Kiwis vs Fiji World cup 2021

[Rich102]

The bunker calls were bewildering.
The one in the second half where Hiku pushed a player who was forming a wall protecting Sivo was crazy.
Weird.
But you are right. Beware a decent team.
We are way off.

 

[TheDMC]

Nerve wracking game, we were lucky not to lose. If Fiji were a tad more ruthless, we were done for. Our one advantage is that we have now had a very tough game as useful preparation for the semi, while Aus have had a cake walk throughout. But we need to be way better. So clunky on attack all tournament.

 

[Izz]

Australia might put 50 on us...

 

[Beavers Headgear]

I watched the 2nd half, and realised I don’t have passion for the kiwis anymore. I don’t know why or when it happened, guys like NAS maybe don’t help, but when it was close, I wasn’t on the edge of my seat at all and if they went down I would have been ambivalent

 

[Matua]

Aussie is going to kill us if we play anything like that!
McGuire knows it.

I'm hoping this was the game to focus us after we've basically only had unopposed training runs up until now.

 

[Diesel]

I think Fiji went out to make a point that the Aus/NZ game wasn’t a forgone conclusion. The Kieis were rattled and took a lot longer to get into the game. The 2nd half, while not perfect, was what we needed. Tough game but a win

 

[Philip_Smith007]

We looked like a team that hadn't played together.
We normally get better as a team as tournaments go on. This doesn't seem to be the case this time around.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

I'm hoping this was the game to focus us after we've basically only had unopposed training runs up until now.

Foran coming on seemed to settle the team a bit.
Everyone seems to try to be doing their own thing or trying for individual pieces of brilliance.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

The bunker calls were bewildering.
The one in the second half where Hiku pushed a player who was forming a wall protecting Sivo was crazy.
Weird.
But you are right. Beware a decent team.
We are way off.

I didn’t have a problem with that one, Fiji player had every right to be standing there and the push contributed to the error

thought we got very lucky with about 5 or so to go when one of our centre’s blatantly took out a chaser and no call was made. That Kikau strip we got away with too, could easily be called loose carry

Interesting question on the radio this morning, as an Aussie, can Madge get them fired up on kiwi pride etc, as Lowe and McLennan used to with great effect

 

[Philip_Smith007]

I didn’t have a problem with that one, Fiji player had every right to be standing there and the push contributed to the error

thought we got very lucky with about 5 or so to go when one of our centre’s blatantly took out a chaser and no call was made. That Kikau strip we got away with too, could easily be called loose carry

Interesting question on the radio this morning, as an Aussie, can Madge get them fired up on kiwi pride etc, as Lowe and McLennan used to with great effect

Kikau hand/wrist movement made it look like a strip, if hand/arm comes out straight it would be a loose carry.

Need a few motivational speakers to come in for Kiwi pride. Start with someone from 2005 tri-nations winning team!

 

[Beavers Headgear]

I’ve only really seen us play the 2nd half yesterday, and it won’t happen because we are too deep into the tournament, but our best option IMO is Foran to start at 6

He straightens the attack, he isn’t afraid to tune the forwards up and get them in the right spots, he will dig into the line, and just has that general big game experience and he also knows that this is it for him in the Kiwis shirt World Cup wise

 

[Matua]

Interesting question on the radio this morning, as an Aussie, can Madge get them fired up on kiwi pride etc, as Lowe and McLennan used to with great effect

As bad as they are he's doing better with them than Kidwell who was as proudly Kiwi as you could get. I think he's got them up with Kiwi pride for the Tongan games the last two times out, games that many expected the Tongans to win handily.

Also, they're playing Aussie, they shouldn't need anyone else to get them fired up on Kiwi pride.

Agree with you on Foran starting, tough on Brown but we as you say we need someone with experience and the mana to boss people around, and who better for that than our token white dude.

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

I think its the conditions as well.

The fields are short, weather is cold and miserable and the atmosphere seems bleak

 

[Philip_Smith007]

I'm just not seeing any structure in attack or what you could call a plan, well more than the Warriors, but that's not hard.
No focus on changing angles, no big guy running at halfback, no stripping for numbers. Hopefully regulation fields and sunlight might help?