Match thread

Stargazer

Yesss, that's the Fakatava we know!!

Based on Bryn Halls lense ,everybody has played an awesome game 🤷🏻♂

Tim

Nice. Wouldn't mind seeing him start next week.

Canes4life

@Tim may aswell start him. Weber is leaving so better to give Fakatava a shot. Lovely try.

Jailbreak7

Fakatava sooo much better than Weber

Weber showed some real experience and grit but was slow and indecisive for most of it

6-38 FT

Is he a mate of ioane? What bollox

Bones

How's the depth? Not bad eh.

Chris B.

@Canes4life said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

Should we be really worried that both McDonald and Holland are in the ABs coaching setup next year.

Isn't that the alternative AB coaching team in the other box? 🙂

Good victory for the NZ XV given the conditions and the new combinations
Took the lads a while to deal with the line speed,glad we had some experienced heads out there making good decisions when it counted

Bovidae

I noted that both Bell and Dyer are part of the squad. Jager injured again?

Ah Kuoi was my MOTM.

Tordah

@Bones said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

How's the depth? Not bad eh.

Massive improvement in the 2nd half, althoooouuugh it was only Japan XV.

@Machpants said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

@kev said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

@Canes4life said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

@Tim may aswell start him. Weber is leaving so better to give Fakatava a shot. Lovely try.

Weber’s box kicks were very average.

I think they averaged about 7m

He kicked into the wind, Fakatava with the wind (which was massive). Still, Fakatava had a much better game than Weber, helped by more secure ruck ball, also.

Tordah

@Bovidae said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

I noted that both Bell and Dyer are part of the squad. Jager injured again?

Ah Kuoi was my MOTM.

Nanai.Seturo for me, only back who basically did nothing wrong and a lot of things right

Bones

@Tordah said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

Massive improvement in the 2nd half, althoooouuugh it was only Japan XV.

With half the top side isn't it? And the top coaches.

Stargazer

@Tordah IMO Sullivan was better than Nanai-Seturo.

Victor Meldrew

Loved Fakatava doing his peak Aaron Smith impression.,,

Thought the lads played fairly well. Do you know how friggen hot it is tonight? The only movement should be to reach for a drink. Luckily though, it could have been worst. Mildish summer so far.
Au Koi was immense and the play/ball follows Billy Harmon all the time. Has a Hooper-like ability to be involved all the time.

Stargazer

Who was the official MotM (if there was one)?

booboo

Dumb question maybe ... was this on Stan? ... or otherwise available on the left of the Ta$man?

Stargazer

Watching the replay with one eye while doing something else and just saw that Zarn isn't the only Sullivan with a massive boot. Huge kick from Bailyn a few minutes before Nankivell's try.

Jailbreak7

@Stargazer It helps if you remove the eye patch.
....

@Bovidae said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

I noted that both Bell and Dyer are part of the squad. Jager injured again?

Ah Kuoi was my MOTM.

Missed that. Was that on AB XV Twitter?

KiwiMurph

@booboo said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

Dumb question maybe ... was this on Stan? ... or otherwise available on the left of the Ta$man?

No. Highlights om YouTube.

gt12

Fuck playing rugby in that. It was a fucking fluffybunny if a day here, hot and muggy and I think felt much more than 29 (my app says we got a bit above 30).

Bovidae

@pakman

I noticed Bell in the changing room at HT and both on the field after the match. You can also see them in the team photo at the end.

Full game with NZ commentary posted on ABs YouTube channel.

Bones

@pakman said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

@African-Monkey said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

He may have no pace anymore, but man Goodhue still has beautiful hands.

As @Victor-Meldrew observed recently, imagine him with Rieko's pace and you have the prince of centres.

The prince of centres throwing in a nothing grubber after being put into space down the left hand side, instead of looking to link up, would have had me stabbing him to death with the spikey bits on his crown.

From the earlier comments, I was expecting an horror show. Nothing like that. Of course, the AB XV looked a bit rusty at times but we must remember that it is a makeshift team, with just a few days of training in its bag. Weber was not that bad. I still rank him above Christie. I like what I saw of Goodhue. He is lacking speed but he has the best hands in NZ rugby.