Super Rugby Aotearoa: Round 3 - [27 - 28 June 2020]

[The Seeker]

F'ing robbed, half the blues holding that ball at the s came around the side, gutted, ruined an otherwise great game

Scott Gregory's errors hurt the Highlanders big time. Two of them lead to tries for the Blues. Yes, it's a team game, but it's impossible not to notice his faux paus.

 

[The Seeker]

That loss is gonna' hurt for awhile. Ugh...

 

[The Seeker]

Oh well, congratulations to the Blues on their victory tonight.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Scott Gregory's errors hurt the Highlanders big time. Two of them lead to tries for the Blues. Yes, it's a team game, but it's impossible not to notice his faux paus.

That doesn't mean we deserve to loose to a dodgy call

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Great game. Hoskins and Marino both played welll again. Here's my 15 for the game

Hodgman
Dixon
Tu'ungafasi
Dixon
Parkinson
Frizell
Hunt
Sotutu
Smith
Hunt
Clarke
Tomkinson
Ione
Telea
Barrett

shout out to Mikaele-tuu, nareki, papalii.

my player of the match: Dillon hunt

edit: telea for punivai due to telea nullifying nareki's attack.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Great game. Hoskins and Marino both played welll again. Here's my 15 for the game

Hodgman
Dixon
Tu'ungafasi
Dixon
Parkinson
Frizell
Hunt
Sotutu
Smith
Hunt
Clarke
Tomkinson
Ione
Punivai
Barrett

shout out to Mikaele-tuu, nareki, papalii.

my player of the match: Dillon hunt

Don't know about Hunt, he was good and I was happy with his play but blacks kicks kicks for territory pinned us down

and what did punivai do exactly? Very little, three midfielders and an invisible winger?

*dickson

Mikaele-tuu Was my man of the match, we had 14 bloke standing in his shoulders, papalii next for me, two tries and a menace around the pitch

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Don't know about Hunt, he was good and I was happy with his play but blacks kicks kicks for territory pinned us down

and what did punivai do exactly? Very little, three midfielders and an invisible winger?

*dickson

Mikaele-tuu Was my man of the match, we had 14 bloke standing in his shoulders, papalii next for me, two tries and a menace around the pitch

Punivai did nothing, but nor did telea. I had to pick one from two poor players.

Mikaele Tu'u was for the most part better than sotutu but for two huge plays, a missed tackle by Mikaele tuu to let clarke get a try, and then sotutu stopping the maul at the end.

Yeah black was really good all day, but Mitch was critical to a couple of tries.

Dillon hunt for me was everywhere at ruck time, on defence , and driving his players forward (literally). Papalii was probably my second best player.

 

[TheOvalBall]

What a game. I was really nervous, but so happy for the Blues. I've always liked them out of all the NZ teams over the years.
So happy they are winning again.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Don't know about Hunt, he was good and I was happy with his play but blacks kicks kicks for territory pinned us down

and what did punivai do exactly? Very little, three midfielders and an invisible winger?

*dickson

Mikaele-tuu Was my man of the match, we had 14 bloke standing in his shoulders, papalii next for me, two tries and a menace around the pitch

Thinking about this a bit more I think you are right about punivai, telea was better as I remember he defended very well against nareki (as did nareki against him)

 

[Kiwiwomble]

C

Thinking about this a bit more I think you are right about punivai, telea was better as I remember he defended very well against nareki (as did nareki against him)

Canceled each other out rather than played bad

 

[The Seeker]

The Aussie version of short season SupeRugby will have a playoff. Anyone know why the New Zealand version chose not too? Taking the playoffs out of it takes out half the fun.

 

[The Seeker]

Crusaders lead the Chiefs at half time, 10-3.

 

[The Seeker]

Crusaders win it, 18-13. Too bad, I was hoping they'd lose. Although I predicted they wouldn't and won't this Aotearoa season. The Chiefs are out of contention at 0-3.

 

[The Seeker]

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Crusaders win it, 18-13. Too bad, I was hoping they'd lose. Although I predicted they wouldn't and won't this Aotearoa season. The Chiefs are out of contention at 0-3.

Yeah I don't know why no final, I guess they are trying to fit quite a few things into the year. Certainly it reduces the duration of when most teams remain in contention

 

[TheOvalBall]

Crusaders win again. Tough game. But Crusaders look slick.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

i think a final in a comp this small would be redundant, some of the teams will already have played 3 times this year

In general im actually a fan of the football model on a full league, home and a way, top team at the end wins, if you play every other team home and away why do you need to win one more time, you're the best

its also made for some amazing moments when two teams at the top of the ladder are playing their last games at the same time and so people in the crowd are listening to the other game on radios or whatever

 

[Umaga's Witness]

i think a final in a comp this small would be redundant, some of the teams will already have played 3 times this year

In general im actually a fan of the football model on a full league, home and a way, top team at the end wins, if you play every other team home and away why do you need to win one more time, you're the best

its also made for some amazing moments when two teams at the top of the ladder are playing their last games at the same time and so people in the crowd are listening to the other game on radios or whatever

When they announced it I thought it would be really cool, but I expected the competition to be closer. Time will tell I guess, but the format is less cool if by week 7 there are only two teams left in contention and by week 8 or 9 you know the winner.

A good aspect though is you might actually have teams caring about where they place, rather than just about whether they make the playoffs. I always thought it a bit disappointing that teams were judged to have failed if they didn't make the playoffs and that fans stipped caring once they were no longer in contention for the playoffs. I feel like in this structure people will still watch a fourth vs fifth match in round ten. I can't really articulate why, it just feels like if the competition is less about making the playoffs that fans will care more about the individual games.

 

[Dai Perk]

That was rough, I was rooting for the underdogs in both matches, and it's almost worse when it's so close... Still, I thought the Highlanders really showed some good stuff out there, so I'm optimistic despite the result.

Also, Caleb Clarke? Holy crap that dude is good!

I see the Australian tournament starts Friday, anyone know where (if) it'll be broadcast around the globe? Or am I fooling myself?

 

[The Seeker]

That was rough, I was rooting for the underdogs in both matches, and it's almost worse when it's so close... Still, I thought the Highlanders really showed some good stuff out there, so I'm optimistic despite the result.

Also, Caleb Clarke? Holy crap that dude is good!

I see the Australian tournament starts Friday, anyone know where (if) it'll be broadcast around the globe? Or am I fooling myself?

https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/super-rugby/super-rugby-au-2020-rugby-australia-fixtures-schedule-dates/news-story/c81c762190d43ac7bf3aa7f211a54a09