coetzee got through a lot of work. I haven't been that impressed with Louw this season, so would seriously consider starting Coetzee at 6 once Alberts returns
- Pollard was pretty good in my opinion. He perhaps could have taken the ball to the line a bit more, but he is massive step up from Steyn, and some of his passes were brilliant.
- South Africa need to work out how to get Serfontein into the match on attack. At the moment he just seems to be there to make 15-20 tackle per match (and performs that role well!).
- Hendricks is electric with ball in hand, but as I mentioned last week needs to go looking for work a bit more! Habana was pretty good, but Le Roux was a bit error prone at the back.
- The AB's front row in general was very quiet. I was certainly Coles's quietest match of the year after being very prominent all year for the AB's.
- Retallick is pretty clearly the best lock in the world in my opinion. I don't really want to see him making 16 passes every match though....
- Luatua made a couple of good early runs but was invisible after that. Perhaps fitness is still and issue? Read played quiet well overall, and it was good to see him making some offloads out wide. It is not often he gets shaded by the opposition 8 though! I thought McCaw was very good too. He was a bit more prominent with ball in hand this week which is something I feel we need to see from him given the make-up of our forward pack. I loved that try he scored in the corner too - it was a fantastic line he ran in support. Cane again made a good impact from the bench.
- Aaron Smith was a bit mixed. He made a few key errors early on, but did some good things at the game progressed.
- I thought Cruden was a poor. He was standing strangely very deep on attack, which put the whole NZ backline far behind the advantage line. Barrett looked a bit sharper once he came on.
- Nonu was pretty average in that 1st half. I wish he would stop kicking the ball. Conrad Smith made some nice runs in the 2nd half but did make an uncharacteristically bad read on defense at one stage.
- Savea was brilliant as he usually is these days. He is such a handful to put down. Likewise Ben Smith had a superb match. He broke the 1st tackle almost every time he touched the ball in the 1st half. He was probably even better in the 2nd half when thrust into the unfamiliar position of 12. He looked far more comfortable with the rush South African defense than Nonu did, and always got the AB's well over the advantage line. He made a couple of brilliant (and crucial) tackles on defense too. It just emphasized that the AB's need to get the ball in his hands as much as possible - something they can't really do if he is stuck on the right wing....
- Dagg. He did a couple of good things. He took one kick on the full and ran it back at full tilt down the sideline. Apart from that he was very average. He is just so predictable with ball in hand that the South African defense easily shut him down, his passing when he enters the backline isn't great, his punting was long but erratic, and he isn't exactly a reliable last line on defense! Jane wasn't great when he came on - we need to get Piutau up to speed so he can start on the right wing ASAP.
Because of the tight scoreline the match remained interesting to the end, but personally I don't think this will go down as a classic test match. Obviously both sides played some good defense at times, but their were far too many unforced errors, and both South Africa and New Zealand lacked patience on attack. I thought New Zealand created more than enough chances to have a good lead with 20 minutes to go, but those blown chances could really have cost them at the end. Fortunately they didn't.
I felt South Africa dominated the breakdown, and in many way the AB's were lucky not to get penalised more than they were for not releasing the ball. We were fortunate on a few occasions that the South African tackler didn't release the ball carrier and got penalised, as often our ball carriers were getting isolated (and the South African players would have had plenty of time to make a legal steal of they had been more patient). We clearly missed Sam Whitelock's aerial game, both in terms of his lineout ability and kick-off receptions, though I was impressed that we actually started competing (and winning) South Africa's lineout ball latter in the match.
There was a little bit of space in behind the South African backs, but I felt we over-used the short kicking game in the 1st half. Some more variety in the kicking would not have gone astray. For example Hendricks looked completely lost under the first high ball we put up early in the match, but we only kicked it to him once more the entire match I think (which again he looked uncomfortable under). We completely over-used the short passing game among the forwards too. Obviously is a useful way to find space a bit further away from the breakdown, but it was so predictable that the South African defenders didn't even bother trying to tackle the first ball runner and simply ganged up on the 2nd runner (who was predictably given a hospital pass). We really needed to use a "surprise tactic" and actually have the first ball carrier hit the ball up....
A for the players themselves:
- Vermeulen was an absolute beast for South Africa. I've always been a massive fan and I thought he was outstanding last night. He was breaking tackles at will, was a menace at the breakdown, and made a number of big hits on defense. He may have been on the losing side but for me he was man of the match.
- Etzebeth and Louw were a bit quiet, but Matfield and Coetzee got through a lot of work. I haven't been that impressed with Louw this season, so would seriously consider starting Coetzee at 6 once Alberts returns
- Pollard was pretty good in my opinion. He perhaps could have taken the ball to the line a bit more, but he is massive step up from Steyn, and some of his passes were brilliant.
- South Africa need to work out how to get Serfontein into the match on attack. At the moment he just seems to be there to make 15-20 tackle per match (and performs that role well!).
- Hendricks is electric with ball in hand, but as I mentioned last week needs to go looking for work a bit more! Habana was pretty good, but Le Roux was a bit error prone at the back.
- The AB's front row in general was very quiet. I was certainly Coles's quietest match of the year after being very prominent all year for the AB's.
- Retallick is pretty clearly the best lock in the world in my opinion. I don't really want to see him making 16 passes every match though....
- Luatua made a couple of good early runs but was invisible after that. Perhaps fitness is still and issue? Read played quiet well overall, and it was good to see him making some offloads out wide. It is not often he gets shaded by the opposition 8 though! I thought McCaw was very good too. He was a bit more prominent with ball in hand this week which is something I feel we need to see from him given the make-up of our forward pack. I loved that try he scored in the corner too - it was a fantastic line he ran in support. Cane again made a good impact from the bench.
- Aaron Smith was a bit mixed. He made a few key errors early on, but did some good things at the game progressed.
- I thought Cruden was a poor. He was standing strangely very deep on attack, which put the whole NZ backline far behind the advantage line. Barrett looked a bit sharper once he came on.
- Nonu was pretty average in that 1st half. I wish he would stop kicking the ball. Conrad Smith made some nice runs in the 2nd half but did make an uncharacteristically bad read on defense at one stage.
- Savea was brilliant as he usually is these days. He is such a handful to put down. Likewise Ben Smith had a superb match. He broke the 1st tackle almost every time he touched the ball in the 1st half. He was probably even better in the 2nd half when thrust into the unfamiliar position of 12. He looked far more comfortable with the rush South African defense than Nonu did, and always got the AB's well over the advantage line. He made a couple of brilliant (and crucial) tackles on defense too. It just emphasized that the AB's need to get the ball in his hands as much as possible - something they can't really do if he is stuck on the right wing....
- Dagg. He did a couple of good things. He took one kick on the full and ran it back at full tilt down the sideline. Apart from that he was very average. He is just so predictable with ball in hand that the South African defense easily shut him down, his passing when he enters the backline isn't great, his punting was long but erratic, and he isn't exactly a reliable last line on defense! Jane wasn't great when he came on - we need to get Piutau up to speed so he can start on the right wing ASAP.
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austingtir
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I think all in all for SA its just composure they are lacking.
They appear to have found a decent 10 and 15.
The rest of the team is obviously solid. I do wonder if Bakkies would be a better option than matfield after this game.... i mean really? is he going to make it to another WC at 38? Maybe thats harsh and he just had one bad game.... but it really was terrible at times tonight between him and Bismark.
They appear to have found a decent 10 and 15.
The rest of the team is obviously solid. I do wonder if Bakkies would be a better option than matfield after this game.... i mean really? is he going to make it to another WC at 38? Maybe thats harsh and he just had one bad game.... but it really was terrible at times tonight between him and Bismark.
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Anyone got any news on our wounded? I know FdP and PSdT are out for 2014 but am I right in saying Alberts was set to be available in the last two at home? Malherbe?
We've really missed FdP, Alberts, Malherbe and any form of fit lock.
We've really missed FdP, Alberts, Malherbe and any form of fit lock.
Darwin
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Looks like Ma'a Nonu could miss the rest of the Rugby Championship with a suspected broken forearm. Can't say I'm overly disappointed to be honest!
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Was Crotty a long term injury? Smith inside with Fekitoa outside? Probably not; seems daft to move the world's best 13 out of position but then again, Hansen has done it with the world's best 15.
tenpm
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Crotty should be back from his injury next week, so he'll be fit for the match against Argentina.
squirrel
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Thought Matfield was good for the first 40 but struggled in the second half, I thought the ref was really good but I didn't think he rewarded some of the saffa's better scrums with some penalties but overall he was very good, hougarrd had a bad game.
Kapa O Pango
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Bin Smuth can surely play anywhere in the back-line division what a guy.
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