All Blacks Squad for France
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@pakman said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@bones said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@pakman if whitelock doesn't strike you as a defensive enforcer, it would appear you're not watching him play.
Haven't seen a lot of him. to be honest. He is certainly a very accurate tackler, but I don't recall seeing him make dominant tackles in the style of JK or Squire.
Geez man, you only need to watch the most recent highlanders game for plenty of evidence of dominant tackling. He's been doing it all season and it's very noticeable.
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@pakman said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@bones Didn't see the Lions game, but, on the basis that Whitelock is a big hitter, putting him at 6 with Cane and Ioane would have quite good balance.
Not a tall backrow is it? That's right, I want everything, no compromises.
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@antipodean True. With Whitelock and Cane coming in around 1.90 and Akira at 1.94 that is quite a short trio. Squire and Fifita are 1.96. It does make quite a difference. Also, I don't think Whitelock, Cane or Akira are used regularly in the lineout.
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@toddy said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@antipodean True. With Whitelock and Cane coming in around 1.90 and Akira at 1.94 that is quite a short trio. Squire and Fifita are 1.96. It does make quite a difference. Also, I don't think Whitelock, Cane or Akira are used regularly in the lineout.
Not sure about the other two but Akira is used regularly in the Blues lineout.
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@shadowtrooper said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@cgrant I concur - mostly. It seems both Crotty and SBW spend a fair amount of time out injured these days and will need to be managed carefully prior to the TRC and through the SR finals. I think we will see Goodhue and Laumape spend time in the centres, Laumape is developing into a Nonu-esque type of player, and Goodhue I can see will eventually succeed Crotty. t's a pity Aso is out injured and Procter seemingly not in the mix, as I think that would have added extra extra spice to the competiton for places.
Have to say I'm quite frustrated with the midfield at the moment.
SBW is a lock when healthy but doesn't have the speed or agility he once had. Crotty is a better 12 than 13 certainly.
The NZ SR form 13's seem to barely get a mention - Proctor and Rob Thompson. IMHO, both are playing better than ALB and the "great white hope" Goodhue and both offer more around the park.
ALB is having a better year than last year but not as good as Proctor and Thompson. Again, IMHO, both Proctor and Thompson are better defenders and offer more in attack.
In terms of combinations, I think we could do a lot worse than starting Laumape and Proctor and have SBW on the bench for impact given his match fitness will be much lower than all the others in the running.
Personally, I think it's a little early for Goodhue, who is a terrific prospect, but I prefer the maturity of both Proctor and Thompson.
My $0.02 worth anyway.
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@roninwc said in All Blacks Squad for France:
ALB is having a better year than last year but not as good as Proctor and Thompson. Again, IMHO, both Proctor and Thompson are better defenders and offer more in attack.
ALB has been there and looked exceptionally good at the top level. Suffered from 'second season' syndrome - but if they pick him, it's because he has characteristics that are known and the coaches think will be able to deliver.
Personally I haven't seen enough Super this year to comment more sensibly
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@kiwimurph said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@toddy said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@antipodean True. With Whitelock and Cane coming in around 1.90 and Akira at 1.94 that is quite a short trio. Squire and Fifita are 1.96. It does make quite a difference. Also, I don't think Whitelock, Cane or Akira are used regularly in the lineout.
Not sure about the other two but Akira is used regularly in the Blues lineout.
Akira does everything for the Blues.
@roninwc I've been well impressed by what I've seen of Thompson this year. Our stocks in the midfield don't look as bad as some were worrying about a year or two ago.
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@chris-b said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@roninwc If Proctor is only the 90kgs he's billed as on the Hurricanes website, then his size is against him as a test midfielder.
He might have been 90kg when he came out of school, but I doubt he'd be that light now - rugby player's weights are so suss sometimes.
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@nepia said in All Blacks Squad for France:
rugby player's weights are so suss sometimes
As are players heights
Which reminds me, I looked up Taufua's height recently and he was listed as being taller than I thought he would be.
Then I did a quick check of the archive versions of the crusaders website
2013 - 1.82m (21yrs)
2014 - 1.82m (22yrs)
2015 - 1.82m (23yrs)
2016 - 1.85m (24yrs)
2017 - 1.87m (25yrs)
2018 - 1.87m (26yrs)It's not particularly important, but its worth noting how bullshit these stats can be
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@chris-b said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@duluth The phone book he stands on has got thicker!
different haircuts. If he wants to be a test player he needs to get it stand up on end like a certain openside
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@chris-b said in All Blacks Squad for France:
@duluth The phone book he stands on has got thicker!
different haircuts. If he wants to be a test player he needs to get it stand up on end like a certain openside
I still reckon Daniel Braid was the king of bullshit height stats.
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@Duluth holy shit if he keeps growing at that rate he'll catch up to Ardie.
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wasn't Ofisa Tonu'u one who always had his weight listed about 20kgs under what he actually weighed?
Back then a 100kg halfback wasn't really the norm.
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