Season wrap up

[Lizard]

In a nutshell:

Worst All Blacks since at least 2009, but still won the 3N and held the Bledisloe.

Best Pumas since 2007.

Worst Wallabies since, well, actually 2018 wasn’t great either.

[cashead]

Positives:

1. Akira Ioane
I admit that I had my doubts about Ioane's quality as a test player, but credit where it's due, he addressed the key concerns about his game. While one swallow does not a summer make, it may be that the team has a viable candidate at blindside. With Squire returning for 2021, the blindside stocks look the healthiest it's been for a while.

2. The wins
There was a lot to be optimistic about in the 3 victories that the All Blacks secured this year, and for all the criticism Foster gets, the team absolutely knocked it out of the park when they had to.

3. Sam Cane
Remember all the bitching and moaning and wailing and gnashing of teeth about whether he was even good enough to start for the All Blacks? Yeah, those people can kindly keep their sewers shut forever, because it's clear they know absolute shit about fuck. Even during the disastrous season for the Chiefs, Cane was logging some impressive numbers (tackle count, tackle success rate, turnovers won, etc. - the only area he was lagging in was metres carried), which improved at the test level. It's almost as if Super Rugby and test rugby are different beasts and success or failure in one is not an entirely accurate indicator for success or failure in the other.


Negatives:

1. Discipline
This is, to an extent, also a World Rugby issue, as a lot of the discipline problems with the All Blacks came from retaliating against opposition niggles. They clearly handled it well, for the most part, in the return fixture against Argentina - the Tyrel Lomax yellow (where he was lucky not to get a red) was an isolated incident within the context of the game. That said, we can expect those kinds of tactics to continue, since it's clear that the risk:reward ratio encourages it. Why not cheekily slap a hothead like Dane Coles in the face during a ruck? Goad him into losing his shit, because they'll be punished for retaliating.
"Reversing the penalty for retaliation" is something that is dumb as fuck in execution, because it essentially forgives the original offence.

2. The loss to Argentina
It's not the fact that they lost which was frustrating, but the manner in which it happened. You could put down the Brisbane result as basically "it was a wild game." The All Blacks were still well within it, and a lucky bounce of the ball here, a kick that connects there, and we'd be talking about how it was a close call for the All Blacks and that hey, they went 3 wins, 1 draw and no losses against Rennie's lads. In the Pumas game, they were never even given a chance to get into the game.



Overall:
Using the assessment schedule I used for the mock exams with my most senior year level class (Year 13 Media Studies - gonna miss you, 13MED 2020. One of the best classes I ever taught. Love those girls.) of 0 to 8, I'm willing to give Foster an A4. Next year, he gets to do a resubmission to see if he can get it to M5, M6, E7 or E8.
He's assembled an excellent coaching panel, and when things go well, they're pretty much unplayable. He's also shown significant signs of addressing the concerns highlighted in the only genuine, unqualified failure of the season.

Next steps:
Assuming the regular test schedule is restored next year, incorporating Scott Robertson into the coaching team in an assistant role for the Rugby Championships would be ideal.

Giving players an opportunity to grow into their roles through consistent selection, and providing them an opportunity to respond to a failure in the return fixture against Argentina was a positive step. It shows he is not prone to panic or reactive selections, nor is he too trapped by conventional "wisdom," most of which is pure bullshit anyway. So yes, Ian. More of that, thanks.

[morepork]

"...the team absolutely knocked it out of the park when they had to."

Did they though?

[cashead]

Beating Australia comfortably at Eden Park, and then putting a record score on them in their next fixture? Nilling Argentina in the return fixture after being beaten by them for the first time? I'd say yeah.

[zer0]

The Wallabies spent most the Eden Park test trying to impose defensive physicality by shoulder charging everything. It's easy for a guy like Clarke to run wild when all he has to do is not get knocked over by a wild tackle with no arm-wrap.

Fair play at Sydney. That was a great performance against top tier opposition, but was very much an outlier for mine.

On the other hand, that return match was against Argentina B. The real test was the first match against Argentina's top XV where they got bullied -- both physically and mentally -- and didn't fire a shot for ~65/70 minutes.

The sword of Damocles should absolutely still be hanging over Foster for next season.

EDIT: And ol' Fozzie can count himself very luck he didn't have to go to Europe and risk getting prison shamed by England's pack, or embarrassed by France's 3rd XV.

[morepork]

That's kind of what I was alluding to. They didn't do the job first up, twice, if you follow me.

[cashead]

The Wallabies spent most the Eden Park test trying to impose defensive physicality by shoulder charging everything. It's easy for a guy like Clarke to run wild when all he has to do is not get knocked over by a wild tackle with no arm-wrap.

Fair play at Sydney. That was a great performance against top tier opposition, but was very much an outlier for mine.

On the other hand, that return match was against Argentina B. The real test was the first match against Argentina's top XV where they got bullied -- both physically and mentally -- and didn't fire a shot for ~65/70 minutes.

The sword of Damocles should absolutely still be hanging over Foster for next season.

EDIT: And ol' Fozzie can count himself very luck he didn't have to go to Europe and risk getting prison shamed by England's pack, or embarrassed by France's 3rd XV.

That's kind of what I was alluding to. They didn't do the job first up, twice, if you follow me.

They're a young team that is rebuilding, they're always going to drop a few fixtures here and there. That's the unfortunate reality of it, even if they're in a better position than what Hart had to work with in 1998.

Neither the other team's selection decisions nor scenario imagined up for your fan-fics should be weighted heavier than the actual results put in front. They finished the year with the Tri Nations with a lop-sided p/d which secured them the title regardless of the outcome of the final fixture between the other two teams, and they won a 4-test series against Rennie's Wallabies (who only won the 1 game all year).

Tell you what, let me re-assess the All Blacks to meet your standards:

Foster was a fucking failing failfuck who failed because they didn't cure cancer, colonise Mars and they weren't able to uncover either the missing final reel of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons or the missing footage to re-assemble Erich von Stroheim's 8+-hours-long cut of Greed. The fucking fucks, how dare they. ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON.


Bunch of fucking Lemongrabs around here.

[morepork]

Fuck me...

[J Dory]

Cas, lowest zero to outrage time of any poster on the inter web (please don't hurt me).

[cashead]

Fuck me...

While there is no small amount of sarcasm, using another team's selection decisions or hypothetical scenarios cooked up in your imaginations as a stick to beat the team with is completely pointless.

[Puja]

It's probably a good thing you don't hang out on the EMB very often Cas. There's very active discussions on whether Eddie Jones deserves to keep his job because we've won 8/9 games this year in a not convincing enough fashion for certain members of the board.

Worth noting that we did fire our coach the first time we lost to Argentina...

Puja

[zer0]

They're a young team that is rebuilding, they're always going to drop a few fixtures here and there. That's the unfortunate reality of it, even if they're in a better position than what Hart had to work with in 1998.

Neither the other team's selection decisions nor scenario imagined up for your fan-fics should be weighted heavier than the actual results put in front. They finished the year with the Tri Nations with a lop-sided p/d which secured them the title regardless of the outcome of the final fixture between the other two teams, and they won a 4-test series against Rennie's Wallabies (who only won the 1 game all year).

Tell you what, let me re-assess the All Blacks to meet your standards:

Foster was a fucking failing failfuck who failed because they didn't cure cancer, colonise Mars and they weren't able to uncover either the missing final reel of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons or the missing footage to re-assemble Erich von Stroheim's 8+-hours-long cut of Greed. The fucking fucks, how dare they. ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON.


Bunch of fucking Lemongrabs around here.

lel.

While there is no small amount of sarcasm, using another team's selection decisions or hypothetical scenarios cooked up in your imaginations as a stick to beat the team with is completely pointless.

kek.

Thus ends my equally cerebral rebuttal.

I'm confident this will be worthy of at least a merit under NCEA. Maybe even an excellence.

[morepork]

You can have a gold star on your chart if you don't wet yourself during nap time.

[cashead]

lel.



kek.

Thus ends my equally cerebral rebuttal.

I'm confident this will be worthy of at least a merit under NCEA. Maybe even an excellence.

Your “rebuttal” involves using white supremacist terms? Ok then, incel.

[morepork]

lel.



kek.

Thus ends my equally cerebral rebuttal.

I'm confident this will be worthy of at least a merit under NCEA. Maybe even an excellence.

Your “rebuttal” involves using white supremacist terms? Ok then, incel.

Seriously? Am I missing something here? Is it to subtle for me? And finally, how the fuck did this fred terminate in accusations of white supremacy?

[cashead]

lel.



kek.

Thus ends my equally cerebral rebuttal.

I'm confident this will be worthy of at least a merit under NCEA. Maybe even an excellence.

Your “rebuttal” involves using white supremacist terms? Ok then, incel.

Seriously? Am I missing something here? Is it to subtle for me? And finally, how the fuck did this fred terminate in accusations of white supremacy?

"kek" is a term heavily associated with the so-called "alt-right," which is just a re-branding of "white supremacist" by noted white supremacist, neo-nazi, and humanoid punching bag, Richard Spencer.

Here, let the Southern Poverty Law Center spell it out for you.

[morepork]

So just to be clear, you are accusing Zero of invoking white supremicism on a thread critiquing the AB's 2020 season? I think I'll let him respond to that.


And thank you for educating me on the nuances of internet warrior speak in an absolutely non-patronising way.

[cashead]

So just to be clear, you are accusing Zero of invoking white supremicism on a thread critiquing the AB's 2020 season? I think I'll let him respond to that.


And thank you for educating me on the nuances of internet warrior speak in an absolutely non-patronising way.

I'm questioning his use of a term coined and popularised by white supremacists. If one were to object to having their views on race questioned, it would behove one to not use terms popular among questionable people.

[zer0]

So just to be clear, you are accusing Zero of invoking white supremicism on a thread critiquing the AB's 2020 season? I think I'll let him respond to that.

Cas is far to easy to wind up.

The defence rests, m'lud.

[cashead]

So just to be clear, you are accusing Zero of invoking white supremicism on a thread critiquing the AB's 2020 season? I think I'll let him respond to that.

Cas is far to easy to wind up.

The defence rests, m'lud.

“I resorted to using terms associated with the alt-right and white supremacy. I’m klever.”

Hmm yes, nice ownage, dipshit.

[zer0]

I'm a simple man with simple tastes.