Blues are back huh?

Last week they looked the goods, positive and organised.

This week they shuffled sideways, stood flat footed, dropped passes and did dumb shit at breakdowns.

Am usually a fan of SBW (often feel he gets unfairly criticised because SBW) but that was as bad as I've seen him play.

Perofeeter wasn't the Messiah or even demonstrably better than Gatland. Who wasn't much chop. Doesn't help a 10 if your team is on the back foot though.

Shame. Really want the Blues to stand up.

My 2c before I read the thread.

@akan004 said in Stormers v Blues:

I just don't understand Tana's logic. We are trailing by more than two converted tries and need as much X factor as possible to even have a hope of coming back, and he substitutes Nanai while leaving Collins on the field. He's had enough time to prove himself and has been found wanting. Time for him to go.

Yeh, Nanai got subbed after his desperate tackle on the chase back.. Maybe Tana was giving him a breather after doing a huge run..

Perofeta is definitely better than Gatland.. There's a reason they put on the points when he's on.. His goal kicking needs work though..

Blues backline had a really bad day at the office.. No1 one running onto the ball, but just passing on the buck to the next guy to get hammered.. Perofeta would've done a better job at 12 imo

Akira is probably the best #8 running off the back in a 5m scrum..

@gt12 said in Stormers v Blues:

Whoever allowed these teams to wear these jerseys should be fired.

This!

I mean what the actual fuck?

@akan004 said in Stormers v Blues:

Not sure about how his workrate has been, but Patrick T has been really impressive with his carries today.

Thought he was a bright spot

@mimic said in Stormers v Blues:

@akan004 said in Stormers v Blues:
Perofeta is definitely better than Gatland.. There's a reason they put on the points when he's on.. His goal kicking needs work though..

Exactly this. Perofeta seems to have a lot of time when he has the ball. Gatland is the opposite - very hurried.

@kiwimurph Gatland is a headless chook

I found the reaction to the Lions game strange and said so in that thread. The team mostly played like shit. 3-21 midway through the match and 10-28 down at the 63rd minute.
For the vast majority of that match we were abysmal (apart from a couple of individuals) and as fun as the last 17 minutes was, the analysis should have been more sober.

Another point about the Lions match - they played poorly didn't they? They contributed massively to the Blues comeback.
They go run close by the Sunwolves this week. However the Sunwolves deserve credit.. Joseph and Brown seem to have made good progress in one month of matches

There was a lot of talk in the media about Umaga sticking with a winning side. Well technically I guess that was true.. but a better way of describing it is he stuck with the combination that dug us into a hole against the Lions.
Unsurprisingly they dug us into a hole against the Stormers. This is the same performance without the cheesy comeback

The best 80min performance this year was against the Highlanders. The other 3 matches have been 50mins or more of an unstructured, error ridden rabble

@duluth Exactly right. The Lions gave us chance after chance to the point where not even we could blow the game. Sure, we dominated territory and posession but looked disjointed for most of it. This game however, we started poorly and got what we deserved against a young hungry Stormers outfit.

Lions certainly don't look like the same team that hosted a final last year

@duluth said in Stormers v Blues:

I found the reaction to the Lions game strange and said so in that thread. The team mostly played like shit. 3-21 midway through the match and 10-28 down at the 63rd minute.
For the vast majority of that match we were abysmal (apart from a couple of individuals) and as fun as the last 17 minutes was, the analysis should have been more sober.

Another point about the Lions match - they played poorly didn't they? They contributed massively to the Blues comeback.
They go run close by the Sunwolves this week. However the Sunwolves deserve credit.. Joseph and Brown seem to have made good progress in one month of matches

There was a lot of talk in the media about Umaga sticking with a winning side. Well technically I guess that was true.. but a better way of describing it is he stuck with the combination that dug us into a hole against the Lions.
Unsurprisingly they dug us into a hole against the Stormers. This is the same performance without the cheesy comeback

The best 80min performance this year was against the Highlanders. The other 3 matches have been 50mins or more of an unstructured, error ridden rabble

This is the perfect summation of the last two weeks.

Umaga continues to select poorly, the team looked flat for the first 40 at least (are they being overtrained?), and the tactics are so easy to defend against.

If you took the Ioane brothers out of this team we would look even worse. We rely on individual contributions more than a team structure.

Lets shut the door on celebrity coaches, dump Umaga and promote Jackson and see what he can do. No point waiting for the end of the season, Umaga has had years and has made the team worse.

@antipodean said in Stormers v Blues:

If the Blues have a defensive coach, he should be fired.

This season Alistair Rogers is in charge of the defense. So far it ain't looking good.

@kiwimurph Wasn't he last season too?

@antipodean said in Stormers v Blues:

Lions certainly don't look like the same team that hosted a final last year

Lions fans must be even more filthy they didn't get it done last year with their performances to date. Long season though.

We came out flat and insisted on slowing the game down in that 1st half, which I didn't get at all. You'd think we'd try to push the pace of the game against a team that just came from a long trip. Lucky I didn't watch this live.

This was probably the worst I've ever seen SBW play. Missed tackles, ineffectual carries, poor errors, and a couple of penalties to top it off. On a positive note, he was one of a few who actually tried in this game.

Kiri Kiri is well below this level of rugby. He has to be the weakest backrower in contact in the comp. Matich would've been better 7 cover the last few weeks than him. Fortunately for us, Pryor and Papali'i should be back soon.

Nock is entering Lavea status. It seems he's always good for some blooper type plays.

@kiwimurph said in Stormers v Blues:

@antipodean said in Stormers v Blues:

If the Blues have a defensive coach, he should be fired.

This season Alistair Rogers is in charge of the defense. So far it ain't looking good.

Yup. Funny thing is, I thought he was the only coach who earned his paycheck last year. Our general defense was fairly good for most of last year, but we kept conceding a lot of points through the maul, which wasn't his problem.

@dice I do wonder about Nock, almost looks scared to do anything, which often includes simple things that should be second nature to a 9, seems he has zero confidence and often looks like he has no idea what he is supposed to be doing, whether this is down to too much information, clarity of information of expectations or what, who knows, but he looks no where near upto it right now. Which he should be, as I expect he is playing for a new contract, as this is his 3rd year of his 3 year contract I believe.

Expect Moulds should be back this week too, which you'd think he will slot back in ahead of Apisai?

@dice said in Stormers v Blues:

Kiri Kiri is well below this level of rugby. He has to be the weakest backrower in contact in the comp. Matich would've been better 7 cover the last few weeks than him. Fortunately for us, Pryor and Papali'i should be back soon.

Nock is entering Lavea status. It seems he's always good for some blooper type plays.

I wonder what input Steve Jackson has into the forwards selections - you would think quite a bit - the fact the likes of Apisai and Kirikiri have been deemed up to this level when they are not is a real worry.

As for Nock - he also gets physically bullied at this level - this week he got bumped off for the first try like he wasn't even there - against the Chiefs he got the ball ripped clean off him twice. At least Pulu and Ruru offer good defense.

@taniwharugby Yeah, he looks scared and has zero confidence right now. The game is looking too fast for him at the moment. I think he's on a 4 year deal, so will be back next year.

You'd think Moulds will slot in ahead of him, but we're not the most logical when it comes to selections.

@KiwiMurph I'd say Jackson has a fair bit of say. I'm not surprised with these things though, it's only the 3rd season in a row that this has been happening.

Nock also has a hard time getting the ball out of the maul for some reason. He sees the defenders coming through the middle and just stands back and expects it to magically come out somehow(Pulu is also a bit guilty of this too).

@dice yeah, funnily I think there were a number of games for Northland last year (first 3/4 of season) where he started to show glimpses of why he was so highly rated, with running, good passes, good kicking, even sound defensively and bossing his forwards, but in the business end of the season, most of that deserted him and seems he has regressed even further this year.

He needs to control his pack, probably needs ot watch some of Aaron Smith directing things and screaming at his pack.

@taniwharugby He is probably one of the quietest halfbacks in rugby, which probably shows where his confidence levels are at. Because his confidence is so low, I'd imagine the simplest of tasks seem daunting to him right now, so speaking up seems like the least of his worries at the moment.