I see Wayne Smith will join the Black Ferns to assist. That should give them a decent boost. 

Laulala has probably been riding the line a bit too closely with his cleanout technique for a while. I am actually surprised it's taken as long as it did for him to reach the red card threshold. I have nothing against him, but we need our players to do better. 

Shilo Klein will be spending a similar amount of time considering his technique after a thuggish bit of play too. No issues with that Red. 

I did feel for Caleb Clarke. I felt it was red all day long, but it's unfortunate/reckless rather than intentional. He is total class though. Him going to check on the other player afterward and apologise was a nice touch. 

The Highlanders really need to get back to basics. They scored off an innovative Tony Brown set piece move in a nice try, but what good is that when your handling and tackling skills aren't up to scratch? 

I think tackle completion at one point in the game was 74% to the Crusaders 94% near the end of the game, I am unsure what the final stats were, but that should be a real concern for them. 

Chiefs, Crusaders and Blues are probably going to finish 1, 2 and 3 I think at least in the NZ conference. Not sure what order they will finish at this stage. The Blues have strung together a long set of wins, their longest in quite some time, and are looking good. The Chiefs also look compelling despite being probably among the hardest hit with illness and injuries in recent weeks. To beat the Crusaders at home with a depleted side, was incredible impressive. 

Of all the NZ teams, the Chiefs seem to be able to really pull together when they are ravaged by injuries. It does say something about the pride the have in their team. 

The Crusaders discipline has improved significantly which is encouraging. They are still prone to giving away too many penalties in defending their line, but that's where the majority of teams do give away their penalties I guess. 

The biggest thing I've noticed as how much faster all teams and players are clearing themselves out of rucks and breakdowns. They are rolling away so much quicker than they were last few seasons, I like it a lot. 

I've watched Rugby since I was 17. I have tried to understand the scrum, but I don't. I never know which team is going to get a penalty and only in about 50% of cases when they replay and show the offense do I understand it. 

I know I go on about this a bit, but I really feel it impacts our game. 

Our distribution skills are generally much worse than other countries. When I watch other international sides play, the majority of their balls are in front and at chest height meaning no loss of momentum in the movement. 

In the last few weeks I have been watching the super rugby in NZ and it's horrifying how many passes don't go to hand, or require a momentum stop to catch. 

I pick on TJP because he is the worst distributing half back in NZ, but in the game against the Chiefs, in the first half alone, I counted 1 forward pass, 2 passes that players couldn't catch and 7 passes that required a loss of momentum. It's really almost as bad in so many other SR games too. A couple of the games, the Highlanders in particular, where it was almost embarrassing. I watch the occasional game of High School First IV and they are better at it there. 

If we could resolve this, and the staying on our feet ala northern hemisphere teams, our game would be so much quicker. Given we lack firepower in the forwards, in my opinion accuracy at the breakdown, accuracy of passing, and being on our feet, are the keys to being able to negate some of what other teams have on us at the moment. 

Jordie Barrett expressing that 12 is his preferred position and then playing there last week and this week, seems a little strange to me. We have a fair glut of decent midfielders in NZ, and who is he going to take the place of. 

With his height and huge boot, him at Full Back seems the best option. Will Jordan is very very good obviously, however, I do wonder how they are going to fit that jigsaw together for the AB's if he too makes the switch to midfield. Obviously, that is not confirmed or even spoken about as a possibility just yet. 

Edit: Foster has been asked and says he is interested to see how JB goes but doesn't believe at this stage he will play midfield for the AB's.

All the red cards seemed to result in the punishments I expected, so it's somewhat good that the consistency is there. 

Does anyone know what the current status of Jack Goodhue is?

The Blues seem to have found the steel that has been missing for quite some time, and are building toward something. Their consistency is better, though sadly it seems at the cost of discipline and cynical play. Hopefully, they can find the balance a bit better.

It was fairly impressive to hold the Chiefs to nil last night, the first time in 26 years the Chiefs have been on the end of a Donut score. I am sure the Chiefs will be looking hard at not being able to score when the Blues were down 2 guys.

ALB looks to be gone for the season, which is quite unfortunate for the AB's.

Crusaders discipline is getting better overall, that's quite pleasing as someone who has found their style of play quite frustrating in that regard. They also managed to finally beat the 'canes after never having beaten them before whilst trailing at halftime. Also to do it away from home.

We don't quite seem as cohesive on attack as we were and continue to blow opportunities. In fact I saw quite a bit of all teams not finishing tries in the weekend.

I am a bit worried where NZ are at in terms of overall quality right now. I can't really recall a year where we looked less together by this point in the season, though it's probably quite possibly the impact of reduced availability of players due to Covid.

That was the worst Chiefs display I have witnessed in a while. To not take advantage of playing against 13 men through poor choices and errors had me shaking my head. The touch line was not friendly to them either. Nor was the TMO who while adjudicating on whether it was touch-in-goal dismissed the shoulder charge and high tackle that pushed him over the sideline in the first place. Not that that alone would have affected the result, but possibly the bonus point.

Resolute Blues defence is what made the difference, even from an onside position. That aside, clearly the better team.

networkn:

 

Crusaders discipline is getting better overall, that's quite pleasing as someone who has found their style of play quite frustrating in that regard. They also managed to finally beat the 'canes after never having beaten them before whilst trailing at halftime. Also to do it away from home.

 

Aside from biggest lock cheat in NZ rugby though right?  You might feel better about the game since the team you support was on thw winning side, but that finish was ridiculous.

Dingbatt:

 

That was the worst Chiefs display I have witnessed in a while. To not take advantage of playing against 13 men through poor choices and errors had me shaking my head. The touch line was not friendly to them either. Nor was the TMO who while adjudicating on whether it was touch-in-goal dismissed the shoulder charge and high tackle that pushed him over the sideline in the first place. Not that that alone would have affected the result, but possibly the bonus point.

 

Resolute Blues defence is what made the difference, even from an onside position. That aside, clearly the better team.

 

The diving tackles on the sideline have always been invisible to officials. Contrast it with the Blues defense that resulted in a diving Waikato player losing the ball forward later in the game - it was about as precise a hit as you could imagine on a player diving for the turf, almost zero danger. It is possible to do correctly. 

itxtme:

 

Aside from biggest lock cheat in NZ rugby though right?  You might feel better about the game since the team you support was on thw winning side, but that finish was ridiculous.

 

Who's that then? 

You might feel aggrieved however, that's sport. The Crusaders have been on the losing end of decisions like that, including a grand final they should have won and were apologised afterwards for. 

If you looked back you could easily find decisions earlier in the game that went in the Hurricane's favour. 

My point was, that the Crusaders (who I have been continually critical of for their poor discipline over many seasons) have started to improve their discipline. It's not perfect, but we were at 20 penalties a game for a while or pretty close to it, and this season (finally) are much lower. 

networkn:

 

You might feel aggrieved however, that's sport. The Crusaders have been on the losing end of decisions like that, including a grand final they should have won and were apologised afterwards for. 

 

The Crusaders are so infrequently on the end of bad calls like this that when they happen, they get apologised to. You can set your watch to it. 

Whereas the Blues seemed to go almost most of the 2018 season getting rough calls and it was just BAU. Yet as soon as it happens to the Crusaders, the officiating mea culpas come out and everyone promises to do better.

itxtme:

 

Aside from biggest lock cheat in NZ rugby though right?  You might feel better about the game since the team you support was on thw winning side, but that finish was ridiculous.

 

I watched it again, and the Breakdown YT video covered it and made some interesting points. 

1) Why didn't the Hurricanes go for Goal and give themselves a chance to go to golden point? Seems bizarre to me. 

2) The Crusaders have one of the best records overall for lineout/rolling maul defense

3) The argument by Ardie was it could have been reviewed by the TMO, which *may* have yielded a different result (no guarantee even if a penalty was given). The whistle had blown, which didn't give the option, but in reality, if the situation had been exactly reversed and the TMO had overturned the decision and awarded a penalty, then fans would have been upset that the TMO is involved too much. 

I don't think it's as clear cut as you are making it out to be, but like you, I have a horse in the race. Goldie didn't, and on the breakdown he called it as a 50/50 call.