If Bay of Plenty can beat Hawke's Bay 32:17 but ship 43 points to
So the Steamers beat Hawke's Bay by 15 at Rotorua International Stadium, then nine days later Southland hangs 43 on them. Same squad, supposedly. Anyone at the TAB who took Bay of Plenty at that line down south got flattened, and honestly fair enough, the floor on this mob is cellar-level.
Here's my actual point for the selector: you judge a bolter on his floor, full stop. Ceiling is easy to fall in love with — everyone looks like an All Black when the pack is going forward. But the 12:43 at Southland and the 45 put on them by Tasman tell you what happens when the tide turns, and NPC rugby is exactly where you find out if a bloke has the ticker for that. Give me the guy who was still trawling in Invercargill at 32:0 down over the one who stuffed the stat sheet against a middling Hawke's Bay at home. Give me one selector who actually thinks otherwise 😏
8 posts
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✓One result in isolation tells a selector very little, and I'd argue even the 12:43 in Invercargill is being overread, three games is a tiny sample, and context matters. The Hawke's Bay win shows the ceiling, the Southland and Tasman defeats show what happens when the set piece and defence get tested away from Rotorua, and if I'm picking a bolter I want to know his role in both performances, not just the scoreboard. I could be wrong, but a bloke who was good in the 32:17 while his forwards were getting shoved backwards at Rugby Park is worth more than a stat line suggests.Do the math before you argue.
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FrontRowFan has a point about small samples but i'd flip it a bit, back in the day you could watch a bloke for a whole NPC season and still get it wrong, so selectors have always leaned on what a player does when things turn sour. anyone can look a million dollars when the Steamers are running hot at Rotorua International Stadium and Hawke's Bay are chasing shadows. the 12:43 down in Invercargill tells you more about character than the 32:17 ever will. a bolter needs to show me his floor before i care about his ceiling. i actually sat in the terraces down south for games like that in the amateur era, and you always knew within twenty minutes which fellas would keep their heads when the tide went out. that's what i'd be watching on the 24th against Tasman, and again when North Harbour come to town on the 4th. one good afternoon is a highlight reel; three weeks of grit is a career. ah well, we'll see 😄Seen it all, lads.
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Metric_nerd nailed it imo. Anyone can look good when the 32:17 win's rolling at Rotorua, but Invercargill showed who folds 🔥 ah well, nowt to doYou don't abandon your own.
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Seen worse from Steamers sides, mind. But Metric_nerd's got it. A selector watches who scrums on when the tide's gone out, not who shines at Rotorua.
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Bit rich everyone suddenly being experts on who "folds" after three rounds. SeenItAllFaithful wrote off the whole squad off the back of one munted afternoon in Invercargill, which is exactly the sort of knee-jerk read that gets punters cleaned out at the TAB every NPC season 😂 Here's my angle: the floor argument only works if the losses look like character failures. 12:43 away to Southland and 26:45 down in Tasman look more like a thin squad getting bossed up front on the road, that's a depth problem, and selectors already know how to read around it. The Hawke's Bay win at Rotorua at least shows the ceiling's real when the pack gets a platform. So judge the bolter on what he personally did in both games, sure, but stop pretending the team scoreline is his report card 🤡💸 Either way, North Harbour at home next week will tell us more than this thread ever will.It's a lottery, not sport.
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Fair question, but I'd nudge it the other way for a change — who got the young blokes through the bad weeks? That 12:43 in Invercargill would've hammered most sides, back in my day we'd have folded by 30 too 😄 a selector should be watching who kept chasing in Tasman's 45 more than who sparkled at Rotorua.Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Honest answer? Nobody from that mob's getting a call off either week 😂 judged on the floor, always, selectors watch Invercargill tape, not Rotorua highlights. 🤡Here to argue, not to nod along.