All Blacks v France I

booboo

On the 1st 5/8 question, isn't Harry Godfrey the anointed saviour to be sent forth from the Hurricanes?

Kiwiwomble

@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

BB should be fine against this French squad, with DMac coming off the bench to stretch the scoreline

Rugby Championship, not so much

and thats whats in the back of my mind, a test like this in the past would be used to blood the next generation

reprobate

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Kiwiwomble said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

Well, don't know whether to shake my head or be pleased they trying things. Surprises me Vai'i at 6, but also think it a pointer to how good they thing Holland will be, and Vai'i being best lock in NZ, maybe they felt they had to play him?

thats kind of why i dont like choosing your captain so early....if Vaai is the best lock and Holland deserves a run as the future....play them both there, i think you make the 23 before you get to be captain, with savea, taylor and BB on the pitch its not like we're short of experienced leaders on the pitch

From EOYT 2022 and all of 2023 Scooter was our best lock. That was on the back of being a very effective bench option previously. Add to that he was captain of the Saders, don’t wasn’t a huge surprise that he was made captain even though they could’ve easily gone with Ardie. His form last year wasn’t as good as 2023 but it wasn’t like he fell completely off the cliff. He was one of our best against Ireland and he didn’t play too bad against the French either.

What was pleasing was to see the step up of Vaa’i last year when there were concerns post 2023 with Whitelock and Retallick gone.

You can get away with calling Barrett our best lock when he has Sam Whitelock dominating the lineout for him, cause he's very very good around the park.
To be clear though, that means Sam was doing his main job for him.

Nepia

@booboo said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

On the 1st 5/8 question, isn't Harry Godfrey the anointed saviour to be sent forth from the Hurricanes?

I think his promoter @Canes4life cooled on him as the season went on (probably remembered he's from the Pies), and switched his marketing efforts to Love.

pakman

@Jet said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Windows97 said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

Happy for Holland, hope his game is as good as his hype, pleased to see Savea at 7, surprised to see Vaa'i at 6 and Lio-Willie at 8. Seems like a very green loose-forward trio. The balance is better, the cattle seem mixed.
Surised to see Barrett at 10, the golden sun continues to shine out of his *ss. Looking forward to 20m touch finders and pointless chip kicks.
Pleased Rieko is on the wing and that Protcor has been given a chance, we need a natual mid-field playing centre with better touch and distribution.
Surprised Reece is starting ahead of Clarke...
Bench is solid, really hope that Tupaea gets some good minutes, would love to see a Tupaea/Proctor combo to see how they go.

Been plenty of chat on fora such as this over the last few years looking for Rieko to go back to the wing and for Ardie to go to 7.

A damning indictment on the last two coaching tickets that the "bar stoolers" were right all along.

Good for them, but what are we going to complain about now?

MN5

The first five at the next World Cup is entirely dependent on whether or not Barrett has retired because he certainly won't be dropped on account of his surname.

antipodean

@pakman said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Jet said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Windows97 said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

Happy for Holland, hope his game is as good as his hype, pleased to see Savea at 7, surprised to see Vaa'i at 6 and Lio-Willie at 8. Seems like a very green loose-forward trio. The balance is better, the cattle seem mixed.
Surised to see Barrett at 10, the golden sun continues to shine out of his *ss. Looking forward to 20m touch finders and pointless chip kicks.
Pleased Rieko is on the wing and that Protcor has been given a chance, we need a natual mid-field playing centre with better touch and distribution.
Surprised Reece is starting ahead of Clarke...
Bench is solid, really hope that Tupaea gets some good minutes, would love to see a Tupaea/Proctor combo to see how they go.

Been plenty of chat on fora such as this over the last few years looking for Rieko to go back to the wing and for Ardie to go to 7.

A damning indictment on the last two coaching tickets that the "bar stoolers" were right all along.

Good for them, but what are we going to complain about now?

alt text

I think we'll find something.

pakman

@antipodean Always do.

Victor Meldrew

Bugger me, wasn't expecting that. Thought we'd see a conservative XV for the 1st Test but really hoped for something like this by Frog 3. Pleased.

More than happy with the backline, except for Barrett at 10. Surprised no Clarke so maybe, as someone has said, it's a fight between him and Reece. Hope QT gets plenty of game-time. Really rolled the dice on the loosies but has plenty of bench options if things don't work out or Fabien Holland/Scooter get injured.

Obviously want a good win, but think how this combo goes is more important. Just my 2 cents

kev

@Windows97 said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

Surised to see Barrett at 10, the golden sun continues to shine out of his *ss. Looking forward to 20m touch finders and pointless chip kicks.

I have heard some commentators say that BB has had a better season than Damien. What it I remember from the season is a completely disfunctional Blues backline and repeated throwaway comments about the variation in his kicking game. All I see is a guy that kicks - a lot, leading an underperforming backline.

Damien had a shocker against Waratahs ( I think ) but was generally great during the year. Chiefs backline was awesome. Came finals time he didn’t play badly but didn’t dominate. Missed 2 kicks in final.

So in the end they prefer someone that is less mercurial - less up and down. Still think this is Damien’s position to win if he gets the chance. If he can play like he did against Ireland and not have too many brain explosions.

In the meantime we are left with BB and his kicking game.

ACT Crusader

@reprobate said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Kiwiwomble said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

Well, don't know whether to shake my head or be pleased they trying things. Surprises me Vai'i at 6, but also think it a pointer to how good they thing Holland will be, and Vai'i being best lock in NZ, maybe they felt they had to play him?

thats kind of why i dont like choosing your captain so early....if Vaai is the best lock and Holland deserves a run as the future....play them both there, i think you make the 23 before you get to be captain, with savea, taylor and BB on the pitch its not like we're short of experienced leaders on the pitch

From EOYT 2022 and all of 2023 Scooter was our best lock. That was on the back of being a very effective bench option previously. Add to that he was captain of the Saders, don’t wasn’t a huge surprise that he was made captain even though they could’ve easily gone with Ardie. His form last year wasn’t as good as 2023 but it wasn’t like he fell completely off the cliff. He was one of our best against Ireland and he didn’t play too bad against the French either.

What was pleasing was to see the step up of Vaa’i last year when there were concerns post 2023 with Whitelock and Retallick gone.

You can get away with calling Barrett our best lock when he has Sam Whitelock dominating the lineout for him, cause he's very very good around the park.
To be clear though, that means Sam was doing his main job for him.

Although Whitelock was coming off the bench in 2023 at times and Barrett still doing the lineouts plus all the grunt work.

frugby

I’d really like to see Vaa’i given the whole series at 6. If they want to try it, then give it a decent sample size, so we can actually get a read on if it is a good idea.

Canes4life

@Nepia said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@booboo said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

On the 1st 5/8 question, isn't Harry Godfrey the anointed saviour to be sent forth from the Hurricanes?

I think his promoter @Canes4life cooled on him as the season went on (probably remembered he's from the Pies), and switched his marketing efforts to Love.

Hey hey hey, I was very happy with Godfrey at 10 until his injury. I doubt we would have seen Love at 10 if Godfrey remained injury free, I wouldn’t have had a problem with that at all. The issue I had was when Laidlaw decided to move Love back to 15 to accomodate the limited Cameron when we were on a roll. Just piss poor coaching in my view.

Bones

Yeah BB starting doesn't exactly thrill me, especially when you consider the best blues back isn't alongside him to actually do something.

nzzp

@Bones said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

Yeah BB starting doesn't exactly thrill me, especially when you consider the best blues back isn't alongside him to actually do something.

Christie?

/troll if it wasn't obvious

ACT Crusader

@nzzp said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Bones said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

Yeah BB starting doesn't exactly thrill me, especially when you consider the best blues back isn't alongside him to actually do something.

Christie?

/troll if it wasn't obvious

Don’t be silly. Nock.

KiwiMurph

Christian Lio Willie speaks well. Doesn't sound like an overawed debutant. Excited to see him go at 8.

LABCAT

@Windows97 said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

For the non Instagram people.

All Blacks team to face France

Ethan de Groot

Codie Taylor

Fletcher Newell

Scott Barrett (c)

Fabian Holland

Tupou Vaa’i

Ardie Savea

Christian Lio-Willie

Cam Roigard

Beauden Barrett

Rieko Ioane

Jordie Barrett

Billy Proctor

Sevu Reece

Will Jordan

Reserves: 16. Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17. Ollie Norris, 18. Pasilio Tosi, 19. Samipeni Finau, 20. Du’Plessis Kirifi, 21. Cortez Ratima, 22. Quinn Tupaea, 23. Damian McKenzie

Had to scroll through close to a hundred posts before getting to this one, thank you so much

Old Samurai Jack

Really pleased to see such a side. At last, we can see some action to counter the problems of the last few years. That is a big pack and will get bigger (and more mobile) with Williams and Lomax coming back in.
Vaai has the game to be an awesome 6. Finau does well off the bench and can develop from there.
Proctor at 13 should see better distribution, and Rieko is still one of the best finishers in the game.
Would definitely prefer to see DMac starting, although, he has the kicking game to finish a test match much more pragmatically than BB I think.

nostrildamus

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@nzzp said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Bones said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

Yeah BB starting doesn't exactly thrill me, especially when you consider the best blues back isn't alongside him to actually do something.

Christie?

/troll if it wasn't obvious

Don’t be silly. Nock.

Not like a real Cantab to miss a Lam(b).

The Silver Fern

All Blacks v France I