All Blacks 2024
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2024:
@reprobate said in All Blacks 2024:
@Chris-B I could handle one of them on the bench, but why start them, why pick both?
I'm sure they will transition to the young guys - and I'll leave that up to Razor and Co. how fast they do it.
But, the most important thing at the moment is that we keep winning as much as possible (refer 2022). And, it's quite possible that the best combo to deliver consistent wins, right now, is to pick TJ and Finlay for the biggest games - even though from the outside it doesn't look like it.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Fozzie and Schmidt picked Finlay on the bench for the RWC Final and then Vern picked Finlay to start the play-off matches in Super this year.
We sort of go, WTF - but, we've had decades of All Black coaches telling us how important experience is. And decades of observing that it's harder to get dropped from the ABs than to get picked. And I think that happens for good reasons.
Hansen spent most of his tenure telling us how much experience should be valued - and then right at the end he abandoned his own philosophy - panicked and picked a rookie backline in 2019, when he could have picked experience - Beauden, SBW, Crotty, Reiko and Ben Smith (and Sam Cane). I wish someone would ask him about this (but, I digress).
We lost - and we lost in 2007 with a bunch of newbies running on among the inside backs.
To make a very ageist comment - but, fuck it, a girl at the supermarket checkout asked me if I was eligible for a gold card earlier this week
- none of the guys I mentioned earlier are 25 yet. And if I look at the sub-25 kids at my work, you barely trust them to do some filing in alphabetical order. And my bro-in-law, who's a builder, makes similar comments about his apprentices. These guys are just kids. Just because they're good at sport, doesn't mean they're proper grown ups to be entrusted with the keys to the ABs.And they'd be morons (or their agents would) to fuck off overseas at this point without racking up a bunch of test caps and ratcheting up their price.
So, I reckon, use TJ and Christie to lead them and support them this year. Develop Ratima. Bring Roigard in for the EOYT tour. Maybe take Hotham (or one of the others) on the EOYT as an apprentice.
TJ will disappear at the end of the year
If we've got three young guys ready for test rugby at the end of 2025 - with Finlay still in the mix and a couple of others knocking at the door and maybe with a couple of bench caps, that's plenty fast enough for me.
Always amusing reading posts like these with the benefit of knowing the squad (Christie dropped).
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@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2024:
I'm saddened (or perhaps disappointed is more apt) at the selection of DH, and, arguably, Blackadder (IMO him or LJ). Seems they have much more cred with the coaches than others who actually played more than a couple of games at a high level this year.
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2024:
Yes Ruben Love. Well bloody deserved. Bye bye Christie.
Love being one of the hardest working players in NZ must have impressed in camp.
How do you claim to know such a thing ?
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@MN5 said in All Blacks 2024:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2024:
Yes Ruben Love. Well bloody deserved. Bye bye Christie.
Love being one of the hardest working players in NZ must have impressed in camp.
How do you claim to know such a thing ?
Well not many players invest their own $$ to go and do a training camp over in Aus while most other players are on holiday in their off-season. Love literally hasn’t stopped training since the end of Super rugby last year. Hard work paying off for the young lad.
When the top sprint coach in Aus (who coaches a dozen of the top NRL players) says his mindset is different to any other athlete he’s coached, then it’s pretty obvious he’s got the determination and work ethic that isn’t matched by many.
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Gee, shocked that two crap Cantabs were added permanently to the squad.
Love is a good pick, but Lam would have been a better pick that a proven failure at Test level.
Baby steps to Canta-Blacks. @ACT-Crusader will be happy.
Hotham being picked over Christie, Funaki and even Fakatava is a joke.
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2024:
@MN5 said in All Blacks 2024:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2024:
Yes Ruben Love. Well bloody deserved. Bye bye Christie.
Love being one of the hardest working players in NZ must have impressed in camp.
How do you claim to know such a thing ?
Well not many players invest their own $$ to go and do a training camp over in Aus while most other players are on holiday in their off-season. Love literally hasn’t stopped training since the end of Super rugby last year. Hard work paying off for the young lad.
When the top sprint coach in Aus (who coaches a dozen of the top NRL players) says his mindset is different to any other athlete he’s coached, then it’s pretty obvious he’s got the determination and work ethic that isn’t matched by many.
Good on him but I’m sure all pro Rugby players work extremely hard or they wouldn’t be pro Rugby players in the first place.
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Don’t understand Cane’s selection
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@No-Quarter said in All Blacks 2024:
We seem to have a lot of fullbacks now if they are thinking of Jordan at 15 as well. Hopefully they are looking at Jordan on the wing.
It's no good being able to play multiple positions if you are not good enough in any of them. Havili shouldn't be near this squad, Crusader bias strikes again.
The number are (I hope)
Crusaders 10
Blues 9
Chiefs 8
Canes 7
MP 1
Lnader 1Robertson had a chance to show he was above bias. He failed
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@MiketheSnow Cane and Havili very lucky.
Kinda surprised they dropped Christie, particularly as Ratima and Hotham have 3 caps, so sink or swim time for them.
Interesting how both this and the last coaching group name minimal locks, particularly as one of them has been carrying injuries this year.
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@Winger the idiot brigade out again. Give it a rest. It’s getting boring.
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2024:
@MiketheSnow Cane and Havili very lucky.
Kinda surprised they dropped Christie, particularly as Ratima and Hotham have 3 caps, so sink or swim time for them.
Interesting how both this and the last coaching group name minimal locks, particularly as one of them has been carrying injuries this year.
If the AB coaches want to play a Blues type game then Chrisie is fine. If not he's out. Just too slow getting the ball away
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@Kirwan said in All Blacks 2024:
Hotham being picked over Christie, Funaki and even Fakatava is a joke.
Disagree. Hotham is deserving of his selection. He looked good in a poor Crusaders team - not the easiest to do at 9. He still needs some polishing but a good opportunity to get him some more test minutes before Roigard returns.
Havili on the other hand......
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@chchfanatic said in All Blacks 2024:
@Winger the idiot brigade out again. Give it a rest. It’s getting boring.
Where did the Crusaders finish up this year?
There's obvious bias. Even most (but obviosuly not all) Crusaders should be able to see this
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@Winger said in All Blacks 2024:
@chchfanatic said in All Blacks 2024:
@Winger the idiot brigade out again. Give it a rest. It’s getting boring.
Where did the Crusaders finish up this year?
There's obvious bias. Even most (but obviosuly not all) Crusaders should be able to see this
That could be asking the impossible
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@MN5 said in All Blacks 2024:
@Winger said in All Blacks 2024:
@chchfanatic said in All Blacks 2024:
@Winger the idiot brigade out again. Give it a rest. It’s getting boring.
Where did the Crusaders finish up this year?
There's obvious bias. Even most (but obviosuly not all) Crusaders should be able to see this
That could be asking the impossible
Robertsons a fool really. All he had to do is not make any dubious Crusaders selections and everyone would have been on his side as the man.
So Ardie over Scott as captain
RR in preference to Bell
Plummer in preference to Havili
And not BlackadderThats it. He could have then brought them all in if and only if they proved themsleves in SRP 2025
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@MN5 said in All Blacks 2024:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2024:
@MN5 said in All Blacks 2024:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2024:
Yes Ruben Love. Well bloody deserved. Bye bye Christie.
Love being one of the hardest working players in NZ must have impressed in camp.
How do you claim to know such a thing ?
Well not many players invest their own $$ to go and do a training camp over in Aus while most other players are on holiday in their off-season. Love literally hasn’t stopped training since the end of Super rugby last year. Hard work paying off for the young lad.
When the top sprint coach in Aus (who coaches a dozen of the top NRL players) says his mindset is different to any other athlete he’s coached, then it’s pretty obvious he’s got the determination and work ethic that isn’t matched by many.
Good on him but I’m sure all pro Rugby players work extremely hard or they wouldn’t be pro Rugby players in the first place.
Yeah obviously but it’s the extras that set some players apart from others. Sometimes putting in the extra yards when everyone else stops is what gets you ahead as an athlete. Aaron Smith was renowned for being by far the hardest working player at the Highlanders and it showed on the field.
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@Winger said in All Blacks 2024:
RR in preference to Bell
You lost me with this one. Up until this year RR has been a bit of a joke, Cane's fans didn't like him and Blue's fans weren't dancing in the aisles when he moved to the Blues. He did a job with the support of a very good pack and an equally good game plan. The problem is, he is still the same player he was at the Canes. He is not an international player.
I get Bell didn't have the best year, and he probably wasn't even the best hooking Bell, but at least he is a nod to the future.
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@Winger so you’re not on his side. Are you not supporting the All Blacks now.
