Rugby Most Superb in the land of the long white cloud, TYOOL 2022 edition, now with 20% more Pasifika!

[cashead]

He probably should be, but he's off to Munster.

[morepork]

Has Fozzie got anyone holding his hand through the World Cup? Sam Cane made a couple of James Haskell level stupid margin calls in that final that will kill us dead. Please don't fleet it be box kicks, mauls and penalties that do for us.

[cashead]

Joe Schmidt, presumably.

[morepork]

Box kicks , penalties, and mauls it is then.

[Lizard]

Analysis of the All Blacks’ kicking tactics (and other things)

[morepork]

Crusaders getting their beans this year man. Wot's going on?

[cashead]

It's a variety of factors.

1. New coach - a lot of the guys are Razor Boys, having come through the system under Robertson. Penney does have a significant pedigree (U20s success, came up via the Canterbury system, some success offshore, etc.) but ultimately, he's spent a whole lot of time elsewhere and there are a lot of players adjusting to new systems and structures. Based on his record, Razor is an exceptional coach (at the domestic level at least, he's a once-in-a-lifetime coach, jury's still out at the test level) and while Penney is a decent coach, a dip was always expected.

2. Injuries - They've got a fairly long list of players that have been unavailable in key areas. Their best fullback, Will Jordan, and a pretty good short-term guy from Wales, uh Lee Haffpound or something, are both out for the season, they're down to their fourth choice 10, their top second-row combination is out, etc. They've had a pretty miserable run there. Currently, they're down:
Will Jordan - gone for the season
Leigh Halfpenny - gone for most of the season, may be able to play in the tail-end of the regular season
Brayden Ennor - out for the season
Fergus Burke - did an Achilles, so he's not likely to feature
Tamaiti Williams - sorting out a dodgy hammy
Brodie McAllister - did a knee
Rivez Reihana - did a shoulder
Scott Barrett - did a finger

In addition, Joe Moody is only just coming back from catching the ol 'Rona - which fucking sucks, Codie Taylor is on a sabbatical until May and Owen Franks had a severe onset of idiocy, getting himself suspended for a few weeks.

It's meant that they're also struggling to get combinations going, they're having a hard time getting Levi Aumua into the games, when he could potentially be a devastating strike weapon in the midfield, and they're likely putting a lot of pressure on themselves to try to course correct which means that they end up doing a lot of coach-killer errors. Even taking into account the miserable conditions against the Blues, they still kept knocking on, their lineout made up of what were ostensibly a pair of kids got eaten alive by Paddy Tuipulotu and Laghlan McWhannell.

Some individual players are actually playing quite well. David Havili has been a very good second playmaker 12, Tom Christie continues to be a fucking machine in the back row, Dominic Gardiner is really making the most of an uninterrupted run the 6 jersey (Christie made 22 tackles, Gardiner made 19 and neither of them missed a single one, and they were one of the reasons why the game was still in the balance going into half time). Meanwhile, Cullen Grace - usually a pretty decent player in his own right, missed enough tackles for the entirety of the back row, making 17 but missing 8 tackles.