@no-quarter i think starting richie and BB off the bench is best use of both their talents. DMac as a handy backup.
Barretts will start. Dmac will bench (a decision i can understand) and unless we lose, most will be cool with it.
Super Rugby Final 2018
Match thread
Congratulations Crusaders. The best team in the comp by a very long way. It was not close.
Final was a better game than I thought it might be. Lions were 0 wins 5 losses this year vs NZ teams i think?
It's not great for the health of the competition how far ahead of the rest of the comp the Crusaders are. Dagg and Crockett can't make the 23 but would start for most/a lot of other teams in the comp.
Justice
Complete piston wristed gibbons that they are ( and always will be) that Crusaders team this year and with no other Crusaders fans in the room, were a pleasure to watch playing 100% winning rugby.
Get Razor the big job - we could all do with the fun and he sure as shit knows his job
Well done red and black, fair dues
Bloody good season by the Crusaders.
Strange game tonight. The territory and possession stats were crazy. Not helped by poor exiting by the saders.
Mounga MOTM.
Wasn't Hall's best game. Poor box kicking and doing the Pulu pause at the base of the ruck too often.
Moody has been a liability this season.
Lions need to pray harder or find a new god. 0-3 means he isn't listening.
That stat line was crazy, but the crusaders were so very efficient that they would score very quickly whenever they got ball, especially in the first half, while the lions were good enough to put phases together but couldn't score points.
Mounga is going from strength to strength. End of year tour will be key for him I think, he'll get at least one start there and that will be the game he needs to crush if he wants to get past Barrett and dmc before the rwc.
@pukunui said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
Bloody good season by the Crusaders.
Strange game tonight. The territory and possession stats were crazy. Not helped by poor exiting by the saders.
Mounga MOTM.
Wasn't Hall's best game. Poor box kicking and doing the Pulu pause at the base of the ruck too often.
Moody has been a liability this season.Lions need to pray harder or find a new god. 0-3 means he isn't listening.
Getting close to the buffalo bills now (4 consecutive super bowl losses).
@mariner4life said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@no-quarter said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@mariner4life said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@no-quarter said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@mariner4life said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
Mounga
Daylight
Every other 10 in NZ.
Must start first test
If DMac is picked ahead of him again it would be an absolute farce.
Mounga start, Dmac off the bench
Rancid
Not biting bitch.
@act-crusader said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
10 Mounga
15 B. Barrett
22 D. MacKenzie
23 J. Barrett
Absolutely not
@rancid-schnitzel said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@mariner4life said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@no-quarter said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@mariner4life said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@no-quarter said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@mariner4life said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
Mounga
Daylight
Every other 10 in NZ.
Must start first test
If DMac is picked ahead of him again it would be an absolute farce.
Mounga start, Dmac off the bench
Rancid
Not biting bitch.
You were gritting your teeth when you posted that
@mariner4life said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@act-crusader said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
10 Mounga
15 B. Barrett
22 D. MacKenzie
23 J. BarrettAbsolutely not
Add in Crotty, Goodhue and Ben Smith and we will have an almost SWB backline 
@cyclops said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
Mounga is going from strength to strength. End of year tour will be key for him I think, he'll get at least one start there and that will be the game he needs to crush if he wants to get past Barrett and dmc before the rwc.
Would be pretty conservative of Shag not to give Richie a fair bit of time in the Rugby Championship. Not necessarily in the first Bled, but he's really played the house down and clearly ready to take the chance - should get at least one start in TRC and several goes from the bench. Pretty clear MoM in this game.
Pretty unusual game. Lions with huge domination of territory and possession, but rarely looked like scoring. Crusaders with brutal defence and very efficient in converting their limited chances.
Credit to the Lions for denying the Crusaders opportunities but, to be honest, it never felt like they were likely to win. Their lineout maul that was expected to be a big weapon was just smashed. Defence was pretty much awesome aside from Todd's miss.
Well done, Razor.
Congrats to the Crusaders on a well-deserved victory.
Now, if they could just fix up the comp so it wasn't NZ teams smashing the fuck out of each other again and again and injuring half the players.
@chris-b said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@cyclops said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
Mounga is going from strength to strength. End of year tour will be key for him I think, he'll get at least one start there and that will be the game he needs to crush if he wants to get past Barrett and dmc before the rwc.
Would be pretty conservative of Shag not to give Richie a fair bit of time in the Rugby Championship. Not necessarily in the first Bled, but he's really played the house down and clearly ready to take the chance - should get at least one start in TRC and several goes from the bench. Pretty clear MoM in this game.
Pretty unusual game. Lions with huge domination of territory and possession, but rarely looked like scoring. Crusaders with brutal defence and very efficient in converting their limited chances.
Credit to the Lions for denying the Crusaders opportunities but, to be honest, it never felt like they were likely to win. Their lineout maul that was expected to be a big weapon was just smashed. Defence was pretty much awesome aside from Todd's miss.
Well done, Razor.
Barring injury I figure Barrett and Dmc get all the starts. Mounga will get a decent amount of time off the bench but it won't be until the eoyt that he gets a chance to start. He might get a start vs Argentina, but looking at shag's track record and comments about the rolls royce pack I don't think he's in a hurry to get Mounga into the starting xv.
@cyclops I reckon Richie is a good chance to get the start vs Argentina in Nelson - and then they'll go from there - if he does well he probably gets another.
EOYT - barring injury Beauden should get the starts vs England and Ireland - which leaves Japan and Italy, which isn't much of a test for Richie.
@bones said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@chris-b although when Sopoaga was on fire they threw him a start at Newlands wasn't it?
Ellis Park.
@mariner4life said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
Mounga
Daylight
Every other 10 in NZ.
Must start first test
So true, I’m out celebrating but glad I checked the fern to read this.
The lions put us under more pressure tonight than the hurricanes last week.
I’ll stick with my preseason call that the chiefs are the only team that worries me in the NZ conference. The other teams can’t compete up front.
@stargazer said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
Yalden's a journalist isn't he? Yet he appears to be unaware that for years NZ sides routinely lose the possession and territory stats when playing other nations.
Our good teams don't waste time on attack, so if we get the ball in space it is either a score quickly, or nothing. The champion Chiefs side of a few years back attacked largely from long-distance, and so barely spent any time in the opposition 22 the whole season. This Crusader side isn't quite that cut-throat, but they still attack instantly the moment a hole appears, rather than trying to work slowly up field. And they know the advantage of surprise (e.g. quick lineout).
On defence we tend to be patient. This Crusader side, particularly so.
So the possession statistic in particular is useless as a guide to how well a NZ team is going. Indeed if playing a Tier 1 nation and the ABs have the possession in their favour, then they're struggling, because it means the attack isn't working.
Territory isn't much use if the opposition doesn't give away penalties, or if you don't shoot for goal when you do get them.
You'd expect a professional to have spotted that by now, rather than be astounded by it.
Next month he'll be surprised when he sees a rugby team scores more points into a wind.
@fcc said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@sammyc how good was Bedwell-Curtis, underrated and stood up all year. Just a trademark of razor’s coaching, a young bloke given a shot and stands up.
Bloody good, so nice to see a guy like him earn a contract through hard work and toughness. I have my doubts he’d be given the same opportunity at other teams. Probably wouldn’t pass the bench press test or something.
Didn’t see the game but I assume Marx outplayed the entire Crusaders foward pack on his own?
@machpants yep they were banging on about Kwagga and Marx all week, they nullified both, Marx still muscled up and showed his power but Kwagga may as well have not been there.
Not the first time there have been games where the opposition 7 was so good he was hyped up before the game only to be played out of the game.
@taniwharugby there was a moment right at the start where Todd absolutely ragdolled Smith. Kinda set the tone for the rest of the night.
At the game the best moments included nullifying the lineout drive/maul. The crowd gave them heaps every time.
From Stuff: “"We tried the peel around the front, we tried one towards the back, we went straight, pretty much did everything that we could and they were just very good. There is nothing else you can say," a deflated Whiteley said.
@taniwharugby said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@machpants yep they were banging on about Kwagga and Marx all week, they nullified both, Marx still muscled up and showed his power but Kwagga may as well have not been there.
Not the first time there have been games where the opposition 7 was so good he was hyped up before the game only to be played out of the game.
Not sure what the final stats were, but at one point the turnover count was 9-0 in favour of the crusaders. Thought that was pretty incredible given Marx's ability over the ball was meant to be a strength.
@sammyc said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@fcc said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@sammyc how good was Bedwell-Curtis, underrated and stood up all year. Just a trademark of razor’s coaching, a young bloke given a shot and stands up.
Bloody good, so nice to see a guy like him earn a contract through hard work and toughness. I have my doubts he’d be given the same opportunity at other teams. Probably wouldn’t pass the bench press test or something.
What a weird comment, the Chiefs for (one) example have often brought in little heralded players who have had good seasons.
@nta said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
Watched first 25 minutes. Fuck the Lions are dumb
Not much tactical variation in their game. Works fine until you come against a better forward pack, with greater patience (who also have a great No10 and smooth backline!)
@nepia said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@sammyc said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@fcc said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@sammyc how good was Bedwell-Curtis, underrated and stood up all year. Just a trademark of razor’s coaching, a young bloke given a shot and stands up.
Bloody good, so nice to see a guy like him earn a contract through hard work and toughness. I have my doubts he’d be given the same opportunity at other teams. Probably wouldn’t pass the bench press test or something.
What a weird comment, the Chiefs for (one) example have often brought in little heralded players who have had good seasons.
Probably the alcohol talking, look at the time I posted. I was probably talking about the blues anyway where I have no doubts my comment applies.
@machpants more the "ja Bru we'll run the same lineout play 3 times in a row. No WAY will they drive us back like the first 2 times!"
@nta said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@machpants more the "ja Bru we'll run the same lineout play 3 times in a row. No WAY will they drive us back like the first 2 times!"
@sammyc I would say that the Blues are full of overhyped players. Suggest they would be better of with less guys that plays like stars and more guys that just play for the team. The great thing you see with Crusaders is how hard they work to stay in a team pattern and to get off the ground to get back for their mates. I laughed when I saw the ratings for players in Stuff. They rate based on hero moments. Glad we don’t select the ABs on that.
@kev said in Super Rugby Final 2018:
@sammyc I would say that the Blues are full of overhyped players. Suggest they would be better of with less guys that plays like stars and more guys that just play for the team. The great thing you see with Crusaders is how hard they work to stay in a team pattern and to get off the ground to get back for their mates. I laughed when I saw the ratings for players in Stuff. They rate based on hero moments. Glad we don’t select the ABs on that.
The ratings were ridiculous... we had a good laugh at them at the bar last night