18-18 not a good result

Excellent first half but they really did collapse after Sam went off and Roby came on.

Kevin Brown was absolute s**t. Robinson did quite well though i was impressed by him. Joel made a lot of tackles and Sam was dangerous as usual. Atkins played well in the first half too i thought.

Playing Hooker yes but once he replaced Sam at 7 and Roby returned to 9 the attack we had was a big fat zero. Brown was too quiet!

Full Time: New Zealand 50 Samoa 6 - NZ missed at least 5 goals, Samoan try in the 78th minute.

Carmont and Hansen both played for Samoa. Leuluai played 7 for NZ and claimed a try.

The wheels totally came off when they changed it around a bit. Thats just showed that if we dont play Sam in the halves we will get totally battered imo.

Agreed. Both Robinson and Brown were bouncing off the first tackles on kick chases, which for me is worrying, as their back 3 weren't the biggest or quickest today. Having said that towards the end everyone was dropping off normal tackles, which says to me we are going to see runaway scores at the end of our next two matches. We will see but I'm really not hopeful atm.

thought robinsion looked good at hooker, brown was shocking and was targeted in defence. Thought Joel was strong aswell. Crabtree looked good at prop but we can't do anything because we have no reserve halves. Id be tempted to play Tomkins and O'Loughlin at 6 and 7 and move burgess to 13.

Despite the first half I still feel if the Maori were playing NZ or Australia, with the field position and possession they would have been 30 + up.

The capitulation after Tomkins went off was shocking. He is already the most important English player and this highlighted it.

Brown and Robinson at this level as halves are truly woeful. Robinson did ok at hooker against broken play but as an organiser and pivot both were poor.

Early in the second have we tried to complex ruck plays with a view to the next few weeks which did not quite come off, but if we are going to stand any chance I think this is where we will look to expose the NRL players so it needed practice and I hope they continue it in training as I feel there is value there.

Atkins was solid and strong running although his winger will get 0 ball. If Gleeson is not superior to Shenton then I must be watching a different code.

1 player who I feel is built for International rugby is Crabtree, always impresses me. SL defences seem to have worked him out a little but due to lack of exposure to the NRL players he always seems a handful for them, long may it continue.

The last 20 was disgraceful though, Tomkins off the field = no creativity and no threat which allowed the Maori back into the game, our kicking with him off the field was a key element in allowing them back also.

Sam Tomkins on the field - 18-0
Off the field - 0-18

Nuff said really.

Kevin Brown woeful.

However, how that first disallowed try was classed as a England knock on, i'll never know.

I'd love us to sign Robinson back and use him at hooker; I've always though that it's his best position.

Not seen the game yet, I'll watch the recording later.

Slightly side topic, but did anyone notice the maori didnt have their own names on the back of their shirts



Wondering if they have ' traditional ' names or something ?