EOYT: Italy v New Zealand, 17/11/2012

[TRF Mr Fish]

Hosea Gear

Confirmed, or just guessing?

 

[Icemn]

Confirmed, or just guessing?

that will be pretty much confirmed, kevin is also there... but it will def be Gear

i can't miss this game!

 

[bobbilycious]

Confirmed, or just guessing?

Guessing. He has done it before, so it would make sense.

 

[smartcooky]

Interesting to see Hosea Gear play on the right wing. That wing combo will monster Italy, but I'm suprised Savea isn't on the right wing considering how much rugby he's played there at junior level and for Wellington when both Savea and Gear play. With any regards this team should be able to monster Italy. I like the possibility of bring players like Daniel Carter and Cory Jane off the bench. Poor Italy.

nick, I think they are just numbers on jerseys. How often have you seen these two players turn up to score on the opposite wing from their numbered position?

I hate rotation but this isn't a World Cup its just a tour, its the perfect opportunity to try out new combinations and mix things up a bit. When your still mucking around at the World Cup then your in trouble.

Its not the perfect opportunity, its the only opportunity!

Bring back mid-week games I say!!!

 

[Big Ewis]

FUUKKKKKK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Almost a try there for Italy, hands it to some AB..

 

[ZeFrenchy]

I'm willing to sacrifice my vBet for an italian win.

 

[rugbykags]

is it me or are new zealand struggling sometimes because of missing dan carter!!

 

[Rhyer]

Never thought I'd say this but I'm missing Piri Weepu.

Cruden and A.Smith are both just completely directionless.

 

[aucklander]

what a game.. Italy are giving it to the AB's...

 

[Big Ewis]

^ ^_^ mmmmmm hmmm.

 

[Thingimubob]

Whats the score here?

 

[rugbykags]

is it me or are new zealand struggling sometimes because of missing dan carter!!

 

[Seaton]

Italy doing well so far, only 10-23

 

[RyotoTheDragon]

Wow scoreline suggests that we thrashed the italians but the game was competitive up until the latter part of the second half. Italy were very good at disrupting our ball and we couldnt get into any kind of rythm.

I felt that we didnt really respect italy and the ball by not sending in numbers to secure our own rucks. Second half was better though. Conrad Smith, Julian Sabea and Cory Jane were the stand out backs for me. Dont know how the selectors can justify selecting ali williams.

Very scrappy game but a win is a win. Bring on wales next week. They wil be up for it me thinks.

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Interesting stat, according to scrum.com: Second top tackler for NZ was Messam with 8, top tackler was Cane with a huge 19.

 

[donmcdazzle]

Our forwards were rubbish. We couldn't get any good quick ball. The Italian line speed on D was also way better than ours, credit to them they played well and the score line definitely flattered us. A lot of poor play in the backs too, sloppiness all over the show.

 

[smartcooky]

39th minute of the first half, there are some heated moments, handbags and some pushing and shoving among the forwards.

Rolland whistles time off and calls the two Captains over for a chat... and what does he talk about? The entry to the tackle zone; no mention at all of the handbags and pushing; no telling them to get their players to calm down.

Instead, he took the opportunity to warn both sides of something far more important, that they were getting close to illegal at the breakdown.

Sometimes, it's more about what you don't say. This piece of pre-emptive game management shows what a class act Alain Rolland is.


EDIT: The camera work was terrible. Wrong angles at odd times. To me it looked like the producer was more used to covering football. Certainly some of the angles and long shots were "football" like.

 

[Darwin]

Well that game went according to script. The AB's were very disjointed for most of the match (which is largely unsurprising given all the changes), but proved far too good in the end.

- The AB's scrum was pretty solid (apart from one scrum), and I thought Faumuina did some good work around the park. I think he is clearly the second choice TH in the country at the moment, and hopefully we get to see him given some more game time this tour. Mealamu was very quiet, though I thought Coles looked very comfortable in his time on the field.

- I thought Ali Williams was not too bad (I was expecting him to be poor), though Whitelock was better when he came on

- Read was good (as usual), while Messam and Cane were solid (and Cane's tackle rate was very impressive as has already been mentioned).

- Aaron Smith was very poor in my opinion. He has generally been very good at test level, but he is still prone to having the odd shocker. He still needs to work on mixing up his game a bit rather than just delivering the ball rapidly at every opportunity - I love the fact he gets the ball out quickly but it is so predictable the opposition defense are often able to counter it. Cruden was ok at 10, but I expected a bit more from him (Smith's poor game certainly didn't help though).

- Nonu was solid, while Conrad Smith was Conrad Smith (read: the best centre in the world). Barrett was pretty solid at fullback (though I still worry about his defense), while Gear showed a strong work-rate on the wing, but failed to take a golden try-scoring chance. Savea was man of the match for me - setting up two tries with his offloading, and scoring two late tries himself. He looks remarkably comfortable at test level, especially when you consider he looked largely out of his depth at Super Rugby level only last year! Jane was very impressive when he came on too, after being pretty quiet last week.

 

[nickdnz]

Yeah good summary Darwin. Amazing to think that was Savea's 10th try in 7 tests. He had a very good game. Certainly looks to be fulfilling his early promise as a player.

 

[Helmy]

The scoreline really didn't do the game justice. In the match between the number eights, I think Parisse might have just edged Read, although he faded badly with the rest of the Italian team around the 65 minute mark.

Agree that Aaron Smith had a rubbish game, not sure what was going on there. Cruden made a couple of good breaks and just about nailed it with his goal kicking (I thought kicking duties might have gone to Barrett). There was kick in particular off his left boot that got in behind the Italian defence that I thought was impressive.

Savea was great in setting up a couple of tries, but Conrad Smith's link up play in between was superb; he was certainly worthy of his choice as man of the match. Nonu seemed to be the go to guy in the backline, if it wasn't for the fact he was so effective at being a one man wrecking ball, I might have said he was overused in that aspect. But, no, Smith and Nonu just go together like peas and carrots.