Entries Tagged as 'Game Review'

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

ABs(19) vs England(6): A game of two horizontal lines.

Well not much to write about…
Ask your self this : How many times did I see two horizontal lines line up against each other?  
If its more that ZERO, its too much !
Ref: ELVs – ‘The Field Wide Trench Defence’ or ‘FWTD’
How do you get a two lines of rugby players?
SLOW BALL from the break down. [...]

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

ABs(32) vs Aussie(19):Much better !

Zip zap ‘Conrad’ scores !!
Hanson: In charge of the backs, and on first impressions what a great improvement. Just proves how useless Wayne Smith was at forming a back line attack. We saw some structured attacks, great stuff !
Henry: In charge of the forwards, and once again on first impressions ‘much better’, but not “BOK” [...]

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

ABs(33) vs Australia(6):Aussies were duds!

First a win is a win, so history will say. We  done ABs !
But more was said about this AB team last week when they lost to the Boks.
The Aussies were duds, they were already on the beach, speedos and suntan lotion at the ready !
So the media will mostly post positive print on the [...]

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

ABs(29) vs Boks(32)..What can you do then ?

Well after the dance, it was all down hill !
Well done Boks 3-0.
How did they do it ?
1) Kick to known ‘fubbles’ in the ABs back line.
2) Defend like the Greeks.
3) Take 3 points within 60m.
4) Play the new rules, by forcing mistakes in oppositions half.
5) Exploit the lineout advantage.
6) Played off a structured platform. [...]

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

ABs(19) vs Boks(31): School Boys vs Men.

 
This is all this current crop of ABs can do, a silly dance before they get hammered.
Quick paragraphs to tell the truth.
Missing a World Class 1st Five: Having Dan Carter in the side hid the truth behind the talent curtain of other ABs. Talent is missing. Some guys are leaders and some are followers. We are seeing [...]

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

ABs(19) vs Boks(28):63rd minute disaster!

       
The ABs spent only 2 minutes in the Boks 22 in the first half. The ABs fueled the ball possession of the Boks by penalties and dumb mistakes. The the ref liked the roar of the home town crowd when he penalised the ABs as well.
If this ABs side was a batch of pancakes, [...]

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

ALL Blacks(22) vs Aussie(16)

       
       ONE hand on it !
What was good:
1) Winning after being 10 pts down.
2) Tactical nouse to play the conditions correctly.
3) Subs in second half had a purpose.
4) Donalds play after the first 20 minutes.
5) Richie and Conrad game after the first 20 minutes.
6) Our forwards beat there forwards, just.
7) Turnovers swung our way [...]

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

All Blacks(22) vs France(27)

 
……man for the job !
Is he or isnt he ?
Well look the this single selection issue : Toeava !
Last night he did not impress, and failed at a critical time. He has been given more chances than your ex wife ! But they still pick him year after year.
Henry comments: Henry, and Wayne Smith, [...]

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

All Blacks(32) vs England(6) All thats bad in rugby.

                           
Yellow for hapless untalented England. 4 English yellow cards. Maybe this is the first step to 13 man rugby union. (ha!)

Mears (killing the ball)
Haskell (elbowing)
Flood (high tackle)
Rees (killing the ball)

82,000 people paid money to see this international rugby union piece of junk. I should have stayed in bed rather than drag my tired body [...]

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

All Blacks(29) vs Wales(9): It was a FM!

Q: One painting is by the famous artist Jackson Pollock, the other is by an elephant, one is claimed as a master piece, the other is not. Which is the master peice? 
A: Here.
The divergence of spin with the view points of these painting is amazing, ranging from the fantastic art performance of Pollock to absolute ridicule for the elephant. To [...]

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

All Blacks(19) vs Australia(14) – There getting better !

Battle of coaches- A win to Deans. Once again Deans proves his coaching nous is superior to Henry. Deans has a younger side, less talent to choose from, they are getting better, scoring more tries. Ok they didnt win, but it sure looked like it for a while. You must wonder what the ABs Coaching staff actually [...]

Saturday, September 13th, 2008

All Blacks(28) vs Australia(24) – Slow start, better finish !

 
Spring Time in NZ…
September in NZ is spring time, and the cold bleak dark weather roles away, the arrival of warm sun shine wakens kiwis to outdoor pursuits like fishing, hunting, snow skiing, long black coffees at the cafe. The ABs had three weeks off and that’s what they were doing, so to come back to test match [...]

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

All Blacks(19) vs Springboks(0) – Zip, Zilch, Zero !

  
Richie McCaw – Fee Fie Foe Fum, I smell the blood of a Afrikaner !
The Dan Carter and Richie McCaw show was awesome at Capetown. To win in South Africa is hard and rare enough and to hold them to zero score was just outstanding, or was it ! I must say the Boks were just [...]

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

All Blacks(39) vs Australia(10) – Spanking returned !

  
Jimmy Cowan, stood up !
ABs: What’s was good…
Firstly, the tight five won the man of the match, second, Cowan and Carter with there much smarter tactical performance, third, Richie McCaws workload, fourth, Woodcock, fifth, Woodcock, sixth, Ali Williams one man show at the kick off, seventh, The ‘Badger’ Hore.
ABs: What’s was not so good…
The best [...]

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

All Blacks(19) vs Australia(34) – Spanked.

   
Robbie Deans is turning the Wallabies into the Crusaders. He is following this ELV game blueprint. In a few short weeks the Wallabies are 5-0. Deans didn’t meet the Aussie players until after the Super 14 ended, unlike Henry’s mob who spent the whole Super 14 studying games and players. Aussie is supposed to [...]

Saturday, July 19th, 2008

Australia(16) vs Springboks(9) – ELV comment.

 This is just a quick note to comment on the ELV’s in the above game.
 1) Did you notice the contrast in refereeing style between this game and the game the week before (ABs vs Boks), ELV’s can also be destroyed by the refs performance (I mean the poor performance of the Aussie ref in the AB game).
2) [...]

Friday, June 13th, 2008

All Blacks (37) vs England (20) : Some lessons learnt !

         
          Laukai left, Tuiali’i right.
 Lessons, the Bad.

1) Why is Mose Tuiali’i not in the team over Sione Laukai ? Sione has not impressed in the black jersy ever, so whats he doing there. My bias opinion is that Henry can pick brawn over brian’s, and this is an example of it. Mose is brawn and brian’s.
2) Andy Ellis [...]

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Super 14 Final : Birth of the generic ELV rugby style!

             Crusaders win!
Yes I can honestly say this was one of the better ELV rugby games in the Super 14 season. But what did Robbie Deans work out at the beginning of the season that the other Super 14 coaches did not.
1) ELV rugby laws allows play to be very loose (non structured): Using free kicks solely [...]

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Hurricanes (17) vs Blues (19) 16-5-2008

             
      
A review of the game based on the balance between structured vs non structured rugby.
Conditions: Dry, ground hard.

- Short Lineouts: 16
- Full Lineouts: 12
- Scrums: 20
- Rucks: 120 (The best I could count)
- Mauls: 2
- Tries Broken Play: 2
- Tries Set Piece:0
- Tries Phase Play:1

The percentage of ‘ball in play’ when the ‘Backs vs Backs’ [...]