Honest take, team: this Canterbury pack is the best we've had in a
Dead right about the pack, dead wrong if you think the backs are the whole story. Eighty metres of territory against the southerners at One NZ Stadium and we came away with nothing. That's a coaching problem as much as a finishing one. Ball goes wide once or twice a game and the rest is crash-it-up-and-hope. Frustrating when the forwards are earning the right like that. Halfbacks and midfield need a honest look before anyone blames individual wingers. 😏
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✓Coaching problem? What would the coaches have done differently with that much territory, the forwards kept winning penalties and the backs just couldn't finish them. I'd want to see the turnover count in that 22 before blaming anyone's clipboard. Source on the tactical angle, or is this gut feeling dressed up as analysis?
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Nah GloryDays, blame both. Forwards win the ball, backs munt it away in the 22 😤 A decade-best pack deserves better than that, coach shoulda gone more direct 💪🔥Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Territory means nothing without entries that stick. I could be wrong, but I'd guess we turned it over at least twice in that 22 before the backs even got a set piece. Both coaching and finishing.
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Made me think of the old Lancasters Cup days at Lancaster Park, when the pack would march the opposition back ten metres a scrum and we'd still grumble about the three-quarters losing it. Watch as long as I have and you'll get it, a good pack is a foundation, but someone's still got to put the roof on. Both sides of the ball copped blame then, and it's the same story now 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
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Nick's right about entries, watched it live from the terraces - half our 22 visits ended with a knock-on or a moose ball on second phase before the forwards could even set again. Hard to blame the finishing when we rarely gave the backs a clean platform. Fix the support lines at the breakdown and the rest might sort itself.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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RobbedAgainHater318 has it spot on, and I'd add the nuance that breakdown cleanout at the ruck was half the problem too. We had quick ball maybe twice inside that 22 all match. I keep a running tally each round and our second-phase conversion rate has been sliding for three weeks now, so there's a pattern, small sample though. Coach needs to fix the support lines before we blame the outside backs for everything.Numbers > vibes.
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Everyone's arguing about the backs like the first receiver has to invent something every time. Nobody's mentioned the halfback service yet, we were sniping and box-kicking ourselves into corners all arvo instead of actually using the quick ball BadBeatKing says we only saw twice. That's the cheapest fix in the whole puzzle, mate, and it costs a selection call, not a rebuild. Pack deserves better, that's the honest bit. You march the southerners back like that at One NZ Stadium and give them eighty metres, you've earned at least a dozen points minimum. Any punter at the TAB had us covering comfortably off that platform alone 🤡 Sorry, but if the forwards have to both win the collision AND fetch their own clean ball every phase, we'll be moaning about this same thing in another decade. 😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Twice in the 22 all match and suddenly it's a coaching crisis? 😱 Give the pack their flowers, fellas — but yeah, box-kicking all arvo did my head in 🤬One love, one side ❤️
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Back in the day we'd have settled that argument over a beer at Addington, but I'll say my piece anyway 😄 halfback service matters, sure, yet I watched us butcher two prime tries from clean ball against the southerners, forwards earned that 80 metres fair and square, the finishers just spilled the rent. Seen worse sides, mind. Ah well, we'll see.Seen it all, lads.
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Metric_nerd's two butchered tries from clean ball sums up my spreadsheet from that one 📊 the pack earned every metre, the finishing and the box-kick habit both coughed it up, and coaching sits somewhere in between. Small sample though, one afternoon at One NZ Stadium. Give it three more rounds of Bunnings NPC before we crown anyone or bury anyone.