All Blacks 2023
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@friedrugby said in All Blacks 2023:
let's not re-write history.
Agree wholeheartedly.
This is how "good" he was for the ABs last year.
A lock is our best blindside, unless someone has a stormer in the next week and a half.
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@Bones said in All Blacks 2023:
@friedrugby said in All Blacks 2023:
let's not re-write history.
A lock is our best blindside
sad but probably true
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@Bones Curiously, who would be your All Blacks loose forwards. If I was picking mine, I'd be going with Cane, Savea, Papalii, Jacobson, Lio-Willie, Sotutu & one other. Play Russian Roulette with Frizell and A Ioane if you please.
Has struggled with injuries a bit, but Gardiner should also be in the picture, though probably after the World Cup.
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@Kiwiwomble I think it is hilairous that we got dumped out the World Cup four years ago, largely because we picked a lock on the blindside (S Barrett) and a first five at fullback (B Barrett) and four years later we look set to do the same thing all over again expecting a different outcome.
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@friedrugby SBarrett has improved a lot at 6 since then i think
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@Kiwiwomble Playing guys out of position very rarely works though... and the other issue I have with it, is we are already relying on two old locks. What happens if Whitelock's achilles is fucked, are we going to chuck our whole gameplan out the window?
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@friedrugby i agree, i would rather he concentrated on lock but if the alternatives are SF/AI then it might be the lesser of two evils
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@friedrugby said in All Blacks 2023:
Lio-Willie
Yuck man, who's rolling the dice? I fail to see what he's done to go past the dozen other openside size loosies. Might as well select Christie, Harmon and Havili-Talitui 😉
Foster won't, but I'd be looking at Ah Kuoi, and you know not selecting Lio-Willie because there's proven ABs like Sotutu and Ioane that can play instead.
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@Bones said in All Blacks 2023:
@friedrugby said in All Blacks 2023:
Lio-Willie
Yuck man, who's rolling the dice? I fail to see what he's done to go past the dozen other openside size loosies. Might as well select Christie, Harmon and Havili-Talitui 😉
Foster won't, but I'd be looking at Ah Kuoi, and you know not selecting Lio-Willie because there's proven ABs like Sotutu and Ioane that can play instead.
Sotutu has had a bit of a disrupted year, but I feel he has never let the All Blacks down... if they want a big body surely he would be worth a look.
I'm hot on the Lio-Willie train though, purely because I think we underestimate Jason Ryan's sway in selecting the forwards. I think he is someone who has done the carrying hard yards if that is what they are looking for. Ah Kuoi is a lock not a blindside. Harmon could well be in there, and as a Landers fan I'd love that, and on form it is warranted, but he doesn't solve the issues of balance. Playing Ardie at 7 would give more scope to building a trio, but we won't do it...
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pick them all, 15 loosies, addresses all the other questions like midfield and wing at the same time..."who playing there?"..."a loosie"...easy
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@Kiwiwomble Has been said before that Frizell would be a better midfielder than Paea and Gregory...
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@friedrugby said in All Blacks 2023:
@Kiwiwomble Has been said before that Frizell would be a better midfielder than Paea and Gregory...
Same impact and pace as Paea, wouldn't notice the difference there... better handling though.
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@Bones They just don't seem to play him though. I've never seen a player pigeon-holed as a number eight and a number eight only, so with the existence of Savea it is tough for him. His ball skills are incredible for a forward though, so at the very least he should be on the bench.
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@friedrugby said in All Blacks 2023:
@Bones They just don't seem to play him though. I've never seen a player pigeon-holed as a number eight and a number eight only, so with the existence of Savea it is tough for him. His ball skills are incredible for a forward though, so at the very least he should be on the bench.
And yet you're not selecting him in your list above...?
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@friedrugby well he has proved he is a lineout option for Northland, I thnk the Highlanders even chucked him up once too?
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@Stargazer said in All Blacks 2023:
The discussions in this and many other threads are really like this: going in circles! Constantly repeating, never going anywhere!
i do feel like you could be talking about any and possibly all threads there.....
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@Kiwiwomble said in All Blacks 2023:
@Stargazer said in All Blacks 2023:
The discussions in this and many other threads are really like this: going in circles! Constantly repeating, never going anywhere!
i do feel like you could be talking about any and possibly all threads there.....
It's weird eh, might as well rename it a sports forum.
