Name Your AB Team
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Goldie thinks Christie is great and should be the starter. How many head knocks did he take in his career?
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@antipodean said in Name Your AB Team:
Goldie thinks Christie is great and should be the starter. How many head knocks did he take in his career?
I don't think he os too wrong. I have said quite a few times I can see him in the team. Mind you I may of had a few knocks too, but I just don't get the Christie hate.
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@Chris-B said in Name Your AB Team:
@mariner4life I won't mind too much if it goes the other way - and by the end of the season it may. But, one of those guys went to the RWC and the other didn't and Jason Ryan helped pick both those teams.
More sneaky is that I'm picking Newell to start and Lomax on the bench. Tyrel looked short of a gallop to me on Saturday, while Fletch has smashed everyone in a vain effort.
As regards hobbits - I'm not unhappy that Taylor and Aumua are in cotton wool this weekend!
Lomax will be top dog when he gets back up to full fitness. He was one of the ABs best last year and had a great season before injury struck 5-6 weeks ago. I will be very surprised if he doesn't start in the first test of the year. Newell has had a good season though.
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@Dan54 said in Name Your AB Team:
@antipodean said in Name Your AB Team:
Goldie thinks Christie is great and should be the starter. How many head knocks did he take in his career?
I don't think he os too wrong. I have said quite a few times I can see him in the team. Mind you I may of had a few knocks too, but I just don't get the Christie hate.
Able to see him in the team is recognising the unfortunate reality of the selectors.
I find it unfathomable someone can watch Christie play and not see he's terrible at making good, quick decisions at rucks and throwing fast accurate passes. He's the handbrake on the way the Blues want to play.
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@reprobate said in Name Your AB Team:
> Do we really have to be so conservative? Haven't we just seen with Roigard that the correct approach is to pick the guy who plays better?
But that hasn't been the AB coaching strategy for some years now!
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@Dan54 said in Name Your AB Team:
@antipodean said in Name Your AB Team:
Goldie thinks Christie is great and should be the starter. How many head knocks did he take in his career?
I don't think he os too wrong. I have said quite a few times I can see him in the team. Mind you I may of had a few knocks too, but I just don't get the Christie hate.
i think its just a case of theyre either AB legend who can never have a bad word said against them....or theyre the worst rugby player in history....there is no longer a "pretty good" middle ground when reviewing people
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@antipodean said in Name Your AB Team:
@Dan54 said in Name Your AB Team:
@antipodean said in Name Your AB Team:
Goldie thinks Christie is great and should be the starter. How many head knocks did he take in his career?
I don't think he os too wrong. I have said quite a few times I can see him in the team. Mind you I may of had a few knocks too, but I just don't get the Christie hate.
Able to see him in the team is recognising the unfortunate reality of the selectors.
I find it unfathomable someone can watch Christie play and not see he's terrible at making good, quick decisions at rucks and throwing fast accurate passes. He's the handbrake on the way the Blues want to play.
I know it's old ground, but Roigard off the bench in the Paris final would have given the Boks fits, Christie is just too slow of foot hand and mind
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@Canes4life said in Name Your AB Team:
@Chris-B said in Name Your AB Team:
@mariner4life I won't mind too much if it goes the other way - and by the end of the season it may. But, one of those guys went to the RWC and the other didn't and Jason Ryan helped pick both those teams.
More sneaky is that I'm picking Newell to start and Lomax on the bench. Tyrel looked short of a gallop to me on Saturday, while Fletch has smashed everyone in a vain effort.
As regards hobbits - I'm not unhappy that Taylor and Aumua are in cotton wool this weekend!
Lomax will be top dog when he gets back up to full fitness. He was one of the ABs best last year and had a great season before injury struck 5-6 weeks ago. I will be very surprised if he doesn't start in the first test of the year. Newell has had a good season though.
Not disagreeing with that - Tyrel was one of my Mako boys long before you Canes lot ever got on the bandwagon!
In peak form he's comfortably ahead in my book - but, I barely noticed him on Saturday in general play. Sneaking suspicion they might swap them for the first test.
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@reprobate said in Name Your AB Team:
Jesus, I find it disturbing the number of people picking Perenara in the side. It would be a terrible backward looking selection. He's just been comprehensively outplayed by Ratima in a knock-out game: a performance which would have looked far worse if he had been rightly carded during the match.
Do we really have to be so conservative? Haven't we just seen with Roigard that the correct approach is to pick the guy who plays better? Who happens to also be the guy with a ready-made combination with the presumptive 10?Exactly that, if we want experience then we have Christie, Retania has a combination with Dmac and that surely counts for a lot and is in great form - deserves a shot.
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Halfback selections will be very interesting.
Seen a few suggestions about our great depth there, but I'm not sure that's really true at the moment.
We've just lost probably our best ever halfback (and I'm not talking about Super Sid). I think we've got a bunch of very promising young, but largely untried young guys bubbling under - the best of whom is injured - most of the others probably aren't ready for test rugby (see Meg's comments). Then we've got a veteran who had a bit of a shocker on Saturday and another experienced guy who not many people like and definitely has some limitations. Lots of eggs in the Ratima basket - but, he would be a debutant who's spent two weeks in the AB camp.
I'm inclined to think Razor will be a more adventurous selector than me - so I'm looking forward to seeing who he picks - at halfback and a few other places.
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@Kiwiwomble
It became cool to be ultra conservative with selections. There was no logic in it. -
@Chris-B said in Name Your AB Team:
@Canes4life said in Name Your AB Team:
@Chris-B said in Name Your AB Team:
@mariner4life I won't mind too much if it goes the other way - and by the end of the season it may. But, one of those guys went to the RWC and the other didn't and Jason Ryan helped pick both those teams.
More sneaky is that I'm picking Newell to start and Lomax on the bench. Tyrel looked short of a gallop to me on Saturday, while Fletch has smashed everyone in a vain effort.
As regards hobbits - I'm not unhappy that Taylor and Aumua are in cotton wool this weekend!
Lomax will be top dog when he gets back up to full fitness. He was one of the ABs best last year and had a great season before injury struck 5-6 weeks ago. I will be very surprised if he doesn't start in the first test of the year. Newell has had a good season though.
Not disagreeing with that - Tyrel was one of my Mako boys long before you Canes lot ever got on the bandwagon!
In peak form he's comfortably ahead in my book - but, I barely noticed him on Saturday in general play. Sneaking suspicion they might swap them for the first test.
He was a Wainui boy before that.
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@Canes4life Also an Australian!
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@Canes4life said in Name Your AB Team:
@Chris-B said in Name Your AB Team:
@Canes4life said in Name Your AB Team:
@Chris-B said in Name Your AB Team:
@mariner4life I won't mind too much if it goes the other way - and by the end of the season it may. But, one of those guys went to the RWC and the other didn't and Jason Ryan helped pick both those teams.
More sneaky is that I'm picking Newell to start and Lomax on the bench. Tyrel looked short of a gallop to me on Saturday, while Fletch has smashed everyone in a vain effort.
As regards hobbits - I'm not unhappy that Taylor and Aumua are in cotton wool this weekend!
Lomax will be top dog when he gets back up to full fitness. He was one of the ABs best last year and had a great season before injury struck 5-6 weeks ago. I will be very surprised if he doesn't start in the first test of the year. Newell has had a good season though.
Not disagreeing with that - Tyrel was one of my Mako boys long before you Canes lot ever got on the bandwagon!
In peak form he's comfortably ahead in my book - but, I barely noticed him on Saturday in general play. Sneaking suspicion they might swap them for the first test.
He was a Wainui boy before that.
Eastbourne East.
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@mariner4life said in Name Your AB Team:
@Chris-B said in Name Your AB Team:
Blackadder
Papali’i
Savea
I like the idea of seeing two opensides fail against England in previous years, so being innovative and selecting three.
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How England can shatter the All Blacks' Eden Park streak
Three decades have passed since a European team won at the Auckland stronghold, but England are good enough to make it happen.
Likely England 23 for the first Test vs New Zealand: 1. Joe Marler, 2. Jamie George, 3. Dan Cole, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. George Martin, 6. Chandler Cunningham-South, 7. Sam Underhill, 8. Ben Earl, 9. Alex Mitchell, 10. Marcus Smith, 11. Tommy Freeman, 12. Ollie Lawrence, 13. Henry Slade, 14. Immanuel Fey-Waboso, 15. George Furbank.
Bench: Fin Baxter, Theo Dan, Will Stuart, Alex Coles, Alex Dombrandt, Ben Spencer, Fin Smith, Freddie Steward. -
@Windows97 said in Name Your AB Team:
Exactly that, if we want experience then we have Christie,
Not a Christie-hater - he's good defensively and he's OK coming on when fatigue sets in - but TJP over Christie any day.
Retania has a combination with Dmac and that surely counts for a lot and is in great form - deserves a shot.
Agree but.... New Coach. Zero Test experience. First Test in charge. Picks on experience or combination? Personally, I'd start with Ratima knowing TJP can step in if Ratima gets the yips.
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@BerniesCorner said in Name Your AB Team:
@Kiwiwomble
It became cool to be ultra conservative with selections. There was no logic in it.Back was always against the wall and injuries in key positions. That doesn't really hold right now.
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So wings?
Unless they only pick two first fives, which is a pretty short term strategy, I can't see them fitting in four wings. In a 32 man squad I can't see the point in that. Probably two of them won't be in the match day 23.
Caleb Clarke
Emoni Narawa
Sevu Reece
Mark Tele'aSomeone probably has to miss out. Who's it going to be and will that give us an indication of the game plan?
Anyone else fit and good enough to push two of these guys out?
