2025 All Blacks v France series
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I'd suggest Caleb Tangitau needs to work on his defensive workrate and accuracy. Based on these Carter would seem a better option that Tangitau for test rugby.
Tackle Success
92.6% Emoni Narawa
90.6% Jonah Lowe
88.2% Mark Tele'a
85.2% Macca Springer
84.7% Sevu Reece
82.6% Caleb Clarke
81.4% Kini Naholo
80.2% Leroy Carter
72.4% Caleb Tangitau
72.3% Chay FihakiTackles Per 80 Minutes
9.17 Macca Springer
8.4 Mark Tele'a
7.82 Caleb Clarke
7.74 Chay Fihaki
7.56 Leroy Carter
6.68 Kini Naholo
6.54 Sevu Reece
6.05 Jonah Lowe
5.63 Emoni Narawa
4.56 Caleb TangitauClarke and Tele'a look pretty good defence wise in these metrics.
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
I'd suggest Caleb Tangitau needs to work on his defensive workrate and accuracy. Based on these Carter would seem a better option that Tangitau for test rugby.
Good example of how stats don't tell the whole story.
I don't think many people on here would pick Carter over Tangitau. -
I think 3 players from the Highlanders is about right. They are a young team and will get better.
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
I think 3 players from the Highlanders is about right. They are a young team and will get better.
of course, not claiming we should have loads more.....but i think Tangitau could have been a great bolter if fit
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@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:
I'd suggest Caleb Tangitau needs to work on his defensive workrate and accuracy. Based on these Carter would seem a better option that Tangitau for test rugby.
Tackle Success
92.6% Emoni Narawa
90.6% Jonah Lowe
88.2% Mark Tele'a
85.2% Macca Springer
84.7% Sevu Reece
82.6% Caleb Clarke
81.4% Kini Naholo
80.2% Leroy Carter
72.4% Caleb Tangitau
> > > 72.3% Chay FihakiTackles Per 80 Minutes
9.17 Macca Springer
8.4 Mark Tele'a
7.82 Caleb Clarke
7.74 Chay Fihaki
7.56 Leroy Carter
6.68 Kini Naholo
6.54 Sevu Reece
6.05 Jonah Lowe
5.63 Emoni Narawa
4.56 Caleb TangitauClarke and Tele'a look pretty good defence wise in these metrics.
That could all be a product of playing for the highlanders though.
Are you trying to say the Highlanders are a team full of poor defenders, which is why they came last, and besides that we shouldn't pick too many players who lose more often than not?
Fihaki got a look..
But does anyone agree Fihaki should have been there?
I think if you look at the amount of tackles Carter made, the defensive accuracy, his durability, the fastest in NZ, and the fact that he scored the most tries of all NZ players then he would be the obvious noob to bring in over Tangitau.
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But does anyone agree Fihaki should have been there?
I think if you look at the amount of tackles Carter made, the defensive accuracy, his durability, the fastest in NZ, and the fact that he scored the most tries of all NZ players then he would be the obvious noob to bring in over Tangitau.
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
But does anyone agree Fihaki should have been there?
I think if you look at the amount of tackles Carter made, the defensive accuracy, his durability, the fastest in NZ, and the fact that he scored the most tries then he would be the obvious noob to bring in over Tangitau.
My point was only his tackling isn't great and the coaches still looked at him.
I'm not saying that was or is a good idea.. -
@reprobate said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Canes4life said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@reprobate said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@gt12 said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@reprobate said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
Hasn't QT played a little bit of wing for the Chiefs too?
Yeah, last year he spent quite a bit of time out there on his return.
That cover is really important to me - you would never QT to start there, but in the event of an early injury you do need someone who can play wing - or you risk it costing you the game. And in these days of 23 man rugby it is a real disadvantage if you need to have wing cover on the bench, because it simply isn't a position where you are going to be as knackered as the forwards after 55 minutes. I think QT has to be in the 23, and on form he probably deserves to be starting at 12.
I wouldn't mind seeing (to get 6:2):
Ratima, McKenzie, Clarke, Tupaea, Proctor, Jordan, Love. Bench: Roigard, TavatavanawaiHowever, I do think Jordan is our best fullback, and it's very debatable whether it's worth losing that to get 6:2. 5:3 with Love on the bench is a more likely scenario - though to be fair neither are likely as we don't drop Barretts.
I like that backline but would start Roigard over Ratima, but I think we need to leave Jordan at 15. Providing Love minutes off the bench this year (whether that's 10 or 15) will be the ideal way to go IMO.
Yeah, if Tangitau wasn't injured I'd love to see him Jordan and Clarke as the back 3. And ideally I'd introduce Love off the bench too - but we saw last year trying to play at pace against teams that are bringing on lots of fresh forwards, we were the team being stuffed at the end of games - so I think that 6:2 bench is worth serious consideration.
My thoughts on Roigard are in a bit of a similar vein: his kicking game is the best we have at 9, and with our last 15-20 minutes tending to get pretty ratty, I think his best value right now to the ABs is to be on the field late in games still relatively fresh and getting us field position - taking pressure off either McKenzie (knackered from a million touches) or Love (newbie and the benefit of an established combo). I'd bring him on at half time or just after.
I think you have to start your best players and Roigard, despite not quite hitting the heights of where he was at preinjury, he is still clearly seen as the number 1 halfback in NZ, therefore he definitely starts for me. I was interested by Marshall's comments on the Breakdown that he would prefer Hotham off the bench but obviously that's his Cantab bias creeping through.
I think most Ferners would agree on the Tangitau comment, he seemed to have everything we require in a test level wing. I'm still not sold on Caleb Clarke, he's got to prove himself again after a pretty average Super season where he didn't score a try. Right now, I would pick Ioane on the wing over him and I've got a feeling that's where the selectors are moving.
@Canes4life I don’t think the Hotham bench call is driven by red n black eye patches alone, but for me Hotham is a more active runner of the ball from the base and late in games that can be very valuable. As we saw when Roigard first made h the ABs.
I’m a fan of Ratima’s passing game, not so much his box kicking, but he gets that backline moving with his pass. He doesn’t tend to snipe as much as you would like though.
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@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
I imagine Tangitau was playing in a bit of a faulty defensive pattern in that first part of the season, but can't really be sure.
Well the coaches need to be sure when they make their selections.
@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
I imagine Tangitau was playing in a bit of a faulty defensive pattern in that first part of the season, but can't really be sure.
Well the coaches need to be sure when they make their selections.
Come on man.
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No match thread yet so posting in here.
Same as last season, I’ll try my best to post any line ups I get nice and early and carry on last seasons hot early team naming oil.
Working hard to try find out this weekends team so I can post it in here for all ferners to see nice and early. As of this morning the official lineup wasn’t decided, I hope to find out more tonight. Will post in here when I hear any updates(unless there’s a match thread, then I’ll post in there).
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With the talk about the midfield, thought an interesting combo to finish a game could be QT and Jim.
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
With the talk about the midfield, thought an interesting combo to finish a game could be QT and Jim.
Which would mean one of them starts.
Which may not be out of the question given some of the noise.
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@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
With the talk about the midfield, thought an interesting combo to finish a game could be QT and Jim.
Which would mean one of them starts.
Which may not be out of the question given some of the noise.
@ACT-Crusader said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
With the talk about the midfield, thought an interesting combo to finish a game could be QT and Jim.
Which would mean one of them starts.
Which may not be out of the question given some of the noise.
I don't like it at all - I think we'd be silly to not have a real 13 out there, when we have two excellent options and the capability to select accordingly.
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Unsure if this has been posted(probably has) but what I can confirm is Dyer has been in camp.
@Landers92 said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
Unsure if this has been posted(probably has) but what I can confirm is Dyer has been in camp.
Do we know if he (and Ah Kuoi, for that matter) is just there as an extra body as with Bell and (I think it was) Blackadder in Christchurch last week, or if they've been brought in as actual injury cover?
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@ACT-Crusader said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
With the talk about the midfield, thought an interesting combo to finish a game could be QT and Jim.
Which would mean one of them starts.
Which may not be out of the question given some of the noise.
I don't like it at all - I think we'd be silly to not have a real 13 out there, when we have two excellent options and the capability to select accordingly.
@gt12 said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@ACT-Crusader said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
With the talk about the midfield, thought an interesting combo to finish a game could be QT and Jim.
Which would mean one of them starts.
Which may not be out of the question given some of the noise.
I don't like it at all - I think we'd be silly to not have a real 13 out there, when we have two excellent options and the capability to select accordingly.
I like that with versatility we could either have a backline of pretty much all fullbacks or a backline of near on all midfield.
DMac, Love, Tupaea, Jordie, Jordan, BB would really put the shits up a few of us.
BB, Ioane, Tupaea, Proctor, Jim, Jordie even more fun.
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@gt12 said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@ACT-Crusader said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
With the talk about the midfield, thought an interesting combo to finish a game could be QT and Jim.
Which would mean one of them starts.
Which may not be out of the question given some of the noise.
I don't like it at all - I think we'd be silly to not have a real 13 out there, when we have two excellent options and the capability to select accordingly.
I like that with versatility we could either have a backline of pretty much all fullbacks or a backline of near on all midfield.
DMac, Love, Tupaea, Jordie, Jordan, BB would really put the shits up a few of us.
BB, Ioane, Tupaea, Proctor, Jim, Jordie even more fun.
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@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
DMac, Love, Tupaea, Jordie, Jordan, BB would really put the shits up a few of us.
Proctor can play FB too, so:
DMac, Love, Proctor, Jordie, Jordan, BB
@gt12 said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
DMac, Love, Tupaea, Jordie, Jordan, BB would really put the shits up a few of us.
Proctor can play FB too, so:
DMac, Love, Proctor, Jordie, Jordan, BB
Makes it even more fun selecting the midfield the wrong way around.
