Bledisloe Two 2020

[TheOvalBall]

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Pretty dark response from Rennie to question about whether the missed tackles could be fixed pretty quickly by individuals improving in that area. Rennie said selections could fix that.

overall pretty obvious response from Rennie, that it came down to missed tackles and turnovers. They certainly were not particularly sharp this week. Seems like they got too excited by the draw last week, complacent almost, whereas the all blacks Were the opposite.

you could sense the wallabies not handling the pressure, when the all blacks were successful with their frantic game the Wallabies tried to show they were just as good by playing the same way and failed because they couldnt execute.

eventually they just lost belief. Koroibetes knock on was telling, they were looking sapped of mental energy, A bit panicked. Then at the end when they were trying to salvage something it was the same, even then they couldn't execute, even when there waS no external pressure, the internal pressure/ lack of belief was paramount, enough that they couldn't execute.

it will be tough, but they could improve a lot, as a lot of it is mental. There is some pretty strong doubt And deep scars there though. With time they can get clarity about what they are trying to do and about each other's game and that will help. But you'd wonder if they can handle the pressure. Maybe at home they'd have a better chance.

I'm not sure I know who missed all the tackles. O'Connor And white missed some, not sure who else, they might have just shared them around.

edit: watched the highlights and Just from them, in terms of missed tackles and obviously poor defensive reads (counted together) I saw (just counting the starting lineup
With 3, daigunu, koroibete, hooper, Wilson, Phillip
With 2, slipper, Tupou, white, paisami, banks
With 1, painga amosa, solokai loto, hannigan, oconnor
With none, toomua (but to be fair he went off early and I do remember a kiss from him, though when he was already injured, that wasn't in the highlights.

I also remember two other misses from white

 

[Oliver Madden]

Well for 40 minutes in that game you felt the Wallabies had half a chance but Kudos to the AB's they just lifted the intensity at the start of the second half. Australia created a couple of chances which they didn't take and they were a poor second at the breakdown again. Man of the match for me would have to be Caleb Clarke but Savea and Cane weren't too far behind. I think the task in front of Rennie has just been laid bare. The defence which wasn't great last week at times was very poor today. The Aussies seemed to be missing a lot of first up tackles which you just can't do against NZ. I think the worrying thing for Australia was that when they were put under pressure, some of the bad old habits from under Michael Cheika returned. I.e. loose kicking and inaccurate passing.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Well for 40 minutes in that game you felt the Wallabies had half a chance but Kudos to the AB's they just lifted the intensity at the start of the second half. Australia created a couple of chances which they didn't take and they were a poor second at the breakdown again. Man of the match for me would have to be Caleb Clarke but Savea and Cane weren't too far behind. I think the task in front of Rennie has just been laid bare. The defence which wasn't great last week at times was very poor today. The Aussies seemed to be missing a lot of first up tackles which you just can't do against NZ. I think the worrying thing for Australia was that when they were put under pressure, some of the bad old habits from under Michael Cheika returned. I.e. loose kicking and inaccurate passing.

My feeling from the few super rugby Australia games I watched was that they were missing a lot of tackles. I wondered then whether they had substantially improved their attack or if their defence was just poor.

 

[mania]

our loosies did awesome. savea and cane were obvious but frizell did loads of darkarts and made much needed turnovers and tackles
felt the ABs just lessened the errors . Aus attacked lots but just didnt make inroads and started running out of ideas.
that korobeite try that was held up was the turning point. dont know how korobeite didnt score that one, it was a butchered and a coach killer.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

our loosies did awesome. savea and cane were obvious but frizell did loads of darkarts and made much needed turnovers and tackles
felt the ABs just lessened the errors . Aus attacked lots but just didnt make inroads and started running out of ideas.
that korobeite try that was held up was the turning point. dont know how korobeite didnt score that one, it was a butchered and a coach killer.

i feel for Frizell, there is a section of the public that just dont like him, ive seen lots of comments already about him doing nothing in particular during the game....and im sitting there thinking he'd done great...i assume the truth is somewhere in between

Savea did great, big improvement from last week, he's still playing as a 7...just wearing 8 though, that might be the plan in which case all good...but i just couldn't help enjoy when Sotutu came on and started running the more traditional 8 line ie straight

my only area of concern was still our inability to get the ball wide, to counter the rush, Clarke's big runs came when he came looking for the ball infield or when we went blind. so much came from broken play or turnovers, i just want to see a backline move completely open a team up

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Been watching the highlights, were NZ sublime in attack, Australia awful in defence or a bit of both?

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Been watching the highlights, were NZ sublime in attack, Australia awful in defence or a bit of both?

i dont think Aussie were awful, lots of positives for aussie rugby, AB's were always going to bounceback at eden park...the real test will be if aussie can bounce back on their home turf

 

[mania]

my only area of concern was still our inability to get the ball wide, to counter the rush, Clarke's big runs came when he came looking for the ball infield or when we went blind. so much came from broken play or turnovers, i just want to see a backline move completely open a team up

frizell was awesome in the first bled game as well. put up sht load of tackles and didn't miss one.
agree with the rush defence, but imo its not getting the ball out wide quick enough that is the issue. u need to manipulate the D line, especially a rush d. a little grubber behind the d line or a skip pass to someone running straight. i felt we hadnt earnt the right to go wide in the first test, whereas bled2 we were more than willing to run the fringes and establish gainline there first.

 

[mania]

Been watching the highlights, were NZ sublime in attack, Australia awful in defence or a bit of both?

aussie werent awful. NZ were quite deliberate in their attack and defence.
wasnt so much a case of aus being bad, but ABs werent making errors as much as in bled1. Aus just weren't allowed to get into the game and build momentum

 

[Kiwiwomble]

frizell was awesome in the first bled game as well. put up sht load of tackles and didn't miss one.
agree with the rush defence, but imo its not getting the ball out wide quick enough that is the issue. u need to manipulate the D line, especially a rush d. a little grubber behind the d line or a skip pass to someone running straight. i felt we hadnt earnt the right to go wide in the first test, whereas bled2 we were more than willing to run the fringes and establish gainline there first.

yeah, i thought he was good last week too...people just seem to expect him t run through everyone like he did during super rugby

agreed, not just get wide early, more seem to not be able to make space, our backline moves seemed to end in midfield, either with a break or ruck...i wold love to see Clarke with a 20m run up out wide

 

[mania]

yeah, i thought he was good last week too...people just seem to expect him t run through everyone like he did during super rugby

agreed, not just get wide early, more seem to not be able to make space, our backline moves seemed to end in midfield, either with a break or ruck...i wold love to see Clarke with a 20m run up out wide

yeah shame cos frizzels earnt his spot. bled2 he was way better, but the bled1 draw wasnt frizells fault. he was immense in that test.
i loved it that Clarkes first touch was off the halfback and he was sent up the middle. i like a wing who isnt shy about about going thru heavy traffic in the midfield. he caused massive headaches for aus.

 

[Larksea]

from memory I think Bridge did the exact same thing the previous week
It does create a selection problem, Bridge was a massive find last year and he is a more complete player than Clarke. I guess it doesn't really matter now Bridge is out for the rest of the season.
Will be interesting to see how Clarke progresses, he should still be considered a project player. Wasn't that long ago he made a bad mistake that cost the game in the North vs South match, he also doesn't seem like an 80min player at this stage so it pretty much costs us a bench slot to start him. He wont be starting every week either so we will likely get a look at Jordon soon too. But his running game is an element the All Blacks attack can really use, it also seems like he knows his strengths and doesn't try and do too much. He sticks to what works for him. But he will want to work more on his passing game.
Was good to see PUJ do well too, cant have too much depth. To me he has looked like future all black material for quite a while.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

Absolute shocker from the Wallabies in this one. No one to blame but themselves. I couldn't even fault the reffing this time round. Gardiner was consistent through the whole game with advantage.

Clarke was a monster for the All Blacks. He had them going forward every time he touched the ball. Toomua going off really hurt us as Paisami and Petaia looked a bit out of sync. Petaia was a victim of trying to do too much. He'd do 5 good things in a run and then make a low percentage offload (Reminds me of a young Carlos Spencer).
Ned Hannigan who I am not a fan of at all, did muscle up in a pack that looked like tarzan and played like Jane. Harry Wilson had an average game, but after a foot infection and gastro in one week its to be expected. Daugunu simply couldn't get in the game and Koribete had an absolute shocker.

Brandon Panga Amosa looked good and had a bit of grunt in his game (and his line out throwing was uncharacteristically good). Tonga Thor was a bit of a flop as was James Slipper this week.

I think it's time Rennie swings the axe

put Tongan Thor, Koroibete, Slipper, to the bench.
Drop Rob Simmons entirely and bring in Tate McDermott to the bench.

My team for Bled 3 if healthy

1. Scott Sio
2. Panga Amosa
3. Allan Allalatoa
4. Lukan Solakai-loto
5. That guy who played 5 every other game Matt Philip I think? no idea who he is.
6. Pete Samu
7. Michael Hooper
8. Harry Wilson
9. Nic White
10. James O'Connor
11. Daugunu
12. Toomua
13. Paisami
14. Petaia
15. Reece Hodge

16. Folau Faingaa
17. Tongan Thor
18. James Slipper
19. Ned Hannigan
20. Liam Wright
21. Tate Mcdermott
22. Tom Banks/ Dane Haylette Petty
23. Koroibete

 

[mania]

Absolute shocker from the Wallabies in this one. No one to blame but themselves. I couldn't even fault the reffing this time round. Gardiner was consistent through the whole game with advantage.

i gotta disagree. ABs just played with little error. Aus did OK but with ABs not gifting them with mistakes it meant Aus had to do loads more right in order to counter the ABs.
at half time i was still of the opinion that Aus could come back and it wasnt completely in the bag.
whilst ABs won i didnt feel like it was a complete capitulation that recently past wallabies have been guilty of. at half time WBs were still in a position to take it with a little bit of luck, intelligence and maybe a bit more teamwork.
this crop imo is better than the last few years.
ABs didnt completely dominate. they didnt have everything their way. this is a good Aus team

 

[mania]

have to say that i was pleasantly surprised with samCanes running game. i didnt think he had one before bled2. long may it continue.

 

[Alex Anghel]

I know that I am going to be crucified by Larksea or maybe other NZs as well , but I dare to say that this wasn't necessarily the result the NZRU needed, as it might lead Foster to firmly believing that you may still win comfortably while playing certain people out position. This may work in short term or occasionally against weaker teams (no disrespect to Australia though), but in the long run, you may end up being badly exposed against teams like England when it matters the most.

Having said that, I feel compelled to stress out that Cane had a massive game and led the ABs superbly, while Peter Umaga Jensen looked absolutely shoed-in for the role from the get-go. When Ennor and Laumape return, the selectors will basically have six potentially world-class midfielders to choose from, which is scary, really .

In another train of thought, such a pity that the Boks ruled themselves out from the Rugby Championship...

 

[Paulo]

from memory I think Bridge did the exact same thing the previous week
It does create a selection problem, Bridge was a massive find last year and he is a more complete player than Clarke. I guess it doesn't really matter now Bridge is out for the rest of the season.
Will be interesting to see how Clarke progresses, he should still be considered a project player. Wasn't that long ago he made a bad mistake that cost the game in the North vs South match, he also doesn't seem like an 80min player at this stage so it pretty much costs us a bench slot to start him. He wont be starting every week either so we will likely get a look at Jordon soon too. But his running game is an element the All Blacks attack can really use, it also seems like he knows his strengths and doesn't try and do too much. He sticks to what works for him. But he will want to work more on his passing game.
Was good to see PUJ do well too, cant have too much depth. To me he has looked like future all black material for quite a while.

Clarke is an 80min player, he came off injured. You could see he was getting attention before he was pulled and then limped off the ground.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

longer highlights.