Four Nations Week 1

[Kimlo]

Johnson is such an awesome player, some of the kicks he's put up have been ridiculously hard to catch.

 

[Big Pete]

Which isn't fair on Walker at all.

 

[Broncoman]

He's a ****ing coward who has never down anything at origin level

Bullshit do you even watch Origin and see the figures he puts in each game for his club, state and country.

 

[Brent81]

We aren't getting the rub of the green but it happens. Very poor quality game and easily the worst Aussie team in some time, they need the rub of the green.

Pick a team of blues and blokes who have done nothing beyond having one good club season (mansour, walker) and that's what you get.

Maybe we can go back to picking on merit now.

 

[Broncoman]

Walker's debut is up there as one of the worst in history..

I think he has been OK

 

[Ari Gold]

Lol at Origin being dragged into this again.

I'd save it for some fun reading, but Anna and I have a wedding to plan!

 

[K-Style]

Because he is a strong, hard and never takes a backward who also always plays at his best in rep level. He is also the best player in a crap team.

I find it hard to believe I'm agreeing with Broncoman but Bird is the one of the few who looks like he is trying and actually playing well.

 

[Brent81]

Bull**** do you even watch Origin and see the figures he puts in each game for his club, state and country.

He's fucking coward. First one to put in a cheap shot and the first to bitch when someone hits him a little high.

Most blues supporters even hate him and that's saying something.

 

[Big Pete]

Bird is a grub.

But he's also a great rep player.

 

[Kimlo]

The Australians have been shit. New Zealand definitely the better team tonight.

Hugely stupid to have Thaiday as a prop.

 

[Kimlo]

He's fucking coward. First one to put in a cheap shot and the first to bitch when someone hits him a little high.

Most blues supporters even hate him and that's saying something.

You're letting your hate get in the way or your judgement, I don't like Bird either but there's no way he's not an excellent player.

 

[Big Pete]

Thaiday has been among the least of the Australians worry tonight.

 

[Kimlo]

It honeslty seems like the team is badly coached, obviously a lot of players missing but there's been no real rhythm to the play or any consistent pressure or any real set plays. I'm expecting a huge turnaround next week.

Loving the footy.

 

[Kimlo]

Lol at Origin being dragged into this again.

I'd save it for some fun reading, but Anna and I have a wedding to plan!

Congratulations mate!

 

[Kimlo]

Thaiday has been among the least of the Australians worry tonight.

Maybe so, but his selection at prop to begin with just immediately screamed to me that we didn't have our best team on the field.

I'd swap Hunt for DCE next week and Thaiday benched for a real prop.

 

[Big Pete]

Well, that was a surprisingly good performance from the Kiwis.

In fairness to the Australians, when you rub out a fullback and half - you're always going to struggle and tonight was a clear example why. They went from getting GI level kick returns and had to settle for Walker who tried his best but clearly wasn't up to it at this time.

It meant they stayed on the back-foot and just fed into the Kiwi's momentum.

Those sort of adversities demand resilliance but unfortunately the task was too hard for the Australians tonight and they looked really lost. I'd actually have to put a level of blame on Smith for that. I thought his defence at times was poor and his decisions out of dummy half lacked the usual seal of confidence that's made him the player he is. Case in point, the Aussies worked their way into the Kiwis half in their best set of the second half. Instead of going to Cronk who had the numbers on the left, Smith called an audible, went right and Farah kicked it straight to Foran.

Another case in point was when Scott & Mansour failed to trap Hiku in the corner. That was a huge play from Peta, brilliant but at the same time poor from the Australians.

That isn't to take away from the Kiwis at all. They had some great performances and for the sake of this competition, hopefully tonight marks a coming of age.

We spoke earlier about bad debuts - how about great debuts? Taumalolo was fantastic - a start to what should be a brilliant career in the black and white.

He wasn't alone either - Bromwich was strong, Proctor took advantage of a crap fringe & the bench was fantastic. While the Kiwis waxed lyrical about Adam Blair, how about sparing a thought for Martin Taupau who was very strong in the middle of the field? Ran hard, bend the line and got a quick play the ball - what's not to like.

Eastwood for mine has always been a good player in the bigger games. Once again, he stepped up here on his old stomping grounds.

Not the greatest test matches I've seen, but certainly makes for compelling viewing, that's for sure.

 

[Mitch06]

Maybe so, but his selection at prop to begin with just immediately screamed to me that we didn't have our best team on the field.

I'd swap Hunt for DCE next week and Thaiday benched for a real prop.

David Klemmer :O 14 errors and 5 conceived penalties for Australia. Daly Cherry-Evans was a massive liability in defence. Everytime someone ran at him butterflies were in my stomach. I really hope Inglis is okay, he makes the difference. I really don't know if Australia can change too much.....replace one inexperienced player with another. Hunt is an obvious inclusion. I thought Jennings was a stand-out, made quite a few linebreaks and was a shining light.

Good on the Kiwis though. The fowards really layed the foundation for them and Shaun Johnson was fantastic and the backline really didn't have to do much to look good

 

[Big Pete]

Maybe so, but his selection at prop to begin with just immediately screamed to me that we didn't have our best team on the field.

I'd swap Hunt for DCE next week and Thaiday benched for a real prop.

Changes have to be made and I don't mind the idea of Thaiday being moved to the fringe or to the bench but I definitely think there's been a bit of scapegoating going on in this thread and I'm making a stand against that crap.