Round 7 Auckland Blues v Western Force

[andrewM]

how many forays into the Blues 22 in the last 15 minutes and how many points did we come away with?

[boof1050]

Same old shit different day! Definition of stupidity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result!
That’s just a purely embarrassing result!

[Tazzmania]

The injuries and playing in that "pond" last week took its toll.

The cohesion factor must have been close to zero with all the changes.

Playing in that "pond" last week and the extra flight must of played a part in our fatigue levels.

They were faster, stronger, and flew higher, you could cleary see the gulf between the two teams. A number of All Blacks against us with a number of NPC players was never going to be pretty.

Time to rest, reset during the bye and start building again, hopefully with some players starting to return from injuries.

[WFDom]

I don't disagree that last week took it's toll. But, the Blues also had 5 changes in their starting line up and to be fair they dealt with that aspect way better than we did. Especially when you consider their 9/10 & 12/13 partnerships were new.

We got our ass kicked up front! At least against Moana we played a bit. Tonight we didn't even throw a punch! I've never seen such a lack of ambition.

In the presser if I hear Cron say "we had a gameplan but didn't execute" or something about "learnings" my TV may need replacing!

To me there is a glaring disconnect between the coaches plan and our ability to carry it out! It's the only thing we've been consistent at all season!

What is going on???

[boof1050]

The injuries and playing in that "pond" last week took its toll.

The cohesion factor must have been close to zero with all the changes.

Playing in that "pond" last week and the extra flight must of played a part in our fatigue levels.

They were faster, stronger, and flew higher, you could cleary see the gulf between the two teams. A number of All Blacks against us with a number of NPC players was never going to be pretty.

Time to rest, reset during the bye and start building again, hopefully with some players starting to return from injuries.

The thing that drives me insane is still the dumb tactics from well experienced players during the game. The inability of players to recognise during the game that shit 1 percent kicks are not doing us much chop but still don’t change is just astounding.

[shasta]

Our backline has not had too many drastic changes even with Potter out. The early kicking tactic was bound to come unstuck against such a good counter attack. Our blokes looked ok with ball in hand early on but as soon as we got into their half out came the dumb kicks. The more it failed the more they persevered. With all our injury misfortune there is still enough experience in key positions to adjust on the run That's the disappointing part.

[WFDom]

And now the Rebels get a win!

What a start to the weekend! 😢

[valzc]

It’s rather ironic that the 2nd half all of a sudden the Drua are penalised off the pitch and their clean outs & tackles are getting looked at this week. Wonder how Potter feels about that.

[WFDom]

To be fair tge 2 reds were a clear elbow to the back of Cannan’s head that split him open and a headbutt! Bad old days for Fiji, really hoped they had moved on from that!

We’re just not that great! Rebels were really good

[SNOB]

After performances like this I suppose coaches that have just announced that they have signed on for another two years and have hand piscked players from their past would feel fairly comfortable!
Well as a fan and supporter for 18 years “I fuck1ng don’t”
I didn’t expect to beat the Blues. I expected us to make an effort, I expected us to have plan, I expected to see sensible kicks!
I give up!
I was trying to think of something positive to say and all I could come up with was constant!

[WFDom]

If anyone gets a link for the Force presser can they please put it up

[Kernow]

If anyone gets a link for the Force presser can they please put it up

https://westernforce.rugby/news/force-coach-laments-lack-of-ruck-speed-against-big-blues-forwards-202445

[shasta]

I didn’t expect to beat the Blues. I expected us to make an effort, I expected us to have plan, I expected to see sensible kicks!
I give up!

Just hope for a bit better run with injuries. It's all we can do really. I'm so used to it that it's not actually that depressing. I've seen enough green shoots to believe they are on the right track. Put all the injured players in and the backline won't look a lot different. But our pack will look solid.

[Leo86]

It was a terrible game. I expected more, we played the blues away last year and did better. We won every home game but the chiefs last year. I expect better.

Where was the support / clean outs? How many times did we lose possession once tackled? The blues ran rampant and took every opportunity. Dragging defenders away, Removing players from our rolling maul. Just standing in the way of the recycling the ball. This is in no way a dig at the refs but why we didn't show it. Throw a ball into them, communicate to ref, "slip/trip" on the player not rolling, like every other scrum half. As much as it shits me, the ref ain't calling unless you show him he needs to (every game, not tonight. I'm more upset with us)

Before the injury list release before round 1 I expected better. We finally had a bench that could argue for starters. We are lost with our front row, T Rob and Medrano are massive differences. Rodda and Williams massive differences, Wells I didn't like as captain from a communication with ref perspective, I think we are missing his leadership and commitment. Potter massive loss,

All that said. Blues too good either way.

[chiraag]

We honestly saw this coming months before the season started. Almost everyone identified concerns in our squad at prop and outside backs. Yes, we've been unlucky with injuries, but most of us regular punters all saw these potential problems before the injuries.

We've done surprisingly well at bringing in emergency players, but we should've never been in that position if we had recruited propely.

Also, can we try the fundamental rule of earning the right to go wide? Every defense knows we're going wide every phase. A pick and drive here and there wouldn't go astray