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New Zealand players ratings v Canada
By Tom Vinicombe
New Zealand travelled to the south of Japan with the expectation that they would crush Canada - a side that hasn't come within 50 points of the All Blacks in their last four encounters dating back to 1995.
That expectation was more or less met, with New Zealand cruising to a 63-0 win.
Perhaps no All Blacks were going to catapult themselves ahead in the pecking order on the back of good performances against one of the weakest teams at the World Cup, but that didn't seem to affect their desire to put on a good showing.
So, how did the players rate?
1 Atunaisa Moli - 8/10
Hit ruck after ruck; has mobility in spades. Played the full 80, with the All Blacks' scrum being dominant the whole way through. Huge outing for the big man.
2 Liam Coltman - 5
Solid in the lineout, bar one early overthrow. Also solid in the scrums - but that's all that can really be said of the third choice hooker. Off in 70th minute.
Continued below...
3 Angus Ta'avao - 7
Part of a very dominant scrum which earned more than a couple of penalties. Subbed in 27th minute but was one of the busiest defenders during his time on the field.
4 Scott Barrett - 6.5
Hands let him down - but not the only All Black who suffered in the humid conditions. Lost the ball over the line, costing the All Blacks an easy try. Almost lost a second too! Was called upon as the key ball-runner in the forwards and threw himself into his work and in better conditions would have likely put on a monstrous display.
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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