We smacked them on the scoreboard because we have way better players. A lot of our tries came from Japan missing like 5 or 6 regulation tackles. We didn't really play with great structure to get go forward and then open holes in their defense. Other than a couple of very late tries, we were also poor again in the 2nd 40, which has happened in every single game bar Wallabies 2. Even the good win against Argentina we fell off the pace in the 2nd half. That's a real concern at the moment, we can't afford to be that bad against the top sides.

That said, opposition like Japan in their current form can bring you down to their level, so it's difficult to take too much out of it. England is going to be very interesting.

The whole thing had an end of season Barbarians "let throw the ball around" feel to it.

Get ready for the intensity to be turned from 1 to 10 for the next three weeks.

First Japanese try was a thing of beauty

Feyi-Waboso for England will be licking his lips

@sparky said in All Blacks v Japan:

The whole thing had an end of season Barbarians "let throw the ball around" feel to it.

Get ready for the intensity to be turned from 1 to 10 for the next three weeks.

The next 3 weeks will be a different sport.

Dublin on a Friday night, with a pissed up after work crowd, the RWC quarters, Ioane-gate fresh in the memory.

We are in for a hiding.

Missing game management big time and this was more team B+ than team C but we have some better players to bring in Maybe.

@booboo Yes.

@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks v Japan:

@Stag said in All Blacks v Japan:

The cold hard fact is that if McKenzie starts any of the of the next 3 tests we will lose them, comfortably.

Same could be said for Beauden. Good times......

This reminds me of the late-90s / early-00s when we had Mehrts, Tony Brown and Carlos all as viable 10 options but none of them were capable of winning a serous test match.

@Jet said in All Blacks v Japan:

@Frank said in All Blacks v Japan:

Razor will certainly be bringing Mounga back.

Im as disgusted as the next man, but do you blame him.

DMAC and Beaudy are playing like teenagers.

All three of them - BB, RM and DM - are immature children. At least DMac isn't a pussy and a proven bottler on the biggest stages like the other two.

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks v Japan:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks v Japan:

All in all a bit of an average game, I know not top team etc, but a combination of a real crap field and not a lot of connection in either team left me thinking it not a test I'll remember for a long time.

Did you and @Bones enjoy the game together?

Well as he in England , and I still in NZ, not quite mate lol!

@Dan54 said in All Blacks v Japan:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks v Japan:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks v Japan:

All in all a bit of an average game, I know not top team etc, but a combination of a real crap field and not a lot of connection in either team left me thinking it not a test I'll remember for a long time.

Did you and @Bones enjoy the game together?

Well as he in England , and I still in NZ, not quite mate lol!

Oh what, I thought you said earlierin the thread that you were over there! Never mind then haha!

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks v Japan:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks v Japan:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks v Japan:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks v Japan:

All in all a bit of an average game, I know not top team etc, but a combination of a real crap field and not a lot of connection in either team left me thinking it not a test I'll remember for a long time.

Did you and @Bones enjoy the game together?

Well as he in England , and I still in NZ, not quite mate lol!

Oh what, I thought you said earlierin the thread that you were over there! Never mind then haha!

Naa Mate meant to head off tomorrow!

@Jet said in All Blacks v Japan:

@sparky said in All Blacks v Japan:

The whole thing had an end of season Barbarians "let throw the ball around" feel to it.

Get ready for the intensity to be turned from 1 to 10 for the next three weeks.

The next 3 weeks will be a different sport.

Dublin on a Friday night, with a pissed up after work crowd, the RWC quarters, Ioane-gate fresh in the memory.

We are in for a hiding.

No we're not

What is with the doom and gloom.

Why are we hyping up these northern teams to this level?

We beat England 2-0 up front first 2 games with the new regime. We are much better than we were then.

The same England team that beat Ireland and were about to beat France but conceded a penalty in the 80th minute to lose.

Were there enough glimpses of what Finau can offer to see him as a potential long-term 6?

Of all the games of rugby, that was certainly one of them.

Positives: a run in the legs.
Negatives: yuck

I had to laugh at one point Justin was talking about getting out of our structure. What fucking structure? We just played fast fast fast, offloads where possible, players constantly in motion. 2nd quarter was good. Everything else was terrible.

Set piece okay, but Japan's probably better.

Players went in and out of the game because it was impossible to he in the right place constantly as the ball pinged around

DMac good and also really bad.
Midfield good and bad
Outsides too slow.

Loose forwards were good. Patty T was pretty good. Tight forwards got to run, but everything else was average. Tough day for the big lads.

Finau ate so many people but I don't think he's fit enough. I like his combination with Sititi though, as they are such different players.

Flush it, move on

@kpkanz said in All Blacks v Japan:

@Jet said in All Blacks v Japan:

@sparky said in All Blacks v Japan:

The whole thing had an end of season Barbarians "let throw the ball around" feel to it.

Get ready for the intensity to be turned from 1 to 10 for the next three weeks.

The next 3 weeks will be a different sport.

Dublin on a Friday night, with a pissed up after work crowd, the RWC quarters, Ioane-gate fresh in the memory.

We are in for a hiding.

No we're not

What is with the doom and gloom.

Why are we hyping up these northern teams to this level?

We beat England 2-0 up front first 2 games with the new regime. We are much better than we were then.

The same England team that beat Ireland and were about to beat France but conceded a penalty in the 80th minute to lose.

We ain't. Those were our best results so far this year by far. They're the only games where we played 80 minutes against a top 5 team. Overall I've seen little in the way of improvement in any facet.

Exhibition game. You can argue whether playing it like that was a good idea or not, but that was very clearly the intention for the whole game - so criticising guys throwing it around and rash offloads etc is kinda missing the point.
Good things:
Aumua finally got a decent run, his early throwing yips improved, and he showed some of the offensive and defensive power that could see him become a real asset.
Some decent minutes into both the giant props.
Big Pat played pretty well.
Finau more minutes more confidence.
Sititi unsurprisingly at home at 8.
Roigard getting more minutes.
Bad things:
Roigard was pretty average really, apart from the try - and there's only so much credit you can give for that with Japan's tackling performance. Hopefully he still makes the England team.
Defensive alignment was really poor at times. Soft tries conceded, and a few glaring missed tackles.

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks v Japan:

Were there enough glimpses of what Finau can offer to see him as a potential long-term 6?

Certainly more involved and he hurt their 8 with a crunching effort in the ribs.

Same as most people here, they not giving that performance vs 14th ranked Japan a pass at all