I thought the allblacks overdid the crossfield kick tactic.
welcome to the last 6 years of being an AB fan
Care to provide some detail in what about the head coaching you think is wrong? I'm not saying there is nothing to what you are saying but the trend is that people who go on about how crap foster is simply can't back it up with any reasonable arguments, it's mostly just pack mentality and people not realising that we actually don't have the best players in the world anymore. Where people do provide reasons, it's typically confirmation bias.
To me the mental fragility has come mainly from the media pressure the players have had over the last few years.
Players were poor. Some of this is due to feeling pressure at all blacks level (eg Taylor, mounga), some of it is just things (especially discipline) that are acceptable at super rugby level aren't at test level (eg papalii, jordan, newell, beauden).
Selection disruptions and players coming back from injury didn't help either.
Strike plays were a positive for this game. That's fosters role.
For the record I'm not saying foster is a great coach, just that I rarely hear good rationale as to why he's not.
....he is ******* poor though, playing a lock at 6....putting a less than 100% BBBR on the bench...when you have Jacobson in the squad...suggests you have f'd up your squad selection, keeping with an attack from anywhere gameplan, build no more than 4-5 phases before kicking, bomb in your own 22 like we have the 15 best players in the world....is just mad after 6 years of seeing it doesnt work, playing BB and RM together when we have SO MANY game that prove it doesnt work
I think the question needs to be asked of how much of NZs current apparent poor form is actual poor form and how much is other teams improving, making it that much more difficult for them to play the game they want.
definitely a bit of both, i personally dont think it can be argued that this squad would get smoked by the 2015 squad....but lots of other teams have definitely improved noticeably, long gone are the days we could play poorly and still win
Starting to think Beauden Barrett is underrated....
always has been, his highlight reel is full of footage with him wearing 22 running holes through guys that have already played 60min, puts in very few 80min games and doesnt know how to graft, flat track bully, one day the rest of the world we realise Savea is the same
I am not buying this "weakest AB team ever" thing, look at the rugby championship results a few weeks ago. They do not have the best scrum in the world, but they can attack from every corner of the field and they surely can defend.
What is obvious is that this AB team lacks leadership so when things start to get awry, they do not know how to collectively adjust, they just let go and let the opponents impose their rhythm. It was clearly the case against SA two weeks ago, and it happened again yesterday in the second half.
What is also obvious is that France has leadership aplenty and that once they regroup, they can turn up the pressure on any opponent until it chokes...
thats half a dozen games of good form in the last 4 years...that was a blip, not a sign of where we really are
This is a list of the "firsts" over the last 4 years
First to lose to Ireland in NZ.
First to lose a series to Ireland.
First 3 test series loss in professional era.
Worst halftime deficit ever.
First to lose to Argentina, and at home
Highest score against us
Biggest losing margin x2
Lowest world ranking
Worst win rate in Pro era
First ever consecutive 14 point+ losses
First loss in RWC pool play
Worst ever RWC loss
Biggest margin of defeats and highest scores conceded against Argentina, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, and France
Only ever time lost 3 consecutive home tests
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nah
