All Blacks EOYT

Bones

@junior and as others have pointed out, it flies in the face of any logic around other selections. But I guess they weren't told to get fit or play both sides of the ball, so must have hit their targets.

What does get fit even fucking mean at that level?

antipodean

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Frank said in All Blacks EOYT:

@No-Quarter
Fair points.
It still doesn't excuse Sotutu not getting fitter when he had been asked to.
"he didn’t even get close"
(chchfanatic's sources have been spot on)

I’d be fascinated to find out what Cotter would say about his fitness.

And if the Blues wanted more weight on their forwards given their game plan (which worked).

HIs fitness was a clear issue at the Blues where he played more minutes than anyone else...

brodean

@Nepia said in All Blacks EOYT:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks EOYT:

@chchfanatic said in All Blacks EOYT:

Geez are we still talking about Sotutu. So he’s going to go and play for England even though he’s contracted to NZ for next couple of years.
The guy is a fluffy bunny who was told to go and work on his fitness. “This is the level we want our loose forwards at “ he didn’t even get close.
Caleb Clarke was told he needed to shed weight and he did exactly what he was asked. Now he’s arguably the number one winger.
Don’t put it back on the coaches when you wont do the hard work. Mentally weak individual.

Maybe if you don't want us to talk about player X you shouldn't then go on and insult player X and insinuate you know way more than the official line without any obvious and clear evidence..

The new breed of Cantabs have been circling their wagons like the days of old when I first joined this place. Who knew it would take the Messiah not quite being able to walk on water like we were promised to get the Village of the Damned back to full fighting force.

The results have been no better than Foster level. This isn't the Prince that was promised.

The selection boondoggles don't help.

Billy Tell

@sparky said in All Blacks EOYT:

The fishing season is bringing out a host of massive trawlers this year, that's for sure.

Ye olde « doesn’t agree with my opinion » = trawler.

Omnipresent argument on Internet forums since the year dot.

nostrildamus

@antipodean said in All Blacks EOYT:

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Frank said in All Blacks EOYT:

@No-Quarter
Fair points.
It still doesn't excuse Sotutu not getting fitter when he had been asked to.
"he didn’t even get close"
(chchfanatic's sources have been spot on)

I’d be fascinated to find out what Cotter would say about his fitness.

And if the Blues wanted more weight on their forwards given their game plan (which worked).

HIs fitness was a clear issue at the Blues where he played more minutes than anyone else...

Yeah, the Blues locks weren't regular AB picks (and one was playing on one leg), the hooker not looked at at all, the 7 can't keep his place in the ABs and has injury issues, so it must have been Akira who pushed his lazy-arsed fellow forwards all the way to the final

gt12

@junior said in All Blacks EOYT:

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Frank said in All Blacks EOYT:

@No-Quarter
Fair points.
It still doesn't excuse Sotutu not getting fitter when he had been asked to.
"he didn’t even get close"
(chchfanatic's sources have been spot on)

I’d be fascinated to find out what Cotter would say about his fitness.

And if the Blues wanted more weight on their forwards given their game plan (which worked).

I am really struggling to see how the guy who was the best player in super rugby is apparently not fit. Logically, it makes no sense that someone can play that well despite apparently being unfit.

Or, from the other aspect, why wouldn't you put someone playing that well, unfit, into your systems and get them to your desired fitness?

gt12

And, I wonder when this testing was done. If players are getting a really hard time during the season or it is at the end of the season, wouldn't that really harm players who had left it all out there during the key games?

canefan

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@junior said in All Blacks EOYT:

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Frank said in All Blacks EOYT:

@No-Quarter
Fair points.
It still doesn't excuse Sotutu not getting fitter when he had been asked to.
"he didn’t even get close"
(chchfanatic's sources have been spot on)

I’d be fascinated to find out what Cotter would say about his fitness.

And if the Blues wanted more weight on their forwards given their game plan (which worked).

I am really struggling to see how the guy who was the best player in super rugby is apparently not fit. Logically, it makes no sense that someone can play that well despite apparently being unfit.

Or, from the other aspect, why wouldn't you put someone playing that well, unfit, into your systems and get them to your desired fitness?

It's just lazy. It's rugby, not athletics. Sure you need a high degree of fitness, but it's only one aspect of the game. If we played with a little more control perhaps our players wouldn't be gassed by the last 20 minutes

DaGrubster

@canefan said in All Blacks EOYT:

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@junior said in All Blacks EOYT:

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Frank said in All Blacks EOYT:

@No-Quarter
Fair points.
It still doesn't excuse Sotutu not getting fitter when he had been asked to.
"he didn’t even get close"
(chchfanatic's sources have been spot on)

I’d be fascinated to find out what Cotter would say about his fitness.

And if the Blues wanted more weight on their forwards given their game plan (which worked).

I am really struggling to see how the guy who was the best player in super rugby is apparently not fit. Logically, it makes no sense that someone can play that well despite apparently being unfit.

Or, from the other aspect, why wouldn't you put someone playing that well, unfit, into your systems and get them to your desired fitness?

It's just lazy. It's rugby, not athletics. Sure you need a high degree of fitness, but it's only one aspect of the game. If we played with a little more control perhaps our players wouldn't be gassed by the last 20 minutes

With Jonah’s notoriously slow 3km time. I wonder if Robertson would have ditched him!?

MN5

@DaGrubster said in All Blacks EOYT:

@canefan said in All Blacks EOYT:

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@junior said in All Blacks EOYT:

@gt12 said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Frank said in All Blacks EOYT:

@No-Quarter
Fair points.
It still doesn't excuse Sotutu not getting fitter when he had been asked to.
"he didn’t even get close"
(chchfanatic's sources have been spot on)

I’d be fascinated to find out what Cotter would say about his fitness.

And if the Blues wanted more weight on their forwards given their game plan (which worked).

I am really struggling to see how the guy who was the best player in super rugby is apparently not fit. Logically, it makes no sense that someone can play that well despite apparently being unfit.

Or, from the other aspect, why wouldn't you put someone playing that well, unfit, into your systems and get them to your desired fitness?

It's just lazy. It's rugby, not athletics. Sure you need a high degree of fitness, but it's only one aspect of the game. If we played with a little more control perhaps our players wouldn't be gassed by the last 20 minutes

With Jonah’s notoriously slow 3km time. I wonder if Robertson would have ditched him!?

Caleb Ralph was a fantastic middle distance runner.

Tim

https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/bad-blood-swirls-as-the-all-blacks-head-north/

Robertson has had a chance to test his theories against top notch defence. Now he needs to go win some games on the EOYT to prove he belongs at this level. The standard is wins over England, Ireland, and France. Time is running out for him.

sparky

@Tim I'm hoping for at least one statement performance on the EOYT where the ABs really put a good side away and giving them a hiding. The performances have been too patchy this year to get excited about.

nostrildamus

@Tim said in All Blacks EOYT:

https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/bad-blood-swirls-as-the-all-blacks-head-north/

Robertson has had a chance to test his theories against top notch defence. Now he needs to go win some games on the EOYT to prove he belongs at this level. The standard is wins over England, Ireland, and France. Time is running out for him.

Wins against all 3 at home in that window seems a big ask IMO.

brodean

@sparky said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Tim I'm hoping for at least one statement performance on the EOYT where the ABs really put a good side away and giving them a hiding. The performances have been too patchy this year to get excited about.

Personally I'd rather see three close wins to the AB than one hiding.

Victor Meldrew

@brodean said in All Blacks EOYT:

@sparky said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Tim I'm hoping for at least one statement performance on the EOYT where the ABs really put a good side away and giving them a hiding. The performances have been too patchy this year to get excited about.

Personally I'd rather see three close wins to the AB than one hiding.

I'd actually accept a close loss or two if it meant we didn't go to pieces in the last 30-40minutes of games. Progress would be getting back to the sort of resilience we saw against Ireland and SA 12 months ago.

Machpants

@Tim said in All Blacks EOYT:

https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/bad-blood-swirls-as-the-all-blacks-head-north/

Robertson has had a chance to test his theories against top notch defence. Now he needs to go win some games on the EOYT to prove he belongs at this level. The standard is wins over England, Ireland, and France. Time is running out for him.

Great article, as always. To me were still trying basically the same shit that hasn't worked for over half a dozen years. You can't outflank the blitz, I was really hoping that razor would move materially away from the 2015 attack. But we haven't, same sort of shit, we're just polishing the turd. We need to play more direct, off nine, more often than we do. But no, abs are too cool to play that way .

Tim

@Machpants said in All Blacks EOYT:

We need to play more direct, off nine

I do hope that Roigard's availability might cause a shift to more of that style.

antipodean

@Machpants said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Tim said in All Blacks EOYT:

https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/bad-blood-swirls-as-the-all-blacks-head-north/

Robertson has had a chance to test his theories against top notch defence. Now he needs to go win some games on the EOYT to prove he belongs at this level. The standard is wins over England, Ireland, and France. Time is running out for him.

Great article, as always. To me were still trying basically the same shit that hasn't worked for over half a dozen years. You can't outflank the blitz, I was really hoping that razor would move materially away from the 2015 attack. But we haven't, same sort of shit, we're just polishing the turd. We need to play more direct, off nine, more often than we do. But no, abs are too cool to play that way .

There's no reason we can't be at least as good as every other country in that style of play, with the added benefit of being better in every other way.

Victor Meldrew

@Tim said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Machpants said in All Blacks EOYT:

We need to play more direct, off nine

I do hope that Roigard's availability might cause a shift to more of that style.

I think it's a team headspace thing

I've lost count of the number of times we are making progress close to the try-line, lose faith in ourselves to actually get the forwards over the try-line and spin it seemingly out too early with the inevitable mistakes.

canefan

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Tim said in All Blacks EOYT:

@Machpants said in All Blacks EOYT:

We need to play more direct, off nine

I do hope that Roigard's availability might cause a shift to more of that style.

I think it's a team headspace thing

I've lost count of the number of times we are making progress close to the try-line, lose faith in ourselves to actually get the forwards over the try-line and spin it seemingly out too early with the inevitable mistakes.

The gameplan is set by the coaches. If Razor wanted us to play more direct we would be doing so. He's using the classic Wayne Smith gameplan

The Silver Fern

All Blacks EOYT