Honest debate, my Drua whanau
Hot take incoming: keep the flair, fix the plane tickets instead. We leak 40+ away because half the squad looks like they've never seen a wet Tuesday in Dunedin until kickoff, and that's a preparation problem, not a style problem. You think packing mauls suddenly makes us tougher on the road? It just makes us boring AND bad.
And in reality? Any punter who's touched the TAB this season already knows the market prices us as a lottery away from Lautoka regardless of what game plan Mick papers on the wall. 🤡 So yeah, back the flair all the way, and stop pretending a forward-heavy sedative would've saved those three blowouts. What's the actual record at home again? Unbeaten. Exactly. 😏
15 posts
-
✓A preparation problem, is it? Funny, because every team flies on the same cheap flights to Dunedin and most of them don't concede forty a trip. Source on this theory of yours that a wet Tuesday turns Fijian forwards into strangers? I'd put it the other way round. Our forwards get monstered at scrum time away from Lautoka, and no amount of island flair survives going backwards on your own ball. Fix the set piece for travel games and the flair gets front-foot ball to work with. Keep pretending it's all in the heads and we'll be watching the playoffs from the couch again.
-
Nah, I'm with Robbed on this one, back the flair all day 💪🔥 You don't ask the Drua to become the Crusaders, you fix the travel prep so the magic shows up in Dunedin too. Remember when we ran ragged at home and everyone wanted a copy of us? Keep the faith, the forwards just need to give the backs front-foot ball away from Lautoka 🙌One love, one side ❤️
-
How can we seriously bank on flair when we've leaked 40+ points in three away games? I think they need a more forward-heavy setup for the road.Do the math before you argue.
-
Back in my day we used to say the islands won Test matches in the first half and lost them thinking about the second. Watched Fiji run the big sides ragged in the amateur days and my old man always grumbled the same thing, the flourish gets you twenty points, no flourish gets you the other twenty back two-fold. So believe me young lot, none of this talk is new 😄 I'll side halfways with FrontRowFan, be honest. Back the flair all the way at home in Lautoka, the crowd deserves it and no unbeaten record happened by luck. But on the road away, you need a pack that can hold a bit of ball and win the collisions first, then the fancy stuff comes off the back of that. Old Glenn used to say you earn the right to go wide. Prep matters too, mind, but every side faces the same weather and the same travel. Build a road plan, keep the magic for when the ground is dry and full.Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
-
MatchdayTillIDie, your old man's line about the flourish getting twenty and costing twenty hits close for me. My uncle in Sigatoka used to say almost the same thing about the sevens teams, and I'd argue with him every family lunch. I lean FrontRowFan's way, with a caveat. It doesn't have to be either/or. Pick the away games where the conditions punish wide ball, Dunedin and Christchurch type trips, and pack an extra tight five option into the 23 there. Keep the full carnival at Lautoka where the record speaks for itself. One honest note on sample size though, three away games leaking 40+ is a small dataset, so I wouldn't torch the whole style off that alone. But if we're serious about the playoffs, a plan B for the road is just good housekeeping. 📊Numbers > vibes.
-
-
Nah hold on, JackScrum, you'd put NZ$50 on us leaking 40 again but wouldn't back the pack to grind one out? That's picking your poison and calling it a plan 😅 And FrontRowFan, forward-heavy away games sound lovely until our forwards are getting bashed by two bigger packs every week... we're not built for that fight tbh. Fix the travel prep and the flair pays for itself, I reckon 🔥One love, one side ❤️
-
FullbackNut, our forwards have taken bigger packs on before and held. Watch as long as I have and you'll get it, the grind's teachable, flair away from home keeps leaking forty.Been here longer than some have followed.
-
UnderdogNightmare's got a point about the grind being teachable, but teachable to who exactly? Mick's matchday 23 has looked like a different team at Churchill Park than anywhere with a roof and a cold breeze, and until someone shows me the away training blocks that fix that, I'll stay sceptical of "we'll learn to grind." Show me one away game this season where the pack set the platform and I'll soften.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
-
RobbedAgainMerchant is onto something with the preparation angle, I'll grant him that. I keep my own running tally every round and the pattern holds: home in Lautoka we look like a different outfit, away we leak. But I could be wrong, and I'd add a caveat to the "fix the travel" crowd, because no amount of extra acclimatisation stops a pack getting shoved off its own ball in Christchurch. I sat through a wet club game at Cooks Gardens years back and even then the sides that scrummed well won. Preparation helps, pack depth decides.Do the math before you argue.
-
FullbackNut, I'll take that NZ$50 bet and double it, you're all sooking about wet Tuesdays like the Drua haven't got the fastest backs in the comp. Give the pack extra away reps and what do we become? A slow plodding side nobody fears. Fix the travel prep and the flair travels with it. Robbed was closest, the rest of yous are building a pack of meekos 🤡😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
-
Is it really the flair that's the problem, or is it just that they haven't faced teams who come out swinging when they're away? You can't just slap a grind-up on them and expect the whole spirit to vanish, they got the best backs in the competition. The defence just needs to buckle up harder when traveling, nah, it's not the backline at fault. 🔥 ⚔️
-
GoTheDistance, seen worse arguments from blokes at the TAB, mate 😄. Backs win you Lautoka nights, forwards win you cold afternoons down south. Back in my day every champion side had both.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
-
I keep my table for this comp every round and here's what jumps out at me: the home/away split is so lopsided it can't be one thing. Three away games, 40+ points leaked each time, unbeaten in Lautoka. If it were purely prep, Chris's tally would show at least one away game where the travel week went right and the scoreline tightened. It doesn't. But GoTheDistance has a point too, because a pack that only knows grind stops being the side that scares anyone on a dry Lautoka night. OldSchool said it best really, you need both, and the honest answer might be a hybrid where the mix shifts depending on the trip. Dunedin in July asks a different question than Lautoka under lights. I'm not ready to call it either way, and I'd want to see the away splits against the top four before I put NZ$ on any line at the TAB. Small sample though, three games. Mean thing is, we might not get an answer until the playoffs are already gone.Numbers > vibes.