All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@mariner4life Lakai offers a bit more cover - especially if the plan is to sub Cane.
But I'm inclined to think it will be Finau, with a plan to sub Sititi (or just maybe Ardie).
Wouldn't bet big money either way.
Precedent says there's no subbing Ardie. If the eye test matches their data, it would make much more sense to sub Cane than Sititi.
I wouldn't mind either Finau or Lakai, but it should be for Cane with Sititi going to 7 if Finau comes on. -
@reprobate said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@Chris-B said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@mariner4life Lakai offers a bit more cover - especially if the plan is to sub Cane.
But I'm inclined to think it will be Finau, with a plan to sub Sititi (or just maybe Ardie).
Wouldn't bet big money either way.
Precedent says there's no subbing Ardie. If the eye test matches their data, it would make much more sense to sub Cane than Sititi.
I wouldn't mind either Finau or Lakai, but it should be for Cane with Sititi going to 7 if Finau comes on.If there are no concerns from the weekend and every one trains as expected, I would give Finau another tilt at England.
He got two starts against them earlier in the year and while he didn’t set the world alight, there were signs of what he could offer.
Savea is now rested and so my hope he will be refreshed and ready for a big month. With Papali’i out, Cane gets a start at openside. Finau returns to blindside and Savea will be vice-captain at the back of the pack.
There is a possibility of a 6/2 bench.
6- Finau
7- Cane
8- SaveaBench: Sititi
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@sparky said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
But I guess the bench Vs England will be something like this:
Aumua, Williams, Tosi, Tuipolutu, Finau, Roigard, DMac, ALB.
I think your team and bench will be pretty close.
I'm inclined to think they might have pulled Reece early vs Japan because they plan to play him vs England.
Pretty certain the starting loose forwards will be Sititi, Cane and Savea - in fact, I'll be amazed if they're not. Other question marks....
Finau or Lakai?
Tosi or Newell?
Roigard or Perenara?Finau, Tosi and Roigard for me. Lakai is pretty much the apprentice on this tour so don’t think he’ll see any more minutes unless there are further injuries.
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I'd go with the 6/2 split so we could have a front row, lock, Sititi and Lakai on the bench.
The other two spots go to ALB and Roigard (but will be TJ). That covers every backline position given how easily we can move our fullback to 10, wing to fullback, centre to wing, ALB to either centre position and a reserve scrumhalf.
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Sititi our best loose forward this season
Fern: « Bench him »
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@Billy-Tell don't confuse what people want to happen with what they think will happen.
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@Billy-Tell said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Sititi our best loose forward this season
Fern: « Bench him »
We need more size against England and I think the loose trio balance of the first two tests against England was about right.
Given Papali’i is out there is a call to be made between Cane or Sititi I reckon.
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@canefan said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@sparky said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@Jet Yeah, some genius decided the All Blacks must have a "League-style 10" and made that the great shibboleth of New Zealand Rugby, when a 10, who can catch, pass, kick, tackle and above all make the correct decisions under pressure, is what we really need.
As I've said before, it's the hangover from the Dan Carter era. Too much focus on the spectacular part of his game and not enough on the fact that DC did all the fundamentals of 10 play exceptionally well
Nah, it was BB that fucked us. We had Carter and Cruden, two guys who could move a team around the field (obviously they both had individual flair as well), then we went all in on BB (dumping Cruden in the process) based solely on his individual flair and running game.
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@Nepia said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@canefan said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@sparky said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@Jet Yeah, some genius decided the All Blacks must have a "League-style 10" and made that the great shibboleth of New Zealand Rugby, when a 10, who can catch, pass, kick, tackle and above all make the correct decisions under pressure, is what we really need.
As I've said before, it's the hangover from the Dan Carter era. Too much focus on the spectacular part of his game and not enough on the fact that DC did all the fundamentals of 10 play exceptionally well
Nah, it was BB that fucked us. We had Carter and Cruden, two guys who could move a team around the field (obviously they both had individual flair as well), then we went all in on BB (dumping Cruden in the process) based solely on his individual flair and running game.
BB could never be considered a game manager, I'll give you that
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@antipodean said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
I worry about Tosi and Williams being on the field together for an extended period. Neither look fit enough which is a real tradeoff when you're as big as they are.
Newell looks like a substandard Franks.
Agree. Tosi and Williams were good during the first half but disappeared during the first minutes of the second spell. I don't know whether it is a matter of fitness or not. Maybe the humid and hot weather did not help.
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@cgrant said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@antipodean said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
I worry about Tosi and Williams being on the field together for an extended period. Neither look fit enough which is a real tradeoff when you're as big as they are.
Newell looks like a substandard Franks.
Agree. Tosi and Williams were good during the first half but disappeared during the first minutes of the second spell. I don't know whether it is a matter of fitness or not. Maybe the humid and hot weather did not help.
For some reason they just couldn't dominate the scrums, I though they would monster the Japs, but not even close.
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Partly sunny 15C
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@Darren said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@cgrant said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@antipodean said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
I worry about Tosi and Williams being on the field together for an extended period. Neither look fit enough which is a real tradeoff when you're as big as they are.
Newell looks like a substandard Franks.
Agree. Tosi and Williams were good during the first half but disappeared during the first minutes of the second spell. I don't know whether it is a matter of fitness or not. Maybe the humid and hot weather did not help.
For some reason they just couldn't dominate the scrums, I though they would monster the Japs, but not even close.
Owen Franks?
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@reprobate said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
shovels and shuffles at half speed all day. never puts players into gaps. can't skip pass. eventually tries stupid chip kick or cross kick. hopefully at some point spies a prop to run around.
I think part of the reason he pump fakes to pass so often now is to actually figure out what he himself wants to do.
Beaudy without his miracle wheels is a shadow of the player he was.
A bit like later day Cristiano Ronaldo......he hasnt got the top two inches once the physical abilities have abandoned him. The ball doesnt "luckily" bounce into his bread basket any more.
Messi (Dan Carter) on the other hand can play the game at walking pace and still influence the outcome.
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@Billy-Tell said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Sititi our best loose forward this season
Fern: « Bench him »
I think Finau can make a late case if he can bring the hurt against the bigger teams.
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@African-Monkey said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@brodean said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:
Right wing is still an issue. Telea is continually exposed on defence, and I can see England isolating him again.
Yeah I'm usually Telea's number 1 fan but he's almost become 2024's version of Nehe Milner Skudder overnight. He looks slower and isn't having the same impact in close quarters like he was last season.
I feel like this could be his last campaign with the ABs.
Tele'a ran 80 metres, scored a try, had two try assists, two line breaks, and 9 defenders beaten. You don't think that was an impact? What else were you expecting him to do? I think most test wingers would be stoked with those stats.
Most players did out there, I think @KiwiMurph pointed out and rightly too, that if Caleb Clarke had the space out there that Tele'a and Reece had, I dread to think how badly things would have turned out for Japan. This Japanese side couldn't tackle. He got gassed out there on defence on a few occasions too.
As I said, I'm a huge Tele'a fan and he's done some great things for the Blues and ABs, but right now, I can't make a case for him. I hope he finds his best again.
Jesus Christ, more often than not it wasn't Tale'a's fault their backs ran through us. I remember one incident where it was clearly him getting gassed but the rest were the midfleid.
