Warm Up Match 5: Maori All Blacks v British & Irish Lions (Rotorua)

[Nubiwan]

Nothing wrong with the good old wireless!

Err wireless? You mean, with tubes? Now we are showing our age. My mouse is wireless.....

 

[Umaga's Witness]

The way I see it, Te'o can only be sub if other elements of the squad are set up in a specific way.
Generally you have 3 backs on the bench - you're not going in without a SH & FH, which leave 1 sub spot available and Te'o can only really cover I/C (I know some see him also as an O/C but he looked horribly exposed defending the outside channel when Davies went off injured the other week).

Given that Farrell can (and probably will) cover I/C then you're probably looking at Daly or Joseph for the bench with Watson (starting) covering fullback - that way you're covered for all positions.

In other words, if Te'o is going to play in the tests, I think he has to start.

More generally, the side looks OK to me.
1/2penny looks a cert for the tests now.
I think Davies will come good at O/C as his pre-tour form was excellent.
Having some difficulty imagining a test 23 without Stander but POM is in great form so who knows.

The big question for me is whether SO'B can really keep Gatland from picking SW in the starting XV? If he performs like he did last week, seems there's a damn good chance.

good point about the cover available with te'o on the bench. though I think they don't care too much about how perfectly the positions can be covered theses days, they care more about the impact from the bench. in other words impact is more important than injury cover.
for instance, if he envisaged his backline as murray farrell henshaw davies north watson hogg, with webb sexton te'o on the bench.
if davies gets injured either barrel moves to centre or henshaw does or they think tee's is good enough.
if hogg gets injured they put farrell or sexton or henshaw to fullback.
similarly if a wing gets injured, with hogg moving to wing.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

So many factors to consider with this but I think I can bring up the main points. Barrett is quick of the mark and is very agile, you can't just rush up on him and then miss because thats when Barrett starts running past people. It has to be effective pressure which brings me to my next point - it has to be legitimate. Defenders anticipating that pass to come out of the ruck and onto Barrett, need to time that. A line rushing up too late obviously leaves some space behind them for a chip and chase which I have seen Barrett do for himself. You got to put on effective pressure and you got to do it for as long as Barretts on the field. Thing is if you do contain him, Hansen will see that and probably bring on Cruden. To answer your query, I think he can cope with the pressure as he's played enough tests but putting pressure on him is easier said then done.

Couple of things. The level of pressure the Maori were under for parts of that game is the sort of hole that you just don't dig yourselves out of. It's not as though the Maori backline didn't have a ton of players capable of doing great things. Chipping and chasing is ineffective when the backline has backwards momentum because the sweepers are further up and even the defending line can turn and chase from the same start as the kicker. You just put yourself into more problems by kicking in that way. Basically, don't expect Barrett or anyone to get your side out of the problem situations the Maori found themselves in today through magic. What Barrett would have done is recognised the need to get out of the areas they were finding themselves in, and in that sense maybe he could have made a difference.

But secondly, is the fact that no All-Black will be anywhere the level of pressure that the Maori were under today. Not only will the all-black set-piece be strong but they also won't make stupid decisions, so my paragraph above is largely irrelevant - Barrett won't have that degree if pressure. You're right that strong linespeed won't be near enough to cut flair players out of it altogether.

 

[Nubiwan]

Nothing wrong with the good old wireless!

Err wireless? You mean, with tubes? Now we are showing our age. My mouse is wireless.....

So many factors to consider with this but I think I can bring up the main points. Barrett is quick of the mark and is very agile, you can't just rush up on him and then miss because thats when Barrett starts running past people. It has to be effective pressure which brings me to my next point - it has to be legitimate. Defenders anticipating that pass to come out of the ruck and onto Barrett, need to time that. A line rushing up too late obviously leaves some space behind them for a chip and chase which I have seen Barrett do for himself. You got to put on effective pressure and you got to do it for as long as Barretts on the field. Thing is if you do contain him, Hansen will see that and probably bring on Cruden. To answer your query, I think he can cope with the pressure as he's played enough tests but putting pressure on him is easier said then done.

Yes, all that goes without saying, but what have the Romans really done for us lately

You are of course correct. If we can get to Barrett, then be one big plus was all I am saying. Think we will see that chip a few times......

 

[Nubiwan]

good point about the cover available with te'o on the bench. though I think they don't care too much about how perfectly the positions can be covered theses days, they care more about the impact from the bench. in other words impact is more important than injury cover.
for instance, if he envisaged his backline as murray farrell henshaw davies north watson hogg, with webb sexton te'o on the bench.
if davies gets injured either barrel moves to centre or henshaw does or they think tee's is good enough.
if hogg gets injured they put farrell or sexton or henshaw to fullback.
similarly if a wing gets injured, with hogg moving to wing.

Thought Hogg was gone home. I see no way Hogg playing over 1/2pint.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

10. Sexton
12. Farrell

22. Teo
23. Daly (or Williams if Daly starts over North)

Covers everywhere nicely

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Surely any ideas of Farrell starting 10 have been put to bed, he's not as good as Sexton.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Err wireless? You mean, with tubes? Now we are showing our age. My mouse is wireless.....

I'm more of a "tranny" man myself. I reckon that makes me younger than the wireless brigade!

 

[Truth]

one thing i disagree with you about is davies. i actually think he has attacked better than joseph. sure, he doesn't have the footwork, but he has the timing and the angles and the communication with his insides nailed a lot better than joseph (from this tour).

I don't watch much NH rugby so Im not sure of Joseph and Davies. What I gather from reading others post on here, it seems to me that Davies doesn't play as good as Joseph does in the north but Davies is having the better tour at the moment. What Im trying to say is - I don't think we seen what Joseph can really do. Yeah you might say thats due to the good defence Josephs but a lot of good, even great players can go through a dud patch. Lets hope we see what Joseph can do but so far I agree with you in that Davies has attacked better.

and i don't think the lions will be able to keep possession as easily against the all blacks. the all blacks will be able to catch the lions behind the gainline more often, and create the occasional turnover.

Thats a good point.

north has done absolutely nothing good. unfortunately no-one else has either. maybe daly gets the start and north comes off the bench.

North hasn't done much but when you compare his runs to the rest of the Lions backline, he's definitely one of the toughest to deal with.

 

[Nubiwan]

I'm more of a "tranny" man myself. I reckon that makes me younger than the wireless brigade!

Tranny! Now you stepped over the line.....

 

[Every Time Ref]

I'm more of a "tranny" man myself.

Bloody hell, Danny Cipriani's on the boards!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Surely any ideas of Farrell starting 10 have been put to bed, he's not as good as Sexton.

Sexton played really well today,
Should be Sexton and Farrell playing together.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Surely any ideas of Farrell starting 10 have been put to bed, he's not as good as Sexton.

Mayne not put to bed, but it's certainly a brave man who changes that halfback partnership after today. Sexton has continually improved (thank f*** for that) ands he's still our only chance of success.

 

[Nubiwan]

Mayne not put to bed, but it's certainly a brave man who changes that halfback partnership after today. Sexton has continually improved (thank f*** for that) ands he's still our only chance of success.

Based on?

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Based on?

Sexton having a higher ceiling

 

[McTallshort]

I'm more of a "tranny" man myself. I reckon that makes me younger than the wireless brigade!

Ok....

 

[valley commando]

Interesting, Warburton goes to 6

Thats 'cause Tips will be 7 next week

Te'o is a freak. With that in mind, why does he never have support? He breaks the line half the time he gets the ball, there should always be at least 2 players ready to be right on his shoulder.

Tipuric would have been on his shoulder

 

[Reiser99]

overall far better. The back row worked fantastically and common sense would say start with it next week. The kick chase was better, though could still improve. Sure the MAB's didn't put the lions under pressure, but the Lions kept up the pace well. Only real issue for me is the backs. Hard to say how well Watson and North did in attack because they barely got the ball. If I was them I'd be very frustrated.

 

[valley commando]

Yup it's a monster starting pack full of quality. It's only our centers and fullback I genuinely worry about.

Nothing wrong with the centres or full back, fullback scored 20 points to day, what have you ingested

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Nothing wrong with the centres or full back, fullback scored 20 points to day, what have you ingested

There's far more to being a fullback than kicking goals.