@voodoo said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

So I didn't manage to watch more than the first 20, the signal strength in Italy was a killer for lagging and I gave up.

Have trawled the thread, and as such have adopted the Fern majority position of outrage and disgust.

One question, I see a few talking about QT being dropped for this week, debating whether DH or JG should come in (or even JB). Is he injured?

Reading the thread, it sounds like QT had a shocker, but in his defense, he was outstanding last week and its never fun to play in the inside channels when the pack is getting dominated.

Why are we ready to send him to the sidelines already? Is "one bad game and you're out" the right message for these guys?

Don’t think he was too bad myself. The worst back by a country Mile was the unfortunate Leicester. Just looked all at sea. I think he’ll learn from it and bounce back but he can’t go again this weekend.

As much as I’d like to see RTS get a game I don’t think this week is the right match now that it’s a decider. Has to be QT, Havili or JB, Goodhue at a pinch. One option would be to put RI back to 11 then you could have DH and JG in the centres.

What I would select

Bower, Taukeiaho, Laulala

Retallick, Whitelock

Barrett, Sotutu, Savea

Smith, Barrett

Havili, Goodhue

Ioane, Jordan, Reece

res: Ross, Coles, Tuungafasi, Ioane, Papili, Fakatava, Mo’unga, Barrett

@nzzp said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

A million red cards would not have stopped what happened to AT on the weekend

I changed my mind on Angus. Highlights below, 4.47 in.

He advances, dips slightly and then stays upright. If he'd slowed down he'd probably get away with a yellow for being passive. But the movement forward is what's goign to get him in trouble with the laws they way they are.

also, all this and we don't talk about the shitty ruck play by Ireland lying long back from rucks. It's classic Gatland ploy, slowing ruck speed... cynical as shit, but right on the edge of legality. Smart play.

View embedded content

Me, too.

@Kiwiwomble said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

@No-Quarter he take a total of one step between the pass the "tackle"...thats a fraction of a second

The rapid step forward is with a view to tackling. He doesn't dip, misjudges completely and catches Ringrose with chin.

Ringrose has changed direction obviously before AT steps forward.

For me, twenty minute card, and then replacement.

@voodoo Tupaea had a bad case of the dropsies. Apart from that he was okay - and dropping ball is uncharacteristic for him, he doesn't drop a lot in general - but every turnover was costing us, so it was shithouse.
No need for the scrapheap just yet, it's not like he's 30+ and has been on a downward trajectory for the last 3 years.

@Billy-Tell said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

What I would select

Bower, Taukeiaho, Laulala

Retallick, Whitelock

Barrett, Sotutu, Savea

Smith, Barrett

Havili, Goodhue

Ioane, Jordan, Reece

res: Ross, Coles, Tuungafasi, Ioane, Papili, Fakatava, Mo’unga, Barrett

Quite like the thinking, but would want Cane to start and Ardie off bench.

@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

and dropping ball is uncharacteristic for him

Is it? He seemed to have gotten better for the chiefs since making the ABs, but I have a vague memory of his handling being pretty poor at times for the chiefs before that.

@reprobate one of his drops was massively significant, him catching the ball was crucial to the move they had up thier sleeve (or were winging) the throw was nigh on perfect...but then dropping balls by people that don't normally usually points to other factors (bad luck, over thinking, lack of clarity, low confidence)

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

@chimoaus said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

The head contact is always tough as AT was caught in a bad position, could he have done more? I don't know but the fact is under the rules AT was a red card.

That is the problem, the rules are his is def a Red, but given how that happened, how quickly that happened, I am not sure much could have been done to mitigate, for either party involved, and yep, what happens to him at the judiciary will be very interesting.

Again, if you read social media, people say Reds for that kind of contact is a must to protect players...people need to realise accidents happen, no matter if you do everything correctly and within your contrrol.

Isn't that the mitigation?

one thing the ABs need to get the ref to look at this week is how ireland slowed the game down in second half. players going down injured and moving slow to lineouts and scrums. was very south African like.

@ploughboy yeah certainly becoming a bit of an issue in the game.

MAybe need timeouts too...

Seriously though, was rather ironic when you think we were down a man, they'd be the ones wanting to speed the game up, they were slowing it down.

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

@ploughboy yeah certainly becoming a bit of an issue in the game.

MAybe need timeouts too...

Seriously though, was rather ironic when you think we were down a man, they'd be the ones wanting to speed the game up, they were slowing it down.

yeah thought it was strange but probably shows how structured they play

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

@reprobate one of his drops was massively significant, him catching the ball was crucial to the move they had up thier sleeve (or were winging) the throw was nigh on perfect

The bad drop from the long throw was poor. The other was from a pass behind him from Cane that went backwards and was recovered, so that wasn't all on Tupaea. Rieko had more overall turnovers in the game.

The simple thing to do is that players need to leave the field to be attended by medical staff, and play continues. You would find that most of these "injured" players are back to their feet quickly.

@Bovidae point I made in the following post is errors like that happen to teams/players when they lack clarity, are over thinking, low on confidence, all these things also mean things start to bounce away from you too...compounding issues.

@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

@reprobate one of his drops was massively significant, him catching the ball was crucial to the move they had up thier sleeve (or were winging) the throw was nigh on perfect

The bad drop from the long throw was poor. The other was from a pass behind him from Cane that went backwards and was recovered, so that wasn't all on Tupaea. Rieko had more overall turnovers in the game.

The highlights I watched he also threw a very unnecessary skip pass in our 22 which led to a turnover late in the game