AB squad for the Rugby Championship
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@WillieTheWaiter you recall giving Mark Gerrard shit during the game and then realising he was a unit when you saw him after the game hoping he didnt recognise you haha
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@pukunui said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
@Bovidae said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
At the presser yesterday Hansen was asked again about Read at 6. He just smiled and said they had a plan for the no.6 jersey while not giving anything away. Cryptic.
SBW to 6! Should have happened years ago.
Way too slow
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@broughie said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
@kiwiinmelb Messam was just a shade below test level. Never felt confident in him. He was in between a 6 and 7.
Overall I agree, but he had a couple of games against the Boks where he was very good indeed.
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@ACT-Crusader said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
@KiwiMurph said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
Kaino's debut AB game v Baabaas was end of year Tour 2004.
He then made his test debut vs Ireland in 2006 (June) but was poor.
In 2008 he made the ABs regularly. He got mucked around a bit in 2008 by initially playing 8 (I recall a Bledisloe where he was at 8 and Rodders was at 6) before settling into 6.
Just goes to show that some guys need time.
Also, some forget that we did have a lot of experimenting, swapping and trying different guys/combos during a period we were quite successful.
From memory Kaino got injured after 2004.
After his injury, he lost a lot of his speed, and then had to change his game and play a lot tighter.I really do hope Papali'i focusses on being a blindside and models his game on Kaino, because I think they are really similar.
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@MN5 said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
@pukunui said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
@Bovidae said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
At the presser yesterday Hansen was asked again about Read at 6. He just smiled and said they had a plan for the no.6 jersey while not giving anything away. Cryptic.
SBW to 6! Should have happened years ago.
Way too slow
I recall a game for Toulon that SBW did play on the blindside. Not a bad lineout option in that one.
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I heard that Kaino was excellent athlete at St. Kent's, and second fastest 100m after Joe the Rock.
Later certainly built himself up. No. 2 AB at chins behind BBBT and benched about the same as Sam Whitelock.
Remember one EOYT c. 2011 where he was voted best player of any team, touring or domestic.
That said, his clean on 'cheap shot' O'Brien in third Lions test was as brutal as that on BBBR the other day.
Legend.
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@Rapido said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
Messam, tbh I thought we was going to be a stinker at test level. A super Rugby flash harry a-la Fafita. Man, was I wrong, he stepped up so well. A very good All Black.
He's relevant to the not-tall 6 discussion going on though.
You mean Messum?
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@sparky said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
Jacobson and Josh Ioane have sore heads:
How does Ioane get concussed by not playing?
Must be some full on training.
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@canefan said in AB squad for the Rugby Championship:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12254877
That’s horrible, tough situation.
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Big Boys pants on for the Perth test, apparently, some powder to be brought out of storage - starting XV wise.
*Hansen indicated we would be a lot wiser post-Saturday night in Perth.
"We"ll look to start building the various combinations we want and probably put the strongest sides together we can over the next couple of weeks.
"We know the more games we have, the more time we spend together, we're going to improve. How much we'll just have to wait and see."*
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I don’t get why so many are worried about form right now. Yes there are test matches to play, but the season has only just started and some players are only just building their workload and once they have that up they can launch from there.
I don’t doubt there are selection questions that from the armchair remain a mystery, but if we are going through those that have been criticised as “not at their best”, for example Ioane and Read, I actually think they will come right.
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The problem with this talk, just to add to the confusion
In recent times we usually look more comfortable against the wallabies, so it will be difficult to know how much to read into a better performance
