Super 15: Hurricanes - Lions in Wellington (03-06-2011, 6:30 GMT)

[Sam Owen]

Gear looked better in attack this week, though his defense was poor, and he gifted the Lions a try with his inability to recover a kick.... I was actually really impressed with Leiua on the other wing; I thought he was the most dangerous outside back from either team.

Bounce of the ball bro, I dont think anyone in that same situation would've ran towards the ball and then knowingly stepped to the right to retrieve it.

Yeah man Leiua was impressive.

Nonu has been brilliant tonight. Absolutely brilliant! But how did those officials miss those forward passes?

Where ya been Ma'a?....really good game from Ma'a, I liked his tactical kicking too.

Those passes was forward to the max and to make matters worse is the reff was a kiwi. Wouldnt be surprised if he was from Welly.

What about Fa'afili Levaves hit?.....POW!! thats what Im talking about. Hit of the year candidate or hit of the year.

 

[lance2010]

Bounce of the ball bro, I dont think anyone in that same situation would've ran towards the ball and then knowingly stepped to the right to retrieve it.

Yeah man Leiua was impressive.



Where ya been Ma'a?....really good game from Ma'a, I liked his tactical kicking too.

Those passes was forward to the max and to make matters worse is the reff was a kiwi. Wouldnt be surprised if he was from Welly.

What about Fa'afili Levaves hit?.....POW!! thats what Im talking about. Hit of the year candidate or hit of the year.

Bro those were some mean hits,and Jack Lam and John Schwagler chipped in a few mean ones too.
For sure that hit Levave did on Elton Jantjies would be right up there.

Ma'a really stepped up lastnight and put SBW on notice that the AB #12 jersey is still his,He's leaving Wellington to play for the Chiefs next year cause Hammett doesnt want him.

 

[William18]

Bro those were some mean hits,and Jack Lam and John Schwagler chipped in a few mean ones too.
For sure that hit Levave did on Elton Jantjies would be right up there.

Ma'a really stepped up lastnight and put SBW on notice that the AB #12 jersey is still his,He's leaving Wellington to play for the Chiefs next year cause Hammett doesnt want him.

Just because the newspaper says he is doesn't mean that he is going for sure.

 

[Sneaki]

Yeah hopefully that stuff about Nonu leaving the Canes isn't true, though I guess it'd be good to keep him in NZ at least.

I find the possibility that Gear, Jane, Hore, Nonu and Weepu aren't 'wanted' by Hammett to be pretty disturbing. I usually refrain from blaming coaches but I'm not entirely sure what Hammett's plans are. I doubt many people want to see us sitting in the bottom of the table for a few years while he 'rebuilds' the team. Just because key players have been injured for long periods of time doesn't mean their not valuable to the team. And it's no wonder Hore doesn't want to stay when Hammett keeps subbing him off either far too early, or in the last 10 minutes of very close games where his experience would be handy. They should go the Brumbies route I reckon...

edit: To be fair though, now that I think about it a back three of Savea, Leiua and Taylor would be fairly potent still.

 

[Darwin]

Bounce of the ball bro, I dont think anyone in that same situation would've ran towards the ball and then knowingly stepped to the right to retrieve it.

Leaving aside the bounce of the ball for a second, I thought Gear should have caught the ball on the full in the first place. He was slow in turning, and even then was less than a metre away from the ball when it bounced. To me it didn't look like the ball changed directions much at all when it bounced, it may have gone slightly right, but it would have only been very minimal. The only way Gear was going to get the ball was if the ball had taken a sharp turn to the left - I just think Gear completely misread it. I haven't seen a replay of this though; I will have a look for some highlights of the game, as I could well be wrong.

Good result in the end, was very impressed by Nonu. I thought the Canes backline generally looked dangerous on attack, but very vulnerable on defense, story of the season I guess.

Also good to see Weepu play for most of the game (I think he got pulled a few minutes before full time), he looked reasonably sharp throughout the game.

Yeah it was good to see Weepu get through almost a full game. He still looks a quite a long way away from his best to me (not surpising given the layoff he has had), but he does appear to be improving each week.

Well, if we're being honest he could have run 80m to catch a winger from behind with a text book tackle and you'd still point out his flaws on defense.

I'd love to see Gear do that..... unfourtunately I haven't seen him display that sort of urgency on defense this year. If he was playing like he was on the AB's end-of-year tour it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him pull that off at all. Indeed I recall him turning and chasing down a player with ease on that tour; it may have only been a 20m chase (not an 80m chase), but that was because Gear caught him so quickly. I also remember commenting on this very forum how impressed I was Gear's improved workrate on defense!

 

[William18]

Yeah hopefully that stuff about Nonu leaving the Canes isn't true, though I guess it'd be good to keep him in NZ at least.

I find the possibility that Gear, Jane, Hore, Nonu and Weepu aren't 'wanted' by Hammett to be pretty disturbing. I usually refrain from blaming coaches but I'm not entirely sure what Hammett's plans are. I doubt many people want to see us sitting in the bottom of the table for a few years while he 'rebuilds' the team. Just because key players have been injured for long periods of time doesn't mean their not valuable to the team. And it's no wonder Hore doesn't want to stay when Hammett keeps subbing him off either far too early, or in the last 10 minutes of very close games where his experience would be handy. They should go the Brumbies route I reckon...

edit: To be fair though, now that I think about it a back three of Savea, Leiua and Taylor would be fairly potent still.

It is absolutely ridiculous to even suggest that Hammett would not want those players. They are all All Blacks and offer a lot to any team. Personally, I have been disappointed with Hammett's first year as a coach and I also question why you would pick a captain and then not play him for eighty minutes every week. However, I can see what he is trying to do with the Hurricanes. Despite our reasonably good performances under Colin Cooper we have never looked like a championship winning side. We always had all the talent and x-factor but we never looked like we could win the competition. The problem was the lack of structure, lack of tactical nous and stupid errors. I would be willing to see us have a few not so good years if we could lay the foundations for a side which could actually win the competition.

 

[nickdnz]

Highlights of the game. 1:21 is the bounce.