All Blacks 2024
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@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks 2024:
It almost feels like razor is deliberately trolling those outside Canterbury
Fihaki is trolling those IN Canterbury who want the ABs to win!
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@NTA said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Windows97 said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
The AB's used to be about excellence, about trying to play the perfect game and chasing perfection in each moment of the game.
Under McCaw, they were about excellence.
After that, they were about experience.
As that eroded, they were about BBBB*.
Now that is on the downslide, what next?
*Beauden Barrett Bullshit Bounces
What next appears to be throwing the ball around furiously and hoping someone finds a gap.
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@pakman said in All Blacks 2024:
@Landers92 said in All Blacks 2024:
@darylmitchell said in All Blacks 2024:
@Landers92 yes, for Canterbury he has lots, and at the end of games for Crusaders he's finished there.
Razor in his Crusaders days said he had potential to be a great 12.
I don't rate him that highly.. but he's got a point of difference due to his physical dimensions, similar to a young Jordie - he's filled out a bit more now... also massive boot on the kid - and very long levers providing good offloading platform from 12.
It's not like he's not going to play but he's a good squad pick since he covers 11-15.
You’re drunk. He doesn’t play 12. He predominantly plays winger because he has never been able to nail down the 15 jersey, he’s even been kicked to the wing for Canterbury this year. Interested to hear your take on that one… You’re only kidding yourself by trying to justify him being pulled into the squad when there are multiple better players out there than him mate. End of.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/350426610/crusaders-fullback-chay-fihaki-called-all-blacks-squad
Why are you sending this link? Theres no info in there that we didn’t already know…
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@reprobate said in All Blacks 2024:
It's fucking bizarre - I mean Fihaki would only even be third choice if you literally made the decision to pick an underperforming Crusader - surely you'd pick Ennor or McLeod?
Are these guys that tone deaf? The kid is going to be holding tackle bags, why don't they just get a couple of local guys and use them?
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@brodean said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Mr-Fish said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@brodean said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
The only players who have showed better form than Super Rugby are George Bell and Stephen Perofeta.
That's just not true...
Taylor and Vaa'i are definitely in better form.
Lomax, Darry, Sititi, Ratima, McKenzie, Ioane are all playing as well, if not better than they did during Super.
De Groot, Finau, Perenara, Jordie Barrett are pretty much on par.
A number of others have had injuries during either Super or the international season so it's hard to get a clear answer one way or another. Others haven't had a huge number of starting opportunities.
None of those players are playing better than they were in Super Rugby. Taylor and Vaa’i were both excellent in Super Rugby so they doing what they did in SR.
Darry was definitely better for the Blues. Sititi hasn't reached the same level as what he displayed for the Chiefs. He's made mistakes that he wasn't making in Super Ruvby
Ratima has been a mixed bag for the ABs as have been the rest of those players you named. We consistently saw a strong running game from Ratima in SR but we only began to see glimpsed of that this week.
You're contradicting yourself between your own posts.
So Sititi making mistakes in TEST rugby that you didn't see in Super Rugby is evidence of what exactly?? (vague statement as well, can you point to more specific examples?)
What argument are you even making? That people who break 10 tackles a game in Super Rugby should be breaking 10 tackles a game in Test rugby?
Sititi/Ratima have been amazing every chance they've had so I find it interesting you chose them as your example (from someone who watched every single Chiefs game).
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@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
Some posters seem to forget we played with 13 men at a key part of the game.
Don't think anyone's forgotten the poor discipline at key parts of the game we've seen creeping back in.
I seem to recall it was a feature of Foster's teams as well.
Which, considering we've gone backwards, kinda proves the point that Robertson (a) isn't the coaching Jesus he was hyped up to be or (b) both are equally good coaches and there's deeper problems.
You've hated Razor since day one and didn't even want him as coach. You're comparing 6 tests to 4 years of substandard, mediocre horse manure. I'm disheartened as any one else about the current results and honestly expected more from this side this year but give me a break. You want Razor to fail to prove your narrative.
I've hated Robertson from day one? Fucking news to me when I wanted him as AB coach after Ireland III last year.
My narrative is we've gone backwards, the new coach might not be the dogs bollocks, and the issues might not be with the coaching skills. If you think having that opinion is wanting Robertson to fail, I'd love to know your logic.
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@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@MajorRage said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
Some posters seem to forget we played with 13 men at a key part of the game.
Don't think anyone's forgotten the poor discipline at key parts of the game we've seen creeping back in.
I seem to recall it was a feature of Foster's teams as well.
Which, considering we've gone backwards, kinda proves the point that Robertson (a) isn't the coaching Jesus he was hyped up to be or (b) both are equally good coaches and there's deeper problems.
You've hated Razor since day one and didn't even want him as coach. You're comparing 6 tests to 4 years of substandard, mediocre horse manure. I'm disheartened as any one else about the current results and honestly expected more from this side this year but give me a break. You want Razor to fail to prove your narrative.
This seems a little unfair..
I don't know how many times those of us who were skeptical about Robertson were told how much better things would be by his fanbase. The postings post Foster reappointment and Robertson drubbing were really quite nasty. I mean, look at what you've written about the 4 years where we didn't perform as high as AB standards of years gone by. Won the RC every year, and came within a bees dick of the WC. Given the closing of gaps of the top teams, thats not that bad.
So here we are, with a misfiring AB team under Robertson, and people are rightly asking where this brilliance is that we were told was going to happen.
Victors point is a fair one.
Nah, it's not. We went badly backwards under Foster, with obvious problems which were not addressed over a long period of time. We played shit, and selections were shit.
All apparently forgiven due to the mighty RWC turnaround which consisted of: lost to France, beat Ireland and Argentina, lost to SA.People couldn't understand why you would appoint a head coach with zero head coach success and what is perceived to be a shit coach selection process, and the result of that was a sense of relief that we would get a coach who had been successful. It's got nothing to do with this false 'messiah' bullshit, it's a straight reaction to the shit process last time around which resulted in shit results.
The point of falsely comparing 6 tests vs years of shit with no improvement is the fair one.
You kind of seem to be arguing with yourself here.
I don’t think there’s too much above to disagree with. I was skeptical of Robertson fanboys but his coaching record spoke for itself. I wanted Robertson after SA tour in 2022.
Now, I want to know what’s happened to our team mentally. We did better than I thought we would vs SA given I think they are superior ATM but vs Argies and Australia we’ve fallen apart.
And no points in last 20 this entire tournament is unforgivable. Yet, nothing has changed and in the last 20 vs Oz we were the worst we’ve been all year.
That’s on the coach. VM was suggesting it may not be, yet was criticized for that as he’s against SR?
None of it makes sense.
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My point is most players aren't thriving and consistently playing at their best.
Ratima for most of the games has just gone through the motions passing the ball to Mckenzie. We've seen very little of the running game and try scoring from the Super season. We only started to see that this weekend.
Sititi got dropped from the 23 after his second game off the bench because he gave away 3 penalties in 20 minutes. He didn't handle the pressure well from the Pumas in that last 20.
He struggled initially against the Boks but grew into the game and played well. He was excellent this week against the 10th ranked side. So it's been a mixed bag. He was consistently excellent at SR level except in the final we he and Finau got dominated.
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@MajorRage said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@MajorRage said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
Some posters seem to forget we played with 13 men at a key part of the game.
Don't think anyone's forgotten the poor discipline at key parts of the game we've seen creeping back in.
I seem to recall it was a feature of Foster's teams as well.
Which, considering we've gone backwards, kinda proves the point that Robertson (a) isn't the coaching Jesus he was hyped up to be or (b) both are equally good coaches and there's deeper problems.
You've hated Razor since day one and didn't even want him as coach. You're comparing 6 tests to 4 years of substandard, mediocre horse manure. I'm disheartened as any one else about the current results and honestly expected more from this side this year but give me a break. You want Razor to fail to prove your narrative.
This seems a little unfair..
I don't know how many times those of us who were skeptical about Robertson were told how much better things would be by his fanbase. The postings post Foster reappointment and Robertson drubbing were really quite nasty. I mean, look at what you've written about the 4 years where we didn't perform as high as AB standards of years gone by. Won the RC every year, and came within a bees dick of the WC. Given the closing of gaps of the top teams, thats not that bad.
So here we are, with a misfiring AB team under Robertson, and people are rightly asking where this brilliance is that we were told was going to happen.
Victors point is a fair one.
Nah, it's not. We went badly backwards under Foster, with obvious problems which were not addressed over a long period of time. We played shit, and selections were shit.
All apparently forgiven due to the mighty RWC turnaround which consisted of: lost to France, beat Ireland and Argentina, lost to SA.People couldn't understand why you would appoint a head coach with zero head coach success and what is perceived to be a shit coach selection process, and the result of that was a sense of relief that we would get a coach who had been successful. It's got nothing to do with this false 'messiah' bullshit, it's a straight reaction to the shit process last time around which resulted in shit results.
The point of falsely comparing 6 tests vs years of shit with no improvement is the fair one.
You kind of seem to be arguing with yourself here.
I don’t think there’s too much above to disagree with. I was skeptical of Robertson fanboys but his coaching record spoke for itself. I wanted Robertson after SA tour in 2022.
Now, I want to know what’s happened to our team mentally. We did better than I thought we would vs SA given I think they are superior ATM but vs Argies and Australia we’ve fallen apart.
And no points in last 20 this entire tournament is unforgivable. Yet, nothing has changed and in the last 20 vs Oz we were the worst we’ve been all year.
That’s on the coach. VM was suggesting it may not be, yet was criticized for that as he’s against SR?
None of it makes sense.
Nah, he keeps taking it back to the messiah, coaching jesus, it's all the same - just rehashing his whole foster isn't so bad bullshit.
Questioning specific bits of coaching and performance is quite different to that, and completely valid - I hope, god knows I do enough of it myself. -
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
Some posters seem to forget we played with 13 men at a key part of the game.
Don't think anyone's forgotten the poor discipline at key parts of the game we've seen creeping back in.
I seem to recall it was a feature of Foster's teams as well.
Which, considering we've gone backwards, kinda proves the point that Robertson (a) isn't the coaching Jesus he was hyped up to be or (b) both are equally good coaches and there's deeper problems.
You've hated Razor since day one and didn't even want him as coach. You're comparing 6 tests to 4 years of substandard, mediocre horse manure. I'm disheartened as any one else about the current results and honestly expected more from this side this year but give me a break. You want Razor to fail to prove your narrative.
I've hated Robertson from day one? Fucking news to me when I wanted him as AB coach after Ireland III last year.
My narrative is we've gone backwards, the new coach might not be the dogs bollocks, and the issues might not be with the coaching skills. If you think having that opinion is wanting Robertson to fail, I'd love to know your logic.
Not being a Razor cheerleader = hate. This is the modern way.
Reality is that Sir Graham was right - he would have benefitted from getting out of the Canterbury environment and coaching elsewhere. Then you do the learning - ideally with someone else's international team - and get the pressure, have to build different systems with new players, etc. After three titles, the next 4 were 'more of the same' coaching-wise.
I think you're seeing that approach in the selections. Almost all of the coaches have Canterbury connections. If in doubt, Razor's leaning back to his roots - hence Chay, Havili, Bell etc ... It's fine as long as it works - but if it doesn't, you're in trouble.
The bigger risk is that the 'path to the ABs through Canterbury' meme is real and takes hold. And then you hollow out all the fringer players who just head overseas because they don't see the pathway to higher honours. As someone said above (and very insightfully), it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I want the ABs to win. But I also think the problems ran deeper than Foster being a shithouse coach. We've lost our coaching IP overseas, we aren't innovating at the top level - Rugby in this country is in a tough place. If I wanted to invest, I'd invest in coaching, not bringing back players from overseas (Mo'unga/Fritzel).
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@MajorRage said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
None of it makes sense.
It's the Fern. Was ever thus.
Re Robertson, there was certainly a percentage of posters and the general population who were against Foster from the moment he was appointed and were vocally anti him at all times.
I think the majority would have wished for a more inspiring choice than Fozzie particularly after 2018-19, particularly given his pretty insipid reign at the Chiefs.
Results were disappointing. I don't think there would have been a resounding backlash if he'd been replaced last year.
I do think the way NZR annointed Razor was piss poor and Foster's reaction was mature and restrained.
So we come to Robertson. He was massively hyped by media and a large number of fans. Expectations were raised and he has failed to deliver on them. Yes it is early days and there are extenuating circumstances - there were too with Foster. I don't think it is unreasonable to question whether Robertson's coaching credentials have been inflated because he had a very strong squad in what is being shown to be a pretty poor comp.
I hope he does well and turns it round but the early signs are inconclusive at best worrying at worst
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@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@MajorRage said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
Some posters seem to forget we played with 13 men at a key part of the game.
Don't think anyone's forgotten the poor discipline at key parts of the game we've seen creeping back in.
I seem to recall it was a feature of Foster's teams as well.
Which, considering we've gone backwards, kinda proves the point that Robertson (a) isn't the coaching Jesus he was hyped up to be or (b) both are equally good coaches and there's deeper problems.
You've hated Razor since day one and didn't even want him as coach. You're comparing 6 tests to 4 years of substandard, mediocre horse manure. I'm disheartened as any one else about the current results and honestly expected more from this side this year but give me a break. You want Razor to fail to prove your narrative.
This seems a little unfair..
I don't know how many times those of us who were skeptical about Robertson were told how much better things would be by his fanbase. The postings post Foster reappointment and Robertson drubbing were really quite nasty. I mean, look at what you've written about the 4 years where we didn't perform as high as AB standards of years gone by. Won the RC every year, and came within a bees dick of the WC. Given the closing of gaps of the top teams, thats not that bad.
So here we are, with a misfiring AB team under Robertson, and people are rightly asking where this brilliance is that we were told was going to happen.
Victors point is a fair one.
Nah, it's not. We went badly backwards under Foster, with obvious problems which were not addressed over a long period of time. We played shit, and selections were shit.
All apparently forgiven due to the mighty RWC turnaround which consisted of: lost to France, beat Ireland and Argentina, lost to SA.People couldn't understand why you would appoint a head coach with zero head coach success and what is perceived to be a shit coach selection process, and the result of that was a sense of relief that we would get a coach who had been successful. It's got nothing to do with this false 'messiah' bullshit, it's a straight reaction to the shit process last time around which resulted in shit results.
The point of falsely comparing 6 tests vs years of shit with no improvement is the fair one.
We've gone from winning the RC and narrowly losing a RWC final by one point to probably coming 3rd in the RC and narrowly winning against the 9th ranked team in the world.
At least we can feel relieved the coach selection process was done right this time round.,
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@brodean said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
My point is most players aren't thriving and consistently playing at their best.
Ratima for most of the games has just gone through the motions passing the ball to Mckenzie. We've seen very little of the running game and try scoring from the Super season. We only started to see that this weekend.
Sititi got dropped from the 23 after his second game off the bench because he gave away 3 penalties in 20 minutes. He didn't handle the pressure well from the Pumas in that last 20.
He struggled initially against the Boks but grew into the game and played well. He was excellent this week against the 10th ranked side. So it's been a mixed bag. He was consistently excellent at SR level except in the final we he and Finau got dominated.
But isn't this exactly what you'd expect from young players starting out and finding their way both in the team and at the higher level?
I hardly think it's a valid reason to rubbish the coaching. -
@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
But isn't this exactly what you'd expect from young players starting out and finding their way both in the team and at the higher level?
are they the ones making those mistakes? We lost some leadership for sure, but you expect more from senior leaders.
Just look at Taylor. Playing pretty well, but with a high-ish error rate. And the ruck penality he gave away at the end of the first half against England was unforgivable. ScoBa is a bit the same - had outstanding involvements, but also some dumbass stuff.
Reality is if you want a cool, level headed, focussed leadership group I don't know if you get that with ScoBa, JB and RD.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@MajorRage said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
Some posters seem to forget we played with 13 men at a key part of the game.
Don't think anyone's forgotten the poor discipline at key parts of the game we've seen creeping back in.
I seem to recall it was a feature of Foster's teams as well.
Which, considering we've gone backwards, kinda proves the point that Robertson (a) isn't the coaching Jesus he was hyped up to be or (b) both are equally good coaches and there's deeper problems.
You've hated Razor since day one and didn't even want him as coach. You're comparing 6 tests to 4 years of substandard, mediocre horse manure. I'm disheartened as any one else about the current results and honestly expected more from this side this year but give me a break. You want Razor to fail to prove your narrative.
This seems a little unfair..
I don't know how many times those of us who were skeptical about Robertson were told how much better things would be by his fanbase. The postings post Foster reappointment and Robertson drubbing were really quite nasty. I mean, look at what you've written about the 4 years where we didn't perform as high as AB standards of years gone by. Won the RC every year, and came within a bees dick of the WC. Given the closing of gaps of the top teams, thats not that bad.
So here we are, with a misfiring AB team under Robertson, and people are rightly asking where this brilliance is that we were told was going to happen.
Victors point is a fair one.
Nah, it's not. We went badly backwards under Foster, with obvious problems which were not addressed over a long period of time. We played shit, and selections were shit.
All apparently forgiven due to the mighty RWC turnaround which consisted of: lost to France, beat Ireland and Argentina, lost to SA.People couldn't understand why you would appoint a head coach with zero head coach success and what is perceived to be a shit coach selection process, and the result of that was a sense of relief that we would get a coach who had been successful. It's got nothing to do with this false 'messiah' bullshit, it's a straight reaction to the shit process last time around which resulted in shit results.
The point of falsely comparing 6 tests vs years of shit with no improvement is the fair one.
We've gone from winning the RC and narrowly losing a RWC final by one point to probably coming 3rd in the RC and narrowly winning against the 9th ranked team in the world.
At least we can feel relieved the coach selection process was done right this time round.,
The process is important. Disregarding Robertson, we have a number of very good coaches around in Schmidt, Joseph, Rennie - and any process which doesn't give us the best chance of having the best applicants apply is terrible management.
We've gone from multiple years of shit to some more shit - I think personally with glimpses of improvement (i.e. first 40 in SA) - but even if you don't think that, there is a world of difference between years of shit with continuity vs a new coach with a new gameplan and new players delivering some shit in the first half year. I hate losing as much as anyone, but judgement - or at least comparison -should come later.
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@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@MajorRage said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
Some posters seem to forget we played with 13 men at a key part of the game.
Don't think anyone's forgotten the poor discipline at key parts of the game we've seen creeping back in.
I seem to recall it was a feature of Foster's teams as well.
Which, considering we've gone backwards, kinda proves the point that Robertson (a) isn't the coaching Jesus he was hyped up to be or (b) both are equally good coaches and there's deeper problems.
You've hated Razor since day one and didn't even want him as coach. You're comparing 6 tests to 4 years of substandard, mediocre horse manure. I'm disheartened as any one else about the current results and honestly expected more from this side this year but give me a break. You want Razor to fail to prove your narrative.
This seems a little unfair..
I don't know how many times those of us who were skeptical about Robertson were told how much better things would be by his fanbase. The postings post Foster reappointment and Robertson drubbing were really quite nasty. I mean, look at what you've written about the 4 years where we didn't perform as high as AB standards of years gone by. Won the RC every year, and came within a bees dick of the WC. Given the closing of gaps of the top teams, thats not that bad.
So here we are, with a misfiring AB team under Robertson, and people are rightly asking where this brilliance is that we were told was going to happen.
Victors point is a fair one.
Nah, it's not. We went badly backwards under Foster, with obvious problems which were not addressed over a long period of time. We played shit, and selections were shit.
All apparently forgiven due to the mighty RWC turnaround which consisted of: lost to France, beat Ireland and Argentina, lost to SA.People couldn't understand why you would appoint a head coach with zero head coach success and what is perceived to be a shit coach selection process, and the result of that was a sense of relief that we would get a coach who had been successful. It's got nothing to do with this false 'messiah' bullshit, it's a straight reaction to the shit process last time around which resulted in shit results.
The point of falsely comparing 6 tests vs years of shit with no improvement is the fair one.
We've gone from winning the RC and narrowly losing a RWC final by one point to probably coming 3rd in the RC and narrowly winning against the 9th ranked team in the world.
At least we can feel relieved the coach selection process was done right this time round.,
The process is important. Disregarding Robertson, we have a number of very good coaches around in Schmidt, Joseph, Rennie - and any process which doesn't give us the best chance of having the best applicants apply is terrible management.
We've gone from multiple years of shit to some more shit - I think personally with glimpses of improvement (i.e. first 40 in SA) - but even if you don't think that, there is a world of difference between years of shit with continuity vs a new coach with a new gameplan and new players delivering some shit in the first half year. I hate losing as much as anyone, but judgement - or at least comparison -should come later.
The main problem is seemingly around mentality and leadership. We've got worse in 8 Tests and show little improvement. This is either down to the coaching or something deeper..
Which is it do you think?
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@Kirwan said in All Blacks 2024:
Going to be a long few years with these poor selections.
Curate's egg. Some selections have good - Ratima, Vaai, Sititi - while others have been meh. Not convinced by Blackadder and Reece for example.
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@nzzp said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
Some posters seem to forget we played with 13 men at a key part of the game.
Don't think anyone's forgotten the poor discipline at key parts of the game we've seen creeping back in.
I seem to recall it was a feature of Foster's teams as well.
Which, considering we've gone backwards, kinda proves the point that Robertson (a) isn't the coaching Jesus he was hyped up to be or (b) both are equally good coaches and there's deeper problems.
You've hated Razor since day one and didn't even want him as coach. You're comparing 6 tests to 4 years of substandard, mediocre horse manure. I'm disheartened as any one else about the current results and honestly expected more from this side this year but give me a break. You want Razor to fail to prove your narrative.
I've hated Robertson from day one? Fucking news to me when I wanted him as AB coach after Ireland III last year.
My narrative is we've gone backwards, the new coach might not be the dogs bollocks, and the issues might not be with the coaching skills. If you think having that opinion is wanting Robertson to fail, I'd love to know your logic.
Not being a Razor cheerleader = hate. This is the modern way.
Reality is that Sir Graham was right - he would have benefitted from getting out of the Canterbury environment and coaching elsewhere. Then you do the learning - ideally with someone else's international team - and get the pressure, have to build different systems with new players, etc. After three titles, the next 4 were 'more of the same' coaching-wise.
I think you're seeing that approach in the selections. Almost all of the coaches have Canterbury connections. If in doubt, Razor's leaning back to his roots - hence Chay, Havili, Bell etc ... It's fine as long as it works - but if it doesn't, you're in trouble.
The bigger risk is that the 'path to the ABs through Canterbury' meme is real and takes hold. And then you hollow out all the fringer players who just head overseas because they don't see the pathway to higher honours. As someone said above (and very insightfully), it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I want the ABs to win. But I also think the problems ran deeper than Foster being a shithouse coach. We've lost our coaching IP overseas, we aren't innovating at the top level - Rugby in this country is in a tough place. If I wanted to invest, I'd invest in coaching, not bringing back players from overseas (Mo'unga/Fritzel).
I never realized Ted said that, but he's dead right. He didn't need to stay at the Crusaders for 7 seasons.
If he didn't get the ABs job, what would he have done? Just stayed at the Crusaders?
