All Blacks 2025
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@No-Quarter said in All Blacks 2025:
@Canes4life that's not really true, Dalton sat behind McCaw and Cane, the AB captains, and post Cane's retirement he's had scant little chances. He was strong for the Blues this year and is well suited to test footy, it beggars belief he wouldn't even be in the squad.
Lol he never sat behind McCaw and he’s had 36 appearances for the ABs, plenty of time to push for a starting jersey. If he was so suited to test rugby he would still be in the squad, obviously lacks a few ingredients in his game that the coaches are after. For me he never really dominated at test level, a bit like Blackadder. No point selecting the same blokes and expecting different results.
There are a lot of Dalton fans on this Fern which is fine because on form he’s good but you can’t argue against the other guys who have been selected, they’ve played better this year.
Maybe the best thing for him is to fight his way back into the ABs and earn that jersey again. Kudos to him if he does.
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2025:
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
A refreshingly honest and clear. interview from the always impressive Dalton Papalii.
Disappointing not to see him in the RC squad as I think he has a hell of a lot to offer the All Blacks. Hopefully, he'll be back for the EOYT and as the World Cup approaches.
Your assessment of Kirifi’s performance in Hamilton now makes so much more sense.
Not sure what’s so disappointing, Dalton has had plenty of opportunities and never nailed down a position in the ABs. The players in the ABs atm deserve to be there and have forced him out because they’ve simply played better than him this year.
Utter BS.
He's been over very good to excellent for th ABs. The problem was the overall fetish of Sam Cane who led us through the worst period of All Black results in the professional era. Cane got given some pity reprieve last year and the result is overall average results for the ABs.
Ryan and Robertson obviously have some issues with Blues players. There are far more Canes and Chiefs players than Blues players despite both teams failing to deliver during the business end of the tournament.
The Canes and Chiefs look good during the regular the season but when the going gets tough they are chokers. The amount of Chiefs loose forwards in the ABs squad is ridiculous.
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@brodean said in All Blacks 2025:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2025:
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
A refreshingly honest and clear. interview from the always impressive Dalton Papalii.
Disappointing not to see him in the RC squad as I think he has a hell of a lot to offer the All Blacks. Hopefully, he'll be back for the EOYT and as the World Cup approaches.
Your assessment of Kirifi’s performance in Hamilton now makes so much more sense.
Not sure what’s so disappointing, Dalton has had plenty of opportunities and never nailed down a position in the ABs. The players in the ABs atm deserve to be there and have forced him out because they’ve simply played better than him this year.
Utter BS.
He's been over very good to excellent for th ABs. The problem was the overall fetish of Sam Cane who led us through the worst period of All Black results in the professional era. Cane got given some pity reprieve last year and the result is overall average results for the ABs.
Ryan and Robertson obviously have some issues with Blues players. There are far more Canes and Chiefs players than Blues players despite both teams failing to deliver during the business end of the tournament.
If he was so excellent he would still be in the squad. Something isn’t stacking up.
My point anyway is there have been better players than him this year that are more deserving, especially at 7 so rightfully or wrongfully in the eyes of Dalton supporters, the coaches have gone down a different path.
By the way I don’t dislike Dalton and I hope he hits the heights that many think he can on here, but maybe his 6.5 style of play isn’t what the AB coaches are looking for.
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I never rated cane
Very surprised they persisted with him as much as they did, thought that NZ must have better prospects at 7
When you spend so much time in an environment of excellence (the AB setup); you'd have to be a complete plonker not to improve your game out of sight
Which is what Cane did; he has to have maxed out his potential
But still, hard to believe such a limited player initially, played over 100 times for NZ
Mils muliaina was also a bit like that, but his starting point was a bit higher than Cane'sBut some guys are glue guys; you always need them
it's very hard to tell who they are, unless you are actually in the squadAssuming no one on this site has been in an AB squad; we'd all have been way better players if we had
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I don't think the ABs are too far off being a pretty decent team. We are missing a few pieces to make us that decent team, and those pieces seem a fair way off unfortunately.
The major problem areas for me are 10 and 13. At 13, we really need Proctor to step up, because apart from going back to RI, there are bugger all options.
Stating the obvious here, but 10 is even worse, and the options behind those we have in the squad now are not ready. I have my doubts if they will ever be ready, and it may well be a case of treading water and hoping someone from the next generation steps up.
To a lesser degree I think the loosies are still a problem, but I don't think they are what is holding us back. Same goes with the wings.
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@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
There's nothing wrong with winning with forward-orientated or, even 10-man Rugby, as long as you keep winning.
Ironically, Plummer would have been the ideal 10 if we were trying to do that. BB is a spent force, who is a 10 in a 15s body. The chip kick stuff he used to get away with has been a bust for some time now. I remember a moment during Argie 1, where he got the ball, changed direction of attack and chipped and chased. Ball went into touch (much to Nisbo's delight), but he had just surrendered decent attacking ball just outside their 25, letting the Argies off the hook. What I wouldn't give for a stable 10 who can make sound decisions and allow his midfield time and space to work.
Razor seems obsessed to play a certain way, I'm not sure it is the best way for us to consistently win test matches because we give the opposition so many chances to hurt us. A better opposition would have made us pay on Sunday
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i have said on here a few times that i thought that being the AB coach was the world' shittest job. I have come to realise it is far easier than i thought. If the great unwashed can respond to the viewers MoTM poll and have 34% of them think Ardie Savea was the AB man of the match in that test, then it's clear that most of the rugby public n NZ is retarded.
Just pick the biggest names and you are sweet, the rest doesn't matter.
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@mariner4life when you read comments from alot of non-Kiwis, he gets alot of plaudits too, so maybe we are the retarded ones
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@Crazy-Horse I'm a bit more optimistic.
Despite all our dud coaches, dud players and terrible selections and tactics - we are, I believe, about to be the number one team in the world later today.
At first five we have the much-maligned Beauden, behind him DMac - who last year went from a guy with about five sporadic starts at first-five in test rugby, to someone who had a decent run (last year was somewhat about developing him, rather than developing other young options - and I suspect this year might be too).
Then, obviously Richie is waiting in the wings - we have to see if he comes back as good as he left.
The there's Love, Jacombe and Reihana - Rivez spent most of the season playing ahead of JOC and mainly looked a better player.
Loosies - I think we're on the verge of having a properly balanced trio - moving Ardie to 7 and some tall timber (Vaa'i, Finau and Parker) at 6. And a bunch of others in and around the squad.
Wing - it's a bit surprising that we're not up to our ears in World Class wings, but if Clarke can find last year's form and Tangitau arrives and fires, we could quickly solve that.
Billy is a couple of good games away from solving our problem at centre. We can revert to Rieko, who was good enough to nearly win a RWC there - though I'm a bit concerned he might have peaked. Things are a bit thin behind them - ALB is a bit frustrating. Not sure who is the next cab off the rank - maybe Rona?
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there are a few really nice signs, but gee some gaping holes.
After yesterday morning there were calls to start playing tight, 10-man rugby. That's going to be very difficult with the 10 we have right now and the sorry state of his kicking game. Having our pack work hard to get the ball back, and then him immediately re-apply pressure with a shit clearance is not a recipe for success. We have a good lineout, kick the fluffybunny out and lets use it!! or, you know, do a not overly high, uncontested bomb which they return at us easily.
The backline attack looks lost, but worse than that, it's the same as nearly everyone else. Block plays to a looping inside back, or, Irelands attack for the last 6 years. Both teams fucking ran it. We're also not very good at it, if you look at home many times we throw passes that immediately put the receiver under pressure.
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I think the big positive is we are putting together a forward pack that can compete with the best
The other issues we have feel like more fixable ones than a weak tight five . So I’m happy to at least see that progress being made .
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the tight 5 looks good, and, more importantly, seems to have a bit of depth about it.
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2025:
the tight 5 looks good, and, more importantly, seems to have a bit of depth about it.
1-6 looks good. When Roigard is there, 9 is fine, when he's not we are shaky. JB at 12 is fine, Will at 15 is fine. 7, 8, 13, 11 (Sevu did have a nice game in Argie 1) and 14 need work, 10 is a problem that Razor appears to lack the courage to fix, if we correct 10 it should improve all the rest of the backs
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Alternatively the 10 is giving him what he wants.
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2025:
Alternatively the 10 is giving him what he wants.
Chaos? He's on record saying he wants fast pace, wide running rugby. So I guess that's what he's trying to give us, from Wayne Smith's playbook, or what he understands as his playbook
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2025:
the tight 5 looks good, and, more importantly, seems to have a bit of depth about it.
Giving credit where it’s due , maybe Jason Ryan does know his shit , after 3 years in the job( or whatever it’s been ) the results are there to see .
