All Blacks 2024
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@No-Quarter ok, i was just replying to your comment about the past, looking forward it is
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@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
@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?
Christy Doran:
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@No-Quarter said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
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.
In that year, he was good against Oz and the Argies, but not the Japies.(but my memory could be totally wrong and I am too lazy to look it up)
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Hansen clearly had problems with Akira but Foster saw something and there was def. a big improvement in attitude and his dickhead-ness pretty much disappeared, but IIRC he never really kicked on in the big games.
He's had plenty of chances and at some stage the coaches need to move on. That said, he's still only 28.
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One of those guys with all the gifts - imo. He's so strong in contact but doesn't use his power in a direct enough way. Always takes little jinks before contact and doesn't like laying people out on defence like Finau does. Like a sevens player or back trapped in a bigger body. I vaguely remember one of the Canterbury posters saying Razor didn't want him the Canterbury squad.
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@Frank said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
One of those guys with all the gifts - imo. He's so strong in contact but doesn't use his power in a direct enough way. Always takes little jinks before contact and doesn't like laying people out on defence like Finau does. Like a sevens player or back trapped in a bigger body. I vaguely remember one of the Canterbury posters saying Razor didn't want him the Canterbury squad.
Those small steps are the key to why he often makes good post contact yards in tight space.
But sometimes what is needed is the direct hard carry, and he seems less inclined to take that on.
This is what I'm talking about:
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Fourth midfielder is really hard to pick this season. Looks like Ioane, Barrett, and Proctor will be shoe-ins, but there's not much after them. Does ALB limp in, or do they take a punt on an inexperienced 12? A lot of the younger players (Pohipi, Evans, Tupaea) have defensive issues, while Havili and McLeod are really out of form. Tele'a was playing well before his suspension.
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DMac at 10 is the most certain you could get. Finau at 6 is another unless you are blind. Reece or Telea? Or does one switch to the other wing? Or are they competing for the same position?
Blackadder in 45 minutes showed why he has the reputation but history says he will be broken in another 1.5 games. -
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Think they'll go for ALB for his versatility.
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@Victor-Meldrew That would be a very uninspiring selection. Guy is slow and just very average now. Also very often injured.
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@Tim
1 De Groot to start, Numia off the bench
2 Still wide open
3 Lomax
4 Scott Barrett
5 Still wide open
6 Finau probably
7 Papalii
8 Savea, but I hope Iose gets some game time.
9 Open between Fakatava, TJP and Christie.
10 DMac
11 Caleb Clarke has impressed me a lot this season
12 Jordie Barrett
13 Reiko Ioane
14 Mark Telea
15 Hopefully Ruben Love. -
@sparky de Groot has had about one good involvement per game this year. Looks unfit, and would be behind Tu'ungufasi (the Fern loves to bag him, but he is playing well and is a very good loosehead, who is frequently good off the bench for the ABs) and Numia. Obviously he can scrum, but if Williams comes back strongly then I think he could be in trouble. Depends on whether they want to go all out at the scrum, and whether they think he is the best player there.
Finau is smashing backs, but his involvement is inconsistent.
McKenzie has been very up and down this year. Maybe he is carrying an injury? His kicking game has been poor, and when he doesn't have fast ball he is struggling. Had a shocker last year against Australia, but that was his first game in a while.
Love is a classy player, covers a lot of ground in the backfield, and positioning is very good.
Roigard was a big loss.
A lot of positions up for grabs.
