3 . Crouching Taiga 22 Aug 2012 02:02 PM
Nonu is past it and even though he played alright in places he is far from the Nonu of old. I'd love to see Carter retain the number 10 jersey, move Cruden into 2nd five and SBW at 13. Cruden is a line breaker snd game changer, but Carter is still too good to bench. Why not have them both in? Nonu has done nothing to retain his spot IMO but there isn't anyone else sticking their hand up either. He kind of gets the spot "by default".

1 . Barcaldine Bunyips 20 Aug 2012 04:08 PM
I'd bench SBW. He needs to learn to pull his head in and throw a normal pass once in a while. The one handed offload is all well and good when you are running into two defenders and you want to keep the ball alive by hitting an attacking runner. But if you are just putting the ball out through the backline,then pass early and pass with two hands. The All Blacks really should have scored two or even three more tries in that game. Not knowing when the pass is going to come, at what height it is going to come and whether it is going to be in front or to your chest means the outside backs can't time their run and are almost stationary when SBW finally decides to pop out something fancy. Call me old fashioned, but people scored plenty of tries before the one handed pop pass existed. It is not a secret weapon anymore.
Kurtley Beale is another who deserves a week on the sideline. That was shocking. He genuinely looks like he was just showing up. Someone of his pace shouldn't be beaten repeatedly on the outside.
Nathan Sharpe was awesome. Good to see the Seagull living up to his nickname.

Twenty six odd penalties in the Aus-Nz game and no-one sent to the bin. Why not? If you're desparate to get your point across then make up your mind to do so. Use the cards. That is what they are there for. If you are blowing penalty after penalty and no one is listening, then bin someone so we can get a game of rugby. I, like so many others, was champing at the bit for some top quality test rugby and came away dissappointed. The All-Blacks are an arm and a leg better than Aus at the breakdown and at EVERY breakdown. Australia seems to have a desire to play phase play but can only manage to commit to the first few rucks before they are out classed. Richie McCaw showed what he is capable of when he stays on the right side of the rules. Mealamu seemed to have the orders to target Pocock all night and that worked a treat. My beloved Wallabies didn't look like a winning outfit. Not for a minute. Our kicking game was "meh" at best, Genia was too slow to hand out free ball for most of the first half. 2nd half better, but why does a guy of his experience stand over a ball that is open at the back of a ruck for 5-10 seconds while the opposition merrily set themselves. I kept waiting for some stunning set piece to be unleashed only to have Barnes aimlessly kick the ball or a forward to run up one out again and gift a turnover. Oh well there's always next week. Well done the All Blacks. Even when you play poorly you do enough smart work to come out on top.