All Blacks 2025
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@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@jimmyb said in All Blacks 2025:
@upthelanders said in All Blacks 2025:
@george33 Darry is great, but instead of who?
Not getting past Fabian, Tupou or Patty for meDarry is a better player than Holland, and I’m a die hard highlanders supporter. He’s far more abrasive. Offers exactly the same on defence and is significantly better with ball in hand
People forget how good he was on debut. Holland before Holland
Holland without the PR team
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@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan You're living in the past.
Richie won ahead of e.g. Big Pieter-Steph - but, a host of others.
Let's see. I hope for all our sakes you are right.
Let's hope he comes back good.
How much better Richie was than Beaudy and DMac when he departed is one of the more underappreciated things I've ever seen on the Fern!
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan You're living in the past.
Richie won ahead of e.g. Big Pieter-Steph - but, a host of others.
Let's see. I hope for all our sakes you are right.
Let's hope he comes back good.
How much better Richie was than Beaudy and DMac when he departed is one of the more underappreciated things I've ever seen on the Fern!
How different the narrative could have been if he or JB nailed one of those kicks in Paris
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan For sure.
And, unfortunately, if Sammy had dipped a bit.
Shit happens.
I would have made neither of those kicks and been brushed aside in the tackle on Kriel(?)
You need some luck to win World Cup knockout games The Irish would say the same.
Fixed
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:
@brodean Without re-typing my depth charts, there's not many positions we're struggling in.
Despite what happened vs the Jaapies, we''re good at prop.
With Taylor, Sami and Aumua, we're good at hooker and a shoutout to Razor (and a needle to you and others)
we have George Bell in the wings! Maybe McAllister, but he had a shocker last test.Lock is promising and close to good.
Loose forwards still requires a bit of patience, but we've taken 10 years to replace Kaino and they seem to be on the right paths - even in Parker and Vaa'i haven't nailed things yet. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Lakai - he's got a bit of the young Michael Jones about him.
Halfback - maybe it's going to be Roigard and Hotham. Ratima and Preston. Louie Chapman can play, but sadly he's pretty small.
First five is a bit limited until Jesus comes.
Midfield - lots of options - only Jordie delivering at present.
Ditto wings - bizarre we're struggling there.
Fullback - just stick with Will!
Add Pledger into the mix at 9 in the next 12-24 months.
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@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@jimmyb said in All Blacks 2025:
@upthelanders said in All Blacks 2025:
@george33 Darry is great, but instead of who?
Not getting past Fabian, Tupou or Patty for meDarry is a better player than Holland, and I’m a die hard highlanders supporter. He’s far more abrasive. Offers exactly the same on defence and is significantly better with ball in hand
People forget how good he was on debut. Holland before Holland
Darry was fine on debut, just like Holland. Both had their tires pumped up immensely just for being fine.
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@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:
Halfback - maybe it's going to be Roigard and Hotham. Ratima and Preston. Louie Chapman can play, but sadly he's pretty small.
early bandwagon supporters party on the Pledger mobile!
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@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
If Jesus is found to be a false prophet, what will Razor do then?
hire him as assistant coach.
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@Mr-Fish said in All Blacks 2025:
Darry was fine on debut, just like Holland. Both had their tires pumped up immensely just for being fine.
eh? Holland was pumped more than Darry.
It almost feels like his promoters were on the case while he was still a foetus!Not that it wasn't deserved...
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I was surprised at how many Sth African players are now in Japan. More than the England and NZ cricket teams!
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@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2025:
@george33 said in All Blacks 2025:
Schmidt doesn't like the guy.
Schmidt told you that?
It's in the public domain - he's openly accused Robertson of lacking integrity.
“A big part of it was about integrity. “The pressure that was being exerted was contributed to by not just New Zealand Rugby, but people aiming up at ‘Fozzie’.
“There was a podcast – with Jim Hamilton and Scott Robertson. That’s in the public domain. That was a pressure point and an advertisement that he [Robertson] wanted to win the World Cup with two different teams.
“And he [Robertson] applied pressure by starting an interview with ‘Bula’ when there was talk of the Fijian job being open. That was happening in the foreground, not the background. That was the tip of the iceberg, and it was bloody awkward for Foz.”
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@brodean said in All Blacks 2025:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2025:
@nonpartizan said in All Blacks 2025:
In fact, maybe the best example of the strangeness of Razors selections is to look at how he uses Blues players.
The Blues players he does play get picked based on reputation (Rieko starts five matches at left wing despite not having played there for years, BB is an automatic selection at 10 even though he is playing poorly) whereas the likes of Papalii and Sotutu don't even get a chance.
Yeah those are the ones he has to pick due to their contract situaton. If he could isolate all of them, he would.
Well I don't think Christie, Tuipulotu, Clarke, or Tu'ungafasi have special contracts.
Let's explore the potential reasons why Blue's players miss out.
- Robertson wants to play an expansive game which involves attacking down the openside side line and the Blues players have shown that they thrive in the narrow Cotter ball game plan, and to a lessor extent Schmidt who was also narrow but not as narrow. They therefore think the Blues players are not suited to the expansive game plan.
- They lost a lot of respect for Blue's players due to the nature of the 2023 Super Rugby semi final and have doubts about the players (while ignoring the hiding that Chiefs players got in the 2024 final and also ignoring the improvements the Blues made in defense and set piece subsequent to that 2023 semi)
- There is some kind of bad blood between some of the Blue's loosies and Razor and his cronies. Papali'i escaped this largely while Foster and Schmidt were in control.
- They don't like Aucklanders/Blues people and want players that think more like the Canterbury/Crusaders players etc. Chippy bias etc
- Blue's players aren't actually that good and their title and finals success over the last five years is because they've played together well as a team - MacDonald and Cotter are better coaches than the other Super Rugby coaches. Maybe this is what they think because they've ignored some Crusaders players now as well like Havili and Blackadder. Maybe they think the Blues are like the Crusaders. Champion team rather than Champion players.
Speculation of course.
Potentially part of the problem is that Razor has always picked certain types of players for Canterbury and Crusaders and they have to fit within that clique.
I think Razor and his team are struggling to get players from different teams, game plan approaches, and team cultures to thrive together. They're not used to working with players who don't get the Crusaders way.
This is part of the benefit of having international coaching experience. You have to pick the best players but also get them to work together at their best.
I don't see this happening at the moment.
When John Wright was made coach of the Indian cricket team the provincial factions were outraged.
In fact, by being prepared to select the best players from each province Wright took the team to unprecedented levels.
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@brodean said in All Blacks 2025:
@frugby said in All Blacks 2025:
Papalii is still a good player, but he is not the foil for this loose forward trio. He's a worse version of Sam Cane, the modern game requires energy from the openside flanker. DP has very little on attack. More of a chance at blindside.
Well if you look at the actual results of the All Blacks this year - you are wrong. We should not let it go because we had our worst ever defeat last week - so things are not working.
I think we would do better if we actually had a Papali'i or a Blackadder in the pack that is focused on hitting rucks and defending. Maybe you didn't notice but our defence was pitiful in the last quarter of the last game and the loose forwards simply did not turn up to make tackles and neither did they influence the breakdown.
None of Savea, Kirifi, Vaa'i or Parker came in and made a bunch of tackles when it was needed. Instead they left it to guys like William's to try.
Parker was off for three quarters of that period!
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@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2025:
@Mr-Fish said in All Blacks 2025:
Darry was fine on debut, just like Holland. Both had their tires pumped up immensely just for being fine.
eh? Holland was pumped more than Darry.
It almost feels like his promoters were on the case while he was still a foetus!Not that it wasn't deserved...
I remember Darry being lauded at the time, largely, seemingly, because he grabbed a try. But could be my memory is faulty.
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@Mr-Fish said in All Blacks 2025:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2025:
@Mr-Fish said in All Blacks 2025:
Darry was fine on debut, just like Holland. Both had their tires pumped up immensely just for being fine.
eh? Holland was pumped more than Darry.
It almost feels like his promoters were on the case while he was still a foetus!Not that it wasn't deserved...
I remember Darry being lauded at the time, largely, seemingly, because he grabbed a try. But could be my memory is faulty.
I recall him playing a good solid lock's game. He's a big boy, like Holland
