All Blacks 2023
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@Stargazer good thing this is the other way around
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@Kiwiwomble Not sure I'd still call any ABs line-up "good" with BB in the starting XV, unless it's against minnows.
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@No-Quarter Both are good defenders too, which means we won't have to hide RM out on the wing. That got exposed badly in the last World Cup where the English exposed him out wide.
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i wouldn't call DMac a "good" defender. Willing and brave yes. But the Crusaders ruthlessly exposed him in the first quarter of that last game, going through his channel on first phase to great effect.
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@mariner4life Good enough that he doesn't have to be hidden on defence, and in relative terms better than RM. With a big body like JB next to him he'll be better as well.
Treating tens like they are Andrew Mehrtens in 20 years out of date.
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If JB thinks, even for a split second, his job is to help in DMac's channel, then we are already fucked
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@mariner4life Where did I say it was?
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ok then i have absolutely no idea what any of your post even means then
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@Kirwan in general i agree with you as you'll see from my upvotes...but you did just say above the DMac will do better on Defence with JB outside him, surely you can see how someone might think you were saying JB was going to help defend that channel
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@Stargazer Be careful what you wish for
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@Kiwiwomble fair, but I clarified I wasn't. I'm posting as I work....
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@Stargazer isn't he only in the position to make that tackle because he was being hidden on the wing in defence?
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@Kiwiwomble I don't see how that matters. He made a try-saving tackle. So the statement that he is a shit defender is simply not true and there's no proof that Dmac is any better.
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@Stargazer he is poor in the ten channel, you know, the position he plays. Thats why both the Crusaders and All Blacks have to hide him out wide, where his front on defence isn't exposed as much.
If he was good at that he wouldn't be moved.
Both BB and Dmac are better at RM at that. Are they perfect? No, but the pecking order is clear on defence. It cost us in 2019, not enthused to see us making the same mistakes four years later.
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@Stargazer he managed to make a try saving tackle because he had the touch line to help sheppard kolbe into a potion where he could make the tackle, midfield and kolbe smokes him every day of the week, the fact he is put out there and given that touch line to help when others arent is the proof that even the AB's think there are better defenders
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@Kirwan It didn't cost us in 2019. It has been discussed to death that the problem in that England game was our forward pack, not the backs. It's only some people on here who like to blame certain backs, RM in particular, for that ABs performance.
