Month: June 2017

Rugby Union: New Zealand 30-15 Lions

In the wake of the fantastic, but disappointing, first game of the series, a whole plethora of articles and commentators have dissected the game. I won’t repeat that but I do want to focus on one particularly worrying thing. The sheer power of the New Zealand game.

Going into the game the story was going to be Lions power versus All Black flair, the reality of the situation however proved to be quite different. Flair was evident on both sides with the magical 80m try finished off by Sean O’Brien. Power however, was lacking from the Lions and overwhelming from the All Blacks, which proved the critical difference.

The All Blacks dominated the contact area, they were more aggressive in defence and almost always secured an extra metre or two in attack. They defended their rucks with few men and on two occasions secured turnovers with only one defender in the ruck, which simply should not be allowed.

With ball in hand the All Blacks defied all expectations by playing a pure power game, playing off 9 and sending powerful ball carriers around the fringes of rucks time after time. The Lions defenders were simply unable to hit the All Blacks back and slow down their game. With quick ball secured and metres gained, New Zealand were their usual ruthless selves in finishing off the opportunities they created.

This was certainly a victory in strategy as well as execution and the Lions players and coaching staff were comprehensively beaten. Going forward into the second test the Lions need to increase their physicality.  The Lions to a man need to smash players backwards, slow the All Blacks down, prevent their offloads.

Finally, one gripe I had with the strategy was a hangover from “WarrenBall” the style of play that Gatland uses for Wales. Whenever the Lions had the ball between the 10m lines the strategy was to kick for an up and under (hence the pick of Conor Murray over the far more lethal Rhys Webb). In my opinion this is a lack of ideas and reliance on chance to get the ball back. Most of the time the only result was handing possession back to the best team on the planet, who can hold onto it with patience and force you into mistakes.

LoL: TSM ADC tryouts.

TSM has announced that FNC substitute MrRallez is to be given a tryout for the squad. The organisation has its mind set on fielding a six man roster and in the light of the WildTurtle departure, they are seeking a replacement.

A substitute player in traditional sports is there to cover injury and also to change the play style of the team.

Looking at TSM though, we have a situation where the substitute is not changing a great deal. What they have already in DoubleLift is the best ADC in NA. He is a star player, a strong laner and a decisive shot caller. So even if it was true that MrRallez was offering a totally different style of play, the overall loss of the team would make the team objectively weaker.

Another reason to have a substitute is to bring a different flavour to pick ban. SKT fielding Benghi and Blank brought a totally different emphasis to pick ban and added an extra element of strategy. Again with TSM however this is not impactful. ADC is not a role with as dramatic a difference as the Tank/Carry in Top or the Control Mage/Assassin of Mid.

Looking at TSM with WildTurtle (Who is surely a better player than MrRallez) it removed the bot lane as a threat from TSM, with DoubleLift however, teams have to split their focus to more potential threats. While the viable ADC pool is not expansive, DoubleLift on the same champions may draw a ban that Wildturtle or MrRallez would not.

There is one interpretation that does carry some weight which is that perhaps DoubleLift has had some conversations with TSM owner Reginald about his competitive future having not played for the majority of last split. In that instance it would be wise for TSM to get a replacement in and have him learn from DoubleLift, even if he doesn’t play much but is just there learning from him. TSM have gone as far as they can go with WildTurtle really and it is probably wise for them to seek an alternative.

If that is true, it does put a time limit on TSM’s international window to prove they belong. Reginald has always said the aim of the organisation is to win World’s. Even with DoubleLift, it is highly unlikely but without him, its impossible.