All Blacks 2023
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@gt12 Yeah and that's a fair enough point, whether his improvement is due to just a good run of form or he's found his niche and worked hard on his skill set we won't know till he takes that next step up.
This year he just seems to be a lot more diamonds than rocks, seems to have put away the low percentage plays, uses his boot to get him (and the team) out of trouble and is finishing well. So I think he deserves a shot.
Whether he will be successful in the international game where there is much less time, space and a lot more pressure well, who knows
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@Windows97 could be in part maturity too.
He has been in good form for around a year now, and as you said, he is more diamonds at present.
Maybe the talk of options outside rugby last year gave him a bit of a boost or something that has seen him relax more or look at things differently, who knows, but ling may it continue.
He could be to 2023 that NMS was to 2015, but.SS probably has more game too.
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2023:
He has been in good form for around a year now
This, plus when Reece first came into the ABs he was pretty rocks and diamonds himself and he defended like the fat version of Mehrtens.
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@Nepia said in All Blacks 2023:
@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2023:
He has been in good form for around a year now
This, plus when Reece first came into the ABs he was pretty rocks and diamonds himself and he defended like the fat version of Mehrtens.
his absolute moments of brilliance with counter attack or from broken field definitely plastered over some cracks in the more traditional aspects of his game
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@ARHS said in All Blacks 2023:
Maybe Emoni Narawa or Jona Nareki will mount a bid as a flair winger for AB's. Shame about Sevu. I loved his energy on the field.
Or they just fill his spot with McKenzie and then they don't have to drop Perofeta/Mo'unga/Barrett
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@Duluth said in All Blacks 2023:
@ARHS said in All Blacks 2023:
Maybe Emoni Narawa or Jona Nareki will mount a bid as a flair winger for AB's. Shame about Sevu. I loved his energy on the field.
Or they just fill his spot with McKenzie and then they don't have to drop Perofeta/Mo'unga/Barrett
Squad balance has to be a thought though. All 4 seems overkill.
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@Duluth said in All Blacks 2023:
@ARHS said in All Blacks 2023:
Maybe Emoni Narawa or Jona Nareki will mount a bid as a flair winger for AB's. Shame about Sevu. I loved his energy on the field.
Or they just fill his spot with McKenzie and then they don't have to drop Perofeta/Mo'unga/Barrett
Is Perofeta really a vital cog in this wheel? His considerable lack of game time indicates that even the people that selected him don't really rate him to do the job?
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@Windows97 doesn’t have to be vital. Does he offer more than an uncapped specialist wing? I just mentioned it as a possibility. DMac has gone well on the wing at Test level before
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@Duluth I just can't really see Perofeta offering much at all. I assumed he first made the team based off his combination with BB, though as BB's star wanes almost to the point of becoming a black hole that justification seems less and less likely.
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Really worried about Beauden Barrett.
He has gone to ratshit, which is a sad to thing to be saying.
We won't be beating FRA,IRE,ENG or SA in knockout rugby with game management like that.
Mo'unga not pulling up any trees either.
DMAC playing the best of the 10's but his occasional sideways Jack Russell-esque scamper is going to have him gobbled up by the colossal back rows and centres knocking about at world level.
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Key positional concerns for me at this stage of the season in a world cup year.
6, 8, 10, 12, 13
Ardie aside we just don't have the world class players here - certainly no established combination and can't see Foster not playing Cane at 7... so Ardie is our 8 and comfortably our best loosie... 6 I'd have Blackadder over both Frizzel and Ioane currently - but in my opinion our stock of 6s have a bad habit of going missing when we need them most (I'd include Sotutu here too)
9s are ok as long as Smith stays injury free .. (Roigrad and Fakatava best back ups on form for me) but far too much expectation on them with the problems outside them.
Biggest concern is 10 - on current form there is no 10 that seems to consistently manage a game properly - all of them have an obsession of kicking too much attacking ball away - you just do not see the likes of Ireland, France or even the Boks take such low percentage options. Basically we need one of the established 10s to suddenly rediscover their best form which appears to be way behind them. Dmac best of bunch currently
12, 13 no established combo and what we do have is a couple of players that are at best, rocks and diamonds but are too often found wanting on defence and lack the ability to regularly put their outsides or supporting players in space.
Wings and Fullbacks just living off scraps currently
Tactics in general seem to be poor and its very much the equivalent of 20/20 cricket - EG we go for the speculator option way too often rather than building pressure by maintaining possession and field position - a real lack of leadership from our 10s, captains and coaching groups.
Only positives I see currently is that we will be coming in under the radar and no players are peaking early.
