Blues 2018

[J Dory]

Blues versus Sunwolves, tough to watch. The Blues look clueless.

[J Dory]

Jamie Joseph, what a cool dude.

[morepork]

JD...how close are the wolves to being a threat, and how much the Bloos being naff? Japan plays a pretty pacey game (pacey?) that looks to me to be a good template for success.

[J Dory]

I don't want to disrespect the Sunwolves, but I will. They still look a level below. The Blues give me the blues. Chock full of talent, though to be fair, maybe less this year than those recently gone by, but somehow unable to focus the talent in a deadly manner. Coaching? On field leadership? Fcked if I know the answer.

[Spy]

JD...how close are the wolves to being a threat, and how much the Bloos being naff? Japan plays a pretty pacey game (pacey?) that looks to me to be a good template for success.

I only caught the last 20 minutes, but the Blues were pretty terrible. Have they lost a few players to injury? Seemed a bit of a b team.

[zer0]

It very much is a B team. About a third of the starting XV is out injured:

Scott Scrafton
Blake Gibson
Jerome Kaino
Augustine Pulu
Otere Black
Sonny Bill Williams

Scrafton and Black are gone for the season. Dunno about the others. Dalton Papali'i has just returned from injury but should slot into one of the flanks. Guys like Moala and Nanai are also unavailable. Probably a bunch of others too. The NZ derbies aren't kind on the players bodies.

[zer0]

Some more details on the 18 players currently unavailable due to injury:

Otere Black (knee – season)
Blake Gibson (shoulder)
Glenn Preston (groin – season)
Sonny Bill Williams (wrist)
Augustine Pulu (foot)
Alex Hodgman (wrist)
Scott Scrafton (leg – season)
Daniel Kirkpatrick (ribs)
Melani Nanai (ankle)
Jordan Trainor (hand)
Matt Johnson (surgery – season)
Jerome Kaino (hamstring)
George Moala (chest – season)
Josh Goodhue (shoulder)
Tamati Tua (hand)
Gerard Cowley-Tuioti (knee)
Caleb Clarke (appendicitis)
Michael Collins (hand)

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/sup ... -sidelined

Players in bold would've been in the match day 23.

[morepork]

They went down again.

Wawwiors won but. Just sayin'.

[J Dory]

I'll take a win by the Warriors, one winning Auckland side is better than none.

[scuzzaman]

Could be worse.

.You could be England.

[rowan]

The Herald's post mortem:

Another loss for the Blues and another reason to believe the club is trapped in a relentless cycle of failure they are powerless to break.
Maybe it's even worse than that, though: maybe all those connected with the club have come to believe the Blues can't be fixed. Maybe they have given up dreaming of the day the Blues are something other than easybeats without direction.
Defeat has come to define them. Being in a perpetual state of chaos is what everyone has come to expect and it was noted that a strangely large crowd barely even managed to groan as the unforced errors piled up.
There is certainly no sense of outrage in the stands at how badly the team are playing. There has been little indignation from any quarter in fact, and coach and players would appear to have a licence to drift through this campaign in any state they choose and no one is going to particularly care.
That's the truly sad part - that the Blues have made such a habit of losing that it is what everyone has come to accept.
In the same way as football was once described as a game played over 90 minutes and at the end Germany win, might now the same be said of rugby except that at the end of 80 minutes, the Blues lose?
Here we are eight weeks into the competition and they haven't won at home. They have just two victories to their credit and they haven't yet played the Crusaders or Hurricanes home or away.
Their season is over. The only questions now are just how bad is it going to be? And, amazingly, does anyone really care?
When the Blues were in a similar spot in 2012 - having won just one of their first seven games - coach Pat Lam was effectively fired and the city of Auckland felt like it was ready to come at him with pitch forks.
In 2015, the Blues were again in a similar mess and barely a day went by without some kind of venom being spat at coach John Kirwan.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/ar ... ref=NZH_fb

[morepork]

I'll take a win by the Warriors, one winning Auckland side is better than none.

Was a good win boss. Mean on attack and staunch in defense. Man I hope they keep it up.

[Spy]

Let's not forget the Blues are the only NZ team with silverware already in the cabinet for 2018. Brisbane 10s Champions. The year's already something of a triumph.

[zer0]

Jack Goodhue left because he wanted to study agriculture, or something along those lines, which isn't available in Auckland. He wasn't overlooked. Gareth Anscombe is better than Volavola.

[morepork]

Jack Goodhue left because he wanted to study agriculture, or something along those lines, which isn't available in Auckland. He wasn't overlooked. Gareth Anscombe is better than Volavola.

Auckland will suck your kok if you can thread your academic career through the hogs eye of the dairy, no matter how tenuous the thread. Jack wanted to nail sheep. Canterbury is as good a place as any to nail sheep.

[J Dory]

Warriors destroyed by the Storm. Yikes.

[morepork]

Totally fucked 'em.

[Lizard]

TAB is offering $3.60 on the Jags ($10 for 13+). Could be worth a look.

[zer0]

Definitely worth it. The Blues only have five 1st XV players available, and two of them will be out of position to cover more injuries as the toll is now just short of 20. The 1st XV vs the named team:

1. Pauliasi Manu
2. James Parsons
3. Ofa Tu'ungafasi Sione Mafileo
4. Scott Scrafton Gerard Cowley-Tuioti
5. Patrick Tuipulotu Josh Goodhue
6. Jerome Kaino Jimmy Tupou
7. Blake Gibson Kara Pryor
8. Akira Ioane
9. Augustine Pulu Jonathan Ruru
10. Otere Black Stephen Perofeta
11. George Moala or Melani Nanai Tumua Manu
12. Sonny Bill Williams Rieko Ioane
13. Rieko Ioane Orbyn Leger
14. Matt Duffie Jordan Hyland
15. Michael Collins Matt Duffie

The Argentine test team is in real trouble if they can't beat this lot.

[Lizard]

Jeebus. I have literally never heard of half of that lot.

[Spy]

I've had a Blues season pass for the past 5 years or so, and attended usually a couple of home games a season prior to that. Seriously, I think tonight was the smallest crowd I've ever seen at a Blues game. Some mitigating factors in the bad weather today and this evening, and minimal Auckland-residing ex pats compared to most games, but nonetheless.

[scuzzaman]

A Blues season pass?

Is that better than a striped hand-knitted cardie?

[Spy]

A Blues season pass?

Is that better than a striped hand-knitted cardie?

There's a good group of guys I go with. Drink some beer, smoke some weed if you feel like it, talk some bollocks, watch your team get spanked at home. It's actually a pretty good time, most of the time. That's despite ongoing poor performances leading to poor results, and a pretty poor attitude from Auckland Rugby toward the poor saps like us who actually stump up hard-earned to watch this shite.

It does include 2 All Blacks test match tickets, so that's something.

[zer0]

And the free bag of potatoes like they dished out at one match last season?

[Spy]

And the free bag of potatoes like they dished out at one match last season?

Pretty much the season highlight.