08 :: Centenary Test :: Australia 28 New Zealand 12 @ SCG

[Harold Bishop]

He had the same impact as Asotasi tonight For as long as he was on the field..

Halatau went well when he came on for luke like every other poster has said...

Seu Seu WTF :lol:

Fair enough, thats your opinion.
Cayless is running on old legs, he cant break a tackle these days and is one-dimensional.

 

[Y2Eel]

Fair enough, thats your opinion.
Cayless is running on old legs, he cant break a tackle these days and is one-dimensional.

How many front rowers broke a tackle tonight??

He is still one of the leading front rowers in the comp old legs or not..

 

[Harold Bishop]

How many front rowers broke a tackle tonight??

He is still one of the leading front rowers in the comp old legs or not..

Maybe i was a bit harsh in saying that he should be dropped - he is a "workhorse" type of prop, which probably wasn't what the kiwis needed tonight. I just think the kiwis need another quality prop.

 

[lucablight]

Its time to clear the deadwood out of NZ - Cayless, Halatau, Webb, Leuluai, Hohaia.

.........

Were you even watching the game? Cayless made 103m and 34 tackles and Halatau was one of the kiwis better players.

 

[joel caine number 1 fan]

didnt relize nz made 500 more metres than australia changes need to be made there

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

I'd hardly call Webb deadwood. He came into the team under difficult circumstances. He's the best Fullback New Zealand have. Get him down here for the WC where he has a couple of weeks to train and gel with his teammates and you'll see why he's our best Fullback. As for guys like Hohaia and Lealuai, well I'd like to think they'd struggle to make a side containing Ropati, Roberts, Marshall, Vatuvei, and Inu in the backline.

 

[Harold Bishop]

.........

Were you even watching the game? Cayless made 103m and 34 tackles and Halatau was one of the kiwis better players.

Good on him for making 100 m, but i dont think that is the only indicator of a good performance. The guy just doesn't have any aggression.

Just out of curiosity, why do you think the kiwis are so far behind?
I mean the backs were pretty good, in particular Sa and Soliola looked like breaking the line.
The halves were pretty hopeless. Luke was pretty good.
The only forwards that looked dangerous was SBW, Mannering and at times Pritchard.

 

[Fast Eddie]

I'm reasonably happy with the performance. Let ourselves down in the first 20 obvisouly, one try being freakish and the other coming from a strip though. 2nd half was pretty good. Both Halatau and Luke made good metres out of dummyhalf and SBW, Sa and Solioa were dangerous. Kicking game killed us though.

Pretty confident we will go well at the WC.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

Just out of curiosity, why do you think the kiwis are so far behind?

The halves.

In 2004/2005 we had Stacey Jones, and even at the back end of his career playing on one leg he still knew where and when to kick, which kics to put in and how to move his forwards around and structure the attack to best test the opposition defence.

Doesn't happen now. Now we rely on individuals to break the line rather than team efforts to create the space.

All up I don't think the Kiwis are as far behind as the aussie media would like everyone to believe. They were soft in the first 20 minutes, perhaps a little gun shy or a hangover from the last time they played the aussies. They'll take a lot of confidence out of that match and if they can keep that core group of players together plus add some attacking spark with Benji, Vatuvei, Inu, Ropati, then they've got a team capable of beating anyone.

With all teams at full strength and plaing to their potential, Australia wins. Pretty much that simple, but I don't think the Kiwis have any reason to fear their forwards and in test matches that's where the game is won. I think the Kiwis will take a huge amount of confidence from that match, and if they can get Bennett to sta on for the World Cup it could be a very interesting competition.

 

[Maroon and White]

didnt relize nz made 500 more metres than australia changes need to be made there

What, was that before or after 22-0 when Australia clearly took their foot off the pedal? I was sitting in the members and a few of us were saying that the powers that be will be telling the players that there is a world cup at the end of the year and maybe it would be a good idea to not score too many more points. You would have to be a complete idiot to believe that Australia's intemsity didn't drop off at this point. Everyone in the crowd were saying "Why, just finish them off, FFS!" Then the Kiwis started to get all of the penalties - go figure, so anything done by the Kiwis after this period is null and void in my opinion and in quite a few others who were there also. Bottom line - it stopped being a spectacle after 22 minutes and became a bore. The Aussies tried to get the Kiwis back into it, but they couldn't do it.

 

[lucablight]

Good on him for making 100 m, but i dont think that is the only indicator of a good performance. The guy just doesn't have any aggression.

Just out of curiosity, why do you think the kiwis are so far behind?
I mean the backs were pretty good, in particular Sa and Soliola looked like breaking the line.
The halves were pretty hopeless. Luke was pretty good.
The only forwards that looked dangerous was SBW, Mannering and at times Pritchard.

Definitely the halves. In 2005 NZ won the Tri nations and in 2006 they lost in golden point and both games were with Stacey Jones at halfback. Even though he was well past his best he was still much better than the current halves.

If you don't rate Nathan Cayless who would you replace him with apart from Jason Cayless? I would say after Asotasi he is the best prop NZ have got.

 

[shiznit]

What, was that before or after 22-0 when Australia clearly took their foot off the pedal? I was sitting in the members and a few of us were saying that the powers that be will be telling the players that there is a world cup at the end of the year and maybe it would be a good idea to not score too many more points. You would have to be a complete idiot to believe that Australia's intemsity didn't drop off at this point. Everyone in the crowd were saying "Why, just finish them off, FFS!" Then the Kiwis started to get all of the penalties - go figure, so anything done by the Kiwis after this period is null and void in my opinion and in quite a few others who were there also. Bottom line - it stopped being a spectacle after 22 minutes and became a bore. The Aussies tried to get the Kiwis back into it, but they couldn't do it.

did you hear ricky stuart tell the players to ease it off did you....

i dont f*cking think so so your opinion means jacksh*t...