2025 All Blacks v France series
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@gt12 said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
I would have thought we'd analyse how Jordie went last year under these coaches and this attacking system when we lost in Johannesburg with Jordie at 12 and lost in Cape town with Jordie at 12?
Great, now I'm watching the Joburg Test again. But it's actually quite interesting seeing the different approaches between the French quarter final plan and the ABs at Ellis Park.
The ABs - I'm in the first 10 minutes - tend to use Jordie off of first phase lineout attack, as the carrier to set up the platform. The French, on the other hand, barely used Danty for this. Instead, they gave the ball to some of their bigger forwards - Uini Atonio and Charles Ollivon - to crash the ball up. Danty would then come into play in the next phases, either as distributor or as a carrier against smaller opposition players.
It does signal a bit of lack of originality from the AB coaches in the past year. I did hear Jason Ryan talk recently about ball carrying props, and it would make sense to let players like Tamaiti Williams or Pasilio Tosi do these crash balls, pushing Jordie into second phase and someone like McKenzie into the third, letting the latter construct the final part of the strike.
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If you scroll down to the "Players" part of the French National Rugby Team's Wikipedia page you'll see the age of the players, their club and their caps.
It's not exactly an experienced international back row that will be taking on the ABs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_national_rugby_union_team
@sparky Wow, 17 uncapped players, only 7 players with over 10 caps. Imagine an NZ team leaving the country for a 3 game series in that state
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@sparky Wow, 17 uncapped players, only 7 players with over 10 caps. Imagine an NZ team leaving the country for a 3 game series in that state
We don't have the same level of depth. They have 14 deep squads because of the season length.
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Five are expected to be added from Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles, such as Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos, Thibaud Flament, Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey, although they would only be available for the second test in Wellington on July 12.@KiwiMurph said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
Five are expected to be added from Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles, such as Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos, Thibaud Flament, Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey, although they would only be available for the second test in Wellington on July 12.While five are to be added, they can't have played more than 2,000 minutes already this season, which rules out most of the experienced guys, including Penaud, LBB and Ramos. Ntamack would be a shout but France have already named three 10s so seems unlikely.
It's going to very likely be five guys that are equally as experienced as the already named squad.
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@sparky said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
The French squad to tour New Zealand has been named:
Even after adding 5 players from UBB or Toulouse after the final they will be missing a lot of star power. You can't write the French off as they were more than competitive when they toured Aust in 2021. The pressure will be on Robertson and the ABs to win 3-0.
@Bovidae said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
The pressure will be on Robertson and the ABs to win 3-0.
Hopefully people/press see the series as a real opportunity for Robertson to put his stamp on things and chance his arm a bit. Ideal scenario is getting 2-0 up and having the confidence to give people like Proctor & Love plenty of game time.
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If you scroll down to the "Players" part of the French National Rugby Team's Wikipedia page you'll see the age of the players, their club and their caps.
It's not exactly an experienced international back row that will be taking on the ABs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_national_rugby_union_team
@sparky said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
If you scroll down to the "Players" part of the French National Rugby Team's Wikipedia page you'll see the age of the players, their club and their caps.
It's not exactly an experienced international back row that will be taking on the ABs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_national_rugby_union_team
It’s essentially a France XV squad.
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Frogs are in a cant really lose situation,
they create depth and no one is expecting them to win ,
I dont like it though , if they arent going to send full strength teams we shouldnt have them back
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Frogs are in a cant really lose situation,
they create depth and no one is expecting them to win ,
I dont like it though , if they arent going to send full strength teams we shouldnt have them back
@kiwiinmelb not like they havent done this before though.
Would be good if we just smoke them...or we should have made it NZ A or the Maori to face them.
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We don't have the same level of depth. They have 14 deep squads because of the season length.
@brodean i guess we will see. If i was a french rugby fan i'd be pretty pissed - i.e if NZ named a squad along those lines, i believe we would be calling for review of how the international team is managed & the impact on our international reputation/rankings etc. I guess just a different attitude there where club>country
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I asked Google Gemini to get the player attributes and positions of the squad.
I have not verified for accuracy but have asked for links to all.rugby pages.
Forwards
Player Club Position Age Height Weight Props Demba Bamba Racing 92 Prop 27 1.85m 124kg Giorgi Beria USA Perpignan Prop 25 1.75m 108kg Georges-Henri Colombe La Rochelle Prop 27 1.88m 135kg Baptiste Erdocio Montpellier HR Prop 25 1.83m 115kg Paul Mallez Provence Rugby Prop 24 1.83m 120kg Régis Montagne ASM Clermont Prop 24 1.87m 120kg Rabah Slimani Leinster Rugby Prop 35 1.78m 115kg Hookers Gaëtan Barlot Castres Olympique Hooker 28 1.84m 107kg Pierre Bourgarit La Rochelle Hooker 27 1.84m 108kg Guillaume Marchand Lyon Rugby Hooker 26 1.83m 105kg Locks Hugo Auradou Pau Second Row 21 2.00m 100kg Tyler Duguid Montpellier HR Lock 24 2.01m 120kg Mickaël Guillard Lyon Rugby Lock 24 2.04m 115kg Matthias Halagahu RC Toulon Lock 23 2.02m 116kg Romain Taofifenua Racing 92 Lock 34 2.03m 135kg Théo William Lyon Rugby Lock 24 2.02m 118kg Flankers Esteban Abadie RC Toulon Flanker 27 1.88m 105kg Alexandre Fischer ASM Clermont Flanker 27 1.83m 97kg Killian Tixeront ASM Clermont Flanker 22 1.93m 100kg Jacobus Van Tonder USA Perpignan Flanker 27 1.93m 105kg Cameron Woki Racing 92 Flanker 26 1.96m 108kg Backs
Player Club Position Age Height Weight Scrum-halves Thibault Daubagna Pau Scrum-half 31 1.76m 80kg Baptiste Jauneau ASM Clermont Scrum-half 21 1.75m 78kg Nolann Le Garrec Racing 92 Scrum-half 23 1.77m 80kg Fly-halves Léo Berdeu Lyon Rugby Fly-half 27 1.95m 95kg Antoine Hastoy La Rochelle Fly-half 28 1.80m 85kg Joris Segonds Bayonne Fly-half 28 1.80m 85kg Centres Léon Darricarrère ASM Clermont Centre 20 1.95m 100kg Gaël Fickou (c) Racing 92 Centre 31 1.90m 95kg Émilien Gailleton Pau Centre 21 1.85m 90kg Théo Millet Lyon Rugby Centre 27 1.85m 95kg Wings Théo Attissogbe Pau Wing 20 1.80m 80kg Alivereti Duguivalu USA Perpignan Wing 23 1.80m 90kg Cheikh Tiberghien Bayonne Wing 24 1.80m 85kg Gabin Villière RC Toulon Wing 29 1.80m 90kg Fullbacks Léo Barré Stade Français Fullback 22 1.91m 87kg Tom Spring Bayonne Fullback 22 1.85m 85kg -
Overall there seems to be some height and weight in the locks/backrow.
The backs don't seem particularly big.
There are not too many very young players. There are a lot of players in their mid twenties which should be hitting their peak.
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@kiwiinmelb not like they havent done this before though.
Would be good if we just smoke them...or we should have made it NZ A or the Maori to face them.
@taniwharugby said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@kiwiinmelb not like they havent done this before though.
Would be good if we just smoke them...or we should have made it NZ A or the Maori to face them.
Cultural differences I guess, to us every test match is important ,
For them, are they influenced by their most popular sport soccer where some test matches are labelled friendlies if not much is on the line ?
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@taniwharugby said in 2025 All Blacks Squad v France:
@kiwiinmelb not like they havent done this before though.
Would be good if we just smoke them...or we should have made it NZ A or the Maori to face them.
Cultural differences I guess, to us every test match is important ,
For them, are they influenced by their most popular sport soccer where some test matches are labelled friendlies if not much is on the line ?
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My French friend emailed me using exactly that word last week.
It’s a completely different view if you don’t value the legacy of AB success.
@gt12 reminds me of one of the early Adidas campaigns when they came on board with the ABs.
"The legacy you face is more intimidating than any opposition"
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We don't have the same level of depth. They have 14 deep squads because of the season length.
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
We don't have the same level of depth. They have 14 deep squads because of the season length.
I could easily find 17 uncapped NZRU contracted players and hand them an AB cap and say go smash ‘em bro
