All Blacks 2024
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Rassie is out thinking Razor right now. He realises how short the time is between RWCs, he realises a number of his senior players won't make it to the next cup. He's working hard to run the rule over his pool of young players, trying to work out who can step up, creating depth. Razor does not appear to be feeling the clock ticking, based on his selection policy to date
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@Rancid-Schnitzel said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Horatio said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
This is a classic Bledisloe fluffer match for the ABs. An awful, awful Wallabies side to give them confidence they aren't on the wrong trajectory ahead of an EOYT.
A real team would have punished them for some of the silly mistakes they made out there.
It's the same Wallabies side that didn't entirely get humped by the Springboks, and won away against Argentina. For 120 minutes we owned the Springboks. It may have just been the game they needed to answer some questions.
It's the same Wallabies side that's ranked 10th in the world. The one we came close to losing to 2 weeks ago after leading 28-7 when we went to shit in the second half
In a dead rubber with nothing to lose this was the perfect game to try new players. Instead Robertson went safety-first with players past their best, learned little and, as far as questions are concerned, answered little
Some improvement in focus overall in this game (not hard considering the nadir of 2 weeks ago) but still nowhere near as good as we were this time last year.
So a 20 point win is not an improvement? Did we go to shit? Did we score points in the last quarter? Did we blank in the second half?
As I said, there was some improvement in focus, but it's bonkers to think not going to pieces and actually scoring points in the last quarter against the 10th based side is some magical, corner-turning improvement. Less than 12 months ago we came within one point of winning the RWC and - to use your words - we owned the Springboks for 75% of the game a few weeks back. Seriously?
Your memory is really short. Fosters side got humped 35-7 and was only a freak run from CamRoi from being blanked. Also lost for the first time in a pool match and almost lost to Australia twice.
Foster's gone. Live with it and focus on this teams direction.
TBF you're making comparisons with the RWC final 12 months ago. Let's face it, that RWC run was a complete anomaly for the Foster era. Give Razor Smith, Whitelock and RM and I dare say we'd be seeing some better results.
Ultimately I like what Razor is trying to achieve here, but we don't have the cattle to pull it off just yet. That's obviously on him to plan according to the strengths of what's available, but I feel there are plenty of positive signs
Brodie Retallick after reading this post…….
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@African-Monkey said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@MN5 said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Stag said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Dan54 because that’s his best position, 6 is Blackadder’s best position and he has been a stellar performer there as well, and 7 is Ardies best position.
I didn’t realise the ABs played a bunch of tests that I missed this season
Hey come on, he's played a grand total of 14 tests since his debut in 2021,half of those against tier 2 nations. I wouldn't have him there and we've gone on and on about it on here, but it wouldn't surprise me if he slots in at 7 for the 1 test that he's fit for a year. Razor loves him. I'd have Papali'i for the mean time, not because I'm his biggest fan, but I feel like he's reliable enough as a 7 without being spectacular.
Savea ain't getting moved from 8, when was the last time he actually played there? 2018? Yet people still keep going on about how he should be there, and yeah Sititi is undroppable these days.
What I think they go with.
- Sititi
- Blackadder
- Savea
Jacobsen
What I'd go with (It won't happen)
- Sititi
- Papali'i
- Savea
.
Sotutu
Clear Blues bias I could be accused for, but it would be nice to have an extra ball carrier off the bench and I feel like Sotutu could really make an impact there if given the opportunity. Papali'i would be my 7 for now, as I said earlier, he's reliable enough there. I would like to see Peter Lakai introduced at some stage, I think he could mke a real case for that 7 jersey going forward.
I’d quite like to see a game with Paps at 7, Suafoa at 6 and WS at 8.
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@African-Monkey said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@African-Monkey Papalii seems to be on the outer so let's see if he replaces Cane. Lakai might be the player they look at to provide more mobility. It's clear that Robertson prefers some versatility in the loose forwards, and that the 7 needs to do the dirty work to allow Savea to do his thing.
Yeah don't know what the go is with Papali'i, but I do agree that they don't seem overly keen on him. They seem to prefer Jacobsen due to his ability to cover all 3 positions, so he seems like a lock for the bench spot with Papali’i or Blackadder gunning for the starting 7 spot which you would have to say if fit, Blackadder is probably the frontrunner.
It's always been the case with Savea, hence why they loved Frizzell and Cane partnering him, as they were both deemed as the best cleaners and played better in close quarters under the previous management.
Frizell did polarise opinion. Great athlete and seem to recall him scoring four in an early Superb game. But inconsistent for ABs although seemed to work more effectively with Cane than any other combo.
His try against Boks at Mt. Smart when he Lomued WLR was a thing of beauty.
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@pakman said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@African-Monkey Papalii seems to be on the outer so let's see if he replaces Cane. Lakai might be the player they look at to provide more mobility. It's clear that Robertson prefers some versatility in the loose forwards, and that the 7 needs to do the dirty work to allow Savea to do his thing.
Yeah don't know what the go is with Papali'i, but I do agree that they don't seem overly keen on him. They seem to prefer Jacobsen due to his ability to cover all 3 positions, so he seems like a lock for the bench spot with Papali’i or Blackadder gunning for the starting 7 spot which you would have to say if fit, Blackadder is probably the frontrunner.
It's always been the case with Savea, hence why they loved Frizzell and Cane partnering him, as they were both deemed as the best cleaners and played better in close quarters under the previous management.
Frizell did polarise opinion. Great athlete and seem to recall him scoring four in an early Superb game. But inconsistent for ABs although seemed to work more effectively with Cane than any other combo.
His try against Boks at Mt. Smart when he Lomued WLR was a thing of beauty.
The fern hated Frizell because he apparently took Akira Ioanes jersey.
When he was good he was really good, why couldn’t he have more storming matches like the one against SA ?
Vaea Fifita was arguably even more physically gifted and he was even less consistent.
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@pakman said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@MN5 said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Stag said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Dan54 because that’s his best position, 6 is Blackadder’s best position and he has been a stellar performer there as well, and 7 is Ardies best position.
I didn’t realise the ABs played a bunch of tests that I missed this season
Hey come on, he's played a grand total of 14 tests since his debut in 2021,half of those against tier 2 nations. I wouldn't have him there and we've gone on and on about it on here, but it wouldn't surprise me if he slots in at 7 for the 1 test that he's fit for a year. Razor loves him. I'd have Papali'i for the mean time, not because I'm his biggest fan, but I feel like he's reliable enough as a 7 without being spectacular.
Savea ain't getting moved from 8, when was the last time he actually played there? 2018? Yet people still keep going on about how he should be there, and yeah Sititi is undroppable these days.
What I think they go with.
- Sititi
- Blackadder
- Savea
Jacobsen
What I'd go with (It won't happen)
- Sititi
- Papali'i
- Savea
.
Sotutu
Clear Blues bias I could be accused for, but it would be nice to have an extra ball carrier off the bench and I feel like Sotutu could really make an impact there if given the opportunity. Papali'i would be my 7 for now, as I said earlier, he's reliable enough there. I would like to see Peter Lakai introduced at some stage, I think he could mke a real case for that 7 jersey going forward.
I’d quite like to see a game with Paps at 7, Suafoa at 6 and WS at 8.
Give it about 4 months or so...
Edit - I misread your initials, thought the last was HS 😄
@MN5 I think most of the shade at Frizzell was due to his off field activities.
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@pakman said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@MN5 Fifita had real gas.
Akira a more rounded player than Frizell, but until this year not a great cleaner. Tremendous under Stern and best 6 in Superb rugby.Yeah he was the best athlete of them and I hoped he could have learned some of the finer details of forward play.
Ioane should have been picked this year but theres no guarantee he woulda dominated.
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@MN5 said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@pakman said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@African-Monkey Papalii seems to be on the outer so let's see if he replaces Cane. Lakai might be the player they look at to provide more mobility. It's clear that Robertson prefers some versatility in the loose forwards, and that the 7 needs to do the dirty work to allow Savea to do his thing.
Yeah don't know what the go is with Papali'i, but I do agree that they don't seem overly keen on him. They seem to prefer Jacobsen due to his ability to cover all 3 positions, so he seems like a lock for the bench spot with Papali’i or Blackadder gunning for the starting 7 spot which you would have to say if fit, Blackadder is probably the frontrunner.
It's always been the case with Savea, hence why they loved Frizzell and Cane partnering him, as they were both deemed as the best cleaners and played better in close quarters under the previous management.
Frizell did polarise opinion. Great athlete and seem to recall him scoring four in an early Superb game. But inconsistent for ABs although seemed to work more effectively with Cane than any other combo.
His try against Boks at Mt. Smart when he Lomued WLR was a thing of beauty.
The fern hated Frizell because he apparently took Akira Ioanes jersey.
When he was good he was really good, why couldn’t he have more storming matches like the one against SA ?
Vaea Fifita was arguably even more physically gifted and he was even less consistent.
The Fern hated Frizell because he mostly shit outside of the one game everyone always bring up, and he's a piece of shit human being.
If he's the answer then we may as well just start praying to our new NRL gods.
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@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@MN5 said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@pakman said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:
@African-Monkey Papalii seems to be on the outer so let's see if he replaces Cane. Lakai might be the player they look at to provide more mobility. It's clear that Robertson prefers some versatility in the loose forwards, and that the 7 needs to do the dirty work to allow Savea to do his thing.
Yeah don't know what the go is with Papali'i, but I do agree that they don't seem overly keen on him. They seem to prefer Jacobsen due to his ability to cover all 3 positions, so he seems like a lock for the bench spot with Papali’i or Blackadder gunning for the starting 7 spot which you would have to say if fit, Blackadder is probably the frontrunner.
It's always been the case with Savea, hence why they loved Frizzell and Cane partnering him, as they were both deemed as the best cleaners and played better in close quarters under the previous management.
Frizell did polarise opinion. Great athlete and seem to recall him scoring four in an early Superb game. But inconsistent for ABs although seemed to work more effectively with Cane than any other combo.
His try against Boks at Mt. Smart when he Lomued WLR was a thing of beauty.
The fern hated Frizell because he apparently took Akira Ioanes jersey.
When he was good he was really good, why couldn’t he have more storming matches like the one against SA ?
Vaea Fifita was arguably even more physically gifted and he was even less consistent.
The Fern hated Frizell because he mostly shit outside of the one game everyone always bring up, and he's a piece of shit human being.
If he's the answer then we may as well just start praying to our new NRL gods.
Fair point, I did forget about that !
But Hansen and Foster both selected Fifita and Frizell ahead of Ioane at various times.
All had the potential to be much better than they ended up being.
All three should have had much better careers than they had.
The blueprint was there for one of them to become the hard running, hard tackling six that the ABs needed.
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@nzzp said in All Blacks 2024:
@brodean said in All Blacks 2024:
They were all bad mismanaged along with Steve Luatua
Luatua and Piutau would have plugged big holes in our 2019 squad.
Charlie Faumuina for one of those middling 2019 props as well?
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@booboo said in All Blacks 2024:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2024:
@Jet said in All Blacks 2024:
- Williams
- Samisoni
- Tosi
- Fabian Holland
- Vaii
- Sititi
- Lakai
- Sotutu
- Roigard
- DMAC
- Rieko
- Clarke
- Proctor
- Narawa
- Jordan
Lets go mental in 2025.
No idea about Williams but would be intriguing to have the rest of the forward pack be open to claims of poaching.
Whangarei apparently
Sounds like one of the Tokoroan islands to me.
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Top 5 dominant tackles per 80 minutes this season:
1.77 Luke Jacobson
1.76 Ofa Tu'ungafasi
1.75 Patrick Tuipulotu
1.4 Sam Darry
1.36 Samipeni FinauWallace Sititi has been great but he isn't in the top 10 for dominant tackles which is something we've come to expect from a blindside.
