Ralston needs to be dragged for Kahui. Having a shocker and not with us next year anyway
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Ralston needs to be dragged for Kahui. Having a shocker and not with us next year anyway
McDonald's quick ball makes such a difference. Cav we please start him next week
They look better when they hang onto the ball.
Set piece and defense an absolute shambles. Can't compete at this level without those fundamentals. Clearly problems in the coaching area. No way our lineout should've struggled with the personnel we had on the field.
I'm glad Cron signed on early in the season. It's just got progressively worse since then.
Forget the losing and trouble scoring as that’s been a problem all year. What the hell has happened to our defence in the last few weeks? If that’s one thing we could do it was not get 50+ points put on us week after week.
sigh. that was. tough to watch. Kai'tuu "(sp?) couldn't get a ball in straight. should have been pulled earlier. Once ready came on we had an attacking platform to maintain continuity. At least we had a kicker, but couldn't retain the ball in the line out.
Shit loads of penalties in that game, with no warnings (either way).
Why turn down a gift 3 points? We are not a piercing team. kick penalties when right in front. keep the scores ticking over.
We only have one backline play. go deep. then the chiefs had a shooter on the second last player and shut down the move, and we lose 20m. maybe notice that and put in a chip over the back to the free space, or have a second runner with them. There was no dynamic change of play. like a book unfortunately...
Unfortunately, the chiefs looked like they were out for a training run.
The end to this season can’t come soon enough! I’m not even confident we will come close to beating Moana Pacifica on Tuesday. Sigh. I hope they do I think the players need something positive to finish the season on. It must be tough for them week in and week out.
When we signed Cron (which hit the news just after our 1 pt loss to the Brumbies) we were 2-4 with a points differential of +2 (142-140).Quote:
Originally Posted by todd4
Since then we've gone 0-6 with a points differential of -144 (109-253).
I don't want to be a sad sack, but I'm not sure we can compete against the 5 NZ teams with 5 Aussie teams unless we start doing things differently. It saddens me a bit that a handful of the Kiwis players in the Chiefs outfit were U20s from the 2019 team that was destroyed by our guys. We just don't have the third tier to boost their development. God I wish we had the NRC back. I think we should also have a salary cap allowance to match the top ups that other teams get (e.g. if the Tahs had $850,000 in Wallaby top ups, we could spend that extra money on bringing players back from OS). It would come from our own pocket, but it would level the playing field.
I honestly shake my head at the lack of a second tier comp in Aus and it comes at the detriment of the non-heartland teams (Rebels and Force). There are so many players like Pugh, Callan, Masikeba etc.. that should have had the time to develop in such a comp before being thrown in against teams full of All Blacks.Quote:
Originally Posted by James
Looking at the positives from the game the youngsters definitely looked hungry. Both Pugh and McDonald played well (although Pugh is definitely not an 8 as he did not know what to do at the back of the scrum). Funnily enough I also thought Anstee had his best game of the season, hopefully we will see more of that Anstee in the last couple of games and during the next season.
I think these NZ games have really shown our weaknesses. Top of the shopping list for next year needs to be
> THD prop (there is a reason why they pay big money for them in the Northen Hemisphere)
>Big No. 8
>Big 13
> A proper full back (McGregor and Straughn are ok but I think we need somone with a big boot)
One thing I picked up re those Chiefs u-20's was a comment that they were actually scheduled to play for the Chiefs u-20's this weekend. So it's not only NPC which develops Kiwi players but their whole grass roots to top level systems. Very hard to to come up with ways to get similar results.
No it isn't, just hard to find the money and the will. But easy to blame one for the other.
It's also easy to say that it isn't....and I only paid for a 5 minute argument. The profile and structures in NZ areQuote:
Originally Posted by AndyS
historically well entrenched and have, despite regional rivalry, transitioned to the pro era. Very different here; it is what it is. Not easy. Difficult but possible.