One big positive from last night - Dalton Papalii. Keeping his standards high despite what's going on around him.
Blues
Match thread
Jaguares
@chris-b said in Blues v Jaguares:
Mark Watson and Shane Howarth calling for Tana's head...from 8.53.
Endorsing pretty much everything Blues fans are saying here...fill yer boots!
Thanks for posting that. Howarth's comments were exactly right
Compare what Howarth had to say with the fairy tales from Paul or McKendry at the NZ Herald.
The all time Blues XV discussion is in this thread now:
Regarding the ownership, I thought that the private ownership was only for certain parts of the Blues organisation and I would have assumed not for coaching and player as NZR directly funds those salaries?
You'd assume that NZR would have some structures in place to regain control of the franchises. They pay the salary bill, they should have control.
At any rate, the Hammettuer debacle showed NZR wont step in, they watched that Canes fan base shrink and stood by doing nothing ... and I'm not talking about people like me who just switched to following another team, I know a bunch of people who never returned to following Super rugby after it.
@duluth said in Blues v Jaguares:
The next home game is vs the Hurricanes. Then it’s the Crusaders.
Fuck. Thanks for that.
There is a certain irony that the guy that set it up was a former coach of the team.
The only thing the Blues have got right is their name. I get depressed every time I watch them.
@nepia said in Blues v Jaguares:
Regarding the ownership, I thought that the private ownership was only for certain parts of the Blues organisation and I would have assumed not for coaching and player as NZR directly funds those salaries?
You'd assume that NZR would have some structures in place to regain control of the franchises. They pay the salary bill, they should have control.
At any rate, the Hammettuer debacle showed NZR wont step in, they watched that Canes fan base shrink and stood by doing nothing ... and I'm not talking about people like me who just switched to following another team, I know a bunch of people who never returned to following Super rugby after it.
With respect Nepia, if they didn't return then they're pretty crap fans. The Canes have been awesome since then and haven't let anyone down, especially the fans. In fact, this has unarguably been the most consistently successful Canes era. I understand if they were completely and utterly dejected by the "Training really well" era but they must have gotten word that things are a million times better now.
@chris-b said in Blues v Jaguares:
@kirwan Interesting questions.
If you are leading 13-5 after playing into the wind in the pouring rain against the Jaguares - and if you keep pinning them back in their own half for the second half, they've probably not got the firepower to beat you from there.
Somehow the players have both disregarded Tana's plan and common sense.
I reckon there's plenty of players, when they get the ball into their hands their natural instinct is just to run - so maybe the ball was getting into the wrong people's hands at the wrong time. Perhaps needed Perofeta (and later Kirkpatrick) to step up and demand the ball - and boot it downfield.
Why didn't they do this? Lack of confidence? Certainly, when Kirkpatrick took that penalty kick for touch towards the end he seemed to be lacking in confidence - first priority seemed to be ensuring he didn't fuck up, rather than getting his forwards close enough to the line for a lineout drive.
I remember one kick in the first half that their 15 almost returned to the damn tryline, got penalised for obstruction in it luckily.
Maybe that spooked them? Maybe they don’t trust the defensive structure or some of their team mates and decided to try and hang onto the ball?
Either way, I think they did have the fire power to hurt us, our defence this year hasn’t been great. Also, we had a lot of trouble getting the ball off them in the second half, they were great at rumbling up the field. Maybe they thought the game plan needed to changed because they could hardly get the ball so didn’t want to kick it away. Panic basically, losing week after week can do that.
@african-monkey said in Blues v Jaguares:
@dice Similar to Akira in 2015 (Akira was probably more dominant but still). Probably the only positive to come out of this season.
So if Tana stays we can look for to Tupou playing in front of him next year like he did to Akira in his second year.
@rancid-schnitzel I didn't say they made conscious decisions not to return, for many I think other stuff just replaced Super Rugby and by the time the Canes had sorted out their organisation they had other things going on with their lives.
Maybe they could be called crap fans, but these were people who spent a lot of money on tickets and gears for 15 years
Any rugby "fan" that packs a sad and "leaves" the team because they're losing has as much cred as a self absorbed millennial and should pretty much fuck off...
In my opinion
@siam said in Blues v Jaguares:
Any rugby "fan" that packs a sad and "leaves" the team because they're losing has as much cred as a self absorbed millennial and should pretty much fuck off...
In my opinion
I think you missed the point of this discussion.
@nepia said in Blues v Jaguares:
@rancid-schnitzel I didn't say they made conscious decisions not to return, for many I think other stuff just replaced Super Rugby and by the time the Canes had sorted out their organisation they had other things going on with their lives.
Maybe they could be called crap fans, but these were people who spent a lot of money on tickets and gears for 15 years
Fair enough. It's just a shame theyre missing out now. Canes have (mostly) been a joy to watch the past 3 years.
Those who left the Canes during Hammett deserve nothing but scorn.
Imagine if Chiefs fans did that before Rennie. There'd be no franchise left!
We just didn't take the Chiefs seriously (win, lose or draw). And I say that as someone who went to a Chiefs home game at NH stadium.
But I can fully understand if someone from a non-franchise city/town is ambivalent towards Super rugby.
@chris-b said in Blues v Jaguares:
Mark Watson and Shane Howarth calling for Tana's head...from 8.53.
Endorsing pretty much everything Blues fans are saying here...fill yer boots!
I hate that I agree with anything Mark Watson says.
I'll say I don't agree 100% with him over this (fuck he has a massive chip about NZR/Hansen etc) but he's got a point re Tana. Just can't see him going this year. Recruiting post-RWC may be interesting though.
@african-monkey said in Blues v Jaguares:
@kirwan And have Tupou as captain with Apisai as his vice captain.
It’s funny cause it’s true 