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All Blacks 42 v Wales 9 FT. Saturday 19 June 2010 - Dunedin.

Wow! First thoughts on the game - good to see KAPA O PANGO back! :D

Wales, brilliant in the first half. Excellent defense (though that was pretty consistent for most of the game) and good at the rucks. Sadly, Daniel "Jesus in boots" Carter had another magic night. I can recall the look on Cruden's face on Carter's two tries, almost as if they were saying "I have to live up to that!?
"

It looks like Woodcock and Kahui are continuing the trend of S14 players regaining their form on the most important stage. Jane has an awesome fend, and I still think Rokocoko had a solid game (sorry C A :p). A shame Dagg had to go, I think he still looked dangerous despite the improved defense.

Didn't like all the knock-ons but nice to see the adjustments made in the 2nd. Such a good effort, and I look for the ABs to pick it up with returning players.

Still awed at this Carter performance.



EDIT: Oh, and I'm extremely surprised to see Kahui catch up to Halfpenny - whom I thought had the beat on everyone and was going to score.
 
Yeah, Rokocoko was pretty good this game. The only thing that annoyed me was how he should have gased Ryan Jones instead of passing it off to Cruden.
 
i hope the young welsh players will learn how hard you have to train and believe in yourself after this lesson in rugby.
Hopefully they will come back stronger in time.
 
I thought Wales were pretty good. The difference is obviously that the All Blacks were able to score from any mistakes that Wales made. I think Wales should have always been prepared for a turnover and sometimes you have to have your defensive lines set even when you have the ball.

Carter and Mealamu were awesome, Rococoko and Jane were impressive. It's good to see Carisbrook off in style.
 
admartian said:
Wow! First thoughts on the game - good to see KAPA O PANGO back! :D

Wales, brilliant in the first half. Excellent defense (though that was pretty consistent for most of the game) and good at the rucks. Sadly, Daniel "Jesus in boots" Carter had another magic night. I can recall the look on Cruden's face on Carter's two tries, almost as if they were saying "I have to live up to that!?
"

It looks like Woodcock and Kahui are continuing the trend of S14 players regaining their form on the most important stage. Jane has an awesome fend, and I still think Rokocoko had a solid game (sorry C A :p). A shame Dagg had to go, I think he still looked dangerous despite the improved defense.

Didn't like all the knock-ons but nice to see the adjustments made in the 2nd. Such a good effort, and I look for the ABs to pick it up with returning players.

Still awed at this Carter performance.



EDIT: Oh, and I'm extremely surprised to see Kahui catch up to Halfpenny - whom I thought had the beat on everyone and was going to score.
Click to expand...


What? lol. I thought Rokocoko had a generally good return to form and said he was 90% back to his prime! :) I'm not against the guy, but he has for a while lost some of the elusiveness that he was originally picked for many a year back now. Last night there were some wonderful touches from him and yeah, I think he's a performance away from producing some great tries again.
 
I really enjoyed this game - great to see the Welsh really put the pressure on the AB's in the first half. The breakdown contest was very interesting - the ref seemed to let the players get away with the lot at the breakdown, which resulted in a much larger number of ruck turnovers than has been usual under the new law interpretations.

Most of the new All Blacks (Stanley, Dagg, Ben Franks) had much harder games this week than on debut - all three may be given a rest next week (I think Dagg may be ruled out with concussion in any case). In contrast I though Vito had a much improved game from last week - he made a lot of yards with the ball in hand, but did force a few passes.

I was very impressed with Rococoko. He played the best game I've seen him play in Black for a few years - hopefully he is getting back to his best. Carter was outstanding, while the likes of Jane, Cowan, and Mealamu weren't far behind. Kahui was very impressive when he came on, showing he has heaps of pace - I personally was dubious about his selection after his poor Super 14 season, but it looks like the AB selectors know how to get the best out of him.

I'm still not convinced Cruden is up to this level - the selectors will have to persevere with him though. Likewise I'm not a fan of having Weepu there. He did control the game to a degree with his box-kicking (though he was kicking these kicks just a bit too far), but his distribution was slow at times - he continues to take a few steps with the ball before passing, meaning the player gets the ball at the same time as he gets the defender.
 
darwin_23 said:
I really enjoyed this game - great to see the Welsh really put the pressure on the AB's in the first half. The breakdown contest was very interesting - the ref seemed to let the players get away with the lot at the breakdown, which resulted in a much larger number of ruck turnovers than has been usual under the new law interpretations.

Most of the new All Blacks (Stanley, Dagg, Ben Franks) had much harder games this week than on debut - all three may be given a rest next week (I think Dagg may be ruled out with concussion in any case). In contrast I though Vito had a much improved game from last week - he made a lot of yards with the ball in hand, but did force a few passes.

I was very impressed with Rococoko. He played the best game I've seen him play in Black for a few years - hopefully he is getting back to his best. Carter was outstanding, while the likes of Jane, Cowan, and Mealamu weren't far behind. Kahui was very impressive when he came on, showing he has heaps of pace - I personally was dubious about his selection after his poor Super 14 season, but it looks like the AB selectors know how to get the best out of him.

I'm still not convinced Cruden is up to this level - the selectors will have to persevere with him though. Likewise I'm not a fan of having Weepu there. He did control the game to a degree with his box-kicking (though he was kicking these kicks just a bit too far), but his distribution was slow at times - he continues to take a few steps with the ball before passing, meaning the player gets the ball at the same time as he gets the defender.
Click to expand...

Good review of the game. I actually thought Ben Franks was quite poor. Seemed to have alot of physicality and aggression, but tends to make dumb mistakes like flop over the ruck etc. I thought, which noone else has mentioned yet, Tony Woodcock was brilliant when he came on. Solid in the scrums (great battle between him and Jones), he carried the ball very well for as prop and he seemed to step up from his time away. I agree with Weepu, he stands around too much waiting for the backs to get ready, but it means the defensive line was ready for the pass.

Cruden will stay in the AB's cause he is young. He hasn't made too many mistakes since he has played, and I think it will just take time for him to get ready and step up.

Kahui looked very good. There is something about this AB team, that time away makes old players step up to their best, which is exactly what we want come the RWC.
 
42-9 was harsh, we played better than that score suggests. If it were for a couple of instances where the ball had bounced the other way we could have scored two tries. That said the AB's were very good and showed that killer instinct all goo sides need. Kahui's try emphasised that, how easy did he make it look. I'm pleased with how Bishop played, looked tidy and there are many positvies to take.
 
But seriously, yeah Jon Davies probably will. It's either him or................................................... We have absolutely no one else.
 
Now you will see New Zealands depth, even with Israel Dagg looking doubtful, Carter in doubt, Boric, there are still amazing players to step up.

Who should New Zealand call up to replace Boric? Whitelock should be moved to 5 and Chris Jack should be called up for the bench, Donnelly is still injured.
 
Tough to get a proper sense of the game from just the highlights I saw last night. It looked like we let a few scoring opportunities slip, especially in the first half. If Phillips had caught that ball instead of kicking it, I'd have backed him to make the try line. Alun-Wyn Jones should have passed, although space was getting tight and the NZ may have marshelled us into tough anyway. Leigh halfpenny's kick downfield unfortunately also went infield allowing the NZ defense to rach there first with the angle.

The second half showed just how good NZ can be though. We simply cannot keep Carter quiet, every time he plays against us he runs riot! I thought we tired quite alot in the second half, which is quite worriying for everyone else as we've finished just about every game on top for the past year. But the All Blacks physicallity eventually showed. We struggled to make every metre, whearas NZ were often allowed far too much space and made 7-8 metres with ease.

This was a game where I can simply say that we were outclassed by one of the better second half performances I've seen in a long time. Unlike other teams recently, NZ also didn't allow Wales back into the match with indicipline (Scotland 6n) or poor replacements (SA). Will be interesting when NZ and SA clash, but to me NZ are building very nicely.

Edit: just like to say that I think our performance yesterday would have probably challenged if not beaten most NH teams and possibly Aus too. New Zealand and South Africa are still quite a way in front of everyone else. For alot of teams though, SA are beatable, whearas NZ aren't. Wales and Ireland have serious mental problems here!
 
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New Zealand won't even miss a player as good as Dagg. Jane to 15 with Guildford or Gear onto to wing. Side is no weaker. Carter would be a loss though but Cruden has looked good whenever I have seen him, outstanding prospect. Bringing in Jack would be a mistake IMO, he is an average Guinness Premiership level player, no longer good enough for the All Blacks.

Seriously impressive that NZ have Cruden and Guildord in the 22 straight out of the U20's, altghough Ireland started this years U20 captain Ruddock aged 19 so we are obviously miles ahead in terms of player development :p
 

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