RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland
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Telea has been excellent in his appearances. Would be a bad loss. I’m not seeing a lot of Internet talk about this though. Just Liam aka George.
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@stodders said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@george33 Liam Napier’s latest article looks like a summary of this thread 😂.
I think @george33 suggested Fainga’anuku was a potential surprise starter further up the thread and Napier goes with:
“If Telea is ruled out the All Blacks will turn to Leicester Fainga’anuku’s powerful presence after he impressed from the left wing to claim four tries against Namibia and Uruguay.”
Nobody from the AB camp suggested there was a problem with Telea this week. So did Napier shoe horn the Telea injury (conjecture) on the back of George’s suggestion that Leicester may be selected? Interesting 😉
I think it was me , George said no he isn’t in the 23, from memory,
I heard yesterday morning telea has a niggle .
And Christie would be on the bench .
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@kiwiinmelb I never said leister was in 23, Talea but if rumours r true and he's picked up a niggle then he most likely will,unless they go back to Clarke
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@george33 not sure which is the more disappointing news for AB fans. Potentially losing your premier attacking winger, or the coaches potentially selecting the no 9 in the match day squad nobody is that enamoured with over the young tyro who has made every post a winner so far. Must be part of the master plan I guess 🙄
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@stodders well we will find out, only thing must be experience on Finlay's side mite get him over the line ,as for Talea if he's out that's huge loss , Leister is quality but makes alot of errors and I worry about his pace and slowness to turn and chase at test level big matches, If I'm correct he played Ireland last season then basically disappeared after that series, and the other bench rumour Newell over Nepo just can't see it ,both De Groot and Lomax haven't played significant minutes for a while now, must b temptation to start Ofa,Nepo with De Groot,Lomax on bench,still think Newell is a way off yet at test level big matches, ok to look good against minnows ,Ireland different beast
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@chimoaus said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
That is very interesting to see just how many minutes the Ireland top team have had. Shows how important their core players are but also shows why they are so well drilled and organised, they play a shitload of minutes together which simply can't be earnt on the training field.
To labour the point, 14 of the 23 are from Leinster so they play a lot together all year. That number would have been higher if Ryan was fit.
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I can't see Roigard getting dropped. Doesn't make sense, he's been excellent off the bench when Smith starts and he has a combination with McKenzie that's starting to hum. Roigard has the attacking prowess to change a game late in the piece, Christie doesn't. Yes he isn't the finished product but he's so much better than Christie in my view. Would be very odd if Foster picks Christie but then again I wouldn't be surprised because it's something he would do.
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@Canes4life did Roigard blot his copybook in Uruguay match by struggling with the messy breakdown in the first 20 mins perhaps? It’ll be similar at the weekend with Ireland.
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@stodders yeah but Christie struggles when we have parity so who the hell knows. I thought Roigard started off patchy but came right as the game went on. Just an experience thing. Roigard has so much more upside than Christie. No point going into Ireland picking experienced players if they don't do anything. If we are down late in the game I'd rather bring on someone like Roigard than Christie to break the game open.
Christie has literally shown nothing with his chances to say pick me. We are not going beat Ireland by picking players like that.
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@george33 said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@kiwiinmelb I never said leister was in 23, Talea but if rumours r true and he's picked up a niggle then he most likely will,unless they go back to Clarke
Nah opposite, I said rumour going around leister is in for telia ,
You said no he isn’t , not in the 23
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@Bovidae said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Newell's inclusion would be a bigger risk than Christie. If they select the young props it makes no sense to ignore Roigard.
Not sure I entirely agree. Newell has proved a good impact man for the All Blacks, and it is hardly like he is a worse scrummager than Laulala... who can't catch a cold when it comes to collecting passes in the midfield. Williams over Ofa is the only one, but it is the sort of bold selection we need in the pack. ABs have struggled for impact from their forwards right through the Foster era.
Christie is allegedly a 'safe' pair of hands, but this has become the most stupid of arguments. He isn't better than Roigard, but then again, picking Roigard is also a risk because of his inexperience. It is almost as if they should have picked Brad Weber...
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@stodders said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Pure conjecture from a post on X:
Too many in that selection that don't look right to me.
I think the second line props will be Ofa and Nepo - and they both may well start because de Groot will be undercooked and Lomax medium-rare.
Telea ahead of Leicester and Roigard over Christie.
