2025 All Blacks v France series
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@KiwiMurph said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
I like the idea of Leicester into the squad at some point this year. What will be of interest to me is who makes way for him.
Impact off the bench at wing or 13 I imagine
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@KiwiMurph said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
I like the idea of Leicester into the squad at some point this year. What will be of interest to me is who makes way for him.
I love ALB but I would move off him for Leicester (assuming he comes back and looks good). LF is a midfield / wing which is the main role we get from ALB.
I'm wondering whether Tupaea is going to get a go - a specialist 2nd five in squad is hard unless he is the starter.
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@gt12 said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@KiwiMurph said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
I like the idea of Leicester into the squad at some point this year. What will be of interest to me is who makes way for him.
I love ALB but I would move off him for Leicester (assuming he comes back and looks good). LF is a midfield / wing which is the main role we get from ALB.
I'm wondering whether Tupaea is going to get a go - a specialist 2nd five in squad is hard unless he is the starter.
ALB would drop out for me
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Main difference with Fainga'anuku is his defensive accuracy. When he was at the Crusaders it was between 55% - 75%. He's bumped that up to 75.6% at Toulon this year. It's an improvement.
But if you look at the other midfield contenders he'd be near the bottom in Super Rugby:
Midfield Players by Tackle Success
93.3% Anton Lienert-Brown
91.3% Billy Proctor
91.3% Braydon Ennor
89.1% AJ Lam
88.7% Xavi Taele
88.4% Quinn Tupaea
86.1% Riley Higgins
85.9% Peter Umaga-Jensen
84.7% Levi Aumua
83.1% David Havili
83.0% Bailyn Sullivan
80.6% Rieko Ioane
80.0% Daniel Rona
80.0% Gideon Wrampling
79.7% Tanielu Tele'a
78.8% Lalomilo Lalomilo -
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
Main difference with Fainga'anuku is his defensive accuracy. When he was at the Crusaders it was between 55% - 75%. He's bumped that up to 75.6% at Toulon this year. It's an improvement.
But if you look at the other midfield contenders he'd be near the bottom in Super Rugby:
Midfield Players by Tackle Success
93.3% Anton Lienert-Brown
91.3% Billy Proctor
91.3% Braydon Ennor
89.1% AJ Lam
88.7% Xavi Taele
88.4% Quinn Tupaea
86.1% Riley Higgins
85.9% Peter Umaga-Jensen
84.7% Levi Aumua
83.1% David Havili
83.0% Bailyn Sullivan
80.6% Rieko Ioane
80.0% Daniel Rona
80.0% Gideon Wrampling
79.7% Tanielu Tele'a
78.8% Lalomilo LalomiloI thought Rieko's tackle success would be higher.
I took his defense to be one of his strengths. -
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@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@frugby said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
Tackles success not always the best way to measure how good a defender someone is.
It's not the only way but when you're at the bottom it's not good no matter what way you spin it.
Fainga'anuku will be in the squad as soon as possible Razor got him back for a reason and he was involved in getting Leicester back.
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@Kiwiwomble said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@brodean do you have the stats for Tavatavanawai?
Yes. I'd filtered him out by mistake because his association was listed with Fiji.
93.3% Anton Lienert-Brown
91.3% Billy Proctor
91.3% Braydon Ennor
89.1% AJ Lam
88.7% Xavi Taele
88.4% Quinn Tupaea
87.0% Timoci Tavatavanawai
86.1% Riley Higgins
85.9% Peter Umaga-Jensen
84.7% Levi Aumua
83.1% David Havili
83.0% Bailyn Sullivan
80.6% Rieko Ioane
80.0% Daniel Rona
80.0% Gideon Wrampling
79.7% Tanielu Tele'a
78.8% Lalomilo Lalomilo
66.7% Corey Evans
65.7% Sam Gilbert -
@Chris said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@frugby said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
Tackles success not always the best way to measure how good a defender someone is.
It's not the only way but when you're at the bottom it's not good no matter what way you spin it.
Fainga'anuku will be in the squad as soon as possible Razor got him back for a reason and he was involved in getting Leicester back.
Yup I'm not debating that. That's obvious. I'm doubtful it will be in the midfield though. There is a reason why Razor preferred him on the wing and I believe part of it is his defence.
Someone said they would move ALB out for Fainga'anuku. While Fainga'anuku is an exceptional attacker, ALB is an exceptional defender. I'm not sure what it is this year but last year ALB had the highest amount of try assists of any NZ midfielder in SRP.
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@brodean Potentially misleading statistic if someone defends a massively wide channel. This could be the case for Reiko Ioane. The facts he defends a big area makes life easier for other Blues.
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@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@Chris said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@frugby said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
Tackles success not always the best way to measure how good a defender someone is.
It's not the only way but when you're at the bottom it's not good no matter what way you spin it.
Fainga'anuku will be in the squad as soon as possible Razor got him back for a reason and he was involved in getting Leicester back.
Yup I'm not debating that. That's obvious. I'm doubtful it will be in the midfield though. There is a reason why Razor preferred him on the wing and I believe part of it is his defence.
Someone said they would move ALB out for Fainga'anuku. While Fainga'anuku is an exceptional attacker, ALB is an exceptional defender. I'm not sure what it is this year but last year ALB had the highest amount of try assists of any midfielder.
I don't think ALB will be moved out he is highly rated by the coaching group.
Leicester maybe Telea's replacement which may mean Telea will be selected for the French series. -
@brodean Delighted to see Billy Protcor so high. I think his defence has improved massively in the last couple of years.
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Obviously a single stat doesn't paint a whole picture, but you have to start somewhere, as @sparky says there might be a reason...but its a starting point. 12's wouldnt have to cover the same width as a 13 normally so Gilbert couldnt use the same excuse as Reiko ...so when judging Gilbert we're a step closer to "not the best defender"
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@Frank said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
Main difference with Fainga'anuku is his defensive accuracy. When he was at the Crusaders it was between 55% - 75%. He's bumped that up to 75.6% at Toulon this year. It's an improvement.
But if you look at the other midfield contenders he'd be near the bottom in Super Rugby:
Midfield Players by Tackle Success
93.3% Anton Lienert-Brown
91.3% Billy Proctor
91.3% Braydon Ennor
89.1% AJ Lam
88.7% Xavi Taele
88.4% Quinn Tupaea
86.1% Riley Higgins
85.9% Peter Umaga-Jensen
84.7% Levi Aumua
83.1% David Havili
83.0% Bailyn Sullivan
80.6% Rieko Ioane
80.0% Daniel Rona
80.0% Gideon Wrampling
79.7% Tanielu Tele'a
78.8% Lalomilo LalomiloI thought Rieko's tackle success would be higher.
I took his defense to be one of his strengths.Rieko's numbers would be down given the ground he makes to even attempt covering tackles. While laughably those stats suggest Proctor is a better defender and we all know that's not true.
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@antipodean A sort of "Glenn Phillips Effect"?
Glenn drops quite a few catches because he gets his hands to chances other people don't.
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@antipodean said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
we all know that's not true.
Im not sure we do...
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@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@antipodean said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
we all know that's not true.
Im not sure we do...
In the kingdom of the blind
