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Amidst the disappointing news of a weak French team I got the personal good news today that I would like to share.
I was able to get tickets to attend the captains run in Hamilton and it will be either Conrad Smith or Stephen Donald hosting and discussing their career etc. Beyond excited. Just two weeks till we fly to NZ to visit for the first time and the time can't rush by soon enough.
Ardie chip kicked possession away in the 78th minute to give Boks another possession which they turned into 7 more points immediately. Which turned the match from being a 26 point loss to the biggest defeat in history.
Then minutes later he gives an inspirational speech in the huddle.
it just all feels very performative.
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2025:
@Mauss said in All Blacks 2025:
I don’t think it would be a good idea to bring in a young, inexperienced kind of guy into what feels like a very tense environment.
Tense? The AB Coaching set-up comes across as bloody poisonous
Bring in JJ and Rennie to act as a voice of reason compared to Razor's cadre of underqualified yes men
From my ignorant vantage point Razor seems too insecure to have strong personalities working under him. I've seen him in pressers get all defensive over questioning that wasnt all that hostile. He doesn't seem to like to be challenged so I can see how a senior and respected old hand like Wayne Smith works because he is laid back and not an uptight, A type personality therefore poses no threat to Razor.
I could be reading this all wrong but I feel like the reason Razor has these second rate coaches under him is cos anyone with more clout is going to unsettle him.
@pakman said in FFS get a grip:
@canefan said in FFS get a grip:
@pakman said in FFS get a grip:
The point is that second half is where the issue lies. Simply not good enough.
I get what you are saying, but I would argue the problems are far deeper than that
If we converted our leads the way Kiwi teams typically do, we wouldn't be having this debate.
I think Ferners underestimate the impact of fatigue.
Take for example Boks 2, when we went out with largely the same winning team, in 'tried and tested' manner.
But Scooter was very tired from Boks 1. He shouldn't have played more than 40, but was flogged for the full 80. Boks even rested Etzebeth, and with fresh legs starting to come on even before halftime ran away with things in last 20.
Leaving aside the Kolbe 'try' (which resulted from a 'dominant' scrum where Wessels was on his knees and unpenalised through under Gardner's nose), our determination to leave most of the starters on to the preordained 60 minute mark is a large element of why we lost all cohesion in last quarter.
Newell is one who has played too many minutes He should have come off on Saturday once we went down to 14.
For me, we need some fresh thinking and, to take a leaf out of Rassie's book, look to get the bulk of the bench on between 40 and 50 minute mark.
One thing is definitely true. I have never seen a coach so Inept at using his squad and his depth as Razor. He has not even the first idea of how and when to substitute, when players should be rotated out of the 23.
He is like a dinosaur coach from 30+ years ago who picks his his main starters game in and game out and then only subs due to injury.
There is no way his selections are data informed or supported by medical information. He played Roigard until his body broke down, he picked Barrett even when he was not fit. That's just dumb on every level.
Fwiw I just rewatched the first 20 mins
ABs have 8-6 lead against the run of play.
The biggest issue is kicking, in the first 15 mins ABs kick 9 times, with only two positive outcomes - Barrett's long kick from a quick pen and his kick into touch from another pen.
Every other kick - 2 box kicks by Ratima, Jordies chip off left and 4 kicks by Beauden basically gifts possession back to Argie because the kicks are easy to catch and they have time to build up a head of stream before tacklers arrive.
In contrast EVERY Argie kick puts the ABs under pressure and their chasers/contesters are all over the ABs like white on rice.
Inability to deal with those contestable kicks combined with aimless kicking the ball away was what invited massive pressure onto the ABs from the off.
One thing has become crystal clear in the last few days to me......
Razor was a massive beneficiary of being involved in a perennially successful club environment in Canterbury and the Crusaders. His coaching bona fides were inflated because of that.
If he had coached outside of Christchurch where he had had to build something from scratch or had had no cattle or tradition to work with I can only assume that his flaws would have come to the fore earlier.
The key takeaway on this for the NZR has to the that the recruitment process for an All Black head coach has to be extensive and thorough and they should be looking for a candidate with proven success in a variety of different environments. Being wildly successful in Christchurch is obviously still an achievement but replicating that elsewhere or at least showing the ability to achieve something outside of that domain would have proven Razors qualities.
Not to labour the point but it really is pointless to pick Love just to give him 8 mins on the wing.
I get that Razor may not want to throw him into the deep end but if you put a player on the bench and just give him a few minutes out of position it's clear you don't rate him. May as well just pick a winger in that case because it's clear you don't think he has what it takes.
@mohikamo said in All Blacks 2025:
@pakman said in All Blacks 2025:
Jeremy Paul is quite 'volatile', but his observations, from about 28:00 on, in respect of the 2025 AB squad are very insightful:
One thing that you have to remember is that SA (and now Aus) have more flexibility in making selections, than Robertson.
It’s kinda like Rassie (and now Schmidt as well) can pick players for his club team, that are not actually contracted to his club.
The squad dynamic is different. Players can be moved in and out so easily.
No SA player will ever feel he’s out of the Bok picture. Even if he’s not currently in the squad, living wherever, playing for the Red Diamonds.
A more contemporary type modus operandi.Robertson is more restricted in what he can do.
It’s almost like the AB team for 27WC is already picked and, most important, contracted.
In terms of player selections, he’s committed already. He can only tinker.
I have no doubt, if he could have, he would have picked at least one player who was a member of another club this season.
For NZ, if you aint in the club, you may as well go off-shore, earn some coin, and that’s the end of it.
You are either in, or you're out.
I would say the biggest problem with the NZR system is that you end up with dead wood clogging up pathways. Guys like ALB & Reece getting minutes ahead of younger prospects with years ahead of them and way more upside. There's no rugby reason why Reece was picked 4 times before Carter stepped on the paddock this season.
In that sense I can't help thinking that the NZ XV should be a much more used vehicle for giving players a crack to see what they have got. If they scheduled 6 matches or so a year (3 in June/July and 3 in November) and had a really solid connection with the AB coaching staff you would be able to get a much better look at what players can offer in a national team environment. As is I can't help feeling that guys like Love end up languishing in a system that rewards longevity over form and guys like Shaun Stevenson never really get a fair crack.
If you have a central contact system you really have to be an excellent arbiter of talent. You don't have the luxury of letting players slip through your fingers or not getting the best out of the players under contract.
@Tim I think it was available to allcomers - when I registered for the presale the email I got when sales opened gave the option of "Black jersey pass" which included the chance to watch the captains run.
Iirc the tickets were NZD $425 each but since it is my first trip to NZ and first time seeing the All Blacks I figured it was worth the money to have a never to be forgotten experience.
The thing I love about Mackenzie is in any type of broken field situation where it's on he penetrates into the space the defence offers like no other. When he puts his foot on the gas he is gone over that first 10 metres.
A combination of his acceleration and his short stature and he cuts right into the defence, draws his defender and will always find a pass for his support.
He is light years ahead of Beauden in that regard.
@cgrant said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@BerniesCorner said in Scotland v All Blacks:
Very good DMac, Holland and Roigard.
Roigard made a try saving tackle which was probably decisive, but he cost 10 points due to two big errors. Moreover, his choices were not as good as usual, particularly during the action leading to DMac's try. He should not have gone wide as he had Taukei'aho standing just two meters from the try line. Thanks to DMac's wizardry, there was a try in the end but the option was not the right one, IMO.
Fair comment - McKenzie really turned water into wine with that finish because if you freeze framed it at the time he received the pass you would bet your money on a Scotland lineout being the outcome. He came from inside Leicester to be an option for that pass and was basically running laterally.
Freakish talent.
Beaudens best game this year imo was France I in Dunedin..... Flawless goalkicking and pretty good distribution without a ton of inaccurate kicking from hand ..
I wonder to what extent that was a function of DMac playing the whole game. I think the backline went well that game because with DMac, Jordan and Jordie on the pitch there was enough playmaking and footballing skill for Beauden to be more of a facilitator.
I wouldn't have minded seeing Beauden and DMac both start a test match since then because I think the backline has been pretty pedestrian since.
Either way Dmac has been under used this year by Razor and co. He needs more minutes.
@MN5 said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@nonpartizan said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
Amidst the disappointing news of a weak French team I got the personal good news today that I would like to share.
I was able to get tickets to attend the captains run in Hamilton and it will be either Conrad Smith or Stephen Donald hosting and discussing their career etc. Beyond excited. Just two weeks till we fly to NZ to visit for the first time and the time can't rush by soon enough.
Two of New Zealand Rugbys best roosters. You'll be happy either way.
Yes, I just found out today and am ecstatic. Two champions.
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
We turned the ball over 16 times to their 12
12 seems like a lot of times to turn over the ball for a team with fuck all possession and no BB/WJ.
27 points seems a lot of points for a team to concede when they have 62% possession.
That try Gulliard scored was soft as butter. They made a break and we can only defend 1 forward carry close to the line before he powers over.
Indeed.
Contrast that with the French defence - they did a pretty good job covering and scrambling after line breaks.
Tbh 31 points and 3 disallowed tries is a pretty decent attacking output - it's conceding 27 with France having less than 40% of the ball that was the problem.
@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:
Next season looks really really ominous.
I have haka fatigue, social media fatigue, learnings fatigue already.
Not sure I can take a full tour of them fellating the Springboks on their socials and giving uncle Siya reacharounds in the sheds.
I want to see people getting their heads caved in.
Bring back the biff.
It's funny you say that about Siya and the SM.
in his book his talks about how the Springboks of the 2017/18 era were on social media "to cover up the fact that we weren't doing the basics properly" whereas he says.......
"The All Blacks weren't putting pictures of their training up on Instagram were they? They were working hard for each other without shouting about it, and when it came to noise - well, was 57-0 loud enough?".
Tbh I'm not sure how exactly you effectively navigate managing players and teams in the social media era where style takes precedence over substance and SM is seen as such an invaluable marketing tool. However, as a coaching group/administration you would have to have a conversation about how you prevent SM becoming a distraction and stop players becoming preoccupied with curating an image of themselves and losing sight of what's important. As has been stated here many occasions Ardie is very much into cultivating his image in a way that prior All Black leaders such as McCaw and Mealamu never were. You need authenticity and sincerity in your leadership group.
Having just rewatched the first half you see just how much that defence is an issue.
1-25 minutes ABs completely dominant, playing great rugby, Australia barely touch the ball, all the rugby played in their half. Score 20-3.
25 - 40 minutes - Aussie on top. The very first time Australia have a sustained attack in the ABs 22 they score. Genuinely it's their very first real attack in the whole game. They score a second try again with the AB defence being weak - shit, non existent tackling.
Australia were able to build a score in the first half comparable to the ABs with just 15:mins worth of attack (compared to 25) because the AB defence was porous. The Aussies actually made the ABs earn their tries - hence why two of their tries were in the corner. Aussie tries were punched over in the middle
Any type of credible defence and the ABs take a 10+ point lead into halftime.
I don't have much to say other than it was so refreshing to watch DMac at 10 not kicking away possession with those speculative shitty chip kicks that are beadens specialty. . And also setting up his outside backs.
I honestly think that type of shift (30 mins) is the best you can get out of Beauden - the longer he plays the more his play diminishes. He can't give you a good 80 minutes.
@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris-B with Narawa out this weekend there is a prime opportunity to play Jordan at 14 DMac 15 and Love bench.
Yes.
I'm very much of the opinion that moving Jordan to 14 to accommodate Love on the bench is the right move.
Jordans single biggest attribute that he brings to the table is his try scoring and that is unaffected whether he plays 14 or 15. I personally don't see any decline in the play at fullback when DMac is there over Jordan so I think it's worth making that switch to be able to put Love in the 23.
Fwiw I think that Jordan is the best option at 14 anyway, so you have your strongest right winger on the wing and the balance of the backline just seems to work better when DMac is on imo. Theres just more of an attacking threat, more rugby IQ on the pitch......
When you have Sevu Reece at 14 he just does way too many erratic things and is wildly unpredictable.
One of the problems with the loosies that I feel would be relatively easy to remedy is reducing Ardies minutes.
I think part of the reason he doesn't give a good 80 minute performance is because he is burned out from over playing. When you play every minute of every match of course your batteries are low.
He needs to be rotated out of the team sometimes he also needs to be subbed. We need less minutes from him but higher quality minutes.
I can guarantee if he was South African he would not be playing as much for Rassie.
Here's a positive take -
ABs have won all their first up matches v France, Argentina, South Africa & Australia this year.
Hopefully that carries into the end of season tour.