The Silver Fern

@Mr-Fish said in Springboks v Italy II:

Imagine the collective meltdown amongst New Zealanders if Rassie decided to take a B-side over during the Rugby Championship. Ultimate fuckery, striking while the iron is hot.

It’s only New Zealand….

I like our run home and it was a solid win yesterday. I’m not too concerned about those losses we had. We were on such a high and given how long the season is, I don’t mind a reality check or two, but we have bounced back and now focus in on the next 2 games.

@Bones said in All Blacks v France II:

@ACT-Crusader think I'd swap Newell/Lomax, just get a little bit more oomph on attack off the bench, with a bit more power in the tackle.

Yeah I was going to add, perhaps starting the Saders front row would be good from a combo also. But that might’ve been too predictable 😉

@canefan I was more talking about the teams that do them - the Boks, Irish, England for example. In all of those tests they kicked poor box kicks. We kick poor ones too. But Roigard had better distance on his ones on the weekend, so was a decent tactic.

@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks 2025:

@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks 2025:

@george33 said in All Blacks 2025:

Two weeks in and Wayne Smith involved in coaching group he was in the coaching box Saturday night for all to see.
What is his roll actually thought he had stepped away.

The fact the ABs box-kicked long, for touch, and got out of the danger area without putting up 50/50s box-kicks in their own half indicates the profs influence on tactics.

He's on record as saying he hates box kicks

I think he hates them because the vast majority of them are poor and just create more pressure on the team that do them.

My eyes certainly light up when the opposition do them.

So many of our opposition temams are more proficient at them than us. Most of the time it might as well be a turnover when we do it

I’m not sure about that. I saw some atrocious ones on the weekend in a few other test matches.

@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks 2025:

@george33 said in All Blacks 2025:

Two weeks in and Wayne Smith involved in coaching group he was in the coaching box Saturday night for all to see.
What is his roll actually thought he had stepped away.

The fact the ABs box-kicked long, for touch, and got out of the danger area without putting up 50/50s box-kicks in their own half indicates the profs influence on tactics.

He's on record as saying he hates box kicks

I think he hates them because the vast majority of them are poor and just create more pressure on the team that do them.

My eyes certainly light up when the opposition do them.

If it’s

Williams, Taylor, Lomax - starting
EDG, ST, Newell - bench

Then I think those trios have pretty good balance.

I’m still thinking 6/2 bench is something to be explored.

@Mauss excellent post. I spoke to someone earlier this year who knows far more than me about front row forwards and is a little closer to the AB action, but he said Newell has that Owen Franks work rate in him. Big praise for a young fella still finding his feet at this level, but the attributes are there and the training ethos also. Just needs to keep working, but has been good to see his growth during this years SR and these couple of early tests.

@brodean said in All Blacks v France II:

“I went through that whole game on Monday afternoon. I rewound it, forwarded it, I really went through that game and when they were under pressure, I looked back at the days when the All Blacks were really scary,” he said on Final Whistle Presents Side Entry on SuperSport.

“The one thing they always had were athletes that were better than other teams. Their backline players were bigger and faster than other teams. They don’t have it.

“If I look at the All Blacks backs, they don’t have better athletes than any other team. If you compare them against South Africa, if you give our wingers the one-on-one, our wingers will be better.

“If you give our centres a go, our centres will be better than theirs. You’ve never had that. There’s no Tana Umaga, there’s no Ma’a Nonu, there’s no Jonah Lomu, there’s no Christian Cullen. They don’t have that at the moment.”

Matfield, an excellent player, and he can say whatever he thinks is the case, but hard to take what he says objectively when he still says….

@MN5 said in All Blacks v France II:

The thought of injuries striking and a loose trio of Savea, Lio Willie and Kirifi on the field at the same time is too ridiculous for words. We know what Ardie brings but the other two will just get rag dolled by bigger teams. They honestly looked like halfbacks out there. Savea is still such an X factor player though. The run to set up Vaai was amazing to see.

CLW is 2cm shorter than So’oialo and the same weight. Perhaps he should grow some dreds and wear shoulder pads in the off test match, might make him seem bigger.

This French side have big bodies. Their forwards are some of the biggest going around in world rugby. From my viewing, CLW had no problem dealing with bigger bodies on both sides of the ball. Was never driven back, stopped ball carriers in their track.

And I see a lot of Rodders in CLW. Grunt work to allow the other two loosies to play their roles - much like Rodders did for McCaw and Collins.

Overall though, I like that they have so far stuck to their plan when injuries have occurred in the lead up to both tests. Opted for the next cab than shuffle others that could play in that position.

If Luke is fit they will likely give him a run at 8, and I don’t think we will see much difference - both similar type of player.

Not sure if Scotland have ever played on a surface like that!

The back 3 of Fiji played well but was impressed with some of the forward tactics. Kept it tight despite the temptation to swing it. Too many errors at times but a very good win that I see has shaken the rankings up.

Apologies if this has been posted, but I watched this again recently from about a year ago

@mariner4life said in All Blacks MOTM v France II:

Cody Taylor is so fucking good. I think he's first on the team sheet these days

Second actually.

I’ll get my coat.

Patty, Codie, CLW

“How are you enjoying your time in New Zealand?”

The question you ask when you can’t think of any other questions.

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks v France 2:

Remember the fun days when we used to completely bury teams in the last quarter

But that’s when we were playing against plumbers and electricians*

*if you love a good MJ vs LeBron GOAT debate

The way I see it, there’s really not a huge difference between the skill of players in the Tier 1 nations these days - and I’m talking about the top 30-35 players. So to put big scores on you need things to both click and for the opposition to do dumb stuff.

@sparky said in All Blacks v France 2:

Have we lost the second half again?

No. Even.

DMac absolutely steamrolled.

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks v France 2:

Usual scrappy last quarter

We will get 50

Solid hit from Norris.