Spring Tour: New Zealand vs Ireland - 2nd Test. (16/6/2012, 07:35 GMT)

[smartcooky]

So much for all the rumours and speculation about SBW being replaced by Nonu. Ma'a hasn't even made the bench.

I guess Shag and his selectors must be happy with what they saw last week.

 

[Sam Owen]

So much for all the rumours and speculation about SBW being replaced by Nonu. Ma'a hasn't even made the bench.

LOL, yeah it cracks me up when people think that someone is going to get dropped because they didnt live up to 'their' expectations. Whoever they pick, thats who they pick. I'd just back it and not waste time thinkin 'if only Ma'a this and Ma'a that'. Ma'a choose to leave his partnering with Conrad Smith, remember??...

I wouldnt worry too much about Ma'a, if he can use this non AB selection to revive his form then thats what he'll try to do. He should start by helping us finish off strong. We've havent got the best of him this year and I hope its around the corner. Ma'a usually is a stand out player but if you ask me the only player who I think should be in the All Blacks from the Blues is, I'd tell you Rene Ranger.

 

[big ginger 8]

Apart from Murray I'm pretty happy with that team. I'm not sure about McLaughlin's selection and the wings should probably be swapped but I'm ok with it.

I do get it. I am sure it is a great tool if used for close tight evenly matched teams to try and give them that edge when involved in a close contest. Firing up your team like a bunch of raging bulls has little benefit unless they have the skills and the ability to back it up. The difference with this is that I am saying no matter how angry or how much of a chip on your shoulder, most of the team probably know they do not have much of a chance. Most of the rugby world and most on this forum do not give the Irish a hope. All those articles do is confirm it and I see them being of little use in this instance. The result from last week would have done little for the self-belief. The last thing I would want is the players starting to mutter that they are being seen as a joke and the tour is a waste of time.

This is a team containing 5 grand slam winners, 5 triple crown winners, 11 H Cup winners, 6 Celtic league winners, 4 Lions tourists, 2 IRB player of the year nominees and 2 ERC player of the year winners and you think that after reading comments such as "the Irish can see Another Beating Coming",

. “Spectators who revel in blood sports will be hunting any last tickets for Christchurch and Hamilton, which have become must-attend venues for more Celtic gore.†and “The Irish are in for one helluva hiding in the second Test, and heaven help them in the third." that they will suddenly agree with these journalists. That they'll just accept it and not get ****** off? Please. Also it's not just for close team if a team is expected to lose by 60 points and they get bad mouthed by comments saying how **** they are o they do this and they end up losing by 20 points is it then not a success​

 

[psychic duck]

Ireland Team: 1. Cian Healy 2. Rory Best 3. Mike Ross 4. Donnacha Ryan 5. Dan Tuohy 6. Kevin McLaughlin 7. Sean O'Brien 8. Jamie Heaslip
9. Conor Murray 10. Johnny Sexton 11. Andrew Trimble 12. Gordon D'arcy 13. Brian O'Driscoll 14. Fergus McFadden 15. Rob Kearney

Subs: 16. Sean Cronin 17. Declan Fitzpatrick 18. Donncha O'Callaghan 19. Peter O'Mahony 20. Eoin Reddan 21. Ronan O'Gara 22. Simon Zebo

I see Conor Murray is the newest member to the Kidney club of players who can't be dropped

he finally demotes O'Callaghan (although only to the bench it is at least a start) and then just finds another player to keep in the team despite being on poor form

 

[dan the man]

I would've loved to have seen this same squad but simply switching Carter for Cruden...

Giving Cruden a run once you've already subbed your whole bench doesn't give any real indication of how he fares at this level... And to be honest he deserves to start, i know that Carter is the best but if you were judging on this seasons SupeRugby form you'd have to say that Cruden is the form 10 in NZ. He has the familiarity of having SBW outside him so i'm sure he would do really well.

I don't care what other people are gonna say, imo SBW has shown that he deserves his spot. With consistent form all season long, and a great game against Ireland he'd be my pick for the 12 jersey. Even though he didn't penetrate as much as were used to in the first test he seemed to attract about three defenders into the midfield and then create more chances for those outside him.

Pretty happy to see the same squad get named.

Steve Hansen - 100% winning record! Haha

 

[Saintjay]

Apart from Murray I'm pretty happy with that team. I'm not sure about McLaughlin's selection and the wings should probably be swapped but I'm ok with it.





This is a team containing 5 grand slam winners, 5 triple crown winners, 11 H Cup winners, 6 Celtic league winners, 4 Lions tourists, 2 IRB player of the year nominees and 2 ERC player of the year winners and you think that after reading comments such as "the Irish can see Another Beating Coming",

. “Spectators who revel in blood sports will be hunting any last tickets for Christchurch and Hamilton, which have become must-attend venues for more Celtic gore.†and “The Irish are in for one helluva hiding in the second Test, and heaven help them in the third." that they will suddenly agree with these journalists. That they'll just accept it and not get ****** off? Please. Also it's not just for close team if a team is expected to lose by 60 points and they get bad mouthed by comments saying how **** they are o they do this and they end up losing by 20 points is it then not a success
​

I understand what you are saying but I still don't think they need the motivation by showing those articles. What happens if they get whacked by 40 points again?. All of a sudden those articles look correct and that is going to cause more damage than good. At least save them till the last test, they are better kept in the back pocket.

 

[Larksea]

goes to show how reliable the media is, or certain people in the media.

Im not sure who wrote the article, guess it will be easy to find without too much digging unless it's been taken down this week which confirmed without doubt that Nonu would take over from SBW at 12 for this test.

 

[antipodean]

Richard Knowler: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/loc...7/Nonu-to-line-up-ahead-of-SBW-in-second-test

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

It was stupid justification for it too Using an ambiguous tweet or something...

 

[Zapphod]

goes to show how reliable the media is, or certain people in the media.

Im not sure who wrote the article, guess it will be easy to find without too much digging unless it's been taken down this week which confirmed without doubt that Nonu would take over from SBW at 12 for this test.

It looks like it was written by Wynne Gray for the NZ Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10812073

It seems the NZH is taking a leaf out of the SMH book of idiotic writing to motivate your opposition.

 

[irelandfan123]

Brilliant to see Trimble back in the squad all they need to do is move McFadden inside and bring Gilroy into wing

 

[lynam1104]

Muarry has been un-dropable for awhile.

 

[smartcooky]

Richard Knowler: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/loc...7/Nonu-to-line-up-ahead-of-SBW-in-second-test

Well I guess he will have change his name now, to Dick Don'tknowler!!

It looks like it was written by Wynne Gray for the NZ Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10812073

It seems the NZH is taking a leaf out of the SMH book of idiotic writing to motivate your opposition.

Well that figures... the Auckland Herald.

Please don't insult people who live in the rest of NZ by referring to that rag as the "New Zealand" Herald (even if it is it's name)

 

[Keithmurdoch]

Yeah its godawful isn't it? Its even worse for Rugby fans, as the sport editor (Chris Rat-something) seems to be a league fanatic who takes every oppertunity to pour scorn on real rugby. Poor.

 

[Gavin]

Whatever the result let's just hope Ireland play well. For the third test I'd like to see Cruden, Elliot and Cane all start.

 

[bushytop]

Whatever the result let's just hope Ireland play well. For the third test I'd like to see Cruden, Elliot and Cane all start.

To be fair at that price Ireland is worth a few virtual sheckles... just in case

 

[Darwin]

Less than 3 hours now till kickoff - starting to get excited already. It is apparently 4 degrees in Christchurch at the moment, though it will likely drop down to 0 degrees (or below) by kickoff time, but hopefully the showers stay away.

I'm expecting a better performance by both teams this weekend. I'd expect the AB's to be more clinical, as though they scored some good tries last weekend, they also blew a number too. However I don't think they will get near the same number of try scoring opportunities this week, as I'd expect and improved Irish performance (who, apart from the first 20-odd mins, were pretty flat last weekend). I'm hoping for another strong performance by the AB's newbies, who all played well last weekend. I'm particularly interested to see how Sam Cane goes when he comes off the bench - there is no doubt he has talent (and plays a similar style to McCaw), but I'm still yet to be convinced he is the 2nd best 7 in the country (he'd be 4th or 5th on my list....).

It will be interesting to see whether the Irish focus as much attention on SBW this weekend - he was largely neutralized last weekend, but by committing so many defenders in his channel there were a lot of gaps in other areas that the AB's exploited. I'm predicting Zac Guildford will have a big game this weekend. The ball didn't go his way last weekend, but he continues to show a huge work-rate and puts himself in great positions to find gaps - it wouldn't surprise me if he scores a couple of tries. I'm hoping Ben Smith gets another good 20-30 mins off the bench again this week, as though he didn't get many chances last week, he looked dangerous on the few times he got the ball.

Overall I'm picking the AB's to have a reasonably comfortable win again this weekend, by say 20-25 points, though if we get some rain it could be a lot closer...

 

[dasNdanger]

Grrr. I can't pre-program my DVR (for this match only - the ones that follow set up just fine). So here I am in the States - it's 2 am, and I'm waiting until 3:30ish for the game to start so I can hit the record button, and go to sleep...unless I'm too awake and decide to just watch the whole damn thing live. It'll be like in my younger, bar-hopping days when I used to drag my sorry behind into bed just as the sun peeked over the horizon. Now THAT'S commitment, no?


das

 

[Darwin]

Grrr. I can't pre-program my DVR (for this match only - the ones that follow set up just fine). So here I am in the States - it's 2 am, and I'm waiting until 3:30ish for the game to start so I can hit the record button, and go to sleep...unless I'm too awake and decide to just watch the whole damn thing live. It'll be like in my younger, bar-hopping days when I used to drag my sorry behind into bed just as the sun peeked over the horizon. Now THAT'S commitment, no?


das

Great commitment indeed! I'm probably going to be pretty tired tomorrow too - got the AB's game in just over an hour, followed by the Wallabies game at 10pm (New Zealand time), then I have an approximately 3 hour wait till the South Africa game at 3am. Staying awake between the Australia match and the South African match is going to be the challenge!

 

[dasNdanger]

Great commitment indeed! I'm probably going to be pretty tired tomorrow too - got the AB's game in just over an hour, followed by the Wallabies game at 10pm (New Zealand time), then I have an approximately 3 hour wait till the South Africa game at 3am. Staying awake between the Australia match and the South African match is going to be the challenge!

Are you any good at taking naps? I napped from 10 pm to 12:30 am, which I often do on Friday nights because of the DVR thing (for some reason it just won't pre-program for any match starting here at 3:35 am on Saturday - not this tour, or Super Rugby - it's some glitch between my DVR and the satellite service). Reading, surfing the net, and basically goofing off while I wait for the match to start.


das