All Blacks 2024
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If @Chris is right about Razor favoring players with really high work rates, to the point he would pick some fairly average ones above higher impact players, then it's going to be interesting to see how our pack goes with that line of thinking. Someone like Blackadder has a work rate that approaches McCaw, however unlike McCaw he has looked busy but ineffective the next level up (McCaw really was a God out there).
Someone like Finau is much more likely to affect the outcome of a test match. Kaino used to do it every game. You need players like that in the modern game. Akira is another that has shown the power to do it the next level up.
I think back to Razor's day as a player and he was very much a workhorse. I have memories of always wanting a bigger player selected at 8 for the ABs when he got the jersey.
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@No-Quarter Finau and Kaino are/were workhorses. Didn't Ryan say that about Finau last year?
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There is a difference between a player with high work rates than a work horse
Finau is a high work rate player.
Players who don’t drift in games are high work rate players.They certainly have an impact due to being in the game more than a player who drifts in and out.
Sotutu,Lakai have high work rates,Jacobsen ,Lilo-Willie ,DP are all high work rate players.I
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Finau would be in my squad but the thing he needs to improve is his workrate. It's the only real criticism of him. His number of involvements per game is low. His involvements are very good but not (yet) frequent enough
Take the Bledisloe game he played last year and he barely did anything in the first half before having a very good second half. It's an area he needs to improve and I'm sure he will
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Israel Dagg's comments on Cane relinquishing the captaincy. He just said the obvious thing but I haven't seen any other media commentators say this. Seems very likely that Cane was given the word
“I get a sense that this was forced. I get a sense that there was a shoulder tap from the one and only saying, ‘G’Day son, I think the writing is on the wall in terms of where you are seen in New Zealand rugby, Scott Barrett is going to take over the captaincy’. “I think this was forced to be completely honest. They’ve been having conversations about it online, but the reality is he was shoulder tapped and told to make that next step and his next step is getting the Yen over in Japan.” -
@gt12 said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
@pakman said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
@gt12 said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
@DaGrubster said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
It was his first game in 2 months and people expected him to be playing the house down after watching Savea play for 2 months straight
and this is where our current season structure just sucks. Once super rugby finishes, these guys don't get to play high level rugby unless they are in the test team.
There could be an interesting idea there to build an NZ specific model to allow that focused on what NZR really cares about - the AB brand.
It would require cooperation from Oz and SA though, so I don't like the chances, however, if SANZAAR allowed two teams from the Pacific Nations Cup to come up to the Rugby Championship (likely Fiji and Japan who could play off with the other nations to allow movement between the competitions), we could add the ABXV or Maori AB team to that competition (likely alongside Australia A). If OZ didn't or couldn't participate, we could have two teams in the competition.
We could then have at least one of our second teams competing against Samoa, Tonga, USA, and Canada. Whether the level of that competition is stronger or weaker than NPC is a separate question, but it would allow for collaboration across the two squads and have guys in the next tier playing if and when injuries strike.
Feel free to bag this, I'm not wedded to it, just putting it up for discussion.
Or a second tier championship with islands, AB XV and Oz XV, and maybe Japan?
Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Japan, USA, Canada make up the Pacific Nations Cup, hence move two of those to Rugby Championship to add our two teams (or perhaps one from Oz).
Maybe you could move one to TRC. But would also be good to see AB XV and Oz VX in Pacific Nations Cup.
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@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
@Bovidae Yeah and England of all teams ran in 3 tries in that period.
Frizell ought to have been subbed, leaving backline defence intact.
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@Dan54 said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
I not sure if Cane had been shoulder tapped, if he was going to do that wouldn't he of done it earlier, and not had Cane involved in leadership meetings this year
I don't see how the sequence says he wasn't tapped. They could've always had a plan to discuss his future in April/May and both sides could've been aware of that
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Blues back 'warrior' Papali’i over Cane to fill All Blacks' No 7 jersey
The 26-year-old is the leading contender to don the iconic jersey.
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@Tim said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
Blues back 'warrior' Papali’i over Cane to fill All Blacks' No 7 jersey
The 26-year-old is the leading contender to don the iconic jersey.
Fair enough, too.
He's earned it.
Would be kind of funny if a Super Rugby coach randomly backed someone else though.
"Vern Cotter Endorses Peter Lakai - Dalton WTF????" -
@African-Monkey Scott Hamilton
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I almost feel sorry for Scott Robertson. When he became All Blacks coach he was probably drooling over picking lots of Crusaders and turning the All Blacks into the Crusaderblacks. He was dreaming of the admiring looks he would get from Grizz Wylie and Robbie Deans.
Six months on. The Crusaders are utter shit. No more than a couple of their players will make the ABs. And Razors going to be giving his first pre-test team talk as AB coach almost exclusively to players from the Blues, the Canes and the Chiefs.
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@sparky said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
I almost feel sorry for Scott Robertson. When he became All Blacks coach he was probably drooling over picking lots of Crusaders and turning the All Blacks into the Crusaderblacks. He was dreaming of the admiring looks he would get from Grizz Wylie and Robbie Deans.
Six months on. The Crusaders are utter shit. No more than a couple of their players will make the ABs. And Razors going to be giving his first pre-test team talk as AB coach almost exclusively to players from the Blues, the Canes and the Chiefs.
FFS what a load of dribble.
There will be more than a couple of Crusaders in there and Razor will not give a shit where the players come from they are ABs when they get in that environment.
Don’t buy in you don’t stay long in the enviroment -
@sparky said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
I almost feel sorry for Scott Robertson. When he became All Blacks coach he was probably drooling over picking lots of Crusaders and turning the All Blacks into the Crusaderblacks. He was dreaming of the admiring looks he would get from Grizz Wylie and Robbie Deans.
Six months on. The Crusaders are utter shit. No more than a couple of their players will make the ABs. And Razors going to be giving his first pre-test team talk as AB coach almost exclusively to players from the Blues, the Canes and the Chiefs.
Pure fantasy world. Get the feeling there was a happy ending after finishing writing that.
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@sparky said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:
I almost feel sorry for Scott Robertson. When he became All Blacks coach he was probably drooling over picking lots of Crusaders and turning the All Blacks into the Crusaderblacks. He was dreaming of the admiring looks he would get from Grizz Wylie and Robbie Deans.
Six months on. The Crusaders are utter shit. No more than a couple of their players will make the ABs. And Razors going to be giving his first pre-test team talk as AB coach almost exclusively to players from the Blues, the Canes and the Chiefs.
God damn one of the worst posts I've ever read.
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With England to be played two weeks after Razor names his first squad, they'll need people who've been there and done that.
I'm expecting they'll pick pretty much everyone available, who was in France - and already there's 10/34 who definitely won't be - and you can bet there will be several more in the casualty ward.
Then they'll pick old hands like Perenara, Tuipolotou and Reece who can slot in quickly - still leaving spots for half a dozen rookies.
They won't be running out the Baby Blacks.
