All Blacks v France Test 3
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@chris-b At this stage I wouldn't be surprised if Hansen started mentioning Frizell at 10 - he's the golden child, young Toeava x 1000.
@machpants said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
If the French somehow manage to slow this down, and their clever/experienced/tested combo midfield manage to pluck our raw pairing, they could win this. Esp if DMac starts trying to fix problems by crazy stuff. But if our boys get on a roll it'll be another shellacking - basically I have no idea what's going to happen. Nice to feel a little nervous ahead of this test, unlike the last two
DMac will only start doing crazy stuff if our pack puts in a powder puff performance like last week. Hopefully they all go hard as this is the big chance for some of them to show their stuff.
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@jaycee said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
Joe Moody (33)
Codie Taylor (31)
Owen Franks (97)
Samuel Whitelock (98) - captain
Scott Barrett (18)
Shannon Frizell
Ardie Savea (24)
Luke Whitelock (4)
Aaron Smith (73)
Damian McKenzie (14)
Rieko Ioane (15)
Sonny Bill Williams (46)
Jack Goodhue
Waisake Naholo (18)
Ben Smith (65)Hmm. Anyone of those in the backrow you could probably have confidence in if surrounded by experience/ first choice players. As a collective, if the French aren't dreaming of mistresses, wine and sunshine, we could be in for a torrid time of it.
Which leads us to the elephant in the room; five-eighth. I get the felling SBW and Goodhue will have to do a lot of straight running.
This could also be the Test for BFA to show he still has what it takes at this level after looking decidedly outclassed on the wing.
If the French don't put int he same effort as last week, under a dry roof, this could become a rout, which will mask a lot of problems evident only a week ago.
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hopefully Dmac has been watching some re-runs of when SBW was outside Cruden for the Chiefs.
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@nepia said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
@kiwimurph said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
@nepia said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
@kiwimurph said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
Happy to see Frizell there - i'd rather see someone who has a really high ceiling be given a crack rather than the underwhelming options that have been seen previously (Squire, Fifita).
How do you know he has a high ceiling? Hopefully he does, but nothing in his rugby so far suggests that - it's telling that he plays for Ta$man and @Chris-B doesn't even fluff him.
I didn't even know that Hemopo had been brought into the squad until yesterday. The selectors are loving on the Highlanders at the moment ... but at least Hemopo plays and is a Kiwi.
I disagree. He looked a special athlete vs the Blues when he scored a hat-trick (yes yes it's only the Blues and i'm taking that into consideration).
This is exactly why I'm not a fan of this move - you're rating him on one game. What did he do in all the other games he played this year, and by games I mean short cameos.
You asked about his high ceiling and said nothing in his rugby suggests that. I pointed to a game in which his high ceiling was apparent. My point above is that I'm happy to see Frizell picked as Squire and Fifita have been given multiple chances and have mostly underwhelmed. I'm happy for some new blood to be given a go.
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So, my utterly pessimistic thoughts
Tight 5 i guess we are locked in to. All we can hope is that they actually front up this week, and S Barrett is as good as some think, and that the props aren't done.
Worst loose forward trio in living memory. Oh for the heady days of Sam Broomhall.
DMac at 10 will be, interesting to say the least. With SBW outside him he needs to play straighter than he usually does.
Midfield fucks me off. ALB deserves to play. SBW has barely played in a year, the other guy is a rookie. Boom or bust. And combinationless from 9-13.
Outside backs are okay i guess.
Bench? Sheeeet. Props have proven themselves. A new hooker was a necessity. I love Hemopo, but as a test player? Fuck TJ. Pimply Giraffe covering 12? Todd, you're cool though, should be starting. -
@nepia said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
@chris-b At this stage I wouldn't be surprised if Hansen started mentioning Frizell at 10 - he's the golden child, young Toeava x 1000.
That might be a slight exaggeration.
I don't think there would have been peep out of anyone if Akira was injured and Frizell had been picked - we would have been down to a choice of Shannon or Bedwell-Curtis (unless we pointlessly wound the clock back to Kaino or Messam).
I think it's not so much Shannon being a favourite son (though Hansen's even pretty much admitting he's a project - saying this game is a bit earlier than they'd have liked), just that Akira patently isn't!
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@chris-b Of course I'd still be peeping - he's not a Kiwi and he barely plays, that doesn't change if Akira doesn't exist.
@KiwiMurph Fair enough that you're happy to see him picked, I personally disagree that a one off highlight reel match suggests a high ceiling (but as I said earlier in thread I hope he lives up to Hansen's hype for the ABs sake), I'd prefer to see regular performances that show it but he just hasn't had the game time yet. I also don't think that Squire has been that bad.
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@mariner4life Struggling to think of a weaker loose forward trio on paper.
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Thomson, S Waldrom, Messam. Only Munster and we probably would have lost without the bench.
Collins, Masoe, Tuiali'i - the year we played Argentina and Ireland at the same time.
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Gibbes, Holah, Rush - vs South Africa - we got dicked!
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Randell, Holah, and the famous Broomhall - that's not too bad, except Taine had probably given up by this stage.
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Access comprehensive player and match statistics for the All Blacks and Black Ferns. Explore career stats, player profiles, and historical data from New Zealand's iconic rugby teams.
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@chris-b said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
@mariner4life Struggling to think of a weaker loose forward trio on paper.
Home
Access comprehensive player and match statistics for the All Blacks and Black Ferns. Explore career stats, player profiles, and historical data from New Zealand's iconic rugby teams.
Thomson, S Waldrom, Messam. Only Munster and we probably would have lost without the bench.
Collins, Masoe, Tuiali'i - the year we played Argentina and Ireland at the same time.
Home
Access comprehensive player and match statistics for the All Blacks and Black Ferns. Explore career stats, player profiles, and historical data from New Zealand's iconic rugby teams.
Gibbes, Holah, Rush - vs South Africa - we got dicked!
Home
Access comprehensive player and match statistics for the All Blacks and Black Ferns. Explore career stats, player profiles, and historical data from New Zealand's iconic rugby teams.
Randell, Holah, and the famous Broomhall - that's not too bad, except Taine had probably given up by this stage.
Home
Access comprehensive player and match statistics for the All Blacks and Black Ferns. Explore career stats, player profiles, and historical data from New Zealand's iconic rugby teams.
i would take every single one of those trios over what we have this saturday.
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2008: Braid, Kaino, Rodders.
Braid not good enough, Rodders past it, Kaino not yet beast most and replaced by epicly bad Lauaki.
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isn't it great being an AB fan!
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@nepia They'll probably be helped out by Naholo snaffling a few turnovers!
I think it was Meads who famously said, back in the day, something along the lines of "Why does it always take a loss to make the ABs play well."
We didn't lose on the scoreboard, but I think they'll be pretty stung by the shit performance, so we certainly should see the tight five fired up. Loosies will probably go OK on that basis.
I think SBW might be quite pivotal - if he has a good game then DMac is probably going OK (which means the forwards are probably going OK) and he'll be combining OK with Goodhue.
I don't have any doubts about Goodhue other than combining well with SBW. Contrary to M4L I'm delighted Goodhue is playing and hoping he has a storming game, so that he earns himself more starts. I'll be pissed if he has a shocker and drifts out of contention for a year, because I reckon that will just waste a year of the inevitability that he becomes our starting centre.
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@chris-b typical crusader arrogance and entitlement...
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@mariner4life That one against Munster was pretty awful.
That was Scott Waldrom's only game ever for the ABs and Messam's second ever match, so he was still "headless chook" Messam. I think I'd take this week's combo over that one.
The Gibbes, Holah, Rush one was pretty earnest, but low on talent - Holah redeems it. I think it was the last time Gibbes or Rush played for the ABs.
As I recall, Gibbes didn't turn up!
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
@chris-b typical crusader arrogance and entitlement...
Don't make me play the music at you again!!!
I haven't fucking forgotten....
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@chris-b said in All Blacks v France Test 3:
@nepia They'll probably be helped out by Naholo snaffling a few turnovers!
I think it was Meads who famously said, back in the day, something along the lines of "Why does it always take a loss to make the ABs play well."
We didn't lose on the scoreboard, but I think they'll be pretty stung by the shit performance, so we certainly should see the tight five fired up. Loosies will probably go OK on that basis.
I think SBW might be quite pivotal - if he has a good game then DMac is probably going OK (which means the forwards are probably going OK) and he'll be combining OK with Goodhue.
I don't have any doubts about Goodhue other than combining well with SBW. Contrary to M4L I'm delighted Goodhue is playing and hoping he has a storming game, so that he earns himself more starts. I'll be pissed if he has a shocker and drifts out of contention for a year, because I reckon that will just waste a year of the inevitability that he becomes our starting centre.
First time I saw Goodhue play (2016 for Canterbury) he had Allblack written all over him. Will be very surprised if he doesn't smash it on Saturday.
