@Tim nah some surgery booked (shoulder?)

Current voting prior to the final:

20 Rayasi
11 Choat
6 AJ Lam
6 Plummer
5 Sullivan
5 Adams
4 R Ioane
4 Ruru
3 S Tuipulotu
3 A Ioane
3 Whetton
3 Tu'ungafasi
1 Scrafton
1 Funaki
1 Ta’avao

Goodhue and nock for me and Olsen very good also

Current voting after 10 rounds

17 Rayasi
10 Choat
6 AJ Lam
6 Plummer
4 Adams
4 R Ioane
3 Sullivan
3 Ruru
3 S Tuipulotu
3 A Ioane
3 Whetton
3 Tu'ungafasi
1 Scrafton
1 Funaki

@mariner4life said in AB MOTM v Argentina I:

The crushing disappointment and righteous public anger of 2007 forged the success of the next 8 years. And that anger built up over 20 years!

Do we really have to do that again?

Can't we just cut the weak link (s) now please? Really, please!

Went with Rayasi, Scrafton and Sullivan.

@kev think thats a good thing too!!

I gave the game a 2nd look and came away thinking Ta'avao and Adams were our two best in this match. For some big boys, they cover so much ground.

I didn't realize just how good Ta'avao was on first watch. Not only was he one of our busiest players, but along with Adams, he was also our most physical player. He had some nice skillful touches too.

What made his performance even more impressive was that this was his first match since September and he played the whole 84 minutes. Just a massive effort.

I couldn't possibly vote for Rieko simply because of the showboating try which was a carbon copy of the first test except he was lucky enough to keep control.

Epitomised the teams performance. All puff No Huff.

Give it to Jordan Poor bastard did nothing was only on the field 30 seconds and probably won't even remember his test debut.

Akira, Whitelock, Savea

@taniwharugby agree. On the cusp.

Yeah, Frizzel really busy tight 6 doing the yards up fat man's ally with Whitelock creating space further out and being a great defender in close as well. Is it a coincidence that Cane is being able to range a little bit wider and become a ball runner?

Rayasi obviously

Plummer apart from an early shite pass was very good

Plenty of forwards were candidates. I went for Apisai, he spoiled a lot of Waikato attacks and got through a lot of work.

After Otago: Robinson 3, Matich & Pryor 2 each

Updated:
Tom Robinson 16
Sam Nock 8
Kara Pryor 7
Matt Matich 4
Wiseguy Faiane 3
Josh Goodhue 3
Jordan Olsen 2
Rene Ranger 2
Scott Gregory 1

Usuals (Red, Kara) plus Kalani Going for me. Going looks solid and dependable. Nothing flash but has good hands and solid defence. Lock him in the 12 shirt I say.

Like to see a change around this week. Gregory needs to come into 13 in place of Ranger. If Hyland is fit, get him in there. Brady Rush looks interesting, give him a nudge at FB maybe?

Johnny Cooper needs a start at 10. Hawkins still plays way too much behind the advantage line and stymies our attack.

Have guys like Ranger and Hawkins on the bench, you may see a change in attitude when they come on.

The pack is going good, wouldn’t change anything up there..

@nzzp

He's had some good games (equal 3rd on the voting). However he really should be considered a 12 now

The problem is Hickey is worse and it's probably too early to trust Sullivan

@broughie said in MOTM v Wallabies:

Cane and Clarke were obvious. You could throw a blanket over ALB, BB, Savea and Frizzell. Frizzell probably had his best game as an AB. Still not totally sold on our loosies

That pretty much sums up for me. I like our loosies but I also like the depth of Sotutu and Akira in the wings.

@ACT-Crusader said in Auckland MOTM v Ta$man:

Rayasi, Choat, Plummer

Ditto.

Nock, Rene and Red for me.

Goodhue not far behind.

Liking Leliua this year, just finding it frustrating how we fail to get good clean ball across to him, Macilai and Hyland etc. Do that and we’ll start splitting teams open. A lot of this stems from 10 and 12 in my opinion. Changes need to happen here. Give Cooper a crack for starters.

@mariner4life said in All Blacks MOTM v Aus (Oct 11):

@junior said in All Blacks MOTM v Aus (Oct 11):

@gt12 said in All Blacks MOTM v Aus (Oct 11):

Anyone not voting for Cane can GTFO.

I'm shocked that Moody doesn't have more votes. He was a machine on defence today. I would like to see more run metres out of him and Ofa, but since we hardly had the fucking ball, I can't really blame them for that.

After that, I think we have multiple options - from his very brief body of work, I think Clarke showed he belongs at this level and can be a weapon. Terrible selecting is the only thing him not starting showed.

Good point. It was actually annoying how little we used our muscle throughout the match to carry. I'm sure Whitelock had about 5 times as many carries as Pat T, which is just arse about face. I thought we actually started to use our forwards much better after the 80th minute, but even then we did the idiotic thing of giving the ball to Karl for the carry instead of someone better suited for it.

the problem is, more than half of our selected forwards are actually no good at carrying in to the teeth. We are relying on too few to do the heavy lifting. 3 of the 4 props, 1 80 minute lock, and two of the loose forwards are next to useless if you are trying to smash your way through the gain line.

And yet those guys tend to do a disproportionate amount of carrying!