NPR

Kiwias wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 6:05 am Bloody hell, that must have hurt his lungs

Enzedder wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 6:57 am Man, we bossed the breakdown. Hope we can take that to the game next week.

Enzedder wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 6:57 am Man, we bossed the breakdown. Hope we can take that to the game next week.

Enzedder wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 6:34 am You know what this means??? I have to go to Auckland next week.

Never go to Auckland.

Who wants my collection of left hand thread corkscrews?

Guy Smiley wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 7:09 am

Enzedder wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 6:57 am Man, we bossed the breakdown. Hope we can take that to the game next week.

Absolutely dominant over the ball...

but the Canes were their own worst enemy there, failing to show up in support.

Torquemada 1420 wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2024 8:13 am

Guy Smiley wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 7:09 am

Enzedder wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 6:57 am Man, we bossed the breakdown. Hope we can take that to the game next week.

Absolutely dominant over the ball...

but the Canes were their own worst enemy there, failing to show up in support.

A Canes team shy of the hard graft? Who'd have thought that......

Guy Smiley wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2024 9:53 am

Torquemada 1420 wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2024 8:13 am

Guy Smiley wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2024 7:09 am

Absolutely dominant over the ball...

but the Canes were their own worst enemy there, failing to show up in support.

A Canes team shy of the hard graft? Who'd have thought that......

They were the best team all season, Torq... and consistent in that. Getting to the finals series was no fluke and they shot themselves in the foot with a poor game last night. Perhaps a return to type but I think that's unfair, it was just one of those nights for them.

Torquemada 1420 wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2024 6:56 pm

Guy Smiley wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2024 9:53 am

Torquemada 1420 wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2024 8:13 am

A Canes team shy of the hard graft? Who'd have thought that......

They were the best team all season, Torq... and consistent in that. Getting to the finals series was no fluke and they shot themselves in the foot with a poor game last night. Perhaps a return to type but I think that's unfair, it was just one of those nights for them.

Too much hail Mary offloading and too little grit certainly in that game but yeah, maybe that wasn't the story of the season.

Enzedder wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2024 10:30 pm All of a sudden, the desire to have a good hooker available is overwhelming

Now that the Blues and Chiefs are the last two teams standing, there’s a multitude of storylines to present as pivotal to the likely outcome of the 2024 Super Rugby final.

There will be two young and enterprising No 8s in Hoskins Sotutu and Wallace Sititi desperate to prove it is their package of power, pace, and soft skills that are a must have for the All Blacks.

There are two coaching teams equally eager to show they have the depth of analysis and planning to tweak their teams strategically to pose a few unexpected questions in the final.

Can the Blues (who were out-thought and outplayed in the 2022 final) and the Chiefs (who suffered the same fate in 2023) take the pain of their respective experiences and convert it into a tactically smart, clinical performance?

Perhaps strangely, the best story – certainly the one no-one saw coming four months ago – is that the Blues may have found themselves the unlikeliest of unlikely heroes in Harry Plummer.

His ability to manage their gameplan has been underappreciated and undervalued by everyone other than his team-mates and coaching staff.

The Blues’ revival under new coach Vern Cotter has been built on a simple yet exhaustive desire to break opponents in the middle of the field through endless, destructive ball carriers.

Cotter arrived with a singular focus on lowering body heights in the contact area to improve the dynamism of the forwards’ ball carrying and clean-out work.

All season – including the semifinal defeat of the Brumbies – the Blues have been able to advance 30m to 40m on the back of four to five phases of clinical, destructive pick-and-drive ball carries that often see power wings Caleb Clarke and Mark Telea get involved to do some of the heavy lifting.

It’s proven an almost unstoppable way to build momentum, set the defence pedalling backwards and create space and opportunity.

And it’s the way that Plummer has taken advantage of the opportunities his pack has presented that has been the surprise of the season.

He’s been very good at balancing when to pass, when to kick and when to run – and he’s been just as adept at knowing to whom he should pass, where he should kick and into what holes he should run.

His execution has been just as sharp as his decision-making and Plummer has carefully and methodically steered his ship with the sort of authority and control few imagined he possessed.

For years, the Blues have lamented their lack of quality at first five-eighths; ironically, having lured Beauden Barrett to Auckland to fix the problem, the solution has been a local boy under their noses all this time.

The Blues’ simple, direct rugby and Plummer’s accurate, low-risk approach have proven a surprisingly potent combination, and his value was perhaps best illustrated in semifinals weekend not by what he did in Auckland, but what the Hurricanes didn’t get right in Wellington.

Whereas Plummer struck the right balance in his game management, Brent Cameron didn’t get the kick-run-pass ratios right for the Hurricanes.

The No 1 team, playing on their home ground, spent the first half kicking the ball away, hoping a tricky wind would bamboozle the Chiefs’ back three.

But it was a strategy that not only depowered the Hurricanes as it left the likes of Brayden Iose, Peter Lakai, Jordie Barrett, Billy Proctor and Salesi Rayasi chasing shadows, it played directly into the Chiefs’ hands.

The visitors were both better at the prolonged bouts of kick tennis and better at mixing up their use of possession as demonstrated with the two counterpunch tries they scored in the opening 10 minutes.

The game only turned in the second half when the Hurricanes kicked less. But the damage was done and it illustrated just how important it is in these tight encounters, where line speed is incredible, to vary the attack and present defences with an element of doubt about where the threats lie.

What makes Plummer’s role in the final yet more intriguing is that he will be matched against a No 10 in Damian McKenzie who could hardly have a more contrasting approach.

McKenzie has a wider skillset, a greater array of personal weaponry and a greater appetite for risk as he presents such an individual threat that he’s licensed to back his speed and agility to challenge defences.

The Chiefs man will buzz about at first receiver, he’ll pop up in the backfield, and he’ll happily play kick tennis – and for 80 minutes it will feel like the game is almost all about him.

In stark contrast, Plummer will be light touch – a clearing kick here, a short pass there and a little probe down the blindside to create what will almost be rugby’s play-making version of the tortoise and the hare.

And just like the tortoise, there is something compelling about Plummer’s steadiness and resolve.

JM2K6 wrote: Mon Jun 17, 2024 12:13 pm I thought Plummer was shit, tbh.

Not as shit as Gardner, mind. What the hell was he smoking? Baffling inconsistency.

Should be a good final

Kiwias wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 7:15 am Rushing PT back from injury so quickly could rebound on the Blues.

Guy Smiley wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 7:37 am

Kiwias wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 7:15 am Rushing PT back from injury so quickly could rebound on the Blues.

Initial diagnosis was that he'd done his knee and would be out for months...

that's either a wildly inaccurate diagnosis or these is Something Afoot.

Enzedder wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2024 7:00 pm Blues $1.45 Chiefs $2.60

From the poll that matters (other than the match itself). We're doomed.

Matchday - Go Chiefs

Gumboot wrote: Sat Jun 22, 2024 6:49 am It's pissing down in Auckland. Hope we still get some razzle dazzle.

Enzedder wrote: Sat Jun 22, 2024 7:56 am Half time and game over at 20 to 3. Blues grinding the Chiefs down with superb forward power but I think I would rather watch the Warriors than this style of play.

Bloody Cotter has been corrupted