Scotland v All Blacks
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@1kiwi said in Scotland v All Blacks:
I can't for the life of me understand why the coaches/selectors are persisting with Beauden.
Often when DMac comes on the field the ABs are behind or the score is close. Sooner or later they are going to be too far behind with BB steering the ship for the subs to have a positive impact and change the result.
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@African-Monkey It's a tough business - international rugby.
We played what the coaches perceive is our best available team vs Scotland and came close to getting turned over.
Coaches seem to have gone quite old school in terms of playing the best team most weeks.
Will definitely be the best team vs England, but after what happened last year vs Italy, I think we'll see quite a lot of change vs Wales. There's still probably going to be some guys who don't get to play on this tour.
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@African-Monkey It's a tough business - international rugby.
We played what the coaches perceive is our best available team vs Scotland and came close to getting turned over.
Coaches seem to have gone quite old school in terms of playing the best team most weeks.
Will definitely be the best team vs England, but after what happened last year vs Italy, I think we'll see quite a lot of change vs Wales. There's still probably going to be some guys who don't get to play on this tour.
That’s bad news for Wales. They would have loved a backline of Havili/ALB and Reece
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@junior You'd imagine they're working hard on it.
Some of it might be rugby philosophy. Looks to me that we're mainly trying to catch the high ball and minimize the lottery element.
The Jappies seem less worried about that and more inclined to be happy if the ball is slapped back or even knocked on.They seem to get more guys into the zone to recover the knock down - and a scrum might suit them regardless of who feeds it.
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@MN5 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
That’s bad news for Wales. They would have loved a backline of Havili/ALB and Reece
Dave's not on this tour and it looks to me that ALB has been given the role Dave had last year - 10 minutes here and there and skating on thin ice.
2026 will be a new year, but ALB will need a big season and maybe a bit of luck with injuries if he's not to go the way Davey did this year.
I bought a Terry McLean book last week.
It was called "ALB lacks magic."
At least I thought it was - turns out I'd misread the title it was about something completely different.
A miserable joke at ALBs expense!
ALL BLACK MAGIC. The Triumphant Tour of the 1967 All Blacks by Terry MCLEAN on Sainsburys Books
A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1968. 8vo, 183pp. Black & white illustrations. A very good hardback copy in like dust jacket. Item #116620
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@MN5 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
That’s bad news for Wales. They would have loved a backline of Havili/ALB and Reece
Dave's not on this tour and it looks to me that ALB has been given the role Dave had last year - 10 minutes here and there and skating on thin ice.
2026 will be a new year, but ALB will need a big season and maybe a bit of luck with injuries if he's not to go the way Davey did this year.
I bought a Terry McLean book last week.
It was called "ALB lacks magic."
At least I thought it was - turns out I'd misread the title it was about something completely different.
A miserable joke at ALBs expense!
ALL BLACK MAGIC. The Triumphant Tour of the 1967 All Blacks by Terry MCLEAN on Sainsburys Books
A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1968. 8vo, 183pp. Black & white illustrations. A very good hardback copy in like dust jacket. Item #116620
I assumed he'd get called up with Jordie Barrett injured ?
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@Chris-B said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@MN5 No real need, I think.
They've still got:
Tupaea, ALB
Leicester, Proctor, Rieko.Two of those won't play vs England.
Yeah true, loads of midfield depth. Could easily go ALB and either Proctor/Ioane for Wales.
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Trouble is none of our 13s have nailed it. LF is the best attacking threat but still has major defensive weaknesses and with QT it's basically still the Hungus Brothers. Looks good against weaker and more inexperienced midfields but I think we may need one of them starting and one off the bench, we def. probably need one of them starting as the others lack impact. But we also need someone defensively sound with vision.
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@nostrildamus Tuapea has gone well at 13 - needs more chances there
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@KiwiMurph problem is, that 12-13 axis is huge defensively and both LF and QT still need alot of work there, which is ironic given Ioanes strength is his defence and he seems well in the outer.
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Overall we are tracking well. We have strength through the entire forward pack. When's the last time we could say that.
Last year DMac played well at 10. Why not use him. It's a mystery.
We are so much stronger now compared to the previous World Cup cycle and we lost that by a whisker. Glass half full.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Scotland v All Blacks:
The story I heard was that last year Love and Papali’i were rooming together and after Dalton head butt Razor, Love was seen in the corner of the room taking video footage. Fast forward to the French series this year and after Love questioned a training move, he remembered the words of his 2024 roomie, “just hit them between the eyes”, Love lined up Hansen with a head butt.
well I heard that Love wound up kidnapping Hansen in a case of mistaken identity, and they hushed it up and blamed it on Dalton. And that's why Dalts isn't in the squad any more.
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I was having a spirited exchange with a mate of mine about BB. His counterargument to my assessment that BB isn't up to it anymore was "we won and he didn't make any mistakes.". This guy knows rugby, and yet that's his view (and BB did make errors anyway). Is that how low we are happy to set the bar these days? I can't reconcile how anyone who knows anything about rugby can go into bat for BB anymore.
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@nzzp said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@ACT-Crusader said in Scotland v All Blacks:
The story I heard was that last year Love and Papali’i were rooming together and after Dalton head butt Razor, Love was seen in the corner of the room taking video footage. Fast forward to the French series this year and after Love questioned a training move, he remembered the words of his 2024 roomie, “just hit them between the eyes”, Love lined up Hansen with a head butt.
well I heard that Love wound up kidnapping Hansen in a case of mistaken identity, and they hushed it up and blamed it on Dalton. And that's why Dalts isn't in the squad any more.
You’re making stuff up.
But wait till I tell you about the leaked phone call between Ryan and Sotutu….
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@ACT-Crusader said in Scotland v All Blacks:
the leaked phone call between Ryan and Sotutu….
nah, you got that wrong sorry. Check your sauce. It was a Teams call that the transcript accidentally got forwarded to Robinson. Ya think it's a coincidence he stood down?
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@canefan said in Scotland v All Blacks:
I was having a spirited exchange with a mate of mine about BB. His counterargument to my assessment that BB isn't up to it anymore was "we won and he didn't make any mistakes.". This guy knows rugby, and yet that's his view (and BB did make errors anyway). I can't reconcile how anyone who knows anything about rugby can go into bat for BB anymore
Guess that would suggest that you don't think any of the coaches etc know anything about rugby?
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@Dan54 said in Scotland v All Blacks:
@canefan said in Scotland v All Blacks:
I was having a spirited exchange with a mate of mine about BB. His counterargument to my assessment that BB isn't up to it anymore was "we won and he didn't make any mistakes.". This guy knows rugby, and yet that's his view (and BB did make errors anyway). I can't reconcile how anyone who knows anything about rugby can go into bat for BB anymore
Guess that would suggest that you don't think any of the coaches etc know anything about rugby?
Do you ever read my posts Dan?
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@nostrildamus Don’t think he’s been watching much the past 5 years
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I thought at half time that finally we were going to get a statement performance under Robertson.
Then the Scots came back at us, aided and abetted by our terrible discipline and a woeful performance under the high ball.
But we still had the skill, athleticism, fitness and determination to seal the win. It was a performance for the ages from Damian McKenzie off the bench.
It feels to be that despite the injuries the forwards are tracking well (only really the overhyped Ardie Savea is underperforming), but the backline is a bit of a mess and probably will be until we sort out the backline coaching issue.
