RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Cancelled) (Pool B)
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@ACT-Crusader said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@rotated said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@Frank said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:Not getting this bizarre loyalty to Rieko.
Bridge and Reece have made every post a winner.
Reece made the decisive break which led to the try in the Bok game which broke the game open and Bridge finished it. Bridge tore it up in the 2nd Bledisloe and both have been on fire for the Saders all year.Rieko hasn't done squat.
He hasn't been allowed to. I think what some are confused about is why Crotty/SBW/Squire are given opportunity after opportunity yet others like Reiko/Smith were just punished
Contrast the dozen chances Julian Savea got after 2015 (the year, not his weight in pounds) with Reiko or Smith's dropping.
Is that what we’re calling it these days?
They’re still in the squad and getting game time but like many players before them they have missed selection in some big tests.
Crotty for some time has been a key player since in the post Nonu-Snakey era. But he hasn’t played every test even when he has been fit. He’s played most and unsurprising given he’s played well.
SBW’s form has been up and down but more often than not for the ABs he’s been pretty good. But again he’s missed plenty of tests.
Squire probably came down to lack of options.
Squire is obviously a unique case but with SBW/Crotty, Ioane and Ben Smith were playing quality test rugby more recently than those two prior to his dropping and Reece's form is nowhere near as irresistible as Laumape's has been.
The "he has always been good in black" argument is good for Crotty/SBW, but what crap games have Smith and Ioane had? I'd like to see them given a chance to play some shockers before confining them to the dustbin.
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@Crucial said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@No-Quarter said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@Crucial said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@voodoo said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:I've given up trying to pick the teams, but I really hope Rieko gets some time, even if just off the bench. I think he still has something to offer in this tourney, I would not be at all surprised to see him picked and deliver in the knockout stages
Bridge may have opened the door just a crack after his last performance.
I don't think Bridge has been nearly as good as people are making out. He's had a pretty good run, especially being involved in games where our forwards bitch slapped the opposition, but he's been far from error free and has butchered a few tries with poor option taking.
Surprisingly he had game high metres run against Namibia but I don’t recall him being anywhere near as assertive as would be expected against them.
I guess the coaches will have a better idea from training but if Rieko is showing any signs of exploding back into form then it wouldn’t surprise me if Bridge is swapped out.I'd think the TWM would rather have a fully-firing Reiko in the knock-out stages than George Bridge any day, so I'd expect more game time for him against Italy.
That's no reflection on GB - he's a natural successor to Ben Smith
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I think we can all agree reikos best puts him ahead of bridges best , based on past games,
Just seems to have lost that attacking ability that made him so dangerous, but have noticed an effort to lift his work rate, maybe that was something he had to work on ?
The coaches will know more than us , who is in the better mental state etc
I’m tipping bridge to continue getting selected over him at this point in time, just haven’t seen enough to make them change it.
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@kiwiinmelb said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:I think we can all agree reikos best puts him ahead of bridges best , based on past games,
and Reece too.
But Savea's best was also awesome and then it wasn't, just like Reiko.
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@Hooroo said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@kiwiinmelb said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:I think we can all agree reikos best puts him ahead of bridges best , based on past games,
and Reece too.
But Savea's best was also awesome and then it wasn't, just like Reiko.
Tough audience! Rieko is 22; he's got 3-4 years before the AB Winger Age of Retirement. Agreed he's in a slump at the moment, but the NZRU don't dish out 5 year winger contracts unless they think he's got really special attributes. He's got time to climb back to the top, the issues are mental rather than physical.
That said, while I'd be delighted to see him perform, I wouldn't be upset if we had Bridge/Reece. Hope to god Reece doesn't have a brain fart in defence and cost us a game. Haven't seen anything so far that is really concerning, but knockout can do funny things to people's heads.
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@nzzp said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@Hooroo said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@kiwiinmelb said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:I think we can all agree reikos best puts him ahead of bridges best , based on past games,
and Reece too.
But Savea's best was also awesome and then it wasn't, just like Reiko.
Tough audience! Rieko is 22; he's got 3-4 years before the AB Winger Age of Retirement. Agreed he's in a slump at the moment, but the NZRU don't dish out 5 year winger contracts unless they think he's got really special attributes. He's got time to climb back to the top, the issues are mental rather than physical.
That said, while I'd be delighted to see him perform, I wouldn't be upset if we had Bridge/Reece. Hope to god Reece doesn't have a brain fart in defence and cost us a game. Haven't seen anything so far that is really concerning, but knockout can do funny things to people's heads.
I agree with all of that but I don't think the pressure furnace of a world cup is the right place to try and find it.
Probably needs a big holiday
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@antipodean said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@Frank No, it's an open stadium.
Google says it has a retractable roof?
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@KiwiMurph Wow - if we get knocked out early then this really will be the RWC that didn't happen.
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@Unite said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@antipodean said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@Frank No, it's an open stadium.
Google says it has a retractable roof?
Roof hasn't closed since 2015. Maintenance costs on it were too high, so it became an open-air stadium.
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@Chris-B said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:@KiwiMurph Wow - if we get knocked out early then this really will be the RWC that didn't happen.
A draw would see us top the pool - or am I missing something?
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@No-Quarter I mean going out in the QF.
Two romps against Canada and Namibia, a cancelled game, and a game against the Jaapies we usually would have played in the 4N.
Allied with me watching very few of the pool games, so I'm struggling for engagement. I'm more excited about the NPC!
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@kiwiinmelb said in RWC: All Blacks v Italy (Pool
:I think we can all agree reikos best puts him ahead of bridges best , based on past games,
Just seems to have lost that attacking ability that made him so dangerous, but have noticed an effort to lift his work rate, maybe that was something he had to work on ?
The coaches will know more than us , who is in the better mental state etc
I’m tipping bridge to continue getting selected over him at this point in time, just haven’t seen enough to make them change it.
That "based on past games" is the problem when comparing these players. Rieko has way more past games than Bridge and Reece. Basically, we don't know yet what Bridge's and Reece's best is. It may well be that with more experience, they'll prove to be better than Rieko. We simply don't know yet. We may have seen Rieko's best already, but I'm sure we haven't seen the best of Bridge and Reece, yet.
Another problem is that all three of them are very different type of players. It depends what kind of player the coaches are looking for; what skills and other qualities they think they need most for a particular test.
