All Blacks 2025
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@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
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@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
Making the 23 or making the wider squad? I don't think there's a scenario where a guy who started 10 matches last year doesn't make Robertson's first squad of 2025.
I hadn't actually realised you'd left him out of the team... Have a feeling Robertson will plump for him at 13... Might be a different scenario if there were another option absolutely smashing the door down at centre but Lienert-Brown has been good rather than great and Billy Proctor has been injured.
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@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
It's not like he was busting down doors last year either. He'll be there. Not that he'll be needed if Higgins recovers, won't matter who the outside backs are then.
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This guy is the best no 10 in NZ
This is great news@BerniesCorner said in All Blacks 2025:
This guy is the best no 10 in NZ
This is great newsSomeone tell Razor
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@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
It's not like he was busting down doors last year either. He'll be there. Not that he'll be needed if Higgins recovers, won't matter who the outside backs are then.
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
It's not like he was busting down doors last year either. He'll be there. Not that he'll be needed if Higgins recovers, won't matter who the outside backs are then.
Ioane has played 40 more tests for NZ (81) than Will Jordan (41) and has scored 1 try less.
Our Rieko is well into "charmed life" territory now.
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@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
It's not like he was busting down doors last year either. He'll be there. Not that he'll be needed if Higgins recovers, won't matter who the outside backs are then.
Ioane has played 40 more tests for NZ (81) than Will Jordan (41) and has scored 1 try less.
Our Rieko is well into "charmed life" territory now.
@Jet said in All Blacks 2025:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
It's not like he was busting down doors last year either. He'll be there. Not that he'll be needed if Higgins recovers, won't matter who the outside backs are then.
Ioane has played 40 more tests for NZ (81) than Will Jordan (41) and has scored 1 try less.
Our Rieko is well into "charmed life" territory now.
Wow, Conrad Smith was obviously awful, 94 tests only 26 tries!
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@MN5 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@Machpants said in All Blacks 2025:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
Huh, I always assume vanilla is used to describe bland players that don't stand out.
That's what vanilla means, yes
Right, so it would be bizarre to call a player vanilla when one of the notable things about him is that he'd bring something different to the ABs.
This is exactly the question I asked and got shot down cos my comprehension is no good.
Tour.
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@MN5 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@Machpants said in All Blacks 2025:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
Huh, I always assume vanilla is used to describe bland players that don't stand out.
That's what vanilla means, yes
Right, so it would be bizarre to call a player vanilla when one of the notable things about him is that he'd bring something different to the ABs.
This is exactly the question I asked and got shot down cos my comprehension is no good.
Tour.
*Tou're....nope...i took it too far
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something i think we / AB's coaches undersell is metaphorical momentum, guys on these huge waves of form....guys that if you gave them a black jersey would happily run out there to take on the world....get critiqued and picked apart to a level incumbents dont and ultimately someone says "but experience"...and all the wind gets taken out of these guys sails, sure i get experience has value, especially captain or game driver....but out and out weapons like Tangitau could be...get this guy fucking out there
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Some nice career goals over that period:
2026 Tour of South Africa
2027 Rugby World Cup
2029 Lions TourMaybe the inaugural "Nations Cup" at some stage too.
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@Jet said in All Blacks 2025:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
It's not like he was busting down doors last year either. He'll be there. Not that he'll be needed if Higgins recovers, won't matter who the outside backs are then.
Ioane has played 40 more tests for NZ (81) than Will Jordan (41) and has scored 1 try less.
Our Rieko is well into "charmed life" territory now.
Wow, Conrad Smith was obviously awful, 94 tests only 26 tries!
@Machpants said in All Blacks 2025:
@Jet said in All Blacks 2025:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:
@cgrant said in All Blacks 2025:
Rieko Ioane won't be dropped, IMO. He'll start, not ALB.
He's shown nothing this year. Absolutely zero form at all. Unless he can fix that, I can't see him making the squad. Robertson is loyal, not blind.
It's not like he was busting down doors last year either. He'll be there. Not that he'll be needed if Higgins recovers, won't matter who the outside backs are then.
Ioane has played 40 more tests for NZ (81) than Will Jordan (41) and has scored 1 try less.
Our Rieko is well into "charmed life" territory now.
Wow, Conrad Smith was obviously awful, 94 tests only 26 tries!
Best centre of all time for me was our Conrad. Maybe Danie Gerber a close second.
I think we have both come to the same point from different perspectives.
Riekos move to centre has completely null and voided the one thing he was good at. Scoring tries.
Conrad offered something. Rieko doesn’t.
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something i think we / AB's coaches undersell is metaphorical momentum, guys on these huge waves of form....guys that if you gave them a black jersey would happily run out there to take on the world....get critiqued and picked apart to a level incumbents dont and ultimately someone says "but experience"...and all the wind gets taken out of these guys sails, sure i get experience has value, especially captain or game driver....but out and out weapons like Tangitau could be...get this guy fucking out there
@Kiwiwomble said in All Blacks 2025:
something i think we / AB's coaches undersell is metaphorical momentum, guys on these huge waves of form....guys that if you gave them a black jersey would happily run out there to take on the world....get critiqued and picked apart to a level incumbents dont and ultimately someone says "but experience"...and all the wind gets taken out of these guys sails, sure i get experience has value, especially captain or game driver....but out and out weapons like Tangitau could be...get this guy fucking out there
That’s why I feel for Laumape, Stevenson, Narawa et al.
At various times they had the perceived “hot hand” and didn’t really get a fair shake. See Harry Plummer or Perofeta getting 2 minutes at the end of a test as recent examples. This is exacerbated as a “fuck you” by the incumbents concurrently stinking the place out on a weekly basis yet keeping their spots. They are not Marty Holah being stuck behind McCaw sob stories. They are players playing lights out and being stuck behind the likes of Beauden Barrett.
I agree with your post wholeheartedly in the sense that a player can ride the crest of a wave from club rugby into test footie and their effervescence spills over into the squad ala Sititi.
We don’t see enough of it anymore.
The stakes are too high for the Allblacks coaches these days and they suffer from selection paralysis and conservatism. Particularly if they lose tests early doors like Foster and Robertson.
Trapped in amber henceforth.
