All Blacks vs Fiji

Mattasaurus

Surprised to hear Williams and Blackadder have never heard of 'Anchorman'. Holy heck. "Stay classy San Diego".

Great Odins Raven I was too.

Winger

@Daffy-Jaffy said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Tamaiti Williams (7)

Asafo Aumua (8)

Fletcher Newell (15)

Scott Barrett (71) (Captain)

Tupou Vaa’i (27)

Luke Jacobson (20)

Ethan Blackadder (10)

Ardie Savea (83) (Vice Captain)

Cortez Ratima (1)

Damian McKenzie (49)

Caleb Clarke (20)

Anton Lienert-Brown (72)

Billy Proctor (0)*

Sevu Reece (25)

Beauden Barrett (125)

George Bell (0)*

Ethan De Groot (24)

Pasilio Tosi (0)*

Sam Darry (0)*

Wallace Sititi (0)*

Noah Hotham (0)*

Jordie Barrett (59) (Vice Captain)

Emoni Narawa (1)

Good to see Proctor starting. He has VG distribution skills which is currently lacking in midfield

Why Reece in preference to Narawa
I would have liked to see what Darry could do starting
Hopefully Tosi gets decent game time. Likewise Sititi
Hopefully Bell get almost no game time. Likewise Hotham
Surprised Blackadder is 29 now. Injury prone and 29. He should really be on his last chance or time to move on

BTW the listed height of the backrow options are

Sititi 1.87cm
Blackadder 1.90 - 1.91
Jacobson 1.91
Savea 1.88

Bovidae

Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.

sparky

Thrilled for Billy Proctor. He richly deserves his first cap. I hope he puts down a massive marker to keep the 13 jersey for longer.

chimoaus

@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Surprised to hear Williams and Blackadder have never heard of 'Anchorman'. Holy heck. "Stay classy San Diego".

Yes I was very surprised by that, given how much time he has spent recovering, one should have watched the classics.

Has Williams lost weight? Does not seem quite as big as I remember.

sparky

Main things I'll be looking for performance-wise is the AB lineout and kicking game to go better.

Windows97

A huge number of players on debut, hope the starting line-up does a good enough job so they all get a run on and some gametime.

Don't think there will be a great deal to take out of this game aside from giving players experience in the black jersey, just hope that the guys go well so they can put pressure on the starting XV.

So in particular I'd love to see Williams and Aumua do well in the carry.
Ratima to build on his good performance against England and firm himself up as the #1 HB.
Proctor to playand distribute well to put pressure on Reiko.
Clarke to come back and play well so he can replace Telea

Canes4life

@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.

Billy leads all the hakas for the Canes, even before TJ. That would be pretty cool for him on debut.

sparky

Congratulations to the five players who will make their ABs debut from the bench. A proud moment for them and their families.

Machpants

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Good to see Blackadder taking all precautions

#whiteface

https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExbGpzNG5henFwbHliYzg5Z2FuZDNxNTVucm0ydmVnOHF5NTZ5ZDBzeSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/m6tmCnGCNvTby/giphy.gif

Bones

The caption is gold though

game_film

Excited to see the debut of ‘Future All Black Captain’ Sam Darry.

DaGrubster

@Bovidae 10 hour flight!

canefan

@sparky said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Congratulations to the five players who will make their ABs debut from the bench. A proud moment for them and their families.

At least Razor isn't silly enough to start all 6.....

canefan

@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.

Billy leads all the hakas for the Canes, even before TJ. That would be pretty cool for him on debut.

Generally the senior Maori player does it?

WillieTheWaiter

@Winger said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Richie McCaw was slow, he was still effective

Mary Holah was slow.

McCaw wasn't

ACT Crusader

@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.

ALB?

canefan

@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.

When has a captain led the haka in recent times? I don't recall GOAT or Read ever leading it, Cane didn't, Ardie hasn't I don't recall. It was almost always Aaron Smith in recent times. I always thought it was a player with Maori blood that led it

MiketheSnow

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Good to see Blackadder taking all precautions

He’s heading to the Civic Centre after training to do Pagliacci

Bones

@canefan you've got Google right? Kieran Read leads haka...

The Silver Fern

All Blacks vs Fiji