Blues 2018

[J Dory]

Warriors won again. Five on the trot now.

Do you have a way to watch? Can't find full replays anywhere.

Sadly not boss. I watch live here when I can/am still up on a bender:

https://www.vipleague.lc


Marvel at RTS carving it up from the back and manhandling dudes on the line to save tries. Check also Fusitu'a raining them in. Issac Luke has rediscovered his mojo marshaling a classic Kiwi pack that takes it to the defense with extreme prejudice.

I signed up as a member on NRL.com but the video replays are geo-blocked here. Nothing but brief highlights on u-tube available.

Might have to invest the time to sort out a VPN solution.

[rowan]

See if you can guess which letter represents fans from each NZ franchise!

Fan-sophistication-o-meter

Neanderthal =[a]===============[c]==[d]==============[e]= Rugby Sophisticate

a) Wears bib to prevent drool damaging keyboard when posting pics of tits and arse in funny images thread.
b) Enthusiastically rings cowbell.
c) Plays drinking game "possum".
d) Does chain skids.
e) Engages in intelligent conversation on rugby forums.

That's too hard for me. But this is a nice pic (drooool)

[morepork]

Hamiltron....city of the Footure.

Rowan....FFS.

[Lizard]

Which option is “Supports team that hasn’t lost to the Blues in 14 matches and has been Super Rugby champion (multiple times) within the last two decades”?

[J Dory]

That would be (f), for go fuck yourself.

[J Dory]

Do you have a way to watch? Can't find full replays anywhere.

Sadly not boss. I watch live here when I can/am still up on a bender:

https://www.vipleague.lc


Marvel at RTS carving it up from the back and manhandling dudes on the line to save tries. Check also Fusitu'a raining them in. Issac Luke has rediscovered his mojo marshaling a classic Kiwi pack that takes it to the defense with extreme prejudice.

I signed up as a member on NRL.com but the video replays are geo-blocked here. Nothing but brief highlights on u-tube available.

Might have to invest the time to sort out a VPN solution.

Turns out VPN is easy peasy, PM me if you're interested.

[J Dory]

Blues versus Sunwolves, tough to watch. The Blues look clueless.

[J Dory]

Jamie Joseph, what a cool dude.

[morepork]

JD...how close are the wolves to being a threat, and how much the Bloos being naff? Japan plays a pretty pacey game (pacey?) that looks to me to be a good template for success.

[J Dory]

I don't want to disrespect the Sunwolves, but I will. They still look a level below. The Blues give me the blues. Chock full of talent, though to be fair, maybe less this year than those recently gone by, but somehow unable to focus the talent in a deadly manner. Coaching? On field leadership? Fcked if I know the answer.

[Spy]

JD...how close are the wolves to being a threat, and how much the Bloos being naff? Japan plays a pretty pacey game (pacey?) that looks to me to be a good template for success.

I only caught the last 20 minutes, but the Blues were pretty terrible. Have they lost a few players to injury? Seemed a bit of a b team.

[zer0]

It very much is a B team. About a third of the starting XV is out injured:

Scott Scrafton
Blake Gibson
Jerome Kaino
Augustine Pulu
Otere Black
Sonny Bill Williams

Scrafton and Black are gone for the season. Dunno about the others. Dalton Papali'i has just returned from injury but should slot into one of the flanks. Guys like Moala and Nanai are also unavailable. Probably a bunch of others too. The NZ derbies aren't kind on the players bodies.

[zer0]

Some more details on the 18 players currently unavailable due to injury:

Otere Black (knee – season)
Blake Gibson (shoulder)
Glenn Preston (groin – season)
Sonny Bill Williams (wrist)
Augustine Pulu (foot)
Alex Hodgman (wrist)
Scott Scrafton (leg – season)
Daniel Kirkpatrick (ribs)
Melani Nanai (ankle)
Jordan Trainor (hand)
Matt Johnson (surgery – season)
Jerome Kaino (hamstring)
George Moala (chest – season)
Josh Goodhue (shoulder)
Tamati Tua (hand)
Gerard Cowley-Tuioti (knee)
Caleb Clarke (appendicitis)
Michael Collins (hand)

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/sup ... -sidelined

Players in bold would've been in the match day 23.

[morepork]

They went down again.

Wawwiors won but. Just sayin'.

[J Dory]

I'll take a win by the Warriors, one winning Auckland side is better than none.

[scuzzaman]

Could be worse.

.You could be England.

[rowan]

The Herald's post mortem:

Another loss for the Blues and another reason to believe the club is trapped in a relentless cycle of failure they are powerless to break.
Maybe it's even worse than that, though: maybe all those connected with the club have come to believe the Blues can't be fixed. Maybe they have given up dreaming of the day the Blues are something other than easybeats without direction.
Defeat has come to define them. Being in a perpetual state of chaos is what everyone has come to expect and it was noted that a strangely large crowd barely even managed to groan as the unforced errors piled up.
There is certainly no sense of outrage in the stands at how badly the team are playing. There has been little indignation from any quarter in fact, and coach and players would appear to have a licence to drift through this campaign in any state they choose and no one is going to particularly care.
That's the truly sad part - that the Blues have made such a habit of losing that it is what everyone has come to accept.
In the same way as football was once described as a game played over 90 minutes and at the end Germany win, might now the same be said of rugby except that at the end of 80 minutes, the Blues lose?
Here we are eight weeks into the competition and they haven't won at home. They have just two victories to their credit and they haven't yet played the Crusaders or Hurricanes home or away.
Their season is over. The only questions now are just how bad is it going to be? And, amazingly, does anyone really care?
When the Blues were in a similar spot in 2012 - having won just one of their first seven games - coach Pat Lam was effectively fired and the city of Auckland felt like it was ready to come at him with pitch forks.
In 2015, the Blues were again in a similar mess and barely a day went by without some kind of venom being spat at coach John Kirwan.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/ar ... ref=NZH_fb

[morepork]

I'll take a win by the Warriors, one winning Auckland side is better than none.

Was a good win boss. Mean on attack and staunch in defense. Man I hope they keep it up.

[Spy]

Let's not forget the Blues are the only NZ team with silverware already in the cabinet for 2018. Brisbane 10s Champions. The year's already something of a triumph.

[cashead]

Here's something to ponder. A hypothetical Blues team

1. Pauliasi Manu
2. James Parsons
3. Ofa Tu'ungafasi
4. Patrick Tuipulotu
5. Jarrad Hoeata
6. Jerome Kaino
7. Blake Gibson
8. Akira Ioane
9. Agustin Pulu
10. Bryn Gatland
11. Rieko Ioane
12. Sonny Bill Williams
13. Jack Goodhue
14. Matt Duffie
15. Ben Volavola

16. Matt Moulds
17. Chris Eves
18. Mike Tamoaieta
19. Michael Fatialofa
20. Kara Pryor
21. Sam Nock
22. Michael Little
23. Matt Vaega

Imagine that.

Underlined are the players that the Blues chose to overlook for "reasons."

They also overlooked, in the past, Brandon Nansen and Chris Vui, both of whom are now lost to the European leagues. Why they couldn't also send an SOS to both Jarrad Hoeata and Chris Smylie is anyone's guess - both of them would have provided a steady, guiding hand to the kids that the team is currently having to field, with so many injures.

And watching Michael Little play for the Sunwolves, you've got to wonder how they missed someone so good who was RIGHT THERE. Why Matt Vaega hasn't been called in to cover centre either, when he was one of the form 13s in the Mitre 10 Cup last year for Harbour is a mystery too.

[zer0]

Jack Goodhue left because he wanted to study agriculture, or something along those lines, which isn't available in Auckland. He wasn't overlooked. Gareth Anscombe is better than Volavola.

[cashead]

Volavola was more effective at 10 than Anscombe was. Anscombe has a tendency, no pun intended, to kill overlaps by running into contact himself, trying to be the gloryboy. As a result, he often ignores overlaps, trying to thread that gap, and this has been used against him effectively.

[cashead]

To the Blues defence re: Naholo, he was fucking awful in his two games in 2013. They erred in lacking the patience to build on his strengths and work on his weaknesses - something which Joseph had to patience to do, to the benefit of both the Highlanders and the All Blacks.

Like, look at Savea. In his first season with the Hurricanes, he was terrible. Just the drizzling shits, but they worked on him, and within 12 months, he was almost an entirely new player. None of his strengths were coached out of him, but his weaknesses were no longer holding him back, he was far more confident, and for a time, he was one of the most devastating wingers in test rugby. The Blues haven't shown that patience with players that have potential.


I think it's also absolutely imperative to maintain a non-Auckland coaching staff, because fuck going through another Pat Lam. If one were to describe his selection policy, it's "Homer Simpson coaching Bart's fooball team." His insistence on selecting Taniela Moa and Tasesa Lavea no matter what in 2009, while stubbornly ignoring non-Auckland players like Chris Smylie or Mike Harris spoke volumes.

[morepork]

Jack Goodhue left because he wanted to study agriculture, or something along those lines, which isn't available in Auckland. He wasn't overlooked. Gareth Anscombe is better than Volavola.

Auckland will suck your kok if you can thread your academic career through the hogs eye of the dairy, no matter how tenuous the thread. Jack wanted to nail sheep. Canterbury is as good a place as any to nail sheep.

[J Dory]

Warriors destroyed by the Storm. Yikes.