#NZvsENG Five points from this morning
6
Bye Conrad
1. The Ref. Ok we have to start somewhere so it might as well be here. Simply not good enough in any phase of play from Cruden’s try (really?) To McCaw’s turnover in the second half (off feet, use of hands at ruck, not supporting own bodyweight, to the Coles Sin-binning (just a fiasco from incident start to incident finish). We really should expect and get much better. Very worrying 12 months out from a RWC.
2. Goalkicking. We called this last week here. 2 from 5 (Cruden) and 3 from 8 (Total) is just not good enough despite the “Respect the Kickers” prompts being heeded by the Twickenham crowd in a really nice touch. More worrying was Barrett’s terrible shank with his first kick straight after coming on. Just as a reminder there have been a total of 4 tries scored in the last 3 RWC Finals. Goal-kicking is what wins the big ones.
3. The new All Black Jersey. Very slick but just one problem, what number was each player wearing? Gun Metal Grey sounds cool as a concept but doesn’t stand out very well against black. I wonder what AIG will think when they get a bit muddy ?
4. Conrad Smith. Conrad was pulled, subbed, dragged, replaced. Yes its true. Watch England’s brilliant first try by Jonny May closely and you will see Smith line May up and get completely skinned on the outside – worrying. Time for the All Blacks to start giving their Number 13 Insurance Policy (Ryan Crotty) a lot more time in that shirt – there’s simply no one else.
5. Changes. Charlie Faumuina, Jeremy Thrush and Patrick Tuipolutu are pressing incumbents Owen Franks and Sam Whitelock very close for starting spots at present. While next week’s game against Scotland will be a chance for Hansen to give some players a run, the following weeks test against Wales is Hansen’s last chance to see if he can squeeze one more game out of 2 players who are clearly struggling at present. Hansen has been very loyal over the years but I sense he may be running out of patience somewhat with these 2.
‘signman’, would you care to comment on the lack of mental application shown by Messrs. Barrett and Cruden in the goalkicking department?!
Owens is usually a pretty good, accurate ref, though when he does go off song its usually in quite a big way like he did today (South Africa v Samoa last RWC ring any bells?). Some of those calls perplexed me and his process around the TMO was questionable. Did he really need 6 looks at the Coles incident? Penalty only and put the card away.
Barrett misses a lot of kicks to the right. What is Mick Byrne teaching him and Cruden?
Good point re Mick Byrne. Both Cruden & BB down on Super Rugby form. Of course Carter can’t be judged on that stat.
Big few months coing up for Byrne
I’d like to see some kicking stats around before/after Dan Carter returned to the squad for both Cruden and Barrett.
Paulthespotter :
‘signman’, would you care to comment on the lack of mental application shown by Messrs. Barrett and Cruden in the goalkicking department?!
signman :
All I can say is all of us have played some shockers at some stage in sport, & yeah, the WC being a ‘ knock out tournament ‘ goal kicking is going to be vital, but for the wankers in the media to say their goal kicking will cost us in that tournament is ridiculous, lets face it no one had a problem their shots at goal until very recently where Cruden was very average against the USA & both had shockers against England, they both don’t all of a sudden become crap goal kickers… I’d rather have those two in the squad of 23 in say the final than Carter in there who doesn’t have much of a running game anymore & has a good chance of coming off injured which would leave us with no backup 10 on the bench.
Scooter :
Owens is usually a pretty good.
signman :
Sky commentators were saying he’s the best ref in the world ? …Christ, if that’s the case the standard of refereeing at the RWC is even going to be worse than I thought.