Geekzone Rugby (Union) Discussion Thread

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Networkn
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#2768214 28-Aug-2021 22:19

rippa:

Innovation isn't about playing musical chairs for well over a year consistently, by doing that we were always going to lack cohesion as an unit at the RWC... Innovation is basically about using a tactic during the match that's going to surprise the opposition, therefore applying huge pressure on them... thought when Hansen was coach we hardly used a smart kicking game to break down the rushing defence.

Ya know, with all his experience, and all the experience of all the other international coaches around, if it was as easy as just kicking behind, do you not think a single one might have thought of that? The rush defense is still a thing.

Perhaps it's just not as simple as that, or as effective as you seem to be indicating.

Of course, they could all be wrong, but in that case, perhaps jump into coaching :)

Grunta47

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#2768273 29-Aug-2021 09:28

rippa:

What ? ...Razor has won 5 Super Rugby tiles & obviously has very good man management skills, which is a big part of coaching... he's hardly too young, the bloke is 47 edging up to 50.

Young in that he has no international coaching experience. He walked into a Crusaders squad full of the best players and development program in NZ and has been hugely successful. He obviously has something, as Blackadder had the same team/systems and couldn’t make them work.

But, he had the U20s for two seasons. A win, and then the next one we lost early which I believe was the first time we haven’t made the playoffs.

He will most likely be the coach after 2023, so he’ll be 49. Not that old in regards to international coaches.

Grunta47

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#2768282 29-Aug-2021 09:44

rippa:

Just because Foster was part of Hansen coaching staff doesn't make him the obvious choice as head coach.

Wasn't impressed with Hansen's coaching going into the last year or so leading up to the last WC... he was playing musical chairs far too much with our starting team so we lost a lot of flow & continuity to our game, the Boks who don't have the talent we have played with a settled team & ending winning the Rugby Championship & WC.

NZR are now doing appointments through succession and in general it has worked.

I was disappointed when Henry was reappointed after the 2007 WC, but they knew what they did wrong and fixed it so in the end I became a fan. It shows that NZR can make a big call if they need to.

Hansen was his assistant coach and took over the reins and through this we won 2 WC’s. Now Foster has inherited the head coach role from within the team. The problem Razor may have is the he’s not part of the current ABs coaching set up which may go against him.

I agree though, Hanson did make too many changes trying to find his perfect team. He just made the same mistake every single coach does, in that he has favourites and plays them out of position instead of using a specialist. Yep a fullback can play wing, a 1st5 can play fullback, but putting a wing/fullback into centre is just stupid as the roles are totally different. Same as putting a lock onto blindside or a 7 into 8. Players revert to their natural game and therefore make mistakes that a specialist wouldn’t do.

Many of our WC losses have been when we had players out of position.

networkn

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#2768920 30-Aug-2021 17:41

Super Rugby Pacific 2022 Format :

• 12 teams (in alphabetical order), being the Blues, Brumbies, Chiefs, Crusaders, Fijian Drua, Highlanders, Hurricanes, Melbourne Rebels, Moana Pasifika, NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds and Western Force

• Teams will play 14 regular season matches with each team to host seven matches
Teams will play eight teams once and three teams twice with an emphasis on derby matches

• There will be one points table with teams ranked one to 12 based on competition points

• The top eight teams on the points table will qualify for a three-week playoff format
Quarterfinals will be – 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 with the top ranked team playing at home

• Top ranked quarter-final winners will host the semi-finals, and top-ranked winner of the semi-finals will host the final

• 18-week season all completed prior to the July international window

I like it so far based on that. It's probably the best of what was available?

tukapa1

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#2768936 30-Aug-2021 17:56

networkn:

Teams will play eight teams once and three teams twice with an emphasis on derby matches

This is only advantageous to Australia. They will be weak across at least two (probably three) franchises so there will be some easy points for them there, while the NZ teams beat the snot out of each other in a very similar vein to SR Aotearoa. If NZ teams play three derby games each, then with the original round robin that's only one game less than SR Aotearoa.

The 8 team finals is purely designed to placate the Aussies by allowing some of them to make the 'business end' of the competition. That's two thirds of the teams making the playoffs....

But I am a fan of a full round robin so I like that aspect of it.

networkn

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#2768952 30-Aug-2021 18:51

tukapa1:

This is only advantageous to Australia. They will be weak across at least two (probably three) franchises so there will be some easy points for them there, while the NZ teams beat the snot out of each other in a very similar vein to SR Aotearoa. If NZ teams play three derby games each, then with the original round robin that's only one game less than SR Aotearoa.

The 8 team finals is purely designed to placate the Aussies by allowing some of them to make the 'business end' of the competition. That's two thirds of the teams making the playoffs....

But I am a fan of a full round robin so I like that aspect of it.

Sure, but at the end of the day, despite it being to AU's advantage, no system is perfect and it's OK if we make some concessions.

From my perspective, it beats 10 rounds of Kiwi derbies when you have to watch NZ teams kill each other and perhaps less players will be injured for the International season.

Jas777

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#2768966 30-Aug-2021 19:38

I think it is only 2 derby games. And one against the other 7.

Just my opinion but maybe they should have a fixed derby.

Crusaders v Highlanders, Chiefs v Blues, 2 Pacific teams, Waratahs v Reds etc as these will attract the most interest.

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Jas777

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#2771182 3-Sep-2021 12:21

Unless Auckland goes out of level 4 soon and I can't see it happening until October at the earliest I can see the NPC being cancelled for this year.

networkn

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#2772619 5-Sep-2021 20:51

What a performance from the AB's tonight. Akira probably close to MOTM and looks to have figured out whatever was hindering him previously. He looks excellent. Reiko is a winger. His speed defies belief at times. Havilli and ALB are great center pairing.

If not for 5 of our tries unconverted, and a Red card, I think we would have had our second record win over the Wallabies in 2 weeks.

Foster is obviously capable of getting good results. You could tell after the game, there is mutual warmth between the players and Coaches.

That was an excellent defensive effort for 75% of the game and our physicality was really good for probably 60 minutes.

That marks our first win outside of Sydney since 2014! The focus was steady to not take the pressure off for the dead rubber.

It's pretty much everything you could have hoped for, with the exception of goal kicking. All with 3 of our first choice players not present.

wratterus

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#2772662 6-Sep-2021 09:14

Yeah, a very satisfying game to watch. Even more so that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

That red card IMO was absolute rubbish. If they are officiating the head contact rule that way, Retallick should have been carded for accidentally stepping on Hooper's head. If anything it should be reversed. Had Jordie's leg not been there, it looked to me like Koroibete would have tackled him in the air. Surely that should take preference.

Batman

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#2772664 6-Sep-2021 09:22

did everybody miss the fact that the ABs should have been given a penalty try when they were 15m from the tryline when they took a quick tap from a penalty and the entire Wallaby team was not back 10m. the ref awarded the ABs a penalty.

red card was correct decision. red cards have been dished out like lollies when head contact is involved, accidental or not doesn't count. welcome to 2020+ rugby.

networkn

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#2772677 6-Sep-2021 09:57

@rippa you must be beside yourself, lots of kicks through and over the top kicks and kicking in behind reasonably smart kicking for territory. :)

networkn

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#2773428 7-Sep-2021 10:20

Dave Rennie probably needs to consider bringing Lolosio off the bench. He has had 3 (at least) shaky tests this year. Moments of good, but too many mistakes, and it will be hurting his confidence. He seems to be their future 10, but he is under a lot of pressure on the field.

In general, Rennie must not be that happy with his squad's performance. He seems to have indicated he is sending clear messages to his team about areas they want improvement on, but 3 weeks in a row of multiple intercept passes, lineout and breakdown is pretty shaky. They have lost a fair amount of composure which affects their decision-making. I'd guess they need to reduce the number of messages and focus on a smaller number of things.

Rettalick was near his best on Sunday evening, and what a difference it makes. When he left on sabbatical we knew we would miss him, but how much!? That is pretty obvious now. It was great to see him back in the side. What was pleasing about our defense was the effective and accurate manner of those tackles. Lots of them pushed the player backward, which slowed the delivery and presentation of the ball.

Tate McDermot is a pest :) Aussie have a number of very decent 9's.

Brad Weber has noticeably increased the pace of his pass recently, it was much faster than it has been in SR for a while, and if he can improve the consistency of his accuracy, that would allow for some pretty good attack.

Defensively, the thing I think we need to work on, is when subs come on and players might switch positions, still keeping that trust and spacing to allow those tackles to continue.

networkn

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#2773442 7-Sep-2021 10:46

Joe Schmidt is leaving world rugby to return to NZ to spend more time with family. His tenure ending after <10 months.

networkn

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#2773701 7-Sep-2021 14:35

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/rugby-the-best-all-blacks-outside-backs-of-all-time-revealed-to-complete-nzs-greatest-xv/FBF2FLYI6ULDONZJSNU2JWNTBM/

The Greatest XV

1. Tony Woodcock
2. Sean Fitzpatrick
3. Ken Gray
4. Brodie Retallick
5. Colin Meads
6. Michael Jones
7. Richie McCaw
8. Zinzan Brooke
9. Aaron Smith
10. Dan Carter
11. Jonah Lomu
12. Ma'a Nonu
13. Conrad Smith
14. Bryan Williams
15. Christian Cullen

Some of these players pre-date my obsession with Rugby, so I can't comment on them, but Cullen and Lomu particularly I recall right at the start of my general interest and I'd agree with this list pretty much. I probably would have picked Howlett at 14. Possibly Kaino at 6.

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