New Zealand vs Ireland

[Ash]

Tight head to the ABs! Irish scrum munted.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Well the Wallabies are easily the worst side out there at the moment. I'm predicting a 10pt loss to Wales.

I'm predicting that you won't be around here for long.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Savea, 3 tries on debut. Well done that young man. Not looking too good for the Bled for us.

My favorite Welsh comedian, Max Boyce, used to sing about the Welsh Five Eighth Factory.

I am reminded of the story that the Mossad stole the plans for the French Mirage warplane, so that the Israelis could manufacture their own.

When our own Intelligence agencies can't stop People Smuggling Ring leaders from gaining Aust residency, then allow the same to leave our jurisdiction, the bloody intelligence agency from the Land of the Darkness have stolen the Plans to Max Boyce's Five Eighth Factory and photo copied and modified them for Wingers, just like the Mossad did for war planes.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Hmmm, I think I'll ignore you from this point onward.

Wise move.

 

[Bardon]

Well done to NZ very clinical performance. What a debut for Savea extremely impressive. NZ look to be back to their pre-2011 form.

Positives from Ireland were the work at the breakdown and how well Fitzpatrick did on his debut, not much harder place or opposition for your international debut. Scrum only started creaking once he went off. Hoping that Healy's injury isn't too bad.

Defensive lapses and silly mistakes cost us from being closer to NZ. Need to cut those out and we'll see how the next test goes.

Even though we got a thumping on the scoreboard still really enjoyed the game.

 

[Tom Ando]

Well the Wallabies are easily the worst side out there at the moment. I'm predicting a 10pt loss to Wales

whatta troll

 

[cyclopath]

It's okay, I'll be back with a different username within a hour

I think not.

 

[ACR]

A very good performance first up. The debutantes stepped up and played well. Retallick worked hard, Smith proved his service is second to none, albeit he disregarded the back line a couple of times, and Savea, well he scored 3 tries in 60 minutes. Ireland competed well at the breakdown and got turnover ball when it was on, the AB's just flooded the rucks like a fat kid on cake like we usually do. Tough to see where Ireland can consistently break down the AB defence, considering we have room to improve as well.

If we got called for offside a bit more often it might help them too...

 

[Dam0]

I was reasonably happy with the performance, although I do think we let ourselves get isolated to often in the breakdowns. There really were far too many breakdown turnovers/penalties against us. I am aware that some of the turnovers were by people not on their feet, but the point remains that we were too slow to clean them out properly.

Overall it was pretty good, I thought our backs looked better than they have for a while, and if it wasn't for Dagg's bombing of the try I'd say the interplay between the backs was excellent.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

While I reserve final judgement until I see the Saffers vs the Soap Dodgers, from what we've seen so far, The Lords of the Darkness had better make space in the trophy cabinet for the 2012 Rugby Championship Trophy.

 

[Riptide]

Men against boys. The ABs did everything quicker.

Sexron looked good but BOD was very poor. His best Test days are well behind him.

 

[Larno]

A predictable result, but not disheartening. Far more important that the new lot of players get experience playing against the very best in the business.

On ya Deccie Fitz!

 

[Tordah]

loving Savea's tackle at 0:23

 

[p.Tah]

I was driving when this game was on and stumbled across it on ABC radio. The ABC were using the feed from NZ. I haven't listen to test match rugby on the radio before. It was brilliant. Really good commentary, I could follow every ruck and maul. I actually didn't need vision to really enjoy it.

Well done ABC for covering this game!

 

[Moono75]

AB's in another class. Whole new generation of top players coming on. Comparing the game against that of the Wallabies and Wales and the AB's were in another class. Ball handling, committment and passing skills just supurb. Wallabies need to lift big time.

 

[ScepticalScotty]

Dont they always Moono? Its not as if its our national game or anything.... Hey Tah rugby on the radio is great! If the commentators are good at it, you can really get into it. Its how I have to enjoy many of the games..

 

[Viking]

Wow NZ are superb. We got some work to do if we want to be on the same level. Great stuff All Blacks.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

That was a very good AB performance yesterday, especially the support play and passing at the back and on the counter. I lost count of the amount of times they sliced Ireland open running the ball back at them. The Irish looked good in the fist 10-15 minutes, but unfortunately couldn't sustain the effort. Izzy Dagg I thought had a superb game and was an excellent link man with his wings, as was Conrad Smith at 13. They consistently had support players running off shoulders and passed out in front of guys running at pace. It was great to watch. The pack did struggle a bit at the breakdown I thought, with the Irish ruck and maul being quite good. It was once the ball got out beyond the 10/12 channel that the different really told for mine.

 

[Alex]

I noticed something in this match that I had not seen before but it seemed to be employed a couple of times and so may have been a new tactic. The first man to the tackle who was entitled to contest the ball on the ground was leaning over the tackled player and instead of contesting the ball was putting his hands on the ground over the ball preventing the tackler releasing. By supporting weight on his hands, this allowed the player to appear to "support his weight" on his feet rather than putting a knee on the ground or the tackled player and it looked a lot like he was contesting the ball - even though he wasn't. The defending player was never going to win a turnover because he would have toppled forward if he took his hands off the ground, but it made it look a lot like the tackled player was not releasing. I reckoned I saw two occasions when this earnt Ireland a penalty. Anyone else notice this? I would have thought that in each case a penalty should have gone the other way for preventing the release?

 

[Dam0]

A player on all 4's is not considered to be supporting his own body weight. The way I think of it is if someone was to knock your hands away, if you would fall over then you are not on your feet. It's a very common tactic whereby the first arriving player will lean over on his hands and use the ground to push off and stabilise himself before going for the ball. It's hard to spot but is illegal.