Bobby DIGital
Coach
- Messages
- 12,696
Fish didn't even know we have to play next week either, and he's our captain lol.
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Fish didn't even know we have to play next week either, and he's our captain lol.
I'll give Stacey Jones the benefit of the doubt because he was missing heaps of first choice talent but I'm worried the Kiwis are going into a Kidwell 2.0 phase which would be a huge waste as their best lineup is probably the strongest the Kiwis have ever had.
But, but, but... These Islander teams make no impact in Tonga and Samoa. I found that out right here on this forum from people who don't live there.
It's a good thing that we have the problem that the stadium is too small. We never thought we'd be having that discussion. Hopefully from now on as the moment builds Pacific Championship Finals are reserved for Suncorp, Allianz or Eden Park.
Lower bowl looks sold out
Yeah, hopefully Stacey falls on his aword like Kidwell. He's clearly not up to it. His selections in certain positions were awful, and his bench rotation was not up to par.
A bit of discussion on this is happening in the NRL 2024 Crowd Watch thread.
The week off might not be an advantage
Disagree. Giving Fiji, PNG & Cook Islands and hopefully later other the chance to win their way to playing against the best countries in the world is a great point of difference for this competition.
its definitely a flawed draw, aussies get the week off and Tonga have to back up after an 80min bash a thon.
Didn’t Laybutt play yesterday?
The Final is the 4pm game.Rather than write a new post I'll just copy and paste my post from the NZ section version of this thread. With obligatory congratulations to Tonga first since this is an all comers thread.
Two days later and I'm still pee-d off at this result. Rant incoming.
That was a pathetic display from selections down to the poor game management at the end.
I 100% do not buy into any claims we were the underdogs due to a weakened team. Even with a weakened team we should have won. The fact is we got to within 1 point after a first half where we shed 24 points and could barely complete a set without an error and then we should have put the game away before the Tongans got their drop goal.
It was rank stupidity to go into this series with a plan to play a fullback who had an average season as our starting 6, instead of a guy who genuinely had a good season at 6. Love Stacey as a player but getting Kidwell vibes from him as a coach.
The big names in our pack didn't fire a shot in the first half, then came right in the second, if they'd done it from the start we'd have won that.
We made Tui look like a competent half in that first 40, and fat Taumololo look like he was good again.
AFB was never going to pass that close to the line, why hang off him? They did it late in the game too, just hit him when he starts dancing around. TBF getting him to the ground is easier said than done but at least freaking try.
Why was Niukore playing and Riki sitting in the stands. Niukore living off a couple of good years rep, he was mostly mud this year when not injured.
The NZ crowd was pathetic. Turn up for the Warriors yet allow Tonga to take over the ground for test rugby.
Rant over (for now).
Good things. Loved the passion that Crossland showed playing for the Kiwis, he seems like another Foran who will give his all for us despite being raised in Oz. Neame has had great impact. Kini is a talent, a pity he was expected to play 1 and 6 at the same time.
Other things. I dislike Ka Mate so much prefer the Kiwis own haka.
I don't care about Origin from the point of view of players playing for Tonga. There's not many in that team I consider genuine players who really wanted to be Kiwis, Fat Taumalolo yep back in the day, but even a guy like AFB is tenuous, he only used us because he wasn't picked by Tonga. Our NZ Samoans have mostly stayed loyal too. But I think since we're getting beaten by supposed tier 2 teams then is should be opened up to NZers and Origin, therefore guys like Howarth and Ponga could play origin and NZ.
Was going to go to the game next week (Commbank is a great stadium) but my two mates have both said they're not keen after that display. So now, I'm not sure what I'll do. The ticket price would have been fine for two games, but I'll likely bugger off after the Kiwis match as I hate both those two teams playing the final.
