Problems persist everywhere, and i believe the thing that damns this coaching group is their nailed-on selections are huge problems.

Jordan is not a fullbacks asshole. All our best fullbacks have been at their best when they can bring other players in to the game. Mils was a genius at linking up with his wingers. Ben Smith made constant smart decisions creating for others. Jordan can't pass for shit, has no vision outside is admittedly freakish ability go be where needed. Doesn't exactly kick well either. Should go back to the wing, and a real fullback found.
Wingers? We are churning through them, none are setting the world on fire. But in their defense, do we do anything to create them opportunities to shine? The structure also appears to have them glued to touchlines waiting for the ball rather than turning up in unexpected areas to create mismatches.
The midfield continues to be a mess. Proctor has been given the whole year and has done nothing with it. Jordie is nailed in to the 12 shirt, and appears to run our attack, which is an issue because he has a terrible passing game. In fact all his highlights this year are admittedly amazing scramble defense plays. QT looks good but is prone to a terrible defensive read. Calls for Leicester to come in to the midfield, but if is going to carry the ball like that looking for offloads no thank you. Again, these guys are victims of an attacking structure that does not appear to be set up to make the most of them.
The issues at 10 have been done to death. Another Barrett is nailed in to the jersey despite a complete inability to kick well, pass well, engage defenders, run the team, or even defend well (a lowlight reel of bad Barrett covering tackle attempts in conceded tries would be funny to watch).
Halfback, Roigard has become our best player despite being ponderous getting the ball out. Has to kick because the 10 and 15 can't do it for shit. At least takes the game on.
The loose forwards do my head in. Led by the enigmatic, "close to best player in the world" Ardie Savea who flat out refuses to do the required shit work, and can not put a shot on to save his life. Lakai tries his guts out but is shoehorned in to a role he is ill-suited to. The 6 jersey continues to be empty. Sititi is far too much like Savea and Lakai. They are a weird mix of great athletes who are not a menace to other teams ball, aren't big enough to dominate collisions on either side of the ball, and do not generate quick ball for us. The traditional strength of NZ rugby has become our weakness.
Lock is fucking good except the guy with the worst form of all of them (and if we are real for a minute, even at his peak Scott had a limited ceiling) is the fucking captain and has to play.
Props? Our scrum has been no more than ok all year. They can't carry for shit. And for some fucking reason, we are using them as ball players?? Personnel are there i think, but the use?
Cody T has had yet another great year, Sami T has not, but he gets fuck all rugby and yet we expect him to just come on and carve on 10-15 minutes a fortnight??

Not only are the selections fucked, but what we do on the field is fucking terrible as well. Look at how England defended on the weekend, sprinting forward off the line, hard accurate tackling. We sit on our fucking heels and make soaking tackles. And even then we miss them. England went through us and around us with relative ease on the weekend. They are not alone this year. Even in the tests they lost, Australia made us look stupid on several occassions.
With the ball we play meaningless phase after meaningless phase. There is no intent in the carry. Slow ball, static ball carriers, out the back pass, wide pass. All eaten up by line speed and an easy drift. Then we kick it away, generally too deep because we are not accurate. We kick an enormous amount of ball away with no real intent other than getting as far from our try line as possible.

The final damning thing for this coaching group is, I could have written this post 12 months ago. We are not growing, we are not fixing problems. Yes selections are changing, mainly through injury, and on the fringes (oh we'll change the winger and a blindside). The core problems are locked in.

Fuck these guys

The Silver Fern

mariner4life