Bledisloe II: Is Fifty Still Nifty?

[scuzzaman]

Watched it at the Boomerang sports bar in Singapore.

Nobody, kiwi or ozzie, could believe it.

Amazing game.

I think the telling point was that at half-time the errors were ABs 11, Oz 3, but the score was 14 : 17. I'm pretty sure that were the error rate reversed the ABs would have had more than a 3 point advantage.

[rowan]

Didn't see it but I said the All Blacks try in first half injury time would swing it their way. Now I've seen the video replay I realize that was pretty much the case. A couple of those All Blacks tries looked to come off slightly forward passes as well, but I'm not one for whinging about things like that, and I don't think it made any difference in the end. But every year I seem to be telling people not to write the Aussies off, and every year they come back and prove me right when it counts. Meanwhile I think we may well be seeing an All Blacks team in decline. Only time will tell, course, but the chasing pack appear to have made up ground.

[canta_brian]

Didn't see it but I said the All Blacks try in first half injury time would swing it their way. Now I've seen the video replay I realize that was pretty much the case. A couple of those All Blacks tries looked to come off slightly forward passes as well, but I'm not one for whinging about things like that, and I don't think it made any difference in the end. But every year I seem to be telling people not to write the Aussies off, and every year they come back and prove me right when it counts. Meanwhile I think we may well be seeing an All Blacks team in decline. Only time will tell, course, but the chasing pack appear to have made up ground.

Gosh. I'm thrilled that your actually watching the game only served to confirm your amazing insight and analysis.

[rowan]

Just a few observations off the top of my head on a chat forum. Nothing to get into bitchy schoolgirl mode about, old chum...

[morepork]

At least he's moved on from "predictable".

[Doorzetbornandbred]

Are the Aussies back? Or are the ABs in decline? We'll have to wait for the next round to find out, but I suspect the Kiwis are not going to have things all their own way against the Boks this year, and (as I said last week) I think SA might just beat them at home. Certainly makes life more interesting . . .

AB's to win all their games.

[rowan]

Not sure, there's a few players in the All Blacks side that don't impress me much. What are your views on Damian McKenzie at fullback? He's not big enough to tackle anybody, to start with...

[zer0]

Not sure, there's a few players in the All Blacks side that don't impress me much. What are your views on Damian McKenzie at fullback? He's not big enough to tackle anybody, to start with...

Seemed to have no problem taking down a ~130kg Fijian winger.

[Spy]

It's more his decision-making and accuracy that need to improve, imo. Which it should.

[cashead]

It's more his decision-making and accuracy that need to improve, imo. Which it should.

It'll come with experience. Having Ben Smith around to guide him for the rest of the Rugby Champs would've been nice.

[rowan]

Not sure, there's a few players in the All Blacks side that don't impress me much. What are your views on Damian McKenzie at fullback? He's not big enough to tackle anybody, to start with...

Seemed to have no problem taking down a ~130kg Fijian winger.

Not sure I'd rate his defence on one selected highlight though. I've watched a fair bit of footage of him in the All Blacks shirt and his defence seems to be one of the weakest links in the chain right now - IMHO.

Surely there are better fullbacks in New Zealand . . .

[Doorzetbornandbred]

Not sure, there's a few players in the All Blacks side that don't impress me much. What are your views on Damian McKenzie at fullback? He's not big enough to tackle anybody, to start with...

Who else doesn't impress you then?

[rowan]

Well, I'd say McKenzie was the main culprit, not so much for his inability to take, but more for being out to lunch with his positioning at crucial times - to say nothing of throwing the pass that was intercepted for the first try. I'd be surprised if keeps his place in the team for the next match, but we'll see. Crotty clearly wasn't at his best, no doubt due to the recurring head problems, and Squire was a bit quiet as well. Same might be said of Whitelock and I won't even start with the subs.

[Digby]

Not sure, there's a few players in the All Blacks side that don't impress me much. What are your views on Damian McKenzie at fullback? He's not big enough to tackle anybody, to start with...

Who else doesn't impress you then?

I doubt he's Shania Twain.

Aussies really only themselves to blame missing that many points.

[morepork]

McKenzie will come right. Once he gets Zen with the AB system he'll start cutting loose. TJ was good off the bench, I thought. Crotty needs to watch his noggin. He was leading with the head in the tackle a lot and got nailed square in the face a few times. Not good. SBW was being played like a league second row, but had a bad case of the dropsies.

[rowan]

Didn't mention SBW because I've never rated him particularly highly in this code. But, yes, another one who is was fairly average yesterday. As for McKenzie, I'm not as familar with the guy's play as some of you obviously are, but I'm just going on the basis of what I've seen of him in an ABs shirt. When's Jordie due back? How about Milner-Skudder - what's the situation with him now?

[scuzzaman]

I'm torn about the status of the ABs.

On the one hand, I expected a sharp decline after the last World Cup and the retirement of such a batch of giants, and it didn't (immediately) occur. So it's tempting to see the Lions tour and this wobble against a frankly ordinary (although typically combative) Australian side, as the delayed-but-inevitable decline ...

Then, on the other hand, the ABs won while playing the worst I've seen them play since the Chicago Ireland game. Which itself made me go "Aha! Here it comes ..." until it was followed by some sublime rugby, as was the Lions tour with the first RC/Bledisloe test a couple of weeks back.

I guess one could see the periodic, perhaps more frequent, wobbles of this current side as being the legacy of the loss of the prior incumbents after the RWC?

[J Dory]

I thought the ABs played well, but Aus upped their game. I thought Aus showed potential in the first test as well, and could see them rolling both SA and the Pumas.

I want Sopoaga to start the next test with Barrett moved to fullback and McKenzie to the bench. Dagg or Skudder to replace Smith.

[canta_brian]

They certainly went well with Sapoanga. Is Barrett having an off season or has he been worked out a bit?

[J Dory]

I think Barrett has been playing well but would like to see Sopoaga get a shot. Barrett can still tear teams apart from fullback.

[rowan]

Played well enough apart from sloppy defence, yes; possibly owing in part to the number of mismatches in Super Rugby this season. They need to tighten up in that department before taking on the Boks, thats for sure.

[morepork]

Played well enough apart from sloppy defence, yes; possibly owing in part to the number of mismatches in Super Rugby this season. They need to tighten up in that department before taking on the Boks, thats for sure.

The Boks will try and smash one out for 80 mins. That is a hard plan to execute at the wrong end of the field so look for Dagg to come in and kick them into the wrong place.

[rowan]

I'll be very surprised if the Boks don't try to test the All Blacks' back 3 early on, and that could set the tone for the rest of the game.