AB squad next RWC (2023)?
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Not Coltman, Frizzell and Webber?
Its easy to put the selectorial boot in now, after the fact.
Jacobson was a brave selection for 2019, but his subsequent replacement by Frizzell rather than Papalii was not.
No Aumua or TTT in the 3rd choice positions either in 2019.
For the record, I would have liked Aumua to have been good enough for 2019 selection, but if his throwing isn't good enough yet then I too would select someone else. Hooker is second most important position in the team.
As much as I like Webber, I'm disappointed that TTT didn't play for the ABs this year and go to the RWC.
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@kiwiinmelb I don’t think the type of player was the problem on Saturday, it was the tactics and execution that let us down. Tactics to diffuse the England attacking defence and tactics to exploit the gaps that were actually there.
Another ‘big body’ would’ve just got smashed had we played the way we did.
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@Bovidae said in AB squad next RWC (2023)?:
When I lived in the USA I saw up close a number of basketball players who breathed rarified air. The backup centre for the college team was a white guy who was 2.18 m (7' 2").
shameless name drop alert
I’ve met Shaq (7’1), Yao Ming (7’3), Shawn Bradley (7’6), Mark Eaton (7’4) and they are sun blockers! I was only a kid at the time when I met Eaton and I thought he was Goliath!
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@ACT-Crusader If you has also met Manute Bol you'd have the full set. Eaton was a giant in his time.
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@Hooroo said in AB squad next RWC (2023)?:
The Jesse Ryder of NZ rugby
At least Jesse actually performed at the highest level. A crying shame that he did not persevere, certainly a case of "what might have been".
His test batting average places him at 17th place in NZ behind
TA Blundell @ 68 (two tests in 2017)
CS Dempster @ 65.72
KW Hough @ 62 (two tests in the late 1950s)
MP Donnelly @ 52.90
KS Williamson @ 52.22
HM McGirr @ 51.00 (two tests in 1930)
FB Smith @ 47.40 (four tests in the late 40s/early 50s)
LPRL Taylor @ 46.52
MD Crowe @ 45.36
JF Reid @ 46.28
MH Richardson @ 44.77
GM Turner @ 44.64
AH Jones @ 44.27
HM Nicholls @ 44.25
TWM Latham @ 44.03
HG Vivian @ 42.10 (seven tests in the 1930s)
JD Ryder @ 40.93 -
@Higgins said in AB squad next RWC (2023)?:
@Hooroo said in AB squad next RWC (2023)?:
The Jesse Ryder of NZ rugby
At least Jesse actually performed at the highest level. A crying shame that he did not persevere, certainly a case of "what might have been".
His test batting average places him at 17th place in NZ behind
TA Blundell @ 68 (two tests in 2017)
CS Dempster @ 65.72
KW Hough @ 62 (two tests in the late 1950s)
MP Donnelly @ 52.90
KS Williamson @ 52.22
HM McGirr @ 51.00 (two tests in 1930)
FB Smith @ 47.40 (four tests in the late 40s/early 50s)
LPRL Taylor @ 46.52
MD Crowe @ 45.36
JF Reid @ 46.28
MH Richardson @ 44.77
GM Turner @ 44.64
AH Jones @ 44.27
HM Nicholls @ 44.25
TWM Latham @ 44.03
HG Vivian @ 42.10 (seven tests in the 1930s)
JD Ryder @ 40.93It's not what he has achieved I am getting at, it is what he didn't achieve...
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Discussing what an AB's squad might look like in 4 years time, holy heck!!!!
There will be players in there that no one has ever heard of, players whose form falls off a cliff, new coaches with new ideas and new favourites......
And perhaps the biggest unknown of all, it's near impossible to know who the Highlanders 3rd string No.6 will be this far out.
What a waste of energy even thinking about who might be in this team.
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@Gunner said in AB squad next RWC (2023)?:
Discussing what an AB's squad might look like in 4 years time, holy heck!!!!
There will be players in there that no one has ever heard of, players whose form falls off a cliff, new coaches with new ideas and new favourites......
And perhaps the biggest unknown of all, it's near impossible to know who the Highlanders 3rd string No.6 will be this far out.
What a waste of energy even thinking about who might be in this team.
What will be interesting it comparing this list to the one selected in 4 years time, that would be worth the energy.
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Didn't we have a similar thread after a previous World Cup? If so, maybe someone more talented than me could dig it out. Would be an interesting read.
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@Crazy-Horse doesnt look like it goes back that far, but here is a bolters thread from 2016.
https://www.forum.thesilverfern.com/topic/646/ab-bolters-thread
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@taniwharugby you need to delete that link! Just read the first page and it makes it look like @Baron-Silas-Greenback knows what he's talking about. He predicted Savea being a bolter and when challenged about three opensides he said Savea transcends positions. Something along the lines of Ardie's position is 'the Savea'.
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@Crazy-Horse said in AB squad next RWC (2023)?:
@taniwharugby you need to delete that link! Just read the first page and it makes it look like @Baron-Silas-Greenback knows what he's talking about. He predicted Savea being a bolter and when challenged about three opensides he said Savea transcends positions. Something along the lines of Ardie's position is 'the Savea'.
You will get used to it. I am always pulling that sort of Nostradamus shit.
Cricket oracle is my actual specialty though, rugby soothsaying is more a hobby. -
@Bovidae said in AB squad next RWC (2023)?:
@ACT-Crusader If you has also met Manute Bol you'd have the full set. Eaton was a giant in his time.
It was a young Shaq, when he came to OZ early in his NBA career (still at Orlando) on a Reebok tour, but he was a big unit then that became even bigger when he went to LA and Miami (and ginormous are Phoenix, Boston).
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Fletcher Newell and tamati Williams
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