Foster, Robertson etc
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@DaGrubster said in Foster:
Yes he was.
By the end of 2015, Nonu was arguably the best 12 ever, not just NZ’s
As this thread has a nostalgic bent, I'll throw this in....
Seen many of the great players and Ireland's Mike Gibson is way, way up there - an absolute legend and those who played against him - Meads, Kirkpatrick, Batty, BG Williams, Laidlaw, etc - thought him the best player of their generation. I saw Gibson live as a teenager, seen loads of videos and never thought I'd see a better 12 - until Ma'a came along.
He is the best 12 I've seen based on his form from 2011 onward. Not just his size and speed but his skill and guile and also the way he played the game. Delaying going to hospital with a broken arm so he could hang his jersey on JP de Villiers peg as it was the latter's 100th Test sums up the bloke - class and humility in spades.
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@Victor-Meldrew The old man always said the same thing about Mike Gibson.
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@Old-Samurai-Jack said in Foster:
@Victor-Meldrew The old man always said the same thing about Mike Gibson.
He was a pretty fair 10, too!
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Tim Horan, in a very striney 'strayian accent, enters the chat.
Best 12 i have seen, a beautiful footballer.
The ultimate compliment i can pay Ma'a Nonu is that, at his peak, he matched what Horan could do on a footy field
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@mariner4life said in Foster:
Tim Horan, in a very striney 'strayian accent, enters the chat.
Best 12 i have seen, a beautiful footballer.
The ultimate compliment i can pay Ma'a Nonu is that, at his peak, he matched what Horan could do on a footy field
+1. Horan is best 12 I’ve seen.
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I never thought I'd see a 12 to rate up with Horan, and if you'd have told me in 2003-2007 that it would be Ma'a I would have called you as thick as Dagg. Not sure if I can split them as there's pros and cons either way (recency bias, whatever the opposite of recency bias is, am I biased towards Ma'a because he's a Kiwi or do I play it down a bit to not look bias, ... etc). I'm just going to sit on the fence. Anyway, we all know former Magpie Bert Cooke was the greatest 12 to play the game (although in the 20s he would have been wearing a different number).
My old man reckoned that Brett Papworth was the best 12 he'd seen and that if he hadn't gone to league (and got injured) he would have been remembered as a great of the game.
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I used to like coming to this thread to read about how bad Foster is. It was very cathartic. Helped me get through the hard times. Now it's turned into a who's better than Nonu and Smith thread and I don't think I can cope.
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@Crazy-Horse said in Foster:
I used to like coming to this thread to read about how bad Foster is. It was very cathartic. Helped me get through the hard times. Now it's turned into a who's better than Nonu and Smith thread and I don't think I can cope.
I will help you out. Foster is a still a terrible AB coach,Selector motivator and pretty much shit at most things .
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@Billy-Tell said in Foster:
@mariner4life said in Foster:
Tim Horan, in a very striney 'strayian accent, enters the chat.
Best 12 i have seen, a beautiful footballer.
The ultimate compliment i can pay Ma'a Nonu is that, at his peak, he matched what Horan could do on a footy field
+1. Horan is best 12 I’ve seen.
I saw Horan play live at least 20 times. Thought he was easily the best...until I saw Nonu play live. He had all the skills of Horan plus PI beast mode. Absolute freak of a player.
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I never thought I'd see a 12 to rate up with Horan, and if you'd have told me in 2003-2007 that it would be Ma'a I would have called you as thick as Dagg. Not sure if I can split them as there's pros and cons either way (recency bias, whatever the opposite of recency bias is, am I biased towards Ma'a because he's a Kiwi or do I play it down a bit to not look bias, ... etc). I'm just going to sit on the fence. Anyway, we all know former Magpie Bert Cooke was the greatest 12 to play the game (although in the 20s he would have been wearing a different number).
My old man reckoned that Brett Papworth was the best 12 he'd seen and that if he hadn't gone to league (and got injured) he would have been remembered as a great of the game.
I've heard similar assessments. Trevor Gillmeister played with him for about 2 seconds at the Roosters and rated him the GOAT. Could see he was in another universe even based on such a minimal length of time.
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@WillieTheWaiter In my mind, this is probably Jordie at about 95kgs, when he was playing for Canterbury.
He used to have quite sharp features - look at recent photos he's clearly been on the creatine and has about three chins.
This article from 2018 has him bulked up to 103kgs in 2018 and I see Wiki now has him listed at 106kgs, which I reckon is about right but, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a couple of kgs more.
If you assume the weights in this article below are right - Cane 109kgs, Sam Whitelock 122kgs - Whitelock still looks pretty lean to me. Somewhere there's an article that talks about Will Jordan being up to 98-99kgs (same height as Cane, but 10kgs lighter - seems about right to me). Rieko is listed a bit taller than Will and looks slightly heavier built to me. He might not quite be 105kgs, but - relatively - he's got to be getting close - unless everyone is lying!
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@WillieTheWaiter In my mind, this is probably Jordie at about 95kgs, when he was playing for Canterbury.
He used to have quite sharp features - look at recent photos he's clearly been on the creatine and has about three chins.
This article from 2018 has him bulked up to 103kgs in 2018 and I see Wiki now has him listed at 106kgs, which I reckon is about right but, I wouldn't be surprised if he was a couple of kgs more.
If you assume the weights in this article below are right - Cane 109kgs, Sam Whitelock 122kgs - Whitelock still looks pretty lean to me. Somewhere there's an article that talks about Will Jordan being up to 98-99kgs (same height as Cane, but 10kgs lighter - seems about right to me). Rieko is listed a bit taller than Will and looks slightly heavier built to me. He might not quite be 105kgs, but - relatively - he's got to be getting close - unless everyone is lying!
Reiko Ioane is the skinniest 105kg guy I’ve ever seen. That’s heavier than Tana Umaga, Alama Ieremia and Hosea Gear who are all around the same height but looked considerably more solid.
Definitely the smallest big back in All Blacks history.
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@MN5 https://www.rugbypass.com/news/the-minor-adjustment-made-by-rieko-ioane-that-could-pay-huge-dividends/
Here's Rieko saying he's dropped from 105kgs to 102kg in 2020, which Willie talked about above.
I’m assuming he hopped on the scales fully clothed with boots, jacket and beanie on.
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Anyway, back on topic...
Aaron Smith had said that there was an extra edge in the camp after the poor showing in Tokyo. That's Smith's subtle way of admitting that Foster has no motivational ability and it is only the team's pride from time to time rousing them to some sort of decent performance during his tenure.
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@kiwi_expat said in Foster:
Anyway, back on topic...
Aaron Smith had said that there was an extra edge in the camp after the poor showing in Tokyo. That's Smith's subtle way of admitting that Foster has no motivational ability and it is only the team's pride from time to time rousing them to some sort of decent performance during his tenure.
Super-sized Jordie Barrett is a midfield maestro
