Beauden's glory years are making us blind
Barely got through that 2018 quarter-final thread without cringing. Wellington, our own gaff, and the Crusaders just rummaged us into oblivion at the breakdown while we all sat there holding our beers. Been soft up front since 2016 and Beauden's magic trick papered over it, that's the actual story. Every punter I know who watched the line that week knew we were getting bullied before kickoff. Nostalgia's lovely, but it won't win you a scrum. Clowns still blaming the coach 😏
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✓Funny how everyone remembers that quarter-final as a forward mauling when we actually led the territory stats for long stretches. One bad twenty minutes and suddenly the whole pack's been soft for a decade. You might be onto something about 2016-onwards recruiting up front, on condition that you show me where the breakdown actually cost us outside of that Crusaders game. Otherwise it's a nice story built on one sore afternoon.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Nah Andy's got a point and it hurts to say it 😤 I was at that 2018 quarter, blokes around me just went quiet as the Crusaders killed us at ruck time over and over. Territory means nothing if every ball you win comes out slow as treacle, that's the whole story that night. Beauden bailed us out for years, no shame admitting the pack never matched him. Still backing this mob through thick and thin mind, and the current loosies are starting to grow some teeth. But yeah, own 2018 first, then we can talk 🙌 ah well, nowt to doYou don't abandon your own.
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I could be wrong, but Faithful's got it right - territory is a red herring when every ruck ball arrives two seconds late. Watch the tape of that 2018 quarter again and count how many times Read or Whitelock got hands on our ball before our cleaner even arrived; Beauden was playing off slow, turned-over-adjacent possession all night. That's why one soft twenty minutes at the breakdown decided the whole thing, and it's the same structural weakness that's been in this pack since 2016. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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my old man used to haul me down to the brook back when the ground was more mud than grass, and the one lesson off those terraces never left me - forwards win the game, backs decide by how much. that's why this thread rings true. we were all so happy watching the beauden show from 2016 on that nobody wanted a look at the engine room, and fair enough, it was a lovely ride 😄 but one title since tells its own story. that quarter in Wellington, the saders just wanted it more in the tight stuff. read and whitelock camped on the fringe of our rucks all night and we had no answer for it. territory's worth nothing when your ball comes out slow as treacle, faithful said it right. back in my day a poacher doing that to our ruck would've ended up face down in the mud by the second half. flash gets framed, softness gets remembered.Been here longer than some have followed.
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RobReds, that Read ruck moment still haunts me too, and I keep a spreadsheet on pack stats that says we've been soft up front for years. Could be wrong, but the 2016 aura hid it.
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Watched that 2018 QF again recently with my old man, we got mongrel'd off our own ball all night, plain as day. Beauden's magic papered over the front row for years 😏Show me your ROI first 😏
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Count me with NickDiehard on the spreadsheet point, because my own table says the same thing: once you strip out Beauden's points contribution from those seasons, the pack numbers go from respectable to ordinary fast. Depends how you count it of course, but the 2018 QF at the Brook was the tape that gave the game away, Read stepping over that ruck untouched was the whole season in one frame. Where I'd push back slightly is the "since 2016" line: there's a nuance there, because the 2016 pack earned that title, it was the years after where the vacuuming started and nobody adjusted the recruitment. Small sample though on any single quarter-final, which is why I'm not ready to close the thread on it. Keep the tabs running another season and we'll see if the forwards have actually learned to own a ruck at home again. 📊Numbers > vibes.
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@BadBeatKing nah this stacks up tbh. Watched those years live, Beauden papered over plenty. Pack got exposed the second the aura cracked 🤬 ah well, nowt to doYou don't abandon your own.
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StatHead your old man is right, watched that QF at my uncle's place and we got shoved off our own ball all night, still burns me 😤 everyone raves about Beauden's chip over the top (fair) but who was winning him clean front foot ball? nah, pack was living off the aura 🏉Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Only seen highlights of those years since I was a bit young to really remember, but even the old timers at my local club say the same thing, the forwards were going backwards without Beauden bailing us out 🤔 daft question maybe, but was it the front row itself or just no size in the reserves when legs got tired? sorry if that's been covered 😅Learn something new every day.