Scotland v All Blacks
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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.
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This is a pretty cool story.
Crikey I hope Sititi lives up to his promise from last year.
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@MN5 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
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.
Assuming that the current guys (apart from Finau and Parker) are the same height as McCaw or shorter, looking at the picture of Kaino, Read and McCaw it's pretty obvious that Read and Kaino are going to have a natural advantage in the lineout. Height is also a factor in your weight. It's easier for Tuipulotu to weight 125kg than Sititi.
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@brodean said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@MN5 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
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.
Assuming that the current guys (apart from Finau and Parker) are the same height as McCaw or shorter, looking at the picture of Kaino, Read and McCaw it's pretty obvious that Read and Kaino are going to have a natural advantage in the lineout. Height is also a factor in your weight. It's easier for Tuipulotu to weight 125kg than Sititi.
It sure is. Whitelock clocked in at over 120kg by the time he'd retired and it looked like it was all "good" bulk.
He was quite the unit by that stage.
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@kiwiinmelb said in Scotland v All Blacks:
I remember last year when it was cane , ardie and sititi , they used sititi as a line out option .
Sititi has really good hands, and is athletic / has quick feet. I'd rate him as an excellent 4th lineout option, but not a great 3rd vs e.g. a Read.
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The other issue is who are the lifters and how good are they? A great jumper with excellent lifters can do plenty as well.
I’m not convinced about this set of loosies - seems strange to not roll out loosies to run them over, but it does seem clear that they have a new view of what they want from the loosies.
It looks like hybrids (even Parker is a hybrid) who work with others in segments of the park to me. I’ll be interested to see if they have these guys stationed in very separate pods /groups as part of the system.
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I was gobsmacked to see VDM not in the side. A big weapon and genuinely worldclass on attack. Even more surprising was the acceptance about this selection from the Scottish media – as though they half-expected it. On the BBC Scottish rugby podcast , the sentiment was that the All Blacks will be disappointed to not see him there as they would have loved exploiting his defence.
I don’t follow URC enough to know but didn’t think he was that bad! He was a monster against England in the 6N.
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On the loosies, Lakai was deliberately positioned very wide last week. I assume Wallace will take the wide role now he's back and Lakai has some more involvement closer in, as I rate his heavy traffic carrying.
LF and QT (rightly) gobbled up most of the wide ball runs last week.
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My two main issues with the side are on the bench.
Kirifi has struggled to make any sort of impact at this level to date, so our bench impact is weaker as a result. I also don't like the idea that we'd pick loosies to match theirs? If they have small loosies, we should be picking big blokes to smack them around.
And Proctor over Ioane I think is risky. All three of Leicester, Tupea and Proctor have question marks over their defensive ability. If Scotland start making inroads through their channels, I can't see that Proctor would come on and change that, whereas we know Ioane is world class in that regard. Like others I am also interested to see what sort of impact Ioane can bring from the bench; he hasn't lost much of his pace and can cover 11 - 14 so to me seems like the ideal person to have there.
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@No-Quarter said in Scotland v All Blacks:
we should be picking big blokes to smack them around
This is probably the first team we've played far a while which doesn't really have any players that can smack us around.
They have been selecting horses for courses to a certain extent.
But, this time, with the players available, they are selecting the type of team they want.
I think they are using this opportunity to try and implement their preferred style of play, and use the players that best suit that style, without regard to the opposition.I think Scotland want to play in a similar way, so this could be a fun game.
But, they have been at it two years now, so if it doesn't happen in this game, it's never guna happen.
And they can fuck that game plan right off, and go back to the drawing board. -
@mohikamo said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@No-Quarter said in Scotland v All Blacks:
we should be picking big blokes to smack them around
This is probably the first team we've played far a while which doesn't really have any players that can smack us around.
They have been selecting horses for courses to a certain extent.
But, this time, with the players available, they are selecting the type of team they want.
I think they are using this opportunity to try and implement their preferred style of play, and use the players that best suit that style, without regard to the opposition.I think Scotland want to play in a similar way, so this could be a fun game.
But, they have been at it two years now, so if it doesn't happen in this game, it's never guna happen.
And they can fuck that game plan right off, and go back to the drawing board.They want to play the professor's high stakes wide game. Or as the saffas call it "bitch slap rugby"
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@No-Quarter given we named our team first there’s no evidence we were basing it off Scotlands possible lineup.
For me it’s a case of the next man up. Sititi has been on the bench the last few so comes into the starting lineup when there’s a change. He’s played blindside for the ABs previously so no concerns with what he will bring to the table.
Would’ve liked LJ in the 23 but not sure how he’s been training etc.
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