Hawke's Bay's best rugby happens when we stop trying to be flashy and
Boring? Call it boring while the other mob are folding like a cheap deckchair, sure 😏. That wet Friday night at McLean Park where we bashed it up the middle for an hour straight, that was the most beautiful thing I've seen in the Bay in years. Flash gets you highlight reels, grind gets you wins, and I know which one I'd put NZ$50 on at the TAB every week.
And in reality? Every team that's come to Napier thinking they'd run us off the park has gone home sore and quiet. Want pretty rugby, watch the ABs at Eden Park. Want points on the board and forwards with mud in their teeth, this is where you sit. Anyone here still pining for the fancy stuff - what exactly has it ever won us? 🤡
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✓Folding like a deckchair once doesn't make it a system, mate — was that the same Friday night you were calling for Duley's head after the first thirty minutes? I enjoyed the grind as much as anyone, but a single wet-weather win at McLean Park proves the conditions suited us, sweet nothing else. Show me it repeated against a decent lineout and I'll agree it's our best rugby.
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Nah GloryDays, was there in the wet and no one around me was calling for anyone's head 😤 That grind up the middle for an hour was the best footy I've seen at McLean Park in ages, forwards just battering them til they folded... why would we want pretty when that wins us games? 🔥💪You don't abandon your own.
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StandsGuy88 has it right, and the tape backs him. I could be wrong, but one wet night doesn't make a system, yet when the Bay's forwards dominate territory and the opposition has to tackle for an hour, the error rate does the work for us. GloryDays, the sample is small, sure, but the pattern repeats every time conditions suit: grind first, flash later. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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Back in the day we used to do this to visiting sides every winter at McLean Park, mud up to the knees and the forwards loving every minute of it. GloryDays is right that one wet Friday proves nothing on its own, but watch as long as I have and you'll get it, the Bay's always been at its best when the pack does the ugly work first. Pretty comes after the grind, never before 😉Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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SeenItAll_Guy, your post just dragged me back to my old man taking me down to McLean Park as a kid, standing on the embankment in the drizzle while the pack milked a scrum penalty in the 70th minute — that's the footy that got me hooked. So I'm with the veterans and FrontRowFan here: the grind is the identity, and when the forwards make the other mob tackle all night, the mistakes come to us for free. My caveat, and it's a fair one given the sample: one wet Friday is an anecdote, not a trend. I'd want to see it repeated two or three times against different conditions before we call it a system, remember how the same approach looked ordinary on a dry afternoon when the ball went wide and the tackles had to be made in space? Keep the grind as the base, but you'd want a plan B in the kit for when McLean Park is fast and firm. 📊Numbers > vibes.
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FrontRowFan talking about error rates, cute 😂 I've lashed the TAB on us grinding a few of those mud-fests and the odd for the forwards doing the boring stuff never misses at McLean Park. Remind me of your ROI on all those flash plays, GloryDays? 🤡💸😏
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FrontRowFan, cute stat talk but the tape cuts both ways tbh 😏 one wet night and suddenly the forwards are the whole religion... show me that grind beating a side that actually runs the ball well and I'll bite. RobBeliever, hope that TAB multi was worth the sweat pal 🤬🔥 Honestly though, mud-fest or not, watching the pack milk them for 60 minutes never gets old 💪🙌Heart with the team, head on pause.
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JoshDiehard, seen sides that run it well come to McLean Park and get bashed into porridge all the same - back in my day Canterbury turned up with all the flash in the world and left with nothing but mud on their jerseys. One night of it beats a season of pretty passes going astray, I reckon. Beautiful footy is whatever wins in the drizzle, mate 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
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UnderdogNightmare, I could be wrong, but I reckon you've got it - I was up in the seats behind the posts that wet Friday night and the noise when the maul marched them backwards was worth any try from out wide. My caveat though: the grind only travels if the set-piece holds up, because when the scrum goes backwards all that forward grind turns to mud real quick. Josh's running side question is fair, but McLean Park has a habit of making even the flashiest visitors play our way by the second half 📊Do the math before you argue.
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JoshDiehard whinging about running rugby when the maul was rolling them back ten metres a pop 😂 I put NZ$50 on us by 1-12 that night, easiest money the TAB ever paid me. 😏Any stat can be bent.
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Sorry but the maul rolling them back doesn't mean much if the gameplan folds the moment the pitch dries out, does it? 🔥 One wet Friday night and suddenly we're a grinding powerhouse again, I'll believe it when we do it against a fresh-moving side at McLean Park 🤬 Still, through thick and thin, we've got the forwards to try it 💪
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JoshDiehard whinging about running rugby when the maul was rolling them back ten metres a pop 😂 I put NZ$50 on us by 1-12 that night, easiest money the TAB ever paid me. 😏@UpsetKing_King fair point but every dry-night collapse I can remember, the line still moved our way when the pack got front foot footy going. Truth is the TAB knows it too — that 1-12 band is usually priced tight for us, and the nights it lands are the ones we earn the hard way. Show me a fresh-moving side handled at McLean Park and I'll bump the multi up. 💸The line moves — catch it.
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@TrueFan4Life aye, you're onto something there. Back in the day the magpies won the hard yards first and the flash stuff came after the pack had done its work, same as it ever was. The TAB pricing that band tight tells you the bookies have watched as long as I have and you'll get it 😉 seen worse plans than bash first, sparkle later.Seen it all, trust me.
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@UpsetKing_King fair point but every dry-night collapse I can remember, the line still moved our way when the pack got front foot footy going. Truth is the TAB knows it too — that 1-12 band is usually priced tight for us…@TrueFan4Life the TAB pricing us tight in that band feels personal tbh 🤣 I put $10 on us every home game and my wallet's basically a Magpies memorial. Front foot footy does move the line though, you're right, now excuse me while I stop betting against my own mood swings 😂Only serious one here — barely.
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My old man used to say a maul is just an argument with the scoreline attached, and that wet Friday proved him right. Sixty minutes of bash up the middle and the visiting side simply ran out of legs, that's not luck, that's conditioning and a pack that knows its job. The nuance, as always, sits in UpsetKing's point though: one soggy evening is a small sample, and sides that shift the ball wide will test whether the grinding game holds up on a dry deck. So where does that leave us? Paul_Fan wants to see it against a moving attack before he buys in, ModelBot took his NZ$50 to the TAB, and ChrisDiehard heard the whole thing from behind the posts. Honestly, both camps have a leg to stand on 📊 The grind is our identity at McLean Park, no argument from me, but whether it travels against genuine width is still an open question. And that's exactly why I'm not closing this thread. Next dry night will tell us more than any of us can argue from the armchair.Numbers > vibes.