All Blacks EOYT
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@frugby TJ played in every game in TRC and Hotham didn't play any, so it's pretty clear they prefer TJ for now.
There's definitely a case to pick Noah - or even Finlay Christie - for this tour, but I don't mind that they've picked TJ and left the other two with NZ A.
The halfbacks can all have another season of Super rugby to sort things out - and TJ will be out of the picture. In the meantime, I'm happy to go with what they think will win.
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@Duluth said in All Blacks EOYT:
@Billy-Tell said in All Blacks EOYT:
didn’t watch super this year
It all makes sense now
I’m being honest I didn’t. But man some posters are dying on the hill of sotutu and it’s getting a bit boring tbh. If gets his chance he better being absolutely amazing.
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@Billy-Tell said in All Blacks EOYT:
@No-Quarter said in All Blacks EOYT:
There's no justification for leaving Akira and Sotutu out, and it really surprises me that people are bending over backwards trying to justify it given 1) it weakens the ABs and 2) our biggest weakness is in the loosies, costing us games this year.
There’s every justification for leaving akira out. Never really performed at AB level, heading overseas. We’ve already seen more from Sititi then we ever saw from akira.
Sotutu didn’t watch super this year so no comment on form but he also never made his mark at AB level albeit with fewer opportunities than Akira. Apparently not really lighting up NPC.
Plenty of players look good at super and dud at international so you can’t extrapolate and say he would be amazing if only he’d been given the chance. If he gets named in AB XV he better be freaking amazing.
Havili says hi.
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@Bovidae said in All Blacks EOYT:
Robertson is saying Cane and TJP have important mentoring roles to play off the field as well as contributing on it.
TJP will tutor them in the talking to the ref class. Sam Cane will provide expertise in high and dangerous rackles.
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks EOYT:
@frugby TJ played in every game in TRC and Hotham didn't play any, so it's pretty clear they prefer TJ for now.
There's definitely a case to pick Noah - or even Finlay Christie - for this tour, but I don't mind that they've picked TJ and left the other two with NZ A.
The halfbacks can all have another season of Super rugby to sort things out - and TJ will be out of the picture. In the meantime, I'm happy to go with what they think will win.
I'd be happier if they went with what will win
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@frugby said in All Blacks EOYT:
@Chris-B said in All Blacks EOYT:
@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks EOYT:
If Roigard becomes Blackadder 3.0 and gets injured then you're stuck with TJP playing minutes
I think that's a big part of the reason, though.
If Roigard gets injured, they've got 87 test Perenara to call on - as opposed to Hotham, who so far has had 40 minutes off the bench vs Fiji.
Hotham is still incredibly raw...
It was always going to be between TJS and the person who supplanted him in ABs.
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@nostrildamus said in All Blacks EOYT:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks EOYT:
Robertson is saying Cane and TJP have important mentoring roles to play off the field as well as contributing on it.
TJP will tutor them in the talking to the ref class. Sam Cane will provide expertise in high and dangerous rackles.
Nah, TJP is there to pass on how to lead the Haka
Taylor obviously doesn't cut it at the moment. -
@reprobate said in All Blacks EOYT:
Fuck's sake Razor, grow a pair.
Yep. Wasted opportunity to develop a squad for the future. Much as though Cane epitomised everything good about being an AB, he shouldn't be there and neither should Perenara.
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@frugby said in All Blacks EOYT:
Fact is, Razor is still working out which players are best suited to his gameplan, and I don't think the tests we have had so far are really enough to give definitive answers.
How many Tests does he need? 20? 30?
The key is to get the best out of our best players, and in the last test we won by 20 points. This meltdown is mental...
That last Test was a bit of an outlier, though, wasn't it? And it was against the 10th ranked team in the world....
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@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks EOYT:
@frugby said in All Blacks EOYT:
Fact is, Razor is still working out which players are best suited to his gameplan, and I don't think the tests we have had so far are really enough to give definitive answers.
How many Tests does he need? 20? 30?
The key is to get the best out of our best players, and in the last test we won by 20 points. This meltdown is mental...
That last Test was a bit of an outlier, though, wasn't it? And it was against the 10th ranked team in the world....
Yeah I love how people are trying to claim that beating a woeful Wallabies outfit is some sort of massive achievement now. It's the least we should be doing against opposition like that.
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Ignore the first third or so about the French not turning up, some good loose forward analysis
Will the withdrawal of the ‘top 20’ devalue France’s tour of New Zealand?
In resting Antoine Dupont and the rest of his 'premiums', has Fabien Galthie undermined a mouth-watering voyage?
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@Billy-Tell said in All Blacks EOYT:
@Duluth said in All Blacks EOYT:
@Billy-Tell said in All Blacks EOYT:
didn’t watch super this year
It all makes sense now
I’m being honest I didn’t. But man some posters are dying on the hill of sotutu and it’s getting a bit boring tbh. If gets his chance he better being absolutely amazing.
For your sake because you couldn't be bothered watching him play an outstanding - a really fucking best player in the comp outstanding - season in the competition which ought to decide selection?
And he better be amazing... as opposed to our selected loosies who were outplayed by Argentina, SA and Australia? -
@frugby said in All Blacks EOYT:
@nzzp said in All Blacks EOYT:
@frugby said in All Blacks EOYT:
Moaning for moaning sake.
Tight 5 is largely uncontroversial. Happy days. If your reserve hooker winds up on teh bench through injury and has to throw in the lineout, I wouldn't have Bell, but them's the breaks.
Our loose forwrads look slow and uninspiring. I think we're going to get beaten here by most teams.
Halfbacks - well two pick themselves. Razor suddenly decided he really really likes TJP. Wild if you want to play a fast game, but hey.
Backline - anyone exciting there? Telea and Reece havne't looked good. Better pray CC and WJ stay fit to play on the wings. I am still unconvinced by WJ at fullback - defence, kickign and positioning all get questionmarks for me.
So yeah. I think you'd say this is a year where we haven't really done much more than evolve the squad, and play senior players on teh decline into the ground. We're on course for the equal most losses in a year, so it's not moaning for moaning sake - it is recognising that this is a profoundly disappointing AB selection.
Here's the thing. If we picked Ioane and he failed, I can be almost certain the other half of the population would be saying why have we gone back to that old has been.
If we picked Sotutu and he failed, the claim would be why isn't Sititi in the ABs (presumably would be ripping up the NPC, in the same way people are crying out for Lakai).
It is human nature to think that the best solutions are the ones not already employed, but people don't want to admit that Sotutu could actually be worse. I'd argue that a loose trio of Sititi, Papalii and Savea, with Finau coming in to smash people for the last 20 could be worth looking at, but to say the ABs loose forwards are failing I think is a shade unfair - they're still battling for balance.
Sititi (despite what the odd person claims) has made himself undroppable. Despite the new hipster opinion, you'd also be hard pushed to say Ardie Savea shouldn't be starting either. People also wanting to see Finau and Papalii, but lets not forget Cane was very good in South Africa, and Finau was shite.
Outside of Savea, they have been tweaking it all year... and to be fair, I am not sure they have given those in the squad a fair crack yet to say they are worth dropping.
Should Sotutu have been there in the first instance? On pure ability, probably yes, but anyone who has been in any sporting environment knows there is more to it then just ability. Even if in the squad, at best Sotutu was on the bench at the start of the year as Ardie was viewed as a 7.
The way he carried on, on social media after not being picked to me is quite telling. Is he the guy you want holding tackle bags, or is he just going to have a sulk that he isn't playing?
We forget that the All Blacks are just like any other sporting team in the world. Experience is not just about on the field, but it is also about the intangible people bring off the field and how they fit into the group.
Ioane leaving means no point in selecting him. Couldn't care less about the conspiracies re which happened first, that's done and dusted.
On Sotutu, I assume you don't know the man, so why undermine his character? Plenty of these kids are on social media with silly shit. If being a top coach isn't getting the best out of the most talented players, then what is it?
It is no way unfair to say the AB loose forwards have been failing. They have been. Our tighties have been okay, and our loosies have been getting outplayed by their opposition, and we've been losing games. -
Social media etiquette should not be a criteria for AB selection.
I don't participate in the social medias but I accept that Gen Y does. Coaches need to be able to manage a range of personalities like Cotter has. You can't limit the ABs by only picking personalities like your own.
Guys like Segner and Christie are not going to be the same as Sotutu and Ioane personality wise but some how an old grump like Vern can make it work.
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@Machpants said in All Blacks EOYT:
Ignore the first third or so about the French not turning up, some good loose forward analysis
Will the withdrawal of the ‘top 20’ devalue France’s tour of New Zealand?
In resting Antoine Dupont and the rest of his 'premiums', has Fabien Galthie undermined a mouth-watering voyage?
That pass from ALB to Reece (for his try) was a thing of beauty. I didn't fully appreciate it at the time.
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