Sir John Kirwan needs to go

 He was fine up until they titled him......"Sir"

 ...hakwa,the Brumbies that rolled the Blues are'nt a bad side and currently sitting on 2nd on the table...something to do with Kiwis like Jordon Smiler and Jarrad Buttler in their team i think...

 

...but Blues have a ship load of injuries too and struggling to cope without the depth, versatility, style and die hard attitude of the Chiefs...

 

...but that said i'd really love to see Benji start a game and be left to tough it out as sitting on the bench will just be sapping his confidence...

 

...prior to last night Benji had only played 146 minutes of rugby for the Blues in this year's competition yet had still managed to offer the third-most offloads, fourth-most defenders beaten and second-best metres-per-run average....

 

...time to cut the apron strings JK

why did JK bench braid one of the blues most consistent performers in 2014???
commentator made a comment about him gwetting a well deserved rest, but considering how tight this tournment is in all three conferences and the quality of the brumbies, i find it baffaling as to why the blues captain would be benched.

and if he was giving him a rest, did JK forget about the bye they have this week???

it reeks of poor player management, a big reason why the blues lost to the bulls last year when JK did some similar things with his players.

i want to see benji get more game time too, but JK dosent have a strong level of conviction when it comes to the former tigers star.
cheika would have gootten the best of marshall, folks seem to forget that folaus first few games for the blues were shit too, but chieka persevered and now folaus on the fast track of something special.

IMO kirwan is a poor coach, i cant believe some folks back on abs.com were talking about JK as All Blacks coach.
JK needs to go, but thats not going to happen. hes too much of a favorite son amongst all the jafa's, and if they stuck with lam for as long as they did, Lord knows how long JKs reign of incompetence will last.

Yes it seems "Sir" picked up his coaching skills from a flea market coaching for dummies manual, along with a $0.99 knighthood e-download of Ebay.

@sharbok,

"Yes it seems "Sir" picked up his coaching skills from a flea market coaching for dummies manual, along with a $0.99 knighthood"
is that the same flea market where u picked up ur manual to super rugby for dummies???

would explain the bout of foot in mouth disease u suffered last week courtesy the link below,
parttime sh arkbok funnies

 Sasue
I think there are in fact a number of elements that determines the success of a good coach and it is difficult to just criticize a coach without regard to the sum-toral of those elements:-
*   Sound rugby and coaching knowledge - *   Player management skills*   Strategy and skills development*   Player identification - reasonable squad 
I think Kirwen's problems start with some of the above elements and those are not indications of a good coach.  Lets look at the following:-
The Hickey case
This youngster came on the scene after the first loss of the Blues and played for them with real quality until the match against the Lions - where Noakes was brought in for no apparent reason.   Why the change?
He then brought back Hickey - who had another good game.
Yesterday there was a serious problem in defense - where McCabe constantly broke through the gap between Hickey and Nonu.   Now Hickey will get the blame - but effectively there was no co-ordination between Hickey and Nonu and that in reality was the problem.   
Granted it was Nonu's first start - but something was seriously amiss here and there seems to be a communication problem between Nonu and Hickey.
Luke Braid
Although there can be know doubt that Braid is one of the best and hardest working loosies in Super 15 - he was not starting yesterday.   There was no real indication that Braid needed a break and the question remains why?  
Tight 5 problems
It is a general fact that there is a problem with tight 5 performance in New Zealand on the whole - this is not an issue peculiar to Kirwen alone.   The tendency in NZ is to pick tight 5 players who are mobile - but not necessarily performing the tight 5 process in for instances scrums, line outs and mauls.   The success of NZ teams in Super 15 stems in the main from their very good loosies and backlines.
Kirwen has dealt himself a bad hand here.  He has excellent loosies and his props are 50-50 - but his locks are poor - has been last year as well.   Against other NZ teams the tight 5 is good enough - against other teams they do not meet basic requirements.
The main problem is that like most NZ coaches this is where Kirwen falls flat.
Marshall 
I have a feeling that Kirwen does not know how to handle him.  There is no indication that Marsshall has the skills to play at flyhalf and there may be a problem in using him in that position.   Piutau is a very good player and that is why Marshall is not the front line full back.  
Maybe Kirwen wants to use Marshall as an impact player - but is that really the answer?  Should he not move Piutau to the wing and start with Marshall at full back? 
Nonu
Not much can be deduced from one match - but I frankly was not impressed with what Nonu produced yesterday.   We know that Nonu - after a disastrous year last year with the Highlanders - was foisted onto Kirwen by the NZRU.
Is that going to be a problem for Kirwen this year - Nonu is untouchable and he has to be selected by Kirwen irrespective of what he produces.   We will have to see what results from that selection.  If he does what he did last year for the Highlanders all the blame will fall on Kirwen - not Nonu - and if Kirwen leaves out Nonu from his starting line-up the whole of NZ will go ballistic.
I think that Kirwen has some problems he caused for himself - but some of the  senior players are not coming to the party.   Here you have to include players like Halai.  Even Piutau is not up to the standard he displayed last year.  The greatest loss was Ranger and that backline is not functioning properly.
Without a functional backline and a proper tight 5 - Kirwen is in a poor situation and although he does deserve criticism - part of the problem lies with the senior players who consistently under-perform.                              
  

 Nonu was foisted onto JK by the NZRU???
You have got to the the biggest piece of shit, lying, fabricating dumb brick poster on here, go start a thread fawning for Mozart's attention. Liar.

 The thick idiot non compes mentus nincumpoop - who is the worst poster ever - is back.  You will not succeed in driving me off the board - like your nonsens e did before.  Stay away - you f#cking idiot. 

 There are better ways of disagreeing with someone poooooooie.Very poor post.

 children, children, let's stick to the post at hand aye . 

Clevermike, your posts wouldn't be out of place smeared in shit across the walls of an insane asylum. You are a proven liar.
I don't give a monkeys if you stay or go, but how's this, put up some proof of the NZRU forcing Nonu on SJK, or site an reference/article sharing your point of view or admit you're a lying piece of shit.

 fight fight fight

@poi-e,
i agree with storminged, reaction was bit more then necessary maybe???

@lucky luke,
LMAO,

@mikey,

nonu
NZRU have in the past interfered with the franchises making them take on players that the coaches ddint want, like nucifora and rua tipoki, but i dont think that was the case with nonu.

at the end of the day, nonu is the best 12 in the world bar none, i know u saffas like to beat ur chest about JDV, but NZ opion on backline positions and plays will always trump our saffa bros,

now before u or some of the other locals take up arms agaisnt this, just remember to not hate the playa, hate the game,

hickey
i thought hickey was off his game last night too, the whole blues team was really with that pathetic display.
but hickeys performance in particular was something i was expecting from him in his first game. just a lot of unforced and pressured errors, but one swallow does not a summer make, so hopefully he will bounce back after the bye next week.

tight five
"It is a general fact that there is a problem with tight 5 performance in New Zealand on the whole - this is not an issue peculiar to Kirwen alone."
for some reason saffas seem to think that all forwards are meant to do are scrum.
and in the scrummaging department, chiefs, crusaders and higlanders more then gain parity against any rivals, or dominate in the sto0rmers case.

if u take a checklist out and start ticking off the duties that forwards are meant to do, then IMO the kiwi teams are just fine.

"The success of NZ teams in Super 15 stems in the main from their very good loosies and backlines.
Kirwen has dealt himself a bad hand here.  He has excellent loosies and his props are 50-50 - but his locks are poor - has been last year as well.   Against other NZ teams the tight 5 is good enough - against other teams they do not meet basic requirements."again, the tight 5 is but one small aspect to rugby, the ability to integrate all the efforts of every team combined otherwise known as a team effort is why NZ teams are good against anybody.
they might not dominate in all areas, but they do better then their opposition in most areas.

and u only need to look at the record to know that maybe saffas and their fascination with the tight 5 is not all its cracked up to be.
there has been 18 years of super rugby, NZ have won 12 and SA and OZ have won 3 each, NZ rugby have double the titles that SA and OZ have combined.
NZ are also the only country where every single team has at least challenged for a title in a grand final as well as having three different teams winning it more then once.

considering the domination NZ rugby have had on superrugby, IMO its the other teams who have struggled to compete with NZ temas tight 5 and all.

Irrefutable logic Sasuke San
In terms of comparing forward players (SA v NZ) I have made a similar point when some posters want to compare locks. SA posters always go for size & set piece play in making the comparison. It is not only about set piece play. You have to look at how the lock does in all aspects of play (including the loose play). 
Etzebeth is a SA lock that has the total package & IMO SA fans should use him as the bench mark for comparison. Not just players who are big & strong & not locks who are good in line outs or seagulling, lol NZ have good locks like Whitelock who have to total package.

 The problem with SJK is not his 'man management'. He's an awesome motivator, he has the respect of the dressing room and he can reach the significant Polynesian demographic in a way that other Palangi coaches struggle with.  His difficiencies are tactical, leading into that game the Blues had scored the most tries of any franchise, but if SJK set that game plan he needs his head read, they went right away from their main source of competitive advantage, their back line, and went toe to toe in a tactical kicking game they clearly didn't have the skill to compete in, Mogg and the Brumbies half crucified them.  Not to mention not starting Braid.  I don't have a lot of faith in SJK turning this sinking ship around.  
Hickey is pretty average, Kirwan compared him to Grant Fox before his first start, pretty accurate really, can kick for goal, distributes well..ish, and that's about it, although Fox's kicking out of hand was waaaay better.  Young guy, still early days but on the back of last nights performance you wouldn't bet the farm on him wearing the black jersey anytime soon.

 SJK has some made some strange decisions. Resting Braid before the bye, he did the same sort of thing before the last bye. He must think that he should give key players 2 weeks off & this is his way of doing it. Also, I swear that for some games (like this one) he just figures we are going to lose so why not experiment & rest a few guys. 
Who knows? It is hard to explain his decisions. He was right on Hickey though (even if he had an average game yesterday).

 too right Cloudy - exactly! OR give up the expensive haircut and sell his expensive shoes and jacket and eyeliner and lipstick and give the money to the homeless kids in Auckland.

Hi Cloudy & Hakwa: it is the strangest thing so see Nonu with eyeliner & rainbows. What's with that?

Cloudy, weekend is going well  sunny Sunday so who can complain?
It was a bit of a bummer that some idiot hacked the site on Saturday as many posters couldn't figure out how to get passed the hacked code. Being an experienced ex-AB.com poster, it presented no problem for me. Remember how we all managed to post for ages even though technically the site was closed, lol  
Beeno & I were the 2 main posters & we were very civil to each other.  Although maybe we just didn't understand the subtleties of the digs we were giving each other 
Yeah, I would not want to ask Nonu what was up with his  eyeliner, etc.

 Sasue
Although there is a really good case made out by you - their is one irrefutable fact attached to rugby.  A backline cannot perform without quality ball.   Lets take as an excellent example yesterdays game between the Cheetahs and the Chiefs.   In the first half the feared Chiefs backline could go nowhere and the points scored came from Cheetahs mistakes - not from quality balls provided by their forwards.   In the last 15 minutes of the game the Chiefs backline ran riot - but mostly as a result of Cheetahs mistakes - like Mnisi craziness - not necessarily from quality balls provided by their forwards.
You cannot constantly hope for opposition mistakes and get wins.   Although the All Blacks won a long list of games - they scored most of their points from opposition mistakes - either defensive or otherwise - and that should remain a worrying factor.  What happens if those mistakes dry up? 
My point remains - a backline and in fact the loose forwards as well - cannot perform without quality ball to be provided by the forwards.   It is not a tick box to tick off - it is a case of playing all round good rugby.  Nobody likes or wants slow and useless locks, props and hookers.   They must enforce and be mobile as well.   That is where NZ franchises come short.   They have no real enforcers and relies purely on mobility and the opposition mistakes.  

       

 now now Cloudy and JW, don't be jealous of Nonu's eye liner - rumours has it that it stops the opposition pulling on his eyelids during a tackle