All Blacks XV v Munster
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1 Bower
2 McAlister
3 Dwyer
4 Walker-Leawere
5 Holland
6 Haig
7 Kirifi (c)
8 Flanders
9 Christie
10 Plummer
11 Naholo
12 Tupaea
13 AJ Lam
14 Fihaki
15 Stevenson
16 Slater
17 Numia
18 Reneta
19 Ah Kuoi
20 Kellow
21 Hotham
22 Jacomb
23 LoveThat's a ridiculously strong 23.
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@Bovidae said in All Blacks XV v Munster:
Anyone know the relative strength go this Munster side bs their A team?
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@DaGrubster It's an all Irish team by the looks of it and about half of it has played for Ireland at some time or other. Lots of veterans. John Ryan has 24 Irish caps. Peter O'Mahony has over 100 caps and captained the British and Irish Lions.
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@DaGrubster said in All Blacks XV v Munster:
Anyone know the relative strength go this Munster side bs their A team?
I'd say there are 6 players who are, more or less, first-choice: Ryan (although typically at tighthead), O'Mahony, Hodnett, Coombes, Farrell and Haley.
The pack should go well enough. They would be a lot stronger with Jean Kleyn and Tadhg Beirne, though.
The backline, however, is bordering on the criminal. No Casey, Murray, Crowley, or Nash means that the team is both going to lack direction and attacking potency. It's hard to see where their points are going to come from.
The bench, apart from Scannell, are mostly a bunch of academy players and journeymen.
The talent discrepancy is serious. I'm sure Munster won't embarrass themselves, it's at Thomond and they typically perform well in these international fixtures. But on paper the mismatch is substantial.
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Interesting to see the call ups get spots straight away but I guess that’s the nature of having a team like this, next man in straight away. I thought the whole purpose of the ABs dropping Love to the AB XV was for him to get game time? Bit puzzling he’s named on the bench. Especially when you consider Fihaki is the one starting in the 14 jersey… wouldn’t have minded seeing Stevenson moved out there and Love start at 15.
Personally would have preferred Numia to start but I guess coming off the Wellington campaign and Bower being in AB mix he has to start. Same could have been said for Hotham but I’m sure him and Christie will flip next week.
Exciting squad over all. Just as excited for this as I am for the test match.
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@Landers92 The AB XV lost 3 of their 5 original loose forwards to injury or AB call-ups, so either Flanders or Parker was going to have to start at no.8. I would think that the players not in the 23 for this game will get their opportunity against Georgia.
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@Bovidae said in All Blacks XV v Munster:
@Landers92 The AB XV lost 3 of their 5 original loose forwards to injury or AB call-ups, so either Flanders or Parker was going to have to start at no.8. I would think that the players not in the 23 for this game will get their opportunity against Georgia.
Yeah mate was my thoughts too after I posted it. Couldn’t think off the top of my head how many were in the squad to begin with. Glad Flanders is there, he should have been there from the beginning imo.
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@reprobate said in All Blacks XV v Munster:
So how are you Blues guys feeling about the representation of your dominant Super tight 5 these days?
slightly off topic: response to a comment to a mate about this being a strong second XV was 'would it beat the Blues forward pack'?
I genuinely had to think about it.
