@rotated said in Sharks vs Blues:

@Duluth said in Sharks vs Blues:

@nzzp said in Sharks vs Blues:

Last years, though, was bloody woeful

Possibly the worst ever Blues game? It's a toss up between that and the Sunwolves one for me.

I lean towards the Sharks because it was at Eden Park

Massive recency bias. Got toweled by the Rebels in 2015 away which is up there with the Sunwolves performance in terms of losing a game comprehensively they had no business losing at all.

Blues have been beaten 40+ vs not many, against teams that have made the finals plenty of times the past decade. Not even sure that performance was more embarrassing that the final round "effort" against the Crusaders.

This is misleading. Sharks only just squeaked into the finals last year and actually had a losing record in the regular season last year (7 wins 1 draw 8 losses). Meanwhile the Crusaders last year were by far the best team in the comp and destroyed everybody in the playoffs. Sharks game was at home. Crusaders game was away.

Anyway back on the Sharks I liked this part on the Blues website.

Coach Leon Macdonald said he is looking for improvements against the Sharks, a dangerous and open-running team. While he was not involved last year, he said many of the team remembers the loss to the South African side at Eden Park last year.

@rotated The Rebels to be fair beat the Crusaders in Chch and the Chiefs that year as well and were far better than us that year.

@Duluth 2004 at home against the Stormers for me losing 51-23. That was horrible and a good Blues side on paper.

@African-Monkey That was the game Carlos broke his jaw?

@KiwiMurph No don't think so, he was out there pretty sure he played the whole game and had a shocker.

Sharks have been named

15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Sbu Nkosi, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Louis Schreuder (captain), 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Tyler Paul, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Hyron Andrews, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Reserves: 16 Kerron van Vuuren, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Gideon Koegelenberg, 20 Phepsi Buthelezi, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Jeremy Ward, 23 Curwin Bosch

Clarke out. Nanai moves back to the wing, Collins back at fullback.

@Nogusta fuck.

Collins takes under 5 minutes to make a handling error. Ffs.

Collins has the worse hands in Super Rugby amongst all out fullbacks.

Terrible lineout-throw from Parsons, and it's a try to the Sharks.

Where the heck was Collins??? Sharks score and our fullback was nowhere to be seen.

Sharks exploiting space in behind with little kicks.

@number9 said in Sharks vs Blues:

Where the heck was Collins??? Sharks score and our fullback was nowhere to be seen.

Not much Collins could do that time but fuck he is mud.

Akira lucky not to be penalised; hope his shoulder is okay.

Another try to the Sharks after a line-out maul.

Blues are going to have a long day if they can't get their lineout right.

Blues tight 5 are starting very slow, that is an All Black front row and they are real flat.

@Tim said in Sharks vs Blues:

Blues are going to have a long day if they can't get their lineout right.

I see you...worked for the Canes, let's hope it works for the blues.

Haha Cake Collins.