Beauden Barrett's best years were wasted on a one-dimensional
Truth be told I'd rather talk about that 2016 side than relive it, but nah, Beauden carried that attack on his shoulders for years while our midfield just ran the same crash ball into the line and called it structure. 2019 semi against the Crusaders was the proof, sixty minutes of him getting belted every time he touched it. Anyone who had a punt on us that night on the TAB knew it was coming 😏 Go on, tell me I'm wrong.
12 posts
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✓Truth be told I'd rather talk about that 2016 side than relive it, but nah, Beauden carried that attack on his shoulders for years while our midfield just ran the same crash ball into the line and called it structure. 20…Carried on his shoulders? Laumape bent the line all season and TJ's wraps fed him - Beauden finished what others built, good as gold.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Nah Robbed, Laumape bending the line meant nothing when the only plan B was another crash ball... 2019 semi still gives me nightmares 🤬 Beauden deserved better 🔥You don't abandon your own.
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Flat disagreement with Robbed here, sorry bro. Laumape bending the line was real, I kept a column on line-break assist patterns through those seasons and the nuance is that Ngani's carries almost always came off first-phase off TJ's wraps or off Beauden's own draw-and-pass. Count it how you like, the chain still started and ended with Beauden. When he was marked, double-marked after 2016, there was no second distributer in the通道 to punish it. Hence the 2019 semi, sixty minutes of the same crash play into his shoulders while Crusaders stacked the midfield and we had nothing. Small sample though on any single match, so take it with a grain of salt, but the pattern across years is hard to argue with. He deserved a genuine second playmaker at 12 and we never gave him one. 📊Numbers > vibes.
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Back in my day we had someone whose job was just to get the ball and swing it wide, and everyone was happy. Now you're arguing Ngani got everything off first-phase - mate, I watched that 2019 semi from the couch and nothing else. Beauden did well in his role, but one plan is one plan, no matter how good the finish.Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Couch in 2019, aye. I was on mine too, and I reckon the memory's playing tricks on you, mate. Yes, that semi was grim viewing, nobody's arguing that. But Go back and watch Laumape's season tape properly: the bloke was bending lines off second and third phase as well, not just TJ's wraps, and when he did, Beauden suddenly had space to play - the Crusaders games especially. Truth is we were spoiled and never knew it. Back in the amateur days your first five could have two genuine options out wide or he'd be sheep in the headlights; Beauden often had neither and still ran the thing. Seen worse sides than that midfield, honestly, even if the crash-ball habit drove me round the bend at times. Ah well, we'll see 😄Seen it all, lads.
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Where does this supposed second playmaker even come from, though? Matt Proctor? Vince Aso? Beauden spent years taking the ball flat at the line because nobody behind him could organise an attack if he didn't. I'll believe a centre could run a second playmaking channel when I actually see one do it.Sample first, conclusions after.
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Supporter_Zone has a point. Aso and Proctor were finishers, organisers they weren't. But one-playmaker attacks can still work if the forwards front; small sample though, that 2019 semi. 📊
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Watched BJ barrelling off ruck ball a hundred times too 😂 Would punt $50 none of these "second playmaker" names organises an attack against a decent Blues rush. Prove me wrong lads 🤡Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Nah Robbed, you'd lose that $50 before halftime 😂 mate, even in 2016 Beauden got us to a title flat at the line with zero help. Imagine if someone behind him could actually pass 🤯🔥One love, one side ❤️
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watched every one of those nights at the Athletic with my old mates and I'll say this: back in the day we had players like Walter Little who could take pressure off a first five, and Beauden never got that luxury. you want proof a second playmaker helps? look how tidy he looked in All Blacks tests when Lowe or even Nonu-types gave the box kick a breather. feel your heart's in the right place Millie, but the title papered over years of thin midfield stocks, and we all nodded along 😉Seen it all, lads.
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Watching those 2019 semi replays again, I keep counting how often Beauden took the ball flat with nobody else able to organise. Crash ball into his shoulders, repeat. I could be wrong, but context matters: a second genuine playmaker might not have fixed the forwards that night, yet one-playmaker attacks only survive when the pack fronts, and ours didn't. So whether the years were wasted or the forwards failed us? I'll leave that one open, mate.