artbloke:

Kopkiwi: Reiko MOTM? Was the heart of every attack.

It's from broken play & playing down the flanks that Ioane really shows out, he may as well be playing on the wing. 

That was one of the best performances I have seen under Foster. There wasn't a bad performance from our 23. What made that all the more impressive, was that it was persisting down for quite a portion of the match. There is a pretty noticeable improvement in most areas.

Sam Cane was everywhere and I'd love to see him play like that all the time. Richie will have silenced a few of his critics last night, including on defence where he prevented two tries. Reiko Ioane had an absolute screamer too. Haviili and Mo'unga are really a pretty decent combination and his combination with Reiko is coming along too. He is showing his value in contrast to a Nonu-type battering ram. Both our hookers had very decent outings.  To be honest I felt something special was coming after the Haka, which seemed to be, to be a little more intense than usual.

Having said all of that, Argentina weren't at the same level as they were last night. They made a lot of handling errors and their discipline was pretty average. Lavignini now the most carded international union player of all time for Reds and Yellows. 

Our discipline really did start to disintegrate a bit, which is something we need to work on. 

I thought we were very hard by being penalized at 53 minutes for holding on, when the jackler initially had both his hands on the ground, not the ball. 

What really got me going though, was the determination and the execution that despite having the bonus point, they wanted 50 and managed to get it done. That feels like the AB's of a few years ago. 

We aren't there yet, I still think we can be 15% better, and consistency will be the thing, but Foster and Co, and the Team themselves should be proud of that performance. 

The most disappointing moment of the match was hearing the crowd boo when Argentina lined up a penalty goal. It's gross behaviour. We need to be better fans. 

I think the difference was, that that AB's made Argentina question what they would do next. Last week Argentina could form a line and so long as they made their tackles, there wasn't anywhere for the AB's to go. Variance in the attack, accuracy and intensity at the breakdown, and set peice dominance were all present and created a lot of opportunities that hadn't been present the week before. 

Australia v SA was a dour and fractious affair. SA were clearly unhappy with things from last week. Australia looked limp and lost. 

It really seems like all Southern Hemisphere teams are struggling to string 2 decent performances together. I wonder what the cause of that is? 

networkn:

 

It really seems like all Southern Hemisphere teams are struggling to string 2 decent performances together. I wonder what the cause of that is? 

 

 

 

I don't know the exact reasoning but a lot of those players have been playing rugby for 8 months straight now with no sign of a break seeing as we didn't have the mid super season internationals. All the teams have done a lot of travelling in the last 4-5 weeks as well.

Personally two good games doesn't make up for six bad ones. If we played anyone above us in the world rankings in a mutual ground this week we would lose. The team still has far too many players out of position and regardless of what people on here say Cane should not be anywhere near the team. One good game after countless ineffectual ones...   

JPNZ:

 

I don't know the exact reasoning but a lot of those players have been playing rugby for 8 months straight now with no sign of a break seeing as we didn't have the mid super season internationals. All the teams have done a lot of travelling in the last 4-5 weeks as well.

 

Personally two good games doesn't make up for six bad ones. If we played anyone above us in the world rankings in a mutual ground this week we would lose. The team still has far too many players out of position and regardless of what people on here say Cane should not be anywhere near the team. One good game after countless ineffectual ones...   

 

I think some of it is mental. Everyone I talk to is exhausted and on the razers edge, mentally drained and only just hanging on. Seems to be more prevalent in the Southern Hemisphere, I guess the North has moved on a bit further from Covid. I am not sure how much of a factor it is, but it feels endemic. The Northern Hemisphere teams play a lot of Rugby as well. Ireland were at the end of their season, I expected them to be pretty ragged when they got here, but they did really get up.

I am encouraged to see that in the areas we played well in Ellis Park we have actually improved in those areas as well as the areas we are weaker at. The game we lost against Argentina we were pretty good for 40 minutes.

If Sam Cane can play at that level every week, he would be in my match day 15. If he can't sustain it, he should make way, at least for now, for a player who can consistently deliver. 

I don't agree we would have lost to everyone ranked above us on Saturday night. That was an outstanding performance.

I genuinely hope that the ABs have turned a corner I guess the next outing will show more. I would like to see them emphatically silence the critics myself included.

What was pretty incredible was that we made 3 handling errors on Saturday night in very wet conditions. That is excellent. Our lineout was 14/14 as well. 

One thing that I am unsure is when it says Total Turnovers, us 6 Argentina 15, did Argentina get turned over or turn us over 15 times? If they turned us over 15 times, that seems pretty grim still. I am not sure what is an average number of turn overs in a game so I can't really determine if 6 is still too high.

Apparently, Brodie only made 4 tackles, that seems low for a lock?

Edit: Ok it's turnovers conceded. 

6 a lot better than 15.

Also raised during the breakdown was when and where we start to take our veterans off the park to give them some rest time so they make it to the world cup. Obviously, the issue here is consistency. If we get that from the next 2 tests, then there is really a need to get some experience into our younger locks and centers. 

networkn:

 

Apparently, Brodie only made 4 tackles, that seems low for a lock?

 

You realise he started on the bench and only played the last quarter of the game?  (and we were on attack for a lot of that)

Earbanean:

 

You realise he started on the bench and only played the last quarter of the game?  (and we were on attack for a lot of that)

 

Whoops. That makes sense, didn't connect the dots.

Handle9: 

 

Why is it so hard to say he played well?

He did everything you could ask a centre to do.

Didn't say he didn't play well, but as said he's playing on the flank a lot, so may as well be starting on the wing - Ioane isn't that real power player that can consistently get us over the advantage line, Havili is doing a top job in midfield with his kicking game & distribution etc... ideally we need that powerful intimidating type of player like Thomas Umaga-Jensen to partner Havili, which would give us that ideal balance in midfield, which is going to be especially crucial in those very tight games.

No Ardie or Frizell for 1st Bledisloe. That will be interesting. Both have been pretty strong, and to be missing both will really require the next 2 cabs off the rank to muscle up.

I expect Australia to really target our centres, and probably the loose trio as well.  They have some decent-sized humans in that channel, though injuries may make it interesting for them there. I do wonder if Samu might get a start. He hasn't started probably because he's a bit smaller, but he has that same strong leg drive squirmy into contact type attack that Savea is known for. 

I am not sure they are going to end up using Tuivasa-Sheck at all, he hasn't been named in the 33-man squad for Australia and has been sent back to NPC. I personally think that's the right decision, if it's been determined he isn't test quality. 

I predict Scott Barrett will be developing his blindside flanker further. Seems a logical time to do it. 

networkn:

 

Australia v SA was a dour and fractious affair. SA were clearly unhappy with things from last week. Australia looked limp and lost. 

 

It really seems like all Southern Hemisphere teams are struggling to string 2 decent performances together. I wonder what the cause of that is? 

 

The only teams putting consistent performances together are France and Ireland. Everyone else is up and down for a variety of reasons but it's fair to say that international rugby is far more competitive than it's ever been.

The All Blacks won a lot of games in the 2000s by being fitter than their opponents. That's long gone, everyone is very well conditioned.