All Blacks v Pumas 1
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he's a professional rugby player in his prime, asked to play 2 games in 3 weeks. He's not an audit senior in busy season. Play the man. If he breaks, we bring the next guy in.
This only becomes an issue really if you lose like 8 guys at the same time, on like a thursday.
Rotation is highly over rated.
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@Bovidae said in All Blacks v Pumas 1:
@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Pumas 1:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks v Pumas 1:
Hopefully a good win, and then the opportunity to make changes for the next test.
can i ask why? is it just to see your favourite players get a run?
Nope. I'm thinking more on the bench (e.g., Sotutu, Fakatava) to see what they can do, as an alternative. Picking the same team every week is great until you have injuries and the replacement comes in cold.
Yep, with Weber and TJP no longer in the picture, we have one 33-year-old veteran halfback, one reasonably new 26-year-old and one rookie of 22. The rookie needs game time, in case one of the other two goes down with injury. I hate the thought of Smith getting injured and all we have is 8-cap Christie (who is okay, but not more than that) and Fakatava, who has a higher ceiling but has only had 37 minutes in the black jersey. I hope Fakatava gets game time in the second Puma test.
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so we should deliberately play a worse team now in case we might have to play a worse team later?
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@mariner4life Who are you replying to?
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Pumas 1:
so we should deliberately play a worse team now in case we might have to play a worse team later?
Not all tests are created equal.
So you give some lesser guys a run in some of the lesser tests, in case you happen to need them in some bigger tests later - they're hopefully a bit more prepared.
This is not the week for that, though.
Next game might be - if we can win well this week.
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks v Pumas 1:
@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Pumas 1:
so we should deliberately play a worse team now in case we might have to play a worse team later?
Not all tests are created equal.
So you give some lesser guys a run in some of the lesser tests, in case you happen to need them in some bigger tests later - they're hopefully a bit more prepared.
This is not the week for that, though.
Next game might be - if we can win well this week.
Definitely not. Blood all the new guys against shit teams like Scotland.
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@FakatavaAllBlack
Saturday will see a special milestone achieved by one of the team’s key players. New Zealand’s most capped international halfback, Aaron Smith (107), will mark his 100th Test start when the sides kick off their Lipovitan-D Rugby Championship clash.
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@Stargazer wow first time since 2018 Foster has named same starting XV for consecutive matches
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@bayimports said in All Blacks v Pumas 1:
@Stargazer wow first time since 2018 Foster has named same starting XV for consecutive matches
I wouldn't mind betting that there are an awful lot of tier 1 in the same boat. The injury toll in rugby is horrendus, I would think Rennie has had to make even more changes.
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Mils was only 5 tests as a sub but didn't reach 100 starts
BB only 70 starts so far
O Franks didn't quite reach 100 starts 98/108
DC 106/112. He reached his 100th start in his 107 tests
Woodcock reached his 100th start in 112 tests
Read reached his 100th start in 107 tests
Mealamu didn't reach 100 startsJust need to look at GOAT and Whitelock
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