All Blacks 2026
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@Canes4life hOsKinS sOtUtu
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@frugby said in All Blacks 2026:
@Canes4life hOsKinS sOtUtu
Yeah well I wouldn’t be surprised if Sotutu has the last laugh.
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2026:
@SouthernMann said in All Blacks 2026:
Ardie's problem is that he is an absolute freak who can do things no other loosie in the country can. The criticism comes from not having the traditional skills/playing style of any of the 6,7 or 8 roles.
The problem is I don’t actually think we have many loosies that are international standard.
All of Blackadder, Jacobsen, Papali’i are much of a muchness at test level. Kirifi is too small. Finau is a pretender. Ardie is a hybrid. Lakai and Sititi have shown plenty of promise but are still very young. Parker is a big body but the verdicts still out.
Unfortunately I just don’t think we have the cattle to develop a world class trio by the WC.
I think he's better than those two and was sorely missed last year. The real reason why he wasn't selected is anyone's guess.
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@Dan54 said in All Blacks 2026:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2026:
@ShaquilleOatmeal said in All Blacks 2026:
@Nepia said in All Blacks 2026:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:
@MN5 said in All Blacks 2026:
@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:
@MN5 said in All Blacks 2026:
@Nepia said in All Blacks 2026:
@Yeetyaah said in All Blacks 2026:
Robert Van Rooyen circle jerk for ya
Crusaders circle jerk with Knowler there alongside him although Knowler was playing the (only) slightly more balanced role in the exchange.
Takeaways:
- Mo'unga was finally coming right after 50 tests when he took the Yen and ran.
- Everything was BB's fault.
- The assistant coaches are all good because they once made the Crusaders backline "hiss".
- Barrett is fine despite the fact he needs to play better and tidy up his discipline which has been shit all career.
- Razor doesn't have the cattle but also the team makes too many unforced errors and they'd threaten the Boks without those (so wait we do have the cattle?)
- The most important thing it the ABs are peaking in 2027 (fuck off, we're not a RWC only team).
They've done that with the ABs backline too in that they hiss while they're deflating.
You'd think these 2 fanboy 'journos' would have gotten the message that Super Rugby and Test Rigby are worlds apart by now.
Regular Show is wonderful, used to enjoy watching it with my boys.
But to address your point, Ardie Savea made quite a number of World Teams of the year so that should tell you all you need to know.
A great highlights reel player.
Has someone put together a highlights reel for him for 2025?
Has someone put together a lowlights reel of him walking on defence, refusing to hit rucks and being miles away from where he’s required? I’m only semi-joking here - it’d be interesting to see the reaction from fans who only watch highlights.
They'd just call it fake news
'He's allowed a break after carrying the team on his own for all these years'
I just don't get the Ardie hate that goes on in here. He was absolutely worn out at end of this year, but bet he be one first named in team going forward. Well he would be in my team, Hiw man problem year just gone was coaches running him into ground, and that started with Tana in super.
Of course he's first name on the teamsheet, always will be whilst available, but for me, he's refusing to do the work of a 7. He's not tackling properly, only ever looking for the turnover which works every 8 or so tackles, so when he isn't winning the turnover, he's basically dragging players over the advantage line and getting cleaned out, as was evident against the Wallabies at Eden Park where he and Sititi's lack of effort on defence was evident, and he doesn't clean rucks. He's happy waiting for the ball, but he ain't doing anything to help us retain the ball. Simon Parker or whoever is im the 6 jersey has an extremely hard job having to clean up the work that he and Sititi aren't doing in close.
He's not the only one who has extremely bad habits in his game at the moment, but with the amount of plaudits the guy gets for just breathing, I can see why people on here criticise him.
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@Duluth said in All Blacks 2026:
@chchfanatic said in All Blacks 2026:
I think Razor was always up against it , no matter how well he did. The nth island journos hammer him on everything. Which is par for the course and something I’m sure he expected.
He’s had friendlier media than any coach before him. It’s not even close.
Yeah please. Which North Island journos have hammered him exactly?
Only one man got constantly hammered in the media and that was Ian Foster. Razor has had more backing than anybody and was loved across the board. The only criticism he got was from people on here lol.
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2026:
@SouthernMann said in All Blacks 2026:
Ardie's problem is that he is an absolute freak who can do things no other loosie in the country can. The criticism comes from not having the traditional skills/playing style of any of the 6,7 or 8 roles.
The problem is I don’t actually think we have many loosies that are international standard.
All of Blackadder, Jacobsen, Papali’i are much of a muchness at test level. Kirifi is too small. Finau is a pretender. Ardie is a hybrid. Lakai and Sititi have shown plenty of promise but are still very young. Parker is a big body but the verdicts still out.
Unfortunately I just don’t think we have the cattle to develop a world class trio by the WC.
We do, the coaching staff just aren't getting the best out of these players.
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@frugby said in All Blacks 2026:
@Canes4life hOsKinS sOtUtu
Well it didn't exactly send a positive message across the board not picking him did it?
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@chchfanatic said in All Blacks 2026:
I think Razor was always up against it , no matter how well he did. The nth island journos hammer him on everything.
I know @Duluth refuted this point already but it bears repeating, this is fucking nonsense. The media kissed him on the dick constantly and even now he's got a team of journos running defence for him.
Also, when you did spend time here, you would have noticed that Razor had pretty much broad support from all the posters of here who think too highly of ourselves when he was first chosen to be the coach.
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I've only seen one person in the media hammer Razor. Foster got far more criticism from the media.
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@MacDazzler said in All Blacks 2026:
I've only seen one person in the media hammer Razor. Foster got far more criticism from the media.
That's one more than I've seen!
Edit: Ah wait, I forgot about Mark Watson lol.
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@African-Monkey for years Ardies game.has unbalanced our loose trio, not so much because he isnt able to play the way required, we have had many coaches let him play how.he plays and try to fit people around him.
This has lead us to current Ardie who is undroppable, despite doing probably less work than previous years, and still affecting our loose trio.
Hopefully the lighter load in Japan will see him refreshed and hungry for some real work when he gets back...
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2026:
@African-Monkey for years Ardies game.has unbalanced our loose trio, not so much because he isnt able to play the way required, we have had many coaches let him play how.he plays and try to fit people around him.
This has lead us to current Ardie who is undroppable, despite doing probably less work than previous years, and still affecting our loose trio.
Hopefully the lighter load in Japan will see him refreshed and hungry for some real work when he gets back...
That's also the issue I have with guys like Ardie going to Japan all the time. It's virtually touch rugby up there where he doesn't have to do any hard work and can do what he want, whilst having a holiday in the process. At least Rieko and Jordie have gone up north to challenge themselves a bit, why can't more of our players go up there for a stint?
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@African-Monkey That's the only person in the media who I've seen criticise Razor.
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@MacDazzler said in All Blacks 2026:
@African-Monkey That's the only person in the media who I've seen criticise Razor.
He has, and i can't say that I've seen many people agree with him in the public, infact, he's probably copped more criticism for it.
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@African-Monkey was kinda tongue in cheek, I dont think fatigue was his issue, its how he is playing, or allowed to play by the current coaching group.
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2026:
@African-Monkey was kinda tongue in cheek, I dont think fatigue was his issue, its how he is playing, or allowed to play by the current coaching group.
Haha my bad, nobody home!
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@Nepia here you are. You’re right. You’re always right. Keep telling yourself that.
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@chchfanatic said in All Blacks 2026:
@Nepia here you are. You’re right. You’re always right. Keep telling yourself that.
Great retort, you've convinced me with your liberal use of facts to illustrate your point.
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@MacDazzler said in All Blacks 2026:
Foster got far more criticism from the media.
Yep and Foster had many more years of poor performance to earn it (could even go back to his time with the Chiefs, if the point really needed to be driven home).
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2026:
@African-Monkey for years Ardies game.has unbalanced our loose trio, not so much because he isnt able to play the way required, we have had many coaches let him play how.he plays and try to fit people around him.
This has lead us to current Ardie who is undroppable, despite doing probably less work than previous years, and still affecting our loose trio.
Hopefully the lighter load in Japan will see him refreshed and hungry for some real work when he gets back...
Don't get that, how does his game unbalance the loose forward trio? At 8 , he mightn't be same as 8s before him, that is part teams/play developing. It's happened since I have followed the game. Same as 6, 7s and almost every position in the team.
The whole balance and unbalance stuff is made a bit more of than needs be. You get best players to play and adjust your style to make it balance. I just don't want players to play a certain way because that's what we think they should.
But I understand some think you should play a certain way etc, I'm a fan of something different.
We went through this with a lot of people when Lomu played, there were some thought he was a highlight package player, because he didn't play as they though wingers should.
