Sat 21st Oct: International: New Zealand v Toa Samoa (at Eden Park, Auckland) 6am KO

[Damien]

11 hours ago, sam4731 said:

I imagine both sides will now see this as an Aus NZ 2 match test series now. Unless either side have a great desire to win the prestigious Pacific Cup.

Yes that essentially what it is now. That is also why I can never write off a test series when some say they dead. A close test series between 2 well matched teams can build a rivalry and a tension like no other.

[Damien]

I thought New Zealand looked like they were building towards something special in the World Cup and they were damn unlucky in the semi final against Australia. They again looked very good today.

Hopefully they continue that in that vein the next couple of weeks against Australia. If they can we are in for 2 special matches.

[Damien]

5 hours ago, DavidM said:

Ive been thinking that in these last two games . Basically because we totally choked it is the  best i can do

I said that at the time. It was as bad an England performance as I have seen, all things considered. They just didn't show up at all and far too many had off days.

[Mojo]

7 hours ago, DavidM said:

Ive been thinking that in these last two games . Basically because we totally choked it is the  best i can do

Samoa only had 2 players in there line up against the Kiwis that were part of world cup squad that beat the English, you can't seriously compare the two teams lol

[Mojo]

7 hours ago, DavidM said:

Ive been thinking that in these last two games . Basically because we totally choked it is the  best i can do

Samoa only had 2 players in there line up against the Kiwis that were part of world cup squad that beat the English, you can't seriously compare the two teams lol

[NRLandSL]

5 minutes ago, Mojo said:

Samoa only had 2 players in there line up against the Kiwis that were part of world cup squad that beat the English, you can't seriously compare the two teams lol

Firstly there were 4 guys and that's due to a lot of reasons though not just injuries. Being a heritage nation makes it much more unlikely for your players to stay committed in the long term. Many players have changed national teams, Fa'amanu Brown (Who played for the Kiwis), Daniel Levi, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, etc. But if you're comparing the side that played England and the side who played yesterday, though different they are pretty Equal. Samoa have made plenty of new additions to the side in Murray Taulagi, Greg Marzhew, Daejarn Asi, Stefano Utoikamanu, Keenan Palasia, etc. If anything this Samoan 17 looks even better. Samoa's problem was Stephen Crichton, don't get me wrong he is a great player, but even great players can not play every position. He was caught out many times, Kicked the ball out on the full 3 times and the attack looked very disjointed with him there. Also, Asi is not a 7, he is a ball-running 6. Samoa needs Luai back and a new organizing halfback who can kick and help shape up the team, Ronald Volkman is exactly that.

[Mojo]

7 hours ago, NRLandSL said:

Firstly there were 4 guys and that's due to a lot of reasons though not just injuries. Being a heritage nation makes it much more unlikely for your players to stay committed in the long term. Many players have changed national teams, Fa'amanu Brown (Who played for the Kiwis), Daniel Levi, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, etc. But if you're comparing the side that played England and the side who played yesterday, though different they are pretty Equal. Samoa have made plenty of new additions to the side in Murray Taulagi, Greg Marzhew, Daejarn Asi, Stefano Utoikamanu, Keenan Palasia, etc. If anything this Samoan 17 looks even better. Samoa's problem was Stephen Crichton, don't get me wrong he is a great player, but even great players can not play every position. He was caught out many times, Kicked the ball out on the full 3 times and the attack looked very disjointed with him there. Also, Asi is not a 7, he is a ball-running 6. Samoa needs Luai back and a new organizing halfback who can kick and help shape up the team, Ronald Volkman is exactly that.

My bad yup there are 4 guys left. The coach's selection in the halves was shocking. But saying this teams equal to the world cup squad is a bit much. The team at the world cup had "warm up" games in the pool games which helped with combination. The current team is very young, Asi had a shocker and like you said Volkman should've been the 7. I'll give the current coach a pass because he got the job a week before the first test. I believe the forwards and backs in this current squad is better than the world cup team but they lacked experience massively.

Samoa's halves depth next few year should be good and I hope the coach picks the right ones.

The halves Luai, Volkman, Schuster, Oloapu and CHT should give samoa a bit of hope they can come back from this loss.

Also Faalogo is a superstar, I saw a recent article the Storm are looking to shop around Papi so they can keep Faalogo at the club.

Huge loss for Samoa was the experience of Josh Papali'i. He led the forward pack well from the bench. Also saw Luai's post on Instagram saying "memorybank" to the Kiwis gives me hope samoa will come good.

[DoubleD]

40 minutes ago, Mojo said:

My bad yup there are 4 guys left. The coach's selection in the halves was shocking. But saying this teams equal to the world cup squad is a bit much. The team at the world cup had "warm up" games in the pool games which helped with combination. The current team is very young, Asi had a shocker and like you said Volkman should've been the 7. I'll give the current coach a pass because he got the job a week before the first test. I believe the forwards and backs in this current squad is better than the world cup team but they lacked experience massively.

Samoa's halves depth next few year should be good and I hope the coach picks the right ones.

The halves Luai, Volkman, Schuster, Oloapu and CHT should give samoa a bit of hope they can come back from this loss.

Also Faalogo is a superstar, I saw a recent article the Storm are looking to shop around Papi so they can keep Faalogo at the club.

Huge loss for Samoa was the experience of Josh Papali'i. He led the forward pack well from the bench. Also saw Luai's post on Instagram saying "memorybank" to the Kiwis gives me hope samoa will come good.

As much as I’d hate to see it but I think the injuries will really impact Papenhuizen in a similar way to it did with Tomkins. He is probably a smart enough player to adapt but given pace and evasion is his biggest strength, if I was Storm I would be putting my efforts into keeping Faalogo over him. I don’t think Papenhuizen will be the same player again