Bledisloe III: The Deadest Rubber of them all

[Lizard]

All Blacks team named. Probably what Shag considers to be about the strongest available side. Retallick is out for family reasons, B. Barrett has a head knock and NMS is crocked for the season (again). Pretty hard to argue with the run on XV, except for SBW - is he past it or just having a quiet patch? On the bench, you could argue for Romano (I wouldn't) and A. Savea (I would - Todd is tried and found wanting). D-Mack will cover 10, which I hope we see if the game is not tight.

1. Kane Hames
2. Dane Coles
3. Nepo Laulala
4.Sam Whitelock
5. Scott Barrett
6. Liam Squire
7. Sam Cane
8. Kieran Read (captain)
9. Aaron Smith
10. Lima Sopoaga
11. Rieko Ioane
12. Sonny Bill Williams
13. Ryan Crotty
14. Waisake Naholo
15. Damian McKenzie

16. Codie Taylor
17. Wyatt Crockett
18. Ofa Tu'ungafasi
19. Patrick Tuipulotu
20. Matt Todd
21. TJ Perenara
22. Anton Lienert-Brown
23. David Havili

[zer0]

We must be watching different Matt Todd's.

[Spy]

That's an attacking-minded back 3. Not one I'd like to take into a WC KO match.

[rowan]

Be interesting to see what kind of a crowd they get for this. Doesn't interest me one bit but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a full stadium.

[rowan]

Hard to see anything but an All Blacks victory. I'd give it 15 - 20 points.

[Spy]

Shades of Dunedin. ABs try to be too cute.

[Spy]

Good reply.

[Spy]

That's an annoying try to concede at the end of a half that I thought NZ mostly controlled pretty well. HT 12-13.

Good defence is forcing errors from the Wallabies, and our scrum and lineout look good.

[Spy]

Second half has been all Australia.

[Spy]

Our second half kicking has been awful.

[canta_brian]

Ouch! That was a tackle!

[canta_brian]

Don't think much of D macs kicking form. Looks rushed

[Spy]

Jesus. Dumb from sbw, who has been otherwise good, then dumb from tuungafasi.

[Spy]

Well deserved Australia. Dominated the second half. We couldn't get anything going at all.

[canta_brian]

Yep, that was one of those crap performances where we look anything but good at rugby. Static, hard of hand and poor decision making.

[canta_brian]

Oh, and Sam Cane at the end. He doesn't seem to be kicking on for me. He just seems to go missing a bit.

[rowan]

Better game from SBW but the outside backs looked a bit weak. I don't think they've got the formula right there going forward . . .

[canta_brian]

Sbw undid a lot of decent work with that late grubber attempt. That was a bit headless chicken for me.

[rowan]

Be interesting to see the touring squad after this . . .

[rowan]

McKenzie's diminutive stature gifted the Wallabies their clinching try.

[Spy]

Oh, and Sam Cane at the end. He doesn't seem to be kicking on for me. He just seems to go missing a bit.

I thought he had a pretty good game. The thing about him, IMO, is that is the level of player he is. He's pretty good. He makes a lot of tackles competently, and grafts hard. He does a decent job. The difference is that at Cane's current age, McCaw was freaking amazing. Pulling off astonishing turnovers and tackles, and pretty much always one of the top 3 AB's on the paddock in every test. Cane just isn't that level of player. Doesn't mean he's no good, but he's never going to be a McCaw or Kronfeld or Jones level of openside.

[zer0]

Well, that second half was a bit shit. Still, not a bad effort with near half the 1st XV missing. A good year for building depth two years out from the RWC.

[cashead]

Oh, and Sam Cane at the end. He doesn't seem to be kicking on for me. He just seems to go missing a bit.

I thought he had a pretty good game. The thing about him, IMO, is that is the level of player he is. He's pretty good. He makes a lot of tackles competently, and grafts hard. He does a decent job. The difference is that at Cane's current age, McCaw was freaking amazing. Pulling off astonishing turnovers and tackles, and pretty much always one of the top 3 AB's on the paddock in every test. Cane just isn't that level of player. Doesn't mean he's no good, but he's never going to be a McCaw or Kronfeld or Jones level of openside.

According to scrum.com, he made 27 tackles. Went missing? Fuck off.

[canta_brian]

Oh, and Sam Cane at the end. He doesn't seem to be kicking on for me. He just seems to go missing a bit.

I thought he had a pretty good game. The thing about him, IMO, is that is the level of player he is. He's pretty good. He makes a lot of tackles competently, and grafts hard. He does a decent job. The difference is that at Cane's current age, McCaw was freaking amazing. Pulling off astonishing turnovers and tackles, and pretty much always one of the top 3 AB's on the paddock in every test. Cane just isn't that level of player. Doesn't mean he's no good, but he's never going to be a McCaw or Kronfeld or Jones level of openside.

According to scrum.com, he made 27 tackles. Went missing? Fuck off.

I think I can take two things away from those replies.

1: my expectations for an all black open side are very (possibly unreasonably) high.

2: Sam Cane gets through a huge amount of mediocrity.

[morepork]

We are still finessing 6 & 7 in the absence of Jerome. Before Jerome, there was Jerry. Both 6's were superb at getting amongst the opposition pack and drawing them into a dogfight while 7 was free to make judicious calls on where to fang in and keep things rolling, on attack and defense. Rettalick is also excellent in this dog fight role. Cane seems to have to spend a lot of time playing as an extra 6.