All Blacks 2024
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Christy Doran: Confirmed fanny
"Shannon Frizell was one of the great movers in New Zealand rugby last year, as he won the race to wear the No.6 jersey at last year’s World Cup.
But with Frizell in Japan this season, it’s unclear who Scott Robertson will turn to in 2024.
Capped loose-forward Samipeni Finau hits like a tonne of bricks.
In the post-Jerome Kaino era, there’s not been an All Blacks flanker who quite hits like Finau.
It’s one aspect Robertson will have taken notice of.
Whether Super Rugby officials are cottoning on to his propensity to target opposition playmakers remains to be seen. But they should.
After whacking Noah Lolesio and Tom Lyangh late, Finau followed it up by smoking William Havili after the playmaker had released the ball.
The incident came in the 38th minute.
Referee Ben O’Keeffe, who also thought the shot on Lynagh was legal, said at the time “it’s fine”.
Moments later, Havili asked O’Keeffe about the incident and wasn’t happy.
“I didn’t think it was late. I watched it,” O’Keeffe said. “My TMO just checked and confirmed (it was OK).”
That’s Finau’s third strike.
It’s more than fractionally late, it’s a targeted measure from the blindside flanker to go after the opposition playmaker just as they release the ball"
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@mariner4life pearl clutching much?
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@mariner4life he hit 2 Kiwi ones as well didnt he? I know he injured Reihana in a legal hit.
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
@mariner4life he hit 2 Kiwi ones as well didnt he? I know he injured Reihana in a legal hit.
yes he is and yes he did. Just loves smashing fluffybunnies and i love it
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@mariner4life Doran purports to be a journalist and can't even articulate his argument properly in writing. It's full of contradictions.
How is it 'Finau's 3rd strike' when the ref and tmo said two of them were fine?
How is it 'more than fractionally late' if the ref and tmo said it was fine?
If it's 'just as they release the ball' isn't that fine and wouldn't that be fractionally late?
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I can see any one of those getting him in trouble when in black. I can see the baying for blood at Twickers now. It'll take a strong ref not to yellow card him.
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
"Shannon Frizell was one of the great movers in New Zealand rugby last year,
Pity the useless twat stopped moving at the time we needed him most.
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Well, the biggest problem there is the ref's making shit up to appease a crowd
The TMO cleared it. So you think legal tackles in the eyes of the officials are bad now?
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Put him in the 6 jersey and tell him to go out and smash fluffybunnies. Perfect
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@mariner4life guess the issue is this potentially puts a target on him and we know how inept and inconsistent some of the TMOs are, which kinda sums up things at the moment.
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@Nepia said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
"Shannon Frizell was one of the great movers in New Zealand rugby last year,
Pity the useless twat stopped moving at the time we needed him most.
I am, personally, perfectly happy with 1 tackle, 1 missed, and 7 runs of 16m against the boks. And by personally, I mean if it was me playing. As an AB loose forward, it's terrible
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I think if you go back and read again, one of the many frustrating things about the previous AB period was the passive defense. Watching opposition players skip around, do a fancy head swish before running up to the AB defensive line behind the ruck has contributed to my declining mental health. Finau has brought a smile to my face.
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I remember when Fozzie first took over and talked about the need for more physicality on defense. He then got Akira absolutely humming for a season and I thought we'd turned a corner, but then Akira got burnt out and we just kept going with wet blanket Frizzell after that waiting for his 1 out of 100 decent games to occur. Our loosies are looking really strong this year.
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fozzie got akira humming before burning him out? i dont remember fozzie really giving him more a couple of games at a time
