@Bovidae said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

@Steven-Harris said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

For me this is any easy choice , I just think Kennedy Simon is much more of physical presence

Yes, she is a very abrasive and physical player. I would start Simon and bring Hirini on, but Simon can also play no.8, so we might see them both at the end.

I would start Connor and Ngan-Woo, as I think they strengthen the scrum and ball-carrying, but I don't see that happening.

I think I mentioned in another thread that the French target the scrum at the reserve changeover for a period. They will try and out last the starting tight five and smash a couple of scrums when new players come on.
I wouldn't necessarily put all of our eggs into the starter basket. The coaches will have worked out combos in training and although the Cantab FR may not be the absolute strongest combo they would be the next best and then Connor can strengthen the reserves. There's also that Connor and Taumata have played together a lot and Taumata is very young so the known experience next to her may help.

The same starting forward pack. Holmes at fullback.

Like the look of that team. Attack. Interesting that Woodman switches wings, Leti-iga drops to the bench to accommodate Holmes, with Tubic as added insurance. Tui sent back to the wing on a roving commission you would think . Must be expecting a fair bit of kicking. Hirini's good form, athleticism and link play is rewarded with a starting Jersey. Big tick for the pack. Let's go!

@Jailbreak7 Portia was stationed as first receiver alot v Wales behind scrums (left and right) and at other times even when she didnt take the ball, so she is a great player to have just to attract the defences interest.

@Jailbreak7 said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

@Bovidae I wondered whether Ngan-Woo was carrying an injury? She seemed less abrasive than usual v Wales.

The other thing I have liked about Ngan-Woo is being used as a distributor in the midfield, which is something Bremner and Roos don't offer. It adds some variety to the attack.

Very much as expected. I think they have gradually worked on Holmes after the opening game mess at the start.
Holmes is the 'safety net' in a way. Has better range on her kicks and her positioning at the back is better in covering kicks. If we need to pull the trigger/ play catch up etc later in the game then Ayesha could come on and Tui move back.
Ayesha is definately a talent but her inexperience showed last week a couple of times. She also discovered that some of what she does gets shut down a bit quicker at this level.
I think the balance is good.
If this is the top 23 as it seems it is then there are a couple of unlucky players in the squad in. McMeniman and duPlessis. Of the others, when you list them out it becomes even more obvious that this is the right team.

Delamare - will be an adequate reserve if required but certainly No3 hooker
Kalounivale - strong but hasn't managed to fix her body position issues at scrum and maul time. Too upright and will get destroyed. Big work on for her.
Tangen-Wainohu - just hasn't shown enough either in the scrum or carrying
Reynolds - like Delamare would acquit herself well if called on but better options
Marino-Tauhinu - close second to Bayler IMO. Cocksedge was always going to be there for the experience factor and Bayler probably has a slightly better mix of defence/vision and passing
Wickliffe - Like Reynolds and Delamare, a safe sound experienced backup

You have to have some sympathy for Glenn Moore as Wayne Smith has a roll call of AB greats at his disposal. This is also a black mark against NZR because it highlights the lack of resources the previous coach had.

Let's hope it works!

Have to say I like the look of the team, and absolutely stoked to see we still see bloody good players missing out, and how bloody good is it? Here we all are getting excited over the Women's game and really looking forward to the game.
Big plus all the way round!

@Bovidae said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

You have to have some sympathy for Glenn Moore as Wayne Smith has a roll call of AB greats at his disposal. This is also a black mark against NZR because it highlights the lack of resources the previous coach had.

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Let's hope it works!

Pretty awesome to see.
I also have sympathy for Moore. The media picked on a couple of things in the review and scapegoated him into an untenable position but the bulk of the report was criticism toward NZRU about the levels and quality of support offered to the team. Almost well meaning volunteers without adequate guiding management leading to mixed messages and disenfranchised players.
I think Morre would have done better with support but in order to turn things around quickly he fell on his sword.

Worth a watch for some insights into The Professor's ways of working.

Excuse my ignorance, I’ve been following our girls but don’t have a great knowledge of our opposition,

Is the a 50/50 or are we favourites ?

@kiwiinmelb said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

Excuse my ignorance, I’ve been following our girls but don’t have a great knowledge of our opposition,

Is the a 50/50 or are we favourites ?

They dominated us when we toured there last year(?). But we were struggling post-covid19 and there was discord in the team, and they had regular play in the 6N. I would assume we are a much more dangerous proposition now

@kiwiinmelb said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

Excuse my ignorance, I’ve been following our girls but don’t have a great knowledge of our opposition,

Is the a 50/50 or are we favourites ?

The exciting thing is that we truly don’t know and this will be a clash of styles.

It is as close to an old school SH v NH rugby game as you’ll get. One side keeping the ball in hand, running lines and offloading, the other with a kick and defend style. Well organised and ready to smash it up in a 10 man way.

@canefan said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

@kiwiinmelb said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

Excuse my ignorance, I’ve been following our girls but don’t have a great knowledge of our opposition,

Is the a 50/50 or are we favourites ?

They dominated us when we toured there last year(?). But we were struggling post-covid19 and there was discord in the team, and they had regular play in the 6N. I would assume we are a much more dangerous proposition now

Yeah I was aware of those results I watched those games ,

Just wasn’t 100 percent if we had improved enough to move ahead in the favouritism

@Crucial said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

@kiwiinmelb said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

Excuse my ignorance, I’ve been following our girls but don’t have a great knowledge of our opposition,

Is the a 50/50 or are we favourites ?

The exciting thing is that we truly don’t know and this will be a clash of styles.

It is as close to an old school SH v NH rugby game as you’ll get. One side keeping the ball in hand, running lines and offloading, the other with a kick and defend style. Well organised and ready to smash it up in a 10 man way.

Cool , that’s what I figured , have enjoyed watching them thus far , plenty of fun to watch , let’s hope we can keep it going

Only 20,000 tickets sold for the Womens Rugby World Cup semi finals Still it is 2,000 tickets more than they had for the 2017 Womens Rugby World Cup final played at Kingspan home ground of Ulster in Ireland Probably about several thousand more that rock up to Blues games during the season and probably about 19,000 more twhat rock up to Auckland NPC games at home .
If they can get a walk up of 5’000-7’000 given the weather for tomorrow is good .
You would take that would’nt you ..?

@Steven-Harris I'm not surprised. I think it was 35k rocked up for the hype around the triple header opening day.

People will jump on the bandwagon if the BFs make the final at the same venue a week later.

Comparatively good numbers but we should be able to do better IMO. The free to air on TV3 wont help.

@Crucial is it live now or still delayed?

@taniwharugby said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

@Crucial is it live now or still delayed?

What time is this on? I'll take a look

@taniwharugby said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

@Crucial is it live now or still delayed?

Live on TV3 for the semis and finals.

Both SFs are live on TV3.

4:30 pm and 7:30 pm

This is the 10th game between NZ and France. NZ won the first 5 games but France have won the last 4 (since 2018). First time playing each other in NZ.

25k ish crowd.
That last semi was good watching and it was meant to be the easy one.
Really looking forward to this and hope the stress levels aren’t like the last time finals rugby was at the Garden of Eden.

@Crucial I definitely have pre-game nerves!

I am going to watch the Doris's play for the first ever. Don't let me down.

Pretty unconvincing start from the Black Ferns. Loose and now given away a PK at scrum time.

Great defence from BF but I don't know how long we can keep that up. France never looked like losing the ball in that long series of phases.

Cocksedge needs to settle the fuck down she hacked the ball down field and there was no chase

Maybe a blessing to give away that penalty, felt like a try was coming

Support is far too slow to the breakdown. Lack of direction from 9 and 10 isn't helping, nor is some average passing under pressure.

France look well settled already.

Anyone watching this in Oz? I've got a black screen with commentary.

@Steven-Harris said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

Cocksedge needs to settle the fuck down she hacked the ball down field and there was no chase

Off a penalty. She tapped, ran and kicked within 5 metres. I've never understood how any player somehow learns that's a thing that is done.

@Nepia mines working fine

@Nepia said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

Anyone watching this in Oz? I've got a black screen with commentary.

It's all Blue so far

Reverse angle of that pen shows it was the wrong call

@antipodean said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

Support is far too slow to the breakdown. Lack of direction from 9 and 10 isn't helping, nor is some average passing under pressure.

France look well settled already.

Started like we started against Aus.

@kiwiinmelb said in Black Ferns v France, RWC Semi Final:

@Nepia mines working fine

Cheers. Guess I'll restart.