How many Crusaders in your AB 23?
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It realy somes down to how they perform against Ireland. This should be peak ABs vs tired Ireland at the end of a long season. But I reckon Ireland are targetting, and rightly so, a tour win. 2/3. Foster and his band of in crowd clowns are not the coahces to stop that.
I had faith in the plan pre RWC, that they were almost there defeating the NH rush agressive defence teams. After all they same bunch had given us 2 Cups in a row, and maybe it was just a bit of pain in the couple of years leading upto that. But two+ years later they have shown nothing to say they have learned how to cover the weakness and win those games.
So really this is all shuffling deck chairs, IMO, until Foster and his merry band of muppets move on. Without a vision of how to play, the players picked is irrelevant
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@Nepia said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
@Bones said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
@Nepia said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
@Bones said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
@Nepia pretty much. Has Cane?
B/S, Papali'i is in my 23 but Sat he was off the charts good, he hasn't been that good every match.
He's been off the charts in one or two other games, but consistently high. It's not BS.
I note you declined to comment how good Cane has been.
Cane has been great for a few games running, but we were discussing Papali'i's performance in Saturdays game in comparison to his previous ones.
I'm sure you'll get some support from the Aucklanders in the morning, I'm sharpening my keyboard for the onslaught, and Papali'i has been good this year, but Saturday was another level.
Not making a lot of sense to me - he was out of this world on Saturday, but because he was so good, we should exclude all the other games where he was excellent, just because he wasn't as good. Righto.
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@Machpants said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
It realy somes down to how they perform against Ireland. This should be peak ABs vs tired Ireland at the end of a long season. But I reckon Ireland are targetting, and rightly so, a tour win. 2/3. Foster and his band of in crowd clowns are not the coahces to stop that.
I had faith in the plan pre RWC, that they were almost there defeating the NH rush agressive defence teams. After all they same bunch had given us 2 Cups in a row, and maybe it was just a bit of pain in the couple of years leading upto that. But two+ years later they have shown nothing to say they have learned how to cover the weakness and win those games.
So really this is all shuffling deck chairs, IMO, until Foster and his merry band of muppets move on. Without a vision of how to play, the players picked is irrelevant
I think if you offered Ireland a solitary win against the ABs away from home they would take it. I think we will win the series, but probably lose one of the first two tests (I am picking the first). We will definitely win the third because they will be shattered by then (and probably drunk) and we will have had time to gel. In any event, I think we are in for another "first"...
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@junior dunno, Schmidt won't want to be part of that, he will have plenty of info on Ireland, will know what structures he initiated that are still there.
I think 1 match will be very tight but the other 2 will be comfortable.
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@KiwiMurph said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
Though i'm sure informally his knowledge will be used a lot for the tests vs Ireland.
Well I reckon if our coaches havent spoken to Schmidt at length in regard to the upcoming Ireland series, then they are probably as stupid as many on here think they are.
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@taniwharugby said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
they are probably as stupid as many on here think they are.
I don't think that's humanly possible.
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Alex Hodgman, Samsoni Taukei'aho, Ofa Tu'ungafasi, Brodie Rettalick, Sam Whitelock, Tupou Vaa'i, Dalton Papali'i, Akira Ioane (better suited at 8), Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett, Caleb Clarke, Thomas Umaga-Jenson, Reiko Ioane, Will Jordan, Jordie Barrett.
Ethan DeGroot, Asafo Aumua, Tyrel Lomax, Josh Lord, Ardie Savea, Folau Fakatava, Richie Mo'unga, Anton Lienert-Brown.
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@kiwi_expat that's a brave team.
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This post is deleted!
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@FakatavaFuture said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
@nzzp i know right.. I wouldn't include Alb in a match day 23 til northern tour at the earliest
thinking more towards the world cup
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@sparky said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
@Chester-Draws Picking a captain who isn't the best player available in their position is a luxury the All Blacks can't afford given the competitive nature of contemporary test Rugby and the likely competitive nature of this series. A captain has to earn their place same as anyone else. Right now, Papalii is clearly the best NZ 7. Leadership in Rugby is about a leadership group rather than one individual these days anyway.
Absolute Bollocks!
Dropping Cane like that would signal to everyone that Foster has no idea what is going on. That he doesn't even know his captain. That he's changing everything from last year - all on the hope that Papalii is the answer. Foster would look a complete tool if that turned out to not be true. But Cane would have signed overseas at that point (who would stay for a coach who did that to you?) and we'd be royally screwed.
Picking your captain is not a "luxury" it's an outright necessity. Spare me the bit about "leadership group" because we clearly do not have a functioning one. Unless our headless chicken act towards the end of games is deliberate, that is.
I'm happy for Papalii to be given a run at 6. But then that position has been a problem for a while. It's not about him, as such.
Still, at least you have him in the squad, unlike @kiwi_expat.
Mod Edit: Was the insult really needed?
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@Chester-Draws how would handle a captain having a drop in form? From your two posts, it sounds like they can't be dropped.
This is how we ended up with years of a sub-par Read as captain.
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@Kirwan Not really an issue at the moment, because Cane's form isn't bad.
If the Captain struggles for a whole season, then he needs to be told by the coach that he's going to drop him waaaay ahead of time over the off season. So he can retire, get an "injury" etc. Anyone who makes it to permanent AB captain loses form only slowly, unless badly injured, so if the coach wants to do it, they don't have to ambush them.
If Cane doesn't play well this NZ winter, then he can be dropped after that. Doing it now would be idiotic.
Also, it isn't exactly new that AB captains are not dropped. Sean Fitzpatrick being a far worse case than Read. Coaches know that dropping their captain mid-season, without excellent reason, is going to create an absolute firestorm from the captains' supporters and in the media.
It would create quite an epic meltdown on the Fern about Foster. I almost hope it happens now. But it won't.
Edit: Yes, mod, the insult was really needed. Seriously, who doesn't even pick our captain and one of our most reliable players over the last few years in the squad? To be replaced by a unknown quantity, out of position! He was just being a ...
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@Chester-Draws said in How many Crusaders in your AB 23?:
@Kirwan Not really an issue at the moment, because Cane's form isn't bad.
If the Captain struggles for a whole season, then he needs to be told by the coach that he's going to drop him waaaay ahead of time over the off season. So he can retire, get an "injury" etc. Anyone who makes it to permanent AB captain loses form only slowly, unless badly injured, so if the coach wants to do it, they don't have to ambush them.
If Cane doesn't play well this NZ winter, then he can be dropped after that. Doing it now would be idiotic.
Also, it isn't exactly new that AB captains are not dropped. Sean Fitzpatrick being a far worse case than Read. Coaches know that dropping their captain mid-season, without excellent reason, is going to create an absolute firestorm from the captains' supporters and in the media.
It would create quite an epic meltdown on the Fern about Foster. I almost hope it happens now. But it won't.
Fair points.
Foster picking Cane as captain the first place was the problem, seeing as he is injury prone and in a very competitive position. It's pushed Savea to 8, and may end up pushing the form 7 to 6.
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@Kirwan If Foster wanted to drop Cane, then over the summer was when it needed to happen.
But given that we don't have a really locked in 6 or 8, is going and messing with 7 on top of that really that good an idea?
Foster gets given all sorts of stick for not finding and staying with a midfield. But apparently different rules apply at loose forward? There chopping and changing every season is good, apparently.
Also, who gets to be captain, in his absence? Whitelock risks having the same issue of needing to be replaced. So Ardie? Really?
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this is a public perception problem more than anything
So, to take your point further, who are the players everyone agrees should start?
A Smith and R Ioane (somewhere)
Other than that you will find a difference of opinion on every single other playersWe want one of those guys as skipper?
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@mariner4life if only Retallick hadn't buggered off to Japan.
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@mariner4life would add Will Jordan to those few names that the majority would probably agree should be locked on starters, Jordan 17 tries in what 13 games?
