Perhaps how NZF sees it too? The AWs on the interview panel were Wood and Bell? Bazeley or someone politicking? Or just Bell seemed to be the next name on the team sheet at the time?
It did seem to be a Bell style team- lots of possession, lots of interchange in the middle of the park.
It did seem to be a Bell style team- lots of possession, lots of interchange in the middle of the park.
You want a coach who can relate to both the younger brigade (Bell) & older fellas (Wood). So natural Bell was on the panel. He's been earmarked to be an AWs captain for a long time.
But we are really seeing now how much Reid will be missed in this cycle. I think he would have told his team to mix it up a bit more, and go direct sometimes. Especially after conceding that first goal from a turnover. And of course Winnie had a quality forward pass himself. But this was also another problem of not having Wood - a high class hold up player, plus Tuiloma is not as good at a long crossfield switch as either Pijnaker or Smith.
But in Hay's defence last year Tuiloma was in red hot goal scoring form for Portland. Many of us were excited about him being a danger at either taking a freekick or leaping up to nod one in. That is given that apart from Wood, it was hard to see how AWs would score in a tight one. But in hindsight Boxall snr should have started the big CR game. Tuiloma was nervous poor in the prior Peru match.