Yes first time he looked like a rugby player to me. Finally he fits in. Tick one now. More to come I’d say. Defensively naive still but you would expect that from someone new to a rugby midfield at this level.

How are they going to shut 10-13 down?
That’s the BIG question.
Those guys are punching through the middle like it’s not there.

Geez, ‘greatly encouraged’ to see a quarter final whopping to bring up 14 straight wins with the prospect of meeting them at Eden park.

Personally, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t crying. 😂
Just kidding lander. Not often we get to gloat… lately anyway… oops.

Rushy was fun out with the Otahuhu boys.Never drank but geez took the Mickey out of drunks.

Yeah Brimbies are definitely a banana skin side. And no one slipped up on those than earlier Blues sides but this one has truly found its mojo and has the plus plus factors of the form of Barrett, Reiko, and a slow but surely growing in confidence RTS.

Looked a rugby player for the first time for me yesterday.

Barrett continues to impress with his ability to turn a gap in a two year olds front teeth into a red carpet walk! For me whenever he has ball in hand suddenly the potential for something to happen rockets up a thousand percent. Was wondering if he’d figure in blues ability to succeed but geez, we ain’t seen the calibre at 10, ever.

Yeah thats the standout for me since 2015 when we have simply not replaced, Read, McCaw, Kaino, , Nonu, Smith, and to an extent even DC and Ben Smith. These are all players that specialised in ONE number on their backs for over ten years. When you thought of a 12 you thought Nonu, 7- McCaw etc. Now when you say 7….ummm Savea,? Cane, 12 ummm….take your pick etc etc.
Some concerning points you bring up Highlander and you didnt just leave it at the tries at wing vs centre thing which everyone knows the position itself is more conducive to higher rates of tries. How many scored by wings while he’s at centre might be just as important a read.
For me Ioane’s an investment, you say theres only 18 tests left but that would be the case for any All Black in the position, none of whom have nailed the spot previously.
fact is great NZ midfielders are like wine, they mature with time.
Stanley wasnt great till he was 30, Bunce spent most of his 20’s partying at Manukau at Centre for years before moving into the spot but those developmental years in the tough Auckland club scene of the 80’s did him wonders.
Umaga again, similar. The Mortlocks, BOD’s, JDV…all played their best centre games nearer to 30 rather than 20. Wingers, the opposite. As Reiko has shown in the same player.
Reason for me is centre needs years to build that intuition to be able to best ‘manage’ the midfield time and space as quickly and efficiently as possible. You often hear starting centres ‘cant pass’ or ‘cant set up their wingers’ and you certainly get the midfield defensive woes that someone like Conrad or Bunce would know instinctively how to deal with- by placing themselves and others in the right places at the right time, doing the right things. That simply takes time…years.
And you’re right, we dont have that, so the risk we take is that these shortcomings Reiko has now are critical to his learning the position. Definitely comes at a high price but the pay off could be worth it in the long run. His attitude has never waned, he’s taken to the spot with the challenge it deserves and thats gotta be a plus.
The other thing about Reiko is he hasnt been able to build a combination up with a 12. The Stanley/ Mcahill- Taylor combo, Bunce / Little, Smith/ Nonu. In hindsight those duets were the little goldmines of the AB backlines in the last 40 years.
I get your points, and still like to see him in the position, even if theres no one else that has put his hand up higher for long enough. 12 and 13 are turnstyle positions in the side since 2015 and our results are showing because of it. No continuity nor consistency in neither selection nor application.

Plus, he’s a Blues man, and for now, theyre on the up, and for us long suffering Blues supporters, its our turn to lead the game at the top, and beyond. As good as the Saders have been, 20 years of a poor performing Blues side cannot be good for AB rugby given its base.

Hi Brett, yeah just stopped watching anything since covid bar the snooker when it got started again. Good to resurface to find the Blues back to their winning ways and ‘HOPEFULLY’ they are part of the catalyst thats needed to bring the AB’s back to their more competitive selves.

They are certainly getting the ball through more though last night was more like one side didnt turn up to tackling practice. The big one for me is keeping Eden park pro loss free, one of the few records Fozzie hasnt managed to give away yet. Blues havent been the mainstay of the AB’s for over two decades so need to play their part- NO PRESSURE though…

good to see the old names still here, and a lot of new ones. 😁

Yup, it’s not good and Fozzie doesn’t have a clue how to dig us out of this hole, not that he has the players anyway. We are back to relying on gimmicks and big one off performances to make the differences.
Our pack is ageing and has lost its power and speed, we have three flankers in the back row and no specialist at 8 unless Sotutu gets in. Our midfield is a scramble of shortest straws are in.
And we are relying on fozzie to dig us out of the hole he got us into.
This is not going to be a good AB year.
Ireland will definitely win one test here, just hope it ain’t the first at Eden park.

Thought I’d pop in to make sure Brett’s picking the Blues for this one… SACRE BLEUUUUU!!!! No Blues….. again!!

Cmon the Bluuuuuuuues!! Lets get this Saders jinx out of the way once and for all????????

Nah, it just starts the clock…. Oops running man icon…

Your turn biltong is it? Good luck then. Wales will be tuning to a very different game plan then. … much more bicep curls this week.

Difference between being big and respecting it though. They’ll front to a minimum but they will front.

Still gotta learn how to apply the same freedom in the matches that count Harry. And that’s the three WCup knockouts. For the ABs those three matches are where the pressure strangles their freedom to express. Pretty lethal use of the ball doing the work out there today. They just pushed it into space all day, one touch passes, chips and finishes. Very high skill levels to react that quickly. Beaudys little hesitate then push over the top pass ‘into space’ for ALBs try shows the speed of his ability to adjust to the situation, he reacts so quickly reminds of those Equalizer scenes where it plays out in his mind beforehand ha ha.

Oh was it? Even better 😁

SBW is very misunderstood by some of those of us that don’t know him but everything from those that do can’t say enough about him so best to go on that in his case. Rennie was a huge SBW fan at the Chiefs and backed him to the hilt, talked about his impact on the squad in the simple day to day stuff being invaluable. That will have had something to do with Quades selection and you’d could see the change in Quade in that speech, that was no put on. He’s gone through a personal transformation that’s set him apart from his old self as he appreciates life and what it can bring… and what’s important.
He’s probably got enough ticks on the sheet to warrant a wee movie by now such is the enigma that is Quade Cooper. Very impressive.
On the kick a forty meter plus kick for a generally short range kicker, but one who has just put seven straight over in the last hour or so is obviously who you’re gonna go with, simply because of anyone within a hundred miles, you’re the only one in the zone for that kick.
But for a 33 year old, out of tests for a while, at max range, and critically at the very end of a rugged test match where Quade himself said his legs could only just hold up, those seven kicks will have also taken their toll, that’s a big moment of truth to deal with.
The rest is history, the way the big guy, can’t recall who it was, with the beard just dropped to his knees as though he’d just been awarded the keys to the pearly gates as it went over deserves its own scene in Lone wolf Quade the movie alone.
Couldn’t have written a better script. 👍

Nice, remember that tackle very well, in fact mention Pole Whiting and that’s what comes to mind. Recall Joe Morgan’s try as well. Our only test win that series. Looked like they were playing on concrete the ground was that dry and hard.

Yeah goalkicking was weird. Just about everything hooked left. No matter who it was. Sounds almost like a ball thing.

Yes… can vouch for that, add to that the winding and the embarrassment is complete. Not sure whether the shock or the deck is worse. 😂

Those are covid events, this is not, there is no covid in Auckland. But agree its probably too much to draw from one event. Time will tell.

Yes I realise that but Business now has Covid at every corporate table pulling a lot of the strings whether we like it or not. If they’re able to adjust entire city’s as a venue at short notice they should be well in tune with the impacts of doing that on sales and attendance. ‘Will Aucklanders support two Eden park tests in a row at short notice’. A simple question. For me the impact of allowing a half empty stadium sends out bad messages in today’s environment. Covid really is making it too easy for people to say ‘staying home ain’t that bad after all’. I’m guilty of that that’s for sure.
How much of a precedent does that send for businesses?

The beef I have with this game is the crowd size. Expecting Eden park to fill up two weeks in a row against the same side at short notice during a period of uncertainty was ridiculous. In times like this responsiveness is critical and NZ Rugby knew ticket sales were not just bad for an Eden park test, embarrassingly bad. With 48 hours to go they could have done any number of things:
– dropped the prices to 20, 10, even 5 bucks- thats still 50k in the coffers
– asked for a koha to one of 5 or so nominated charities
-let kids in free- they’d still get the parents tickets, and they could be reduced.

Or any combination of above or other options but whoever just sat back and allowed that size of a crowd at an Eden park test match needs to take a hard look at what rugby is supposed to be achieving during these times.

As a result they’re having to answer things like ‘why are the AB’s not so popular anymore’. 😡

Think he’d have hit his mark better with the long wide passes, there’s no one better at those.

Nice read Geoff, brings me back up to date with it all as haven’t been tuned to rugby a lot since Covid. Overall it feels plastic somehow, just get teams out there no mater how kinda thing.

For me as a kiwi the Oz interest is around how Rennie’s shaping this side and whether it’s a matter of time before it’s ‘his fault’. We aren’t seeing that but it’s inevitable if the results don’t come soon, the nature of the beast.

Rennie has brought a lot of new talent in, and in two of the four halves vs the ABs, were competitive, different halves of each test.

Part of Rennies, and most NZ coaches philosophies is about taking chances where there’s space, or a chance to create it. Those long passes that were intercepted for me have Rennie written all over them and although he’s cried them off as poor decisions and execution, I still think they have his fingerprints all over them.

it’s just the ABs have a much higher quality response for those sort of plays, and I think the ABs know that, that Rennie will chance his arm and the obvious place is out wide, so I don’t think it’s a coincidence the AB outsides we’re taking those in ‘as though’ they know the plays were coming.

That won’t stop Rennie or Oz doing it, and feedback from these efforts will be valuable for re-planning.

Clearly Rennie needs to find a balance of adding strings to his sides bow, yet remaining respectful of the test environment. Player improvement and learning must trend upwards, and quickly or these losses will quickly amount to nothing, and Rennie will become the obvious target. This is his team, Cheika’s is long gone.

Both sides learned a lot about themselves on the weekend I think, the wallabies, and Rennie, possibly more so.

Yeah look more like KB didn’t faze him at all- until he decided to audition for a war movie but part.????

Probably where we differ as fans. Don’t speak for other AB fans but when we strike adversity in the first few minutes… a red, a couple of tries I like to see how they respond, cos that’s often when the ABs are best, when they’re backs are against the wall. The refs and things can be left for later. But how your side responds to adversity, fair or not, tells you a lot about them in a very short period. Do they stay tight and focus of do they get frustrated and lash out or lose it. Here Oz we’re 10 nil down, man off for next 70 minutes in a drawn winner take all series. Showed a lot of character, especially the new guys.