All Blacks 2024
-
@pakman said in All Blacks 2024:
Hard to see what the All Blacks are building unlike South Africa
To Australia’s great credit, they rallied. Although how could you not, when the other team’s as rudderless as the All Blacks became.
I had to do a double take on the caption of that article. We weren't "ruthless", and I can't recall many times an AB side has ever been called "rudderless". Dark times
-
-
@gt12 said in All Blacks 2024:
@DaGrubster said in All Blacks 2024:
@No-Quarter said in All Blacks 2024:
@Canerbry said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:
@junior Precisely. Shittest All Blacks cattle in living memory this year.
This is probably an important point, though not the point you are trying to make, when it comes to Razor. This is the first time he's coached a team that isn't absolutely fucking stacked compared to opposition teams in a long time, if ever. In fact he actually has to get this team beating other teams that, on paper, are stronger than his team. That's all new to him.
That’s not true.
When he first started out in super rugby, the crusaders weren’t stacked, they were full of players yet to make their mark. Mounga being a prime example and they had lost players such as McCaw,Carter.
Not this fucking argument again. Those with international experience (test level) at that time bolded. Doesn't include MABs.
They could run out an AB forward pack, with their AB replacements on the bench in multiple positions, an AB midfield and FB, and at least 10 from the U20s (Strange, Drummy, Hall, Bateman, McKenzie, Mo'unga, Goodhue, Havili, Wainui, Bridge). It's a testament to their development that they got the right pieces at the right time.
Forwards: Michael Alaalatoa, Wyatt Crockett, Oliver Jager, Joe Moody, Tim Perry, Owen Franks, Ben Funnell, Andrew Makalio, Codie Taylor, Scott Barrett, Luke Romano, Quinten Strange, Sam Whitelock, Heiden Bedwell-Curtis, Jed Brown, Mitchell Dunshea, Kieran Read, Pete Samu, Jordan Taufua, Matt Todd.
Backs: Mitchell Drummond, Leon Fukofuka, Bryn Hall, Tim Bateman, Marty McKenzie, Richie Mo'unga, Ryan Crotty, Jack Goodhue, David Havili, Seta Tamanivalu, Sean Wainui, George Bridge, Israel Dagg, Sione Fifita, Mitchell Hunt, Digby Ioane, Jone Macilai, Manasa Mataele.
All of this is not to say that Razor didn't do well, but he did not have a team of fucking no names. He had the AB captain and most of the starting forward pack plus much of the emerging back talent stolen from around the country.
Didnt say he had a team of no names as mentioned in a later post.
It was a counter argument to someone saying that Razor has always had teams stacked and far better than other sides he faced.
The Crusaders had not won super rugby for 10 years and had lost a lot of players.
They also had to win the final in Joburg
-
-
@canefan said in All Blacks 2024:
@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks 2024:
A fit and firing Jack Goodhue in his prime (or a player in his mould) would solve a lot of problems in the AB midfield
He promised much but ultimately failed to deliver because of injury
Always looked like was running in treacle.
-
@Jet said in All Blacks 2024:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2024:
@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks 2024:
A fit and firing Jack Goodhue in his prime (or a player in his mould) would solve a lot of problems in the AB midfield
He promised much but ultimately failed to deliver because of injury
Always looked like was running in treacle.
Deceptively quick but his job was to give quicker players space to do their thing
-
@pakman said in All Blacks 2024:
Hard to see what the All Blacks are building unlike South Africa
To Australia’s great credit, they rallied. Although how could you not, when the other team’s as rudderless as the All Blacks became.
Bidwell absolutely loathes the ABs, he posts in The Roar and Rugbypass etc. Every one is shitting on everything about the ABs. At best, e's playing to his audience if I am being generous. It is hard to take anything he writes seriously
I watched the game in a group setting. By the end, most of us were so exasperated by Australia not getting the rub of the green – and infuriated by the All Blacks – that we were wanting to see a Wallaby win.
-
@Jet said in All Blacks 2024:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2024:
@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks 2024:
A fit and firing Jack Goodhue in his prime (or a player in his mould) would solve a lot of problems in the AB midfield
He promised much but ultimately failed to deliver because of injury
Always looked like was running in treacle.
To be fair Conrad did too at times but he made up for it in other areas
-
@Yeahtheboys said in All Blacks 2024:
Can’t believe people are saying Razor has a Crusaders bias
I’m hoping it’s not so much a crusaders bias but a leaning towards players he already knows and has worked with before and that it might become less obvious as time moves on.
To me this feels not so much like the fozzie appointment but a bit more like Mitchell one atm . Where people are watching with raised eyebrows and starting to think , hang on , what’s going on here ?
-
-
@mohikamo said in All Blacks 2024:
@Chris-B
meads started as a rangy loose forward . . . only switched to lock laterYeah - I guess my point is that no-one these days would consider him anything but a specialist lock.
Interestingly, at 1.92 metres, we'd be a bit concerned that he wouldn't be a tall enough blindside if paired with Ardie!
-
Just trying to scratch my head in regards as to why our bench is so ineffective and one possible theory either by bad luck or co-inicedence are all of them (forward reserves esp) just poor at the clean-out?
Amua for instance has been awful at clearing bodies, in Aus1 we had a huge break on in the second half and both him (and I think Tosi) both with fresh legs couldn't shift a singular Aussie defender who then got the turnover.
However this is just a singular instance I remember and cartainly not a concise video analysis.
It's just baffling because theyre all "impact" players - at least when it comes to carrying the ball, but if they come on and can't clear the ruck effectively and we continually concede turnovers then no wonder we can't build anything on attack?
-
If I was AB coach, putting injuries and squad selections aside, this is the 23 I'd be gunning for. I think it is far stronger than anything we have put out so far.
Note - these selections put the overall strength of the 23 ahead of the idea that our most experienced players MUST be in the starting 15. Experience off the bench is critical in the modern game.
Stephen Perofeta
Will Jordan
Rieko Ioane
Jordie Barrett
Caleb Clarke
Damian McKenzie
Cameron Roigard
Hoskins Sotutu
Dalton Papali'i
Akira Ioane
Tupo Vaa'i
Scott Barrett
Tyrel Lomax
Codie Taylor
Ethan de GrootSamisoni Taukei'aho
Tamaiti Williams
Pasilio Tosi
Patrick Tuipulotu
Ardie Savea
Cortez Ratima
Beauden Barrett
Anton Lienert-BrownI'd be bringing all of the bench forwards on at about the 50 minute mark, as in terms of 'impact' you get the most impact out of replacing your forwards but you do need to give them at least 30 minutes to get into the game. Pat T for Vaa'i and Ardie for either Sotutu or Akira depending how the game is going.
On the backs, Ratima's speed of pass can be used to up the tempo in the final quarter if needed, and ALB / Beauden are very experienced and cover multiple positions each. ALB coming on allows us to shift Rieko to the wing where he an find a bit more space in the final quarter. Beauden slotting in at 15 where he has had huge success from the bench in the past.
Then selection wise I'd be trying to give game time where possible to the newbies with huge potential: Sititi, Love, Proctor and Plummer. Building their confidence by slotting one or two of them at a time into the main 23 as opposed to them getting game time when we make wholesale changes against a minnow.
-
@Windows97 personally i think we are just starting impact players (and spreading them too thin) and having Utility (ok and everything) players on the bench.....we shold swap a lot of them around, savea, bb even RI on the bench, people like ALB to start
-
@Windows97 said in All Blacks 2024:
Just trying to scratch my head in regards as to why our bench is so ineffective and one possible theory either by bad luck or co-inicedence are all of them (forward reserves esp) just poor at the clean-out?
There's another factor to look at too... not just the bench. Are we doing enough to fatigue teams throughout the game?
We can fatigue teams when the game gets very loose however that doesn't happen often in Test rugby. We do not fatigue teams by taking on the opposition pack directly. Ball runners in the pack etc.. the old cliche of earning the right to go wide.
Even with subs I think we are getting tired but the opposition is relatively fresh
-
@Duluth That's a very good point, SA avoid fatigue by basically replacing their entire forward pack in the second half and always end the game fresher than what we do.
I also note we tend to drip feed our subs on, often late in the game where other teams (Arg and SA) make 3-4 subs all at the same time.
It feels like were running our starting XV till they're gassed, then bringing on people too late to work their way into the game and be effective.
Our attack also seems quite heavily dependant on a lot of off the ball activity, backdoor option passing with a lot of double loops etc which expends a lot of energy on attack.
However if the above is true then it would point to a complete blunder in terms of team preperation and tactics on behalf of the coaching group.
If the team only has the gas in the tank to carry out the attcking pattern for 50 minutes then its absolutely essential that your bench can slot into that exact same pattern for the remaining 30 minutes without that pattern breaking down.
But we see our attcking pattern past the 50 minute mark completly going to kak in terms of execution, which is baffling.
-
In an ideal world, we'd be able to dial up the attacking pattern in the last 30. The usage of the bench and roles for players just isn't working.
The rugby pod was discussing this the other day and suggesting that they just need to simplify things very much in line with @Duluth 's suggestions above.
-
Gregor Paul on Razor and Dmac
Gregor Paul: How Robertson lost control of the Damian McKenzie narrative
OPINION: The All Blacks coach has done his first-choice No 10 no favours.
This is interesting:
The media is naturally sceptical when it thinks a coach is trying to get them to buy into an agenda that may be contrived or manufactured to hide the truth, and while Robertson was hoping to pave the way for soft or accommodating headlines should he change his No 10 this weekend, he’s actually managed to throw fuel on the fire that faith in McKenzie is waning.
What hasn’t helped him stay in control of the narrative was his needless mention of Mo’unga in Sydney last week.
Robertson told reporters he’d gone surfing with Andrew Johns, and then revealed that the league legend had asked him, “When is Richie coming back?”.
The spectre of Mo’unga has hung over much of this year already – with Robertson having never hidden his desire to force a change in eligibility rules to be able to pick overseas players, and New Zealand Rugby itself also revealing it is trying to persuade the former Crusader to cut short his three-year contract in Japan.
But for McKenzie to hear his own coach voluntarily provide media with much-clicked headlines about Mo’unga two days out from a Bledisloe test, seemed either strangely naïve or highly calculated, but whichever it was, it has intensified the likelihood that the headlines and comment pieces on Thursday will not tell the story Robertson wants.
It’s probable that McKenzie remains Robertson’s preferred No 10 – the man whom he will continue to back to become the franchise quarterback.
But having lost control of that narrative, it may take Robertson some time to persuade the media and public that this is the case and that he’s as committed to McKenzie now as he was in July.
