hugonaut wrote:That means that Steve Hansen's time in charge and all the trophies that he has led the ABs to are tarnished. He has been found out; what's the point of being number one in the world rankings when you can't win the World Cup? The All Blacks won a few games when others had their eye off the ball. I saw this coming from way out. The Wallabies gave them a kicking in the first game of the Rugby Championship and they never recovered. He kept on picking too many inexperienced players. England have shown that the All Blacks gameplan is ineffective against the best team in the world. New Zealand need to forget this wrong-headed idea of playing a second decision-maker at fullback – look at England, they play with three pace merchants in their back three. This was the sort of World Cup for New Zealand that demands a complete rethink of how they prioritise, periodise and prepare. It isn’t just one thing here — it’s a complete re-evaluation in my book. It puts the Crusaders Super Rugby wins in context - I’m not so sure that the Leinster v Crusaders question holds as much water now. Calling players 'world class' - we throw around that stuff way too easily. We are judging players on Super Rugby, or even the Rugby Championship, when it seems to me that others are busier peaking for Rugby World Cups. New Zealand need to get the best players from sailing, cricket and netball ... did I go too far with that last one?
Good post that. though if you are imitating O'Connor or Tracy you need to state how it hurts you to say this, and that stabbing them all while they are down is just doing your job.
Oh my goodness, objective, in-depth analysis which will ensure a fundamental re-think of the entire New Zealand rugby template.
Great post @Hugonaut (etc. would be a pretty long list too)
Leinsterimp wrote:Incredible performance from England so far, Underhill and Curry are immense
Absolutely. Thought that the Vunipolas and Tuilagi were key to England winning games like this but all three were actually reasonably quiet. Sinckler, Lawes, Itoje, Ford, Farrell, Daly, and Watson were all incredible. England were so well organised and strong in every facet of play. NZ's only score came from a dodgy lineout by England, really impressive stuff.
That's not far from how NZ have been playing for a couple of years IMO. A lack of power and they ran out of ideas. They did have chances but blew them with really hesitant or stupid play. England were much better than them but if they'd kept composed and not thrown stupid offloads, ran into trouble, ran into touch, and gave away brain dead penalties then they could have won. A lot of the errors were forced but an awful lot of them weren't.
I've never been convinced by Mo'unga at ten at this level, good on the front foot and good as a sub but not in the really tough games IMO. I think it would have made more sense to move Barrett to ten and put his brother to 15. I don't think we're capable of that kind of performance that England just put in but it's so frustrating that we didn't put NZ under any pressure at all last week.
The pace that England put on the game in the first half is the kind of level we have to get to, you need to bring the game to the opposition, we can't afford to sit back in future.
I am a huge Steve Hansen fan and a very big All Blacks fan, but England were all over them today. Better in every aspect of the game – better decision-making, better at the breakdown, better attack, better defensively, far more efficient set-pieces, much better kicking game, better kick-chase, better discipline. They were a little unfortunate to have Ben Youngs' try rubbed off the board [although it was a correct decision], and NZ were lucky enough to get seven ... their try was a gift.
That means that Steve Hansen's time in charge and all the trophies that he has led the ABs to are tarnished. He has been found out; what's the point of being number one in the world rankings when you can't win the World Cup? The All Blacks won a few games when others had their eye off the ball. I saw this coming from way out. The Wallabies gave them a kicking in the first game of the Rugby Championship and they never recovered. He kept on picking too many inexperienced players. England have shown that the All Blacks gameplan is ineffective against the best team in the world. New Zealand need to forget this wrong-headed idea of playing a second decision-maker at fullback – look at England, they play with three pace merchants in their back three. This was the sort of World Cup for New Zealand that demands a complete rethink of how they prioritise, periodise and prepare. It isn’t just one thing here — it’s a complete re-evaluation in my book. It puts the Crusaders Super Rugby wins in context - I’m not so sure that the Leinster v Crusaders question holds as much water now. Calling players 'world class' - we throw around that stuff way too easily. We are judging players on Super Rugby, or even the Rugby Championship, when it seems to me that others are busier peaking for Rugby World Cups. New Zealand need to get the best players from sailing, cricket and netball ... did I go too far with that last one?
In hindsight, the Leinster game yesterday was part of an IRFU plan to play World Cup semi final rugby.
Wales have looked really tired and lacked quality but my god they're a determined bunch, never know when they're beaten. Poor defence for the try there but De Allende has been great for the last year or so, used to think he was very average. Willie Le Roux has been really poor ever since he came back from injury and it's really hampering SA.
Wales perennial semi final chokers, they haven’t got by the semi final in 32 years trying. They need to change the way they play from under 8’s up.
Gatland’s coaching has been found out. It’s not to late for him if he is willing to forget everything he’s achieved over the last 20 years and is willing to start from scratch. The game has sadly passed him by over the last 80 minutes.
"Horrocks went one way, Taylor the other and I was left holding the bloody hyphen!"
This is obviously an incredibly bitter comment but seeing SA go through reminds me again that I don't think we should focus so much on the World Cup.
To get to the final they have...lost to New Zealand, beaten a tired looking Japan, and beaten a tired and battered Wales team in a pig of a game. They've played well for about an hour all told in the three important games.
Looking forward to the final though, I expect SA to be much better than today and it's hard to see England being as good as they were yesterday. Thought England would win before the tournament started and still do no, their all round game is brilliant, they look confident, they had a week off, they've an extra day to recover this week, and they don't have injury concerns.
OTT wrote:Wales perennial semi final chokers, they haven’t got by the semi final in 32 years trying. They need to change the way they play from under 8’s up.
Gatland’s coaching has been found out. It’s not to late for him if he is willing to forget everything he’s achieved over the last 20 years and is willing to start from scratch. The game has sadly passed him by over the last 80 minutes.
Disagree. The big problem was the haka, both teams were affected by it over the last 24 hours. It helped to pump up SA but Wales were TOO pumped up by it.
LeRouxIsPHat wrote:This is obviously an incredibly bitter comment but seeing SA go through reminds me again that I don't think we should focus so much on the World Cup.
To get to the final they have...lost to New Zealand, beaten a tired looking Japan, and beaten a tired and battered Wales team in a pig of a game. They've played well for about an hour all told in the three important games.
Looking forward to the final though, I expect SA to be much better than today and it's hard to see England being as good as they were yesterday. Thought England would win before the tournament started and still do no, their all round game is brilliant, they look confident, they had a week off, they've an extra day to recover this week, and they don't have injury concerns.
SA defense was good today....but the pacific islanders will relish a chance to crash through them in the final, me tinks.
So South Africa lose to New Zealand then beat Japan and Wales and are in a final? World rugby really needs to do something to make this competition better.
Logorrhea wrote:So South Africa lose to New Zealand then beat Japan and Wales and are in a final? World rugby really needs to do something to make this competition better.
LeRouxIsPHat wrote:This is obviously an incredibly bitter comment but seeing SA go through reminds me again that I don't think we should focus so much on the World Cup.
To get to the final they have...lost to New Zealand, beaten a tired looking Japan, and beaten a tired and battered Wales team in a pig of a game. They've played well for about an hour all told in the three important games.
Looking forward to the final though, I expect SA to be much better than today and it's hard to see England being as good as they were yesterday. Thought England would win before the tournament started and still do no, their all round game is brilliant, they look confident, they had a week off, they've an extra day to recover this week, and they don't have injury concerns.
Plus there doesn't even seem to be a correlation between gearing everything towards the World Cup and performance at the World Cup anyway. The two times the RWC was prioritised most was probably 2007 and 2019, which is probably the two worst performances, and '91 remains the best showing by Ireland. I'm guessing there wasn't a whole heap of attempting to peak for it back then.
Logorrhea wrote:So South Africa lose to New Zealand then beat Japan and Wales and are in a final? World rugby really needs to do something to make this competition better.
They've had another handy route to the final alright although not as easy as 2007 where they had Fiji in the QF and Argentina in the SF.
