All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship
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@Duluth said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Bones Thinking of Bekhuis?
Nah definitely Donnelly - when I said came into the team, I meant the ABs. 1.5 season wonder wasn't he?
To be deleted in 3....2....1....
All hail the king.
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@Bones yeah, wiki says 15 tests so about right
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@Kiwiwomble said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Bones yeah, wiki says 15 tests so about right
He was bloody good, but he was fairly late in his career and iirc basically just hit a wall and became ineffective all of a sudden....sounds familar!
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@Bones correct, hes 41 now so would have been 29-31 when playing for the AB's
After being selected to the Junior All Blacks again in 2009, Donnelly was called into the full squad due to an injury to Bryn Evans and made his debut against Australia in the final Tri Nations game of the season on 19 September, won 33-6 by the All Blacks in Wellington. On the 2009 end of year tour, Donnelly featured in all 5 matches, earning positive reviews for his steady play. In the 2010 Tri Nations tournament, Donelly played perhaps the finest rugby of his career as one of the form players for the All Blacks, starting every match as New Zealand went undefeated in the tournament. However, his international season would end on a sour note as he injured his knee against Ireland, ruling him out of the remainder of the end of year tour. -
I reckon you couldn’t do any worse than Luke Ramano ,he will work his arse off ,carry hard into contact and you know your scrum will be rock solid on the right hand side ..
Was excellent for the Blues .. -
@Steven-Harris want to re phrase that? "couldn't do any worse" is what you say when they ARE the worst option
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@KiwiMurph I reckon we might see Jack Goodhue in the midfield - and perhaps Rieko back to the wing.
I like the idea of Goodhue and Rieko together, even though I haven't rated Goodhue at 12 in the past. Just think they might compliment each other well, Goodhue very organised on defense and good at putting his outsides away, while Rieko is always a massive threat with ball in hand and is a very good tackler.
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@No-Quarter i like the idea but im still worried about putting our faith in someone thats had so many injuries
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@Kiwiwomble the guy had a stellar super season ,and given they are going to walk into a firestorm once they hit South Africa I would rather an extra experienced head as opposed to some lightweight..Personally I think they will pick Josh Dickson ..just putting it out there
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@Steven-Harris said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Kiwiwomble the guy had a stellar super season ,and given they are going to walk into a firestorm once they hit South Africa I would rather an extra experienced head as opposed to some lightweight..Personally I think they will pick Josh Dickson ..just putting it out there
Well if they're going to plump for experience, it would be quite refreshing for that experience to actually be playing well.
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@Bones you must have missed the super season
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@Steven-Harris said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Bones you must have missed the super season
I certainly did not, hence why I was saying it would be refreshing to see them select a guy like Romano, instead of guys like KT.
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@Bones said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
Looking at locks, I'd probably plump for MSR to replace Retallick - really similar game style for me and he's worth a look.
I've been underwhelmed by MSR this year and didn't think he did much in the Māori games either. He was clearly the no.3 lock in that squad.
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@Bovidae said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Bones said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
Looking at locks, I'd probably plump for MSR to replace Retallick - really similar game style for me and he's worth a look.
I've been underwhelmed by MSR this year and didn't think he did much in the Māori games either. He was clearly the no.3 lock in that squad.
Yeah not as his previous years form yet, but I'd still like to see what he can do. It's not like our current locks are whelming.
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@No-Quarter said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Chris-B said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@KiwiMurph I reckon we might see Jack Goodhue in the midfield - and perhaps Rieko back to the wing.
I like the idea of Goodhue and Rieko together, even though I haven't rated Goodhue at 12 in the past. Just think they might compliment each other well, Goodhue very organised on defense and good at putting his outsides away, while Rieko is always a massive threat with ball in hand and is a very good tackler.
That's a great and established combination... with Jack at 13 where he plays well and Rieko at 11 where he plays well.
Jordie isn't offering much at fullback, and Jordan has a vastly higher ceiling, so we need a winger. Why wait? -
@reprobate said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@No-Quarter said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Chris-B said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@KiwiMurph I reckon we might see Jack Goodhue in the midfield - and perhaps Rieko back to the wing.
I like the idea of Goodhue and Rieko together, even though I haven't rated Goodhue at 12 in the past. Just think they might compliment each other well, Goodhue very organised on defense and good at putting his outsides away, while Rieko is always a massive threat with ball in hand and is a very good tackler.
That's a great and established combination... with Jack at 13 where he plays well and Rieko at 11 where he plays well.
Therein lies the problem, chop and change. If Rieko is the long-term 13 then play him there and select around him. Otherwise you get to the RWC and we still don’t know who our best centre pairing are.
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@TheMojoman said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@reprobate said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@No-Quarter said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Chris-B said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@KiwiMurph I reckon we might see Jack Goodhue in the midfield - and perhaps Rieko back to the wing.
I like the idea of Goodhue and Rieko together, even though I haven't rated Goodhue at 12 in the past. Just think they might compliment each other well, Goodhue very organised on defense and good at putting his outsides away, while Rieko is always a massive threat with ball in hand and is a very good tackler.
That's a great and established combination... with Jack at 13 where he plays well and Rieko at 11 where he plays well.
Therein lies the problem, chop and change. If Rieko is the long-term 13 then play him there and select around him. Otherwise you get to the RWC and we still don’t know who our best centre pairing are.
Goodhue is a better centre than Ioane right now. Low errors, excellent at setting up outsides, very good defender, good communicator. Rieko might turn into an amazing centre (he has improved), but that's not a given. For all the blame being heaped on our tight forwards, our defence out wide was shit all series, and he's part of that. He also blows tries pretty regularly with poor options (and creates tries pretty regularly with his pace).
Why not start them in the positions they are going to win us games in now, and Rieko gets to learn from Jack, and gets the last 20 minutes to put it into practice. Goodhue could easily still be our best option at 13 at the RWC. On the other hand, if Rieko becomes compelling at super level and in his opportunities at test level, then that's great and he will have been gaining experience from both doing the job and playing next to someone whose strengths are his weaknesses the whole time.
Jordan I'd go the other way with. Barring injury, I don't see any possibility that Barrett is a better fullback than him by RWC, and I don't think he is now. -
@Steven-Harris said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:
@Kiwiwomble the guy had a stellar super season ,and given they are going to walk into a firestorm once they hit South Africa I would rather an extra experienced head as opposed to some lightweight..Personally I think they will pick Josh Dickson ..just putting it out there
I get what you’re saying…and won’t argue with the principle…but he’s only managed 18 tests since 2017! And I don’t think he’s played for the abs since 2021…is he actually bringing THAT much more experience at this level?
