Hard to read much from that game given how superior we were and the fact that the whole team apart from Payne had flown halfway across the world a few days ago. Probably helped Payne to stand out. Stamenic the other standout for me, along with Singh and Wood (but that's always a given with those two).
Everyone else was solid too, except for McCowatt. Garbett wasn't as impressive as his usual self but wasn't downright bad like McCowatt. Eli Just the most impressive of the subs and should start on Monday.
We were a bit disjointed, even when ignoring whatever it was McCowatt was doing. A bit worrying that it took until Fiji were wiped out from all their pressing for our midfield to really click into gear. I think we could do with more midfield presence, you can get away with the 4-2-3-1 against Island nations but I'd rather see a 4-3-2-1, with the fullbacks bombing forward to provide width. Sacrifice Garbett as his lack of gametime seems to have affected him.
I'd start this team on Monday:
Crocombe
Payne Boxall Bindon Cacace
Bell Rufer Stamenic
Singh Just
Wood
Everyone else was solid too, except for McCowatt. Garbett wasn't as impressive as his usual self but wasn't downright bad like McCowatt. Eli Just the most impressive of the subs and should start on Monday.
We were a bit disjointed, even when ignoring whatever it was McCowatt was doing. A bit worrying that it took until Fiji were wiped out from all their pressing for our midfield to really click into gear. I think we could do with more midfield presence, you can get away with the 4-2-3-1 against Island nations but I'd rather see a 4-3-2-1, with the fullbacks bombing forward to provide width. Sacrifice Garbett as his lack of gametime seems to have affected him.
I'd start this team on Monday:
Crocombe
Payne Boxall Bindon Cacace
Bell Rufer Stamenic
Singh Just
Wood
I feel for waine he must be going through abit of lack of belief, I’d like to see us get a handy lead by half time in Auckland then sub wood and give Waine a half to help get his form and confidence up.
Some definite positives, Singh looked almost back to his best, wood obviously on fire, Bindon a rock at the back and worked well with boxall even if they weren’t challenged a lot. Payne would have got a much needed confidence boost and hopefully Cheify was watching and realised we need a target man for those crosses.
As for the “we must leave ofc” crowd, I personally disagree, it’s really only been this current team that has dominated and not played down to there level and we should make the World Cup again all going to plan which will put us on the global stage, we should get more air time in nz getting more fans excited, teams knowing we will most likely qualify and do it early have enabled us to book some pretty good friendly games, so we are testing ourselves against higher opponents and come World Cup we should be pretty well drilled, also the money we get for World Cup qualification will help keep nzf ticking and may even mean they can afford to bring a top team to play us in nz.