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All Blacks Northern Tour 2018

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waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
England: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ben Te’o, 11 Jonny May, 10 Owen Farrell (cc), 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Mark Wilson, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Brad Shields, 5 George Kruis, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Dylan Hartley (cc), 1 Ben Moon
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Alec Hepburn, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Courtney Lawes, 21 Danny Care, 22 George Ford, 23 Jack Nowell

Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant Referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Marius Mitrea (Italy)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)

AB will have the RSA's poppy design embroidered on their jersey sleeve to mark the centenary of Armistice Day (NZ RSA = your RSL & the poppy is trademarked for fundraising purposes to support their welfare programs).

IMG_0835.JPG


http://www.allblacks.com/News/33413/all-blacks-mark-the-centenary-of-armistice-day
 

waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Forecast is for showers (in London, in November, who'd have guessed? :)) & if so it could be a fair bit closer than the 15-20 point margin most pundits seem to be predicting. There's also IMO the Ireland factor to consider: I don't think this particular group will fall into the trap of looking ahead to next week before this week's job is done, but I do feel that if AB are points up at 3/4 time they might shut up shop & keep as much as possible in the tank for next week. Seen it before & wouldn't surprise me to see it again. That said I'm still thinking AB by 10ish even if they do button off.
 

ACR

Bob Davidson (42)
England are frankly MILES offside in phase play. No offside penalties in the first half, that'll happen.

Can't remember the last time the All Blacks played in the wet.. it shows. I really look forward to the day we don't waste 30 minutes just kicking the ball away before we start playing.
 

ACR

Bob Davidson (42)
Fucking wow Smith! Pump fake a fucking draw and pass. Certain try gone.

And the captain plays idiot touch ball. In the wet, 10 out! Dudes....
 

ACR

Bob Davidson (42)
Ashton absolutely threw himself backwards out of contact.. and gets rewarded. There really are dullards afoot.
 

ACR

Bob Davidson (42)
Wow! That's a dog decision on Lawes. That is just too bloody marginal to ping him for that.
 

ACR

Bob Davidson (42)
Very very lucky win. How many of those charge downs get called back?

Not too bad from the AB's considering they literally decide to shoot themselves in the foot for the first 30 minutes, every single game. It's like playing 50 minutes of rugby. If they were a bit smarter they could have ended it in the first 10 minutes after half time but no.. If Read could just smarten up a little bit they'd be unbeatable.

Retallick went savage mode in the second half and blitzed Itoje in the lineout. Barrett can actually kick drop goals and eeked in his penalty, fair game. Won the game in the end eh. Scott Barrett was good too.

This should also mark the end of SBW in the starting side (at the very least). Crotty came on and was FAR better.
 

Dan54

Tim Horan (67)
I actually thought he was offside live at first, but then went oh well! Still will take the win! Another proper test. Be honest thought SBW went well early, great defence and some good passes, and Crotty came on at right time, just as forwards got going, and they held onto the ball. Ardie certainly went well, as did Todd when he replaced him, ditto with McKenzie, like the balance of Barrett and McKenzie.
 

waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
^^^^ all I'm gunna say about that call was that after his part in the B&IL3 fiasco, Garces owed us one! SJones & others of course see it a bit differently:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby...te-call-that-cost-england-win-over-all-blacks

EDIT: OK I'll also point out that it's karma for what happened at the end last week :)

Thought SWhitelock was immense & Lurch looked to be playing his way back into form, too, absolutely wrecked Ringinland's lineout towards the end. Coles also impressive given how little footy he's had these last 12 months. Hard to fault any of the forwards, really, although Squire was a little quiet which will no doubt be seized upon by those who think he's a flat track bully.

I liked the look of our backs far more when (a) Crotty came on & (b) Beaugan & DMac stopped their incessant kicking away of possession: Crotty probably just the messenger but to me he's still our best option at 12 now that Goodhue is going to get an extended run at 13. Ioane I thought had so many involvements he was like an extra loose forward.

None of the above is taking anything away from England who, apart from living offside (a trait of any team that has Mitchell on the staff) were mostly superb & can count themselves a little unlucky to have lost.

All in all good old-fashioned Test Mach with another to come next week, can't wait for that.
 

Dctarget

John Eales (66)
That first half was great.

New Zealand get completely bossed by England. They look rattled, under the pump, England are hungry and dominating. Then in the last 3 minutes NZ remember how to play and say well that was fun and score 10 points to bring themselves within 5.

2nd half was a different story, England just tried to hold on and NZ looked more.. NZ.

But that ending is shit, perfect example of what's wrong with the TMO. It should be used for blatant, or egregious fouls before the try was scored, not to examine every single minute thing. With such a marginal call like that, that gets missed 100 times a game, they really should just go with what the referees decided in real time.

Sour note to ruin a game, that will now be tarred as a controversial win.
 

KiwiM

Nev Cottrell (35)
England rode their luck at the death last week. This week the shoe was on the other foot.

England were excellent. Played to their strengths and executed their game plan brilliantly.

For the ABs Retallick was brilliant. DMac did very considering the conditions, Coles, Crotty & Barrett the best of the bench. I think SBW's time may be up - Crotty was far better.

On the other hand I thought Squire was completely anonymous. Another example of him going missing when the going gets tough. He was a complete passenger.
 

Rugbynutter39

Michael Lynagh (62)
England were robbed for me with that TMO decision - but that was one of three pivotal moments for me - the other two being England's decision in wet conditions to turn down shot for goal and instead go for the line and then Retallick winning key England lineout with England in strong attacking position close to AB line.
 
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