Honest question, fam. Is our scrum actually elite or just surviving
Honest answer? Our scrum's been living off the red-and-black name for a couple of seasons now, and that last twenty at One NZ Stadium proved it. Shoved off our own ball twice against their pack and half this thread still posting "elite front row" like it's gospel. I'd happily put NZ$50 with anyone at the TAB that we get bullied again in the tight stuff next time we meet a proper pack.
And before the usual suspects pile on - watch the tape, don't just check the result. Reputation doesn't hold a maul up in the 75th minute, legs do. Remind me of your record on calling forward play? Yeah. 😏
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✓Honest answer? Our scrum's been living off the red-and-black name for a couple of seasons now, and that last twenty at One NZ Stadium proved it. Shoved off our own ball twice against their pack and half this thread still…Two dodgy hits in a twenty-minute stretch and suddenly the whole front row's finished? One bad evening against a fresh Saders bench doesn't cancel a season of set-piece dominance, surely.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Two shoves off our own ball against a FRESH bench and suddenly we're frauds?? you just know everyone forgets the other 60 mins... she'll be right 💪🔥
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Two collapsed put-ins in the final quarter when their bench mauls were rolling is a fitness issue, not a scrum verdict. The first 60 told the real story. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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watched that last twenty a couple of times now and honestly, seen worse scrummings from red-and-black packs than that. every team in the country gets shunted off its own ball when a fresh bench comes on smelling blood — used to happen to the great Canterbury sides too, they just didn't have forty cameras and a forum full of judges. i'd put it down as fitness legs in the final quarter before i'd write the front row's obituary 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
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Would happily take that front row over half the country's, cheers. Two shoves in twenty minutes against fresh legs and you lot are writing obituaries 🤡
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Nah but seriously chloe, if fresh legs shove us off our OWN ball twice and everyone just shrugs, what happens come finals when every bench is rolling like that? 😱 Love the fight in the last 60, do, but we gotta fix it, not excuse it 🔥💪In the stands since I was a kid.
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Nah but seriously chloe, if fresh legs shove us off our OWN ball twice and everyone just shrugs, what happens come finals when every bench is rolling like that? 😱 Love the fight in the last 60, do, but we gotta fix it, n…@UncleAllDay you're asking the right question, but the answer is buried in which scrums we're talking about. Two setbacks off our own ball late, against a fresh prop pairing, with our blokes on their fourth engagement of the half - that's fatigue arithmetic, and BadBeatKing's tape backs that up. Compare it to our first-phase hit in the first twenty: we were going forward on most of those. Both things are true, which is exactly the nuance people keep flattening into one verdict. Where you're dead right is the finals point. Every bench rolls then, and if our second-row rotations aren't timed better than they were in that stretch, the same thing happens against a sharper pack. That's a selection and conditioning issue, not a reason to write off the front row. Sample's small - two bad scrums don't make a weakness, but the pattern of when they happen is worth fixing before anyone panics.
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Nah but seriously chloe, if fresh legs shove us off our OWN ball twice and everyone just shrugs, what happens come finals when every bench is rolling like that? 😱 Love the fight in the last 60, do, but we gotta fix it, n…@UncleAllDay don't laugh but what's "fourth engagement" mean here, is that the number of scrums in a row? 🤔 still learning this stuff. Keen for finals either way 😅Daft questions are my specialty.
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Uncle, I've watched Canterbury packs since the amateur days. Every side gets shunted when tired — how it used to be too. Fix the bench, sure, but panic? Seen worse. 😉Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Funny thing about those two shoves - I went back through my notes and the tape, and the pattern matches how the last twenty always goes: their bench hits the pitch around the 60th, we're on our fourth scrum of the half, and suddenly everyone wants a verdict on the whole pack. Small sample though. Twice off our own ball stings, but count the four or five before it where we held against the Saders' eight and nobody mentions them. Depends how you count it, really. If "elite" means winning every engagement for eighty minutes against fresh legs, then no pack in this country qualifies. If it means winning more than you lose and holding shape when it matters, we're closer to it than the doomers think. Uncle's point about finals is the one worth keeping though, benches roll harder in October, so the last twenty is exactly where the answer will show up. I'll keep my tables ticking until then. 📊Numbers > vibes.
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Nah mate don't panic, the pack's been solid all season 🔥 Fatigue late on against fresh props happens to every side, always has. Coach the juniors here and I drill it into them - scrums are won with legs, not ego, and tired legs creak. Get the bench sorted and we're sweet for finals 💪🙌