All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug
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@gt12 said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
Bower isn't the future, so I'm not sure why they aren't investing in the Groot. With Bower and Laulala we will get fuck all out of our front rowers.
Apart from that, I think they are shoe-horning in Ardie rather than making a choice about specialists.
After that, I don't see why we need Mo'unga, Dmac, Barret x 2 in the 23. There are better options that could use here. We could actually have a 6/2 bench.
yeah, dont get when these older guys get a shot in anything other than a world cup year and after a whole lot of injuries when experience might outweigh potential...and even then someone like Ash dixon with several years of awesomeness and leadership rather than at best "solid" bower (obviously not for each other seeing as different positions)
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@tim said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
@bovidae said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
Tu’inukuafe not starting is also a strange selection.
To be brought on to counter Tupou, who also is a replacement?
Good point. Slipper can co have talked up attacking the AB scrum.
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@bovidae said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
@gt12 I was going to add "relatively" compared to Nepo. Our props suck, even when compared to the Wallaby props as ball-carriers.
Big Karl is a better ball runner than both - in one game this year he made more metres than both of them made in the other two games (Karl: 6 runs, 9 metres, 1 defender beaten).
Laulala also has more runs (5 versus 1) and the same amount of metres (3) as Bower from those two games.
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@tim said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
@bovidae said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
Tu’inukuafe not starting is also a strange selection.
To be brought on to counter Tupou, who also is a replacement?
That's the only logical reason IMO.
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@mariner4life ffs aye, leave the guy at 7. So Jacobsen plays out of his skin and gets dropped, totally makes sense Foster.
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@canes4life he honestly doesn't think most players can play more than one game in a row, make me worried when we get to a world cup when they have to play several in a few weeks, no one will be settled or battle hardened
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@bovidae said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
DO NOT like Ardie being used as a no.8 again.
He's not the best 8, not the best 7 and certainly not the best 6. It seems like the selectors hare terrified of being criticised on social media. He should be on the bench where given his athleticism he can make a real impact in any of those positions towards the final quarter of a match if required.
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Ardie at 8 isn't a big deal. Papali'i was the form openside in SR and they are having another look at him.
At this stage they clearly aren't comfortable having Papali'i/Jacobson/Ioane as a trio because of their lack of Tests. Maybe that changes later in the year.
They need to get more Tests into all three of those players so I expect some rotationI expect Jacobson will probably start again in the second Eden Park Test
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
And seriously, if DMac's last test didn't play him out of the spot, then it is impossible to get dropped from the ABs
The coaches must go to bed watching fan videos of DMac Super Rugby highlights.
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@canes4life said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:
@mariner4life ffs aye, leave the guy at 7. So Jacobsen plays out of his skin and gets dropped, totally makes sense Foster.
I think that certain players are essentially undroppable: Laulala, Taylor, BBBR, Whitelock, Ardie, Smith, Mo'unga (might get rotated), Dmac, Barretts.
The issue is of course, that of those only Smith and Whitelock (perhaps Mo'unga in the 23) actually demand automatic selection. The coaches still select like we have Richie, Carter, Nonu, Smiths - all pretty much the best in the world in their positions -when right now the only player who is probably the best in the world is Smith, and even then many NH would disagree with that.
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DMac has proven time again he is a great super sub....so we start him, its like fozzie is coaching in the 80 and has missed the fact the subs are a specialist position in their own right often
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@canes4life yeah that was my point - why's Foster suddenly making astute selections?