RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks
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can we please stop comparing this team to the 2015 vintage? There are a handful of tema in history that can favourably compare to this team, and certainly no team at this Cup.
Ben Smith is as good as any AB fullback ever
Our best ever midfield that includes one of the best 12s ever
The best 10 to play the game
The best AB halfback ever
One of the top #8s in AB history
The greatest rugby player of all time
The best AB 6 i've ever seen
Our best locking compo at the peak of their powersPrime BB coming off the bench.
It's a ridiculous comparison that doesn't really say anything about this team.
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If that's our loose forward trio our lineout is in trouble.
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@mariner4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
If that's our loose forward trio our lineout is in trouble.
Don't worry we only do short kicks so it will never go out
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If i am France i am kicking it out all day.
Not only are we short one genuine target, our lifters aren't tall enough either.
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@mariner4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
If that's our loose forward trio our lineout is in trouble.
Given how many of them there are in a game, I find it incredible that they didn't think to add one more lock or loosie so that we could have Scooter at 6 (or preferably Finau) when needed.
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@mariner4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Not only are we short one genuine target, our lifters aren't tall enough either.
I'm less worried about the jumpers as Savea and Jacobson/Papalii are fine as third options but agree about the lifters. Lomax's extra height is a huge advantage compared to Laulala. Whitelock needs to be used more than he was against SA.
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@Nepia said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@taniwharugby said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@Kirwan said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
The less he plays the better he gets.
True of many players though TBF...I mean Frizells one excellent game this year and his absence has grown his stature as a player.
Tongan Jesus.
jesus famously punches mary magdalene after the last supper and threatens everyone else to keep quiet
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@mariner4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
If i am France i am kicking it out all day.
Not only are we short one genuine target, our lifters aren't tall enough either.
add to that we're still rubbish at exiting and our game plan is still heavily reliant on risky attack from anywhere plays so plugging the corners really does seem like a pretty straight forward way to put the pressure on
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@Nepia said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Did NZR spend their NPC marketing budget on Frizzell? On multiple threads and forums he's getting hyped by posters. FFS on one thread there's posters suggesting we should be putting him at 8.
Plots are being lost.
His physique and skill set are suited to the way the AB's need a 6 to play. Carry the ball into contact - tackle well, be a lineout option. Finau is pretty much exactly the same.
Carrying both Cane and Savea requires this of your 6 otherwise you end up with a lightweight loose forward trio unable to move bodies or get go-forward in the carry.
We saw the worst results of it last weekend against SA and picking either Jacobsen or Papps at 6 wont make a difference against the French should the French decide to play physical this loose forward trio will get rolled.
Not due to skill or determination or trying - just simple physics, a bigger body beats a smaller body.
So that's my logic, Frizzel in the past has played this role poorly, this year it's been a remarkable improvement.
Personally I don't care if it's Frizzel, or Finau or Blackadder I just want a big 6 to smash in the carry, move bodies and be a lineout option.
Unfortunately for us fans it seems that the AB's have hung their hat on the pod system for attack. that means however you need a ball carrier who can be "the tip of the spear" in the pod to break the advantage line.
In the current AB's we have BBBR, Scooter, Frizzel and Sam T (Lomax was improving here too) - hardly anyone else can do the job. If those guys aren't in the team carting the ball up hard our attack just goes sideways across the field and flounders.
So for me it's not so much "Yay Frizell" but more like "Please! For the love of God - someone do the job!!"
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@Windows97 said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
just simple physics, a bigger body beats a smaller body.
If you are going to say things like this you need to be accurate about player sizes
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@Duluth said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
If you are going to say things like this you need to be accurate about player sizes
which, to be fair, is impossible because rugby treats everything like a closely guarded secret.
I don't believe a single height or weight stat that ANY fan hangs anything on.
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Plot twist. Taylor to start, DC off the bench and Sami T named at 12 ahead of ALB.
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@mariner4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@Duluth said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
If you are going to say things like this you need to be accurate about player sizes
which, to be fair, is impossible because rugby treats everything like a closely guarded secret.
I don't believe a single height or weight stat that ANY fan hangs anything on.
No I believe my eyes more than the stats. However he was making claims based on the size of players. Dalton is not small
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@Joans-Town-Jones said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Plot twist. Taylor to start, DC off the bench and Sami T named at 12 ahead of ALB.
if hes available then i would start Dan Carter, wasted off the bench.....
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@Windows97 said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Carrying both Cane and Savea requires this of your 6 otherwise you end up with a lightweight loose forward trio unable to move bodies or get go-forward in the carry.
Spot on. Arguing about the 6 papers over the fact you need peak Kaino at 6 because the 7 and 8 leave huge gaps for the third player to paper over. Frizzel has had 1 good game, and suddenly he's the next coming. I hope I'm wrong, but can't see him replicating it against top teams consistently
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'It's opened the door': All Blacks wary of teams using Springbok blueprint
The beating, within the context of the match, didn't stress All Blacks coach Ian Foster. That's not to say he enjoys being reminded of it.
“First lesson: Have 15 men on the field. When you lose an experienced guy who has been your power player and you lose him from your pack then you do become very vulnerable. “That’s one key lesson and it’s going to be one key lesson going into the World Cup that we all know but we’ve just got to make sure that we really work hard on the discipline side of our game to keep it 15 on 15. “If we’ve got 15 on 15 I’m very confident in that space. “What we had to do was we had to adapt to a strategy, we had Josh Lord come on, we had Tamaiti Williams, we had Fletcher Newell; Fletcher hasn’t played much rugby this year, Tamaiti’s only played a couple of test matches and there’s some massive learning going on there.Lesson one is obvious (although certain players seem a bit slow to learn this)
I presume the second point is that Ofa's experience would be better on the bench?
