All Blacks 2024

sparky

@MN5 We could have won two more Rugby World Cups if we had more pace and power in the backrow in 1999 and 2003, but instead we went with the worthy journeyman. Just dumb.

sparky

@MN5 Rugby at the highest level is a game of pace and power. There's no getting away from it.

nostrildamus

@sparky said in All Blacks 2024:

@MN5 Rugby at the highest level is a game of pace and power. There's no getting away from it.

South Africa: Pace and power, and plenty of breaks.

https://www.sarugbymag.co.za/springboks-accused-of-time-wasting/

sparky

@canefan said in All Blacks 2024:

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2024:

@sparky said in All Blacks 2024:

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2024:

that's tempered by the wtf selection of Havili. Is there another player whose career has been so kissed on the dick?

Reuben Thorne.

Possibly harsh. Not the most exciting or dynamic of players, certainly not compared to JC, Kaino, Flavell etc. But four different AB coaches selected him and I’m willing to bow to their knowledge and accept when it came to doing shit work there were none better at the time.

Thought he took his demotion by GH with class and worked his way back into the side to become a useful member of the team

Not saying he's not a great bloke and a really useful player to have at provincial level, but he really shouldn't have been starting two world cups in the backrow.

Give me an athlete with pace and power at Test level over "does the donkey work" every single time.

sparky

@nostrildamus Which is why they keep winning World Cups. Eventually we'll learn.

Actually we did under Ted.

nostrildamus

Yes, SA were tactically astute, played to their strengths.

pukunui

@Winger said in All Blacks 2024:

@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 Blackadder

Thats it. He could have then brought them all in if and only if they proved themsleves in SRP 2025

Some of the tantrums and throwing toys out of the cot on here over the last month or so has been pretty impressive but it is getting a bit unhinged now.

I for one am glad Robertson isn’t selecting the fringe squad players with the purpose of keeping some internet forum fans happy.

Scott Barrett over Ardie was always going to be the safe bet. IMO their individual performances in the first couple of games and Ardie signing for MP and planning to the another sabbatical proves this decision was probably a good one.

RR is a journeyman who is only just Super rugby standard. If Sami T didn’t hurt himself, Bell would have been nowhere near the team.

People getting their knickers in a twist over Havili being the 5th choice midfielder is also hilarious. We are scraping the barrel there so going back to Havili is understandable. Lam having only played a handful of games at 12 was never going to be a serious option. Hopefully next year he is.
I probably would have selected Plummer in the place of Perofeta (who has done fuck all even at super or test level) and had Love in the original squad to cover 15 in place of Narawa. Like they have now.

Blackadder has been covered. Multiple previous coaching groups have rated him (and Frizzel) over Akira and Sotutu. Neither of then really offered what we are missing in their test appearances anyway. If they had, they would be there. That’s just the way it is. Get over it. Like midfield there isn’t much proven talent left behind. Unless you want to give Grace another shot, but the meltdown and screams of bias would be deafening.

Now on the squad selection overall.
Really happy to see Christie given the boot. Don’t really have a view on Hotham. The Blues dropping Funaki for Christie when he came back probably killed his chances. Fakatava has dropped right away from where he was.
They are just keeping Roigard’s spot warm anyway.

Still concerned about our lock selections. Especially with Barrett out of the first games.
Really don’t understand why they aren’t bringing an extra guy in full time. Whoever it is.

Also don’t really get the Cane selection. He doesn’t add anything that we don’t already have multiple layers of in the other 6.5s.
Going to be very interesting to see how the selection of the loosies evolves over to RC.
Really hoping Finau can gain some confidence.

MN5

@sparky said in All Blacks 2024:

@MN5 We could have won two more Rugby World Cups if we had more pace and power in the backrow in 1999 and 2003, but instead we went with the worthy journeyman. Just dumb.

Every cap Thorne got was one that Flavell deserved I reckon

( I say this while conveniently ignoring the latters disciplinary issues )

sparky

@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks 2024:

Don’t understand Cane’s selection

New Zealand's cultural obsession, especially the Canterbury region's, utter obsession with the worthy backrow battler. It's the Achilles heal.

Also, the NZ Rugby media is different from everywhere else. No single member of the press will be asking Razor "Why are picking a guy who hasn't played for six months?" All Blacks coaches don't get asked the tough questions ever.

Not that Sam Cane wasn't an excellent player at peak, but hard to see what he's done at all in the last six months to justify Back row selection ahead of Hoskins Sotutu, Akira Ioane, Brayden Iose, Peter Lakai or Billy Harmon.

Certain people get agitated when I voice my opinions (they are just words) on these matters, so I should stop there.

nostrildamus

I suspect we have been so well served by excellent loosies in our golden era/s that our expectations are rather high.

canefan

@sparky said in All Blacks 2024:

@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks 2024:

Don’t understand Cane’s selection

New Zealand's cultural obsession, especially the Canterbury region's, utter obsession with the worthy backrow battler. It's the Achilles heal.

Also, the NZ Rugby media is different from everywhere else. No single member of the press will be asking Razor "Why are picking a guy who hasn't played for six months?" All Blacks coaches don't get asked the tough questions ever.

Not that Sam Cane wasn't an excellent player at peak, but hard to see what he's done at all in the last six months to justify Back row selection ahead of Hoskins Sotutu, Akira Ioane, Brayden Iose, Peter Lakai or Billy Harmon.

Certain people get agitated when I voice my opinions (they are just words) on these matters, so I should stop there.

Don't stop mate. That's what this place is for, to scratch the itch that won't stop itching. All of us have been broken records at one time or another

Landers92

I haven’t read this thread this weekend so a bit behind and this has probably already been said. But can someone please tell me how in the living fuck David Havili continues to selected to be injury cover and be in and around the group… that ship has sailed.

Bones

It makes zero sense eh. Then we get people complaining about people complaining about DH and justifying it by saying he's the 5th midfielder and we're scraping the barrel there. Like fuck we are and that's exactly where you select a Poihipi/Lam/etc now that we have 4 proven midfielders.

Frank

Lakai should be in ahead of Cane.
And one other loose forward should have been dropped for Suafoa.

sparky

AJ Lam played for the All Blacks XV in 2022 so I assume he'd be eligible for selection by Samoa next year.

David Havili's selection over him is another poor decision.

gt12

@Frank said in All Blacks 2024:

Lakai should be in ahead of Cane.
And one other loose forward should have been dropped for Suafoa.

Hold on, Suafoa may be the future but that’s all he may be. Let’s give him a bit more time to get healthier and a super season to play at 6.

Is Stargazer ok? All this talk of DH must have raised a bat signal brighter than a full moon.

BerniesCorner

Lakai and Plummer should be there.

Canes4life

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2024:

@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2024:

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.

A bunch of other players were playing Test rugby after Super season finished...

After the NPC, the Christmas break, whatever you want to call it. When most players are boozing it up at the likes of RNV in Gizzy, Love was over in Aussie training the house down. That’s sometimes the difference between making it and not.

He also deserves to be there over Perofeta who wouldn’t even be there if it wasn’t for McDonald’s love affair with him. Just like Christie, he’ll get pushed out eventually.

BerniesCorner

Perofeta played well against England.

Canes4life

@BerniesCorner said in All Blacks 2024:

Perofeta played well against England.

Not in the second test. Just like Super Rugby he’s not consistent. Love was much better than him all year in Super until he suffered an injury late in the season which he tried to play through.

The Silver Fern

All Blacks 2024