@akan004 Yeah - seems like we have plenty of decent options at tighthead - but, loosehead is a significant problem if Moody is a problem.

@akan004 said in Bledisloe #2:

Hopefully he can regain some of that lost form

there is an awful lot of that floating around at the moment

Franks and Moody are playing as a couple of inanimate objects who eventually turn up at a scrum.

As a prop, I'll point out that dominating an opponent or opposition scrum is, in large part, due to your second row.

At my little amateur club, there is a second rower who is a bloody hard working ball runner, and a fairly hefty unit, but at scrum time he's nowhere near the other guy who is more agile but "gets it" at scrum time on the push.

So you can talk about Moody being good but it doesn't mean much unless you look at the guy pushing him and his mates around. I'd say Retallick is probably a factor in making Moody look good at Test level.

Franks needs to get the arse tho. He's still got that stupid niggly thing hanging over his head, and is relatively easy to prop against due to his bad foot setup.

@NTA And BBBR packs behind Franks when he plays. When he doesn't Whitelock moves to the TH side, which probably depowers the scrum a little.

I just went to see if I can buy a ticket to this test and it looks sold out, which is great but also disappointing for me.

I was sooo bored today and am now stuck on the number of carries our forwards are doing on attack I have developed a new metric, Carries vs Possession %. I have no idea why I have done this other than my obsessive brain.
No idea if it is says anything about us on attack have included past ABs games and the recent weekend games of others for comparison.
what is evident is overall we maybe are not that bad as our bench carries more than other nations however our starters get mauled by the opposition. This i guess back up we often finish strong.

This is a bit more like it - rather than just blaming the red card.

@KiwiMurph Seems like we haven't been desperate for two years.

@98blueandgold Why are there only 13 players? Am I misreading this completely?

@Nepia said in Bledisloe #2:

@98blueandgold Why are there only 13 players? Am I misreading this completely?

I’m reading it as 8 starters plus 5 subs.

@JC said in Bledisloe #2:

@Nepia said in Bledisloe #2:

@98blueandgold Why are there only 13 players? Am I misreading this completely?

I’m reading it as 8 starters plus 5 subs.

Ah pack only!

@Nepia yeah sorry forwards only.

@KiwiMurph

From the article:

"The switch was flicked as soon as we woke up Sunday in Perth. There were guys on their computers at 9am looking at their games, at ways to get better. The whole trip home was trying to recover best so we woke up this morning in good shape to attack the week."

This either shows they are serious or, if they don't win well on Saturday, it's paper-tiger time.

Interesting it was Coles and Cane fronting up. Hopefully Read is saying something similar behind the scnes.

@Victor-Meldrew if only it said

"The switch was flicked as soon as we woke up Sunday in Perth. There were guys on their computers at 9am looking at team mates to blame for the loss. The whole trip home was spent pointing fingers so we knew who to attack this week."

Well let’s see what happens, talk is cheap,

I still believe if this forward pack can pull the finger , we have the best backs in the world if they click, to take advantage of that.

......... But there were two ifs in that statement:)

@akan004 I expect it is normally a different mindset that the ABs take into matches than desperate, however, this week I would say desperate is very apt.

@kiwiinmelb said in Bledisloe #2:

Well let’s see what happens, talk is cheap,

I still believe if this forward pack can pull the finger , we have the best backs in the world if they click, to take advantage of that.

......... But there were two ifs in that statement:)

Who are these best backs in the world you talk of? I don’t see them.

@ACT-Crusader said in Bledisloe #2:

@kiwiinmelb said in Bledisloe #2:

Well let’s see what happens, talk is cheap,

I still believe if this forward pack can pull the finger , we have the best backs in the world if they click, to take advantage of that.

......... But there were two ifs in that statement:)

Who are these best backs in the world you talk of? I don’t see them.

None of then are called Charles, are they...

When in doubt, don't blame terrible tactics, selections or leadership. Blame the players lack Iacking passion.

I call bullshit on that. The players we have are players that repeatedly perform.

The ABs have a stupid game plan that isn't working. It's the coaches, not the players.