Scotland v All Blacks
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@sparky said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
As always, I'd have had DMac at 10 ahead of Beauden Barrett and Ruben Love at fullback with Will Jordan in his natural position of Right Wing.
Nods all round to the front five, the starting midfield and Cam Roigard at Half Back.
Not so happy about the midget backrow quartet. This is a Rugby Test Match, not a Hobbit convention. It makes the exclusion of Dalton Papalii and Hoskins Sotutu even worse if Luke Jacobson and Samipeni Finau are in the squad as foodbills.
I'd have had Reiko Ioane on the bench ahead of Billy Proctor.
Hopefully we'll be far too good for Scotland anyway.
It’s hilarious and slightly disconcerting that guys about 6 2 in the old language are referred to like this.
They’ll at least provide energy that Parker didn’t who seemed to play with a double strength Rueben Thorne invisibility cloak.
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@MN5 dropping Duhan the destroyer is bizzare isn't it.. Kyle has been very good for Glasgow in his time but is no threat to the vaunted All Blacks, if Scotland don't get close this weekend then Townsend should walk to be honest, he's had a golden generation of Scotland players at his feet and what has he managed to achieve other than the odd win against England?
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Loosie size shouldn't really be an issue against the Scots, and this sort of horses for courses rotation would be fine - if we had an established combo who were working well together against the bigger sides. But we don't, so this looks to me like wasting an opportunity to sort our shit out.
Assuming this isn't a total about face on 'test footy being a big man's game' of course. -
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This team has a lot of flair. Concerns about the loose forward heights is overdone I think.
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@booboo said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@sparky said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@booboo So we can have big bodies rather than midgets in the back row.
We have bigger bodies in the stands. Why would raise two being in the squad make any difference to who Razor picks in the XXII.
Parker and Finau are both bigger than Dalts and Hos. And I think LJ is too.
Nah LJ, Dalts, Blackadder and Sotutu are around the same size. Dalts and Sotutu might have a cm over them.
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Papalii was sensational off of the bench in his one test appearance this year (France test 3). Including ball running in tight.
But he hasn't been sighted since.
Meanwhile Kirifi gets another chance and he hasn't impressed off the bench once in multiple chances.
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@ploughboy said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
for context both Jerry Collins and Rodney sooialo were 6 3
Having walked past both on numerous occasions I'm dubious either were quite that tall. Not that it matters, they did their job and then some.
By fern language 6 2 is a midget and 6 3 is tall enough. No inbetweens.
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@Grooter said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@MN5 dropping Duhan the destroyer is bizzare isn't it.. Kyle has been very good for Glasgow in his time but is no threat to the vaunted All Blacks, if Scotland don't get close this weekend then Townsend should walk to be honest, he's had a golden generation of Scotland players at his feet and what has he managed to achieve other than the odd win against England?
Yeah Steyn to me is another in the long line of kinda big, kinda quick, kinda powerful Scottish Wingers that they've had for years like Lamont x 2, Danielli, Walker etc. DVDM would appear to blitz him on all measurables yet inexplicably gets dropped ?
He is much more capable of a game breaking try than Steyn is.
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@ARHS said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
Scots missing VDM, Jones, Z Fagerson, Ritchie and have Darge on bench. Doesn't look as strong a team as could be there.
I know Jones is injured but have they thrown the towel already and saved some of their bigger guns for Argentina ? ( which they blatantly did at the WC in 07 against the ABs if memory serves )
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@MN5 said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@ploughboy said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
for context both Jerry Collins and Rodney sooialo were 6 3
Having walked past both on numerous occasions I'm dubious either were quite that tall. Not that it matters, they did their job and then some.
By fern language 6 2 is a midget and 6 3 is tall enough. No inbetweens.
Rodders and JC were a bit shorter than Read and Kaino but taller than all 4 of this weekends loose forwards. My money is that if you walk past Kirifi etc they will look even shorter. Well maybe not since you're 20 years older and probably shrunk a bit like me.
Realistically 2005 Rodders and Collins would walk straight into the starting XV of the current set up but keep in mind that class of 2004 to 2007 was fairly limited in the lineout. It was always something holding us back. The current issues are on multiple fronts.
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@brodean said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@MN5 said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@ploughboy said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
for context both Jerry Collins and Rodney sooialo were 6 3
Having walked past both on numerous occasions I'm dubious either were quite that tall. Not that it matters, they did their job and then some.
By fern language 6 2 is a midget and 6 3 is tall enough. No inbetweens.
Rodders and JC were a bit shorter than Read and Kaino but taller than all 4 of this weekends loose forwards. My money is that if you walk past Kirifi etc they will look even shorter. Well maybe not since you're 20 years older and probably shrunk a bit like me.
Realistically 2005 Rodders and Collins would walk straight into the starting XV of the current set up but keep in mind that class of 2004 to 2007 was fairly limited in the lineout. It was always something holding us back. The current issues are on multiple fronts.
Still a solid 1.89m. I do a fair bit of stretching. I've seen Ardie Savea up close, unfortunately he was sitting down so I couldn't get a good gauge on his exact height ( @nostrildamus will be disappointed ) I could have tried to use one of those measuring apps on my phone which was very handy when I needed to hang my dartboard the correct height but would probably be slightly weird if I used it on an All Black in a very crowded central Wellington Bar.
Kaino is 1.96m in his dreams. Read is noticably taller than he is. ( again, not that it really matters )
Yes, both Rodders and JC would be shoe ins for this current team. Loved both of them.
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I remember last year when it was cane , ardie and sititi , they used sititi as a line out option .
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@MN5 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@brodean said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@MN5 said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@ploughboy said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
for context both Jerry Collins and Rodney sooialo were 6 3
Having walked past both on numerous occasions I'm dubious either were quite that tall. Not that it matters, they did their job and then some.
By fern language 6 2 is a midget and 6 3 is tall enough. No inbetweens.
Rodders and JC were a bit shorter than Read and Kaino but taller than all 4 of this weekends loose forwards. My money is that if you walk past Kirifi etc they will look even shorter. Well maybe not since you're 20 years older and probably shrunk a bit like me.
Realistically 2005 Rodders and Collins would walk straight into the starting XV of the current set up but keep in mind that class of 2004 to 2007 was fairly limited in the lineout. It was always something holding us back. The current issues are on multiple fronts.
Still a solid 1.89m. I do a fair bit of stretching. I've seen Ardie Savea up close, unfortunately he was sitting down so I couldn't get a good gauge on his exact height ( @nostrildamus will be disappointed ) I could have tried to use one of those measuring apps on my phone which was very handy when I needed to hang my dartboard the correct height but would probably be slightly weird if I used it on an All Black in a very crowded central Wellington Bar.
Kaino is 1.96m in his dreams. Read is noticably taller than he is. ( again, not that it really matters )
Yes, both Rodders and JC would be shoe ins for this current team. Loved both of them.
Read was probably taller than his listed height.
Going by eye height Kaino is still significantly taller than the current guys if you assume McCaw is the same kind of height as Sititi, Savea, and Lakai. Lio Willie and Kirifi are definitely shorter.
Yeah I don't think Kaino was 196 but he is kind of leaning over in this photo. His shoulders aren't parallel.
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@brodean said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@MN5 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@brodean said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@MN5 said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
@ploughboy said in Scotland Vs All Blacks, 8th November 2025:
for context both Jerry Collins and Rodney sooialo were 6 3
Having walked past both on numerous occasions I'm dubious either were quite that tall. Not that it matters, they did their job and then some.
By fern language 6 2 is a midget and 6 3 is tall enough. No inbetweens.
Rodders and JC were a bit shorter than Read and Kaino but taller than all 4 of this weekends loose forwards. My money is that if you walk past Kirifi etc they will look even shorter. Well maybe not since you're 20 years older and probably shrunk a bit like me.
Realistically 2005 Rodders and Collins would walk straight into the starting XV of the current set up but keep in mind that class of 2004 to 2007 was fairly limited in the lineout. It was always something holding us back. The current issues are on multiple fronts.
Still a solid 1.89m. I do a fair bit of stretching. I've seen Ardie Savea up close, unfortunately he was sitting down so I couldn't get a good gauge on his exact height ( @nostrildamus will be disappointed ) I could have tried to use one of those measuring apps on my phone which was very handy when I needed to hang my dartboard the correct height but would probably be slightly weird if I used it on an All Black in a very crowded central Wellington Bar.
Kaino is 1.96m in his dreams. Read is noticably taller than he is. ( again, not that it really matters )
Yes, both Rodders and JC would be shoe ins for this current team. Loved both of them.
Read was probably taller than his listed height.
Going by eye height Kaino is still significantly taller than the current guys if you assume McCaw is the same kind of height as Sititi, Savea, and Lakai. Lio Willie and Kirifi are definitely shorter.
Yeah I don't think Kaino was 196 but he is kind of leaning over in this photo. His shoulders aren't parallel.
No, I reckon he is 6 4 on the dot. Not close to Whitelock or Retallick.
Kaino obviously got measured in Rugby boots with huge sprigs on concrete.
Again, the issue isn't the height, it's more the fact the guys playing aren't a patch on Kaino or Read as players.
