The Silver Fern

@voodoo I understand the biomechanics a bit. As for the dark arts, that's outside my knowledge. But I don't doubt there are many tricks and treats.

@kidcalder said in All Blacks MOTM v Argetinna II:

Newell and christie (came on early and from the wilderness selection wise) don't have a third.
Parker was OK but that's all.. got his debut done without any fanfare...loss doesn't help him.
He tackled but apart from that not a performance that sticks out like sititi when he debuted

Hard to stand out in that shower of shit

@Bones said in All Blacks v Argentina II:

@pakman or Love and Jordie...

Main thing is a 10 who sees space out wide and is prepared to miss 12 and throw straight to 13.

Fabian, Ardie, Tupou

@booboo said in All Blacks v Argentina I:

@canefan said in All Blacks v Argentina I:

@MN5 said in All Blacks v Argentina I:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks v Argentina I:

Will Fucking Jordan.....again.

Absolute first name on the team sheet. So classy.

He's raised his level this year

And actually passed to a supporting player (@Bones )

Even fucking Nisbo spotted the supporting player to the right. Jordan didn't even consider it.

Hashtag jobdone

Love, Jordie and Holland.

Ruben Love is all class and deserves more outings.

Fabian Holland is a keeper.

@Snowy said in All Blacks MOTM v France II:

@booboo said in All Blacks MOTM v France II:

@Windows97 said in All Blacks MOTM v France II:

Patty T, Vaa'i and Holland. Patty for an outstanding game filling in for injury, Vaa'i for stepping up at 6 and Holland who so far seems to be stepping into test match rugby seamlessly.

Astute selections

Given that you chose 3 locks (sort of), and are commending the selection of 3 locks by others, I’m going to hazard a guess that you were a lock at some point?

Only in an absolute emergency.

I skipped numbers 4 & 5 in my descent to the real low numbers.

@canefan said in All Blacks v France II:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks v France II:

@brodean said in All Blacks v France II:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks v France II:

@brodean understand your point etc, but I doubt whether Love is even been considered starting for ABs this week, after about 4-5 games at most starting for Canes. And I a Canes man (and Love fan). I doubt any test coach in world would consider a starting 10 with so little experience.

You're probably right about consideration from the coaches. Doesn't mean they're right.

The guy is 24 now. He's had 5 years of Super Rugby experience and started 13 games for the Canes at 10. It's an experimental French B/C team. Beauden Barrett had already played 24 tests at 24. We're too conservative now.

Problem is that coaches at Canes (rightly or wrongly) haven't thought Love is good enough to steer them around field at 10. Their job is to do what they think is best for Canes, and selectors have to (I think) select on a good body of work, so they have confidence they won't cock up in tests.
I tend to agree I would like to see more of Love, but if at 10 off bench. Her starts and makes a few balls ups, imagine the melt down (and in press etc) about playing him before he ready.

Laidlaw shat the bed by reinstating Cameron as the starter when he returned from injury. Bad for the Canes, bad for Love and his AB potential

Speaking of body of work - there was more than enough body of work to show that Brett Cameron wasn't the answer but Laidlaw went that path anyway.

Taylor, Jordie, Jordan my top 3

3 of the 4 debutants looked good. Kirifi not able to make an impact but would give him another go.

@No-Quarter I think in that case, Proctor was too close to JB than simply that he was skinned for pace, his opposite was standing well outside him, there was such a massive gap between Proctor and whoever was defending at wing in that play.

That said, it a major error on his part, but you'd hope Jordie and whoever was at wing (Jordan?) should also be talking as they can see things too.

https://rugbylad.ie/brian-odriscoll-slams-joe-schmidts-conservative-game-approach/

I remember robbie stuart as a player

grafter . . . absolutely zero flare in his game

kinda surprised at the time that he made AB

in retrospect tho, considering the amount of players who get AB appearances under contemporary regulations, I have no doubts of his selection being justified

a lot more players of olden times (at least as good as Robbie) would have also made the AB list nowdays

@Duluth said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

I think it was the second Test when Holland dropped a few kickoffs?

Yeah, one where he misjudged the depth of the kick, at around the 15' mark, where Attissogbe beats him to the ball in the air (but knocks on himself). And the other one was at the 2nd half restart, with the ball slipping through his fingers and eventually going into touch.

For all three Tests, the ABs kicked off in the first half and received the kick-off in the second. Interestingly, they weren't able to secure one of those 2nd half restarts (Test 1: Ioane knock on; Test 2: Holland error; Test 3: Villière beats Tuipulotu to the ball). It was a consistent aspect of the pressure the ABs put themselves under at the beginning of the 2nd half, giving the French easy 22 access, alongside the quick impact of the French bench forwards who would come on around the same time.

@Bones said in All Blacks - loosie selections in recent years:

@MN5 said in All Blacks - loosie selections in recent years:

@Bones said in All Blacks - loosie selections in recent years:

@brodean I was just surprised to see Sotutu as medium and did a brief Google, which showed him as the same height and a couple of kilos lighter. Even Flanders was the same height, but significantly lighter (although I'd be very surprised if he's still only 108kg).

Its more down to height.

Kieran Read and Liam Messam were about the same playing weight but 1.93cm and 1.88cm respectively which bizarrely put them as "big" and "medium" respectively

They're the same height, David.

Don't say sorry to me. Say sorry to Messam.

@Devon-Kiwi said in Stu Wilson RIP:

@booboo said in Stu Wilson RIP:

@sparky said in Stu Wilson RIP:

Rest In Peace

Some great memories there. (And some interesting bits at the end: was it Ricky Cowan with that League try?)

Loved watching hom play
Thanks for the memories!

Thank @sparky

@Mauss

Good post. That sort of sums up most of the potentially promising options - he has the size and tools but not the consistency.

That seems true for the other guys in the conversation with size - basically Finau and Parker seem to be in the same boat.

Then there are guys with consistency but they have physical limitations and we’ll continue with our imbalance.

I’d be happy with the selectors choosing two guys who have the tools and then just giving them 20 tests to see what they can get to.

@ACT-Crusader said in Current depth at 10:

There was talk of Toeava playing 10 and we ended up bringing those guys in after multiple injuries, plus using Weepu.

Not so crazy in retrospect, Ice debued at 10 for Auckland if my memory/research is correct, scoring 2 tries!
Played there for Auckland and the Blues and then overseas...

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/rugby-blues-gem-ice-latest-target/SNUFNOBDTVQXGT6ZAKNWTUSAYQ/

so we lost Ineos and gave gained toyota and gallagher, is it basically just those two are covering what we got from Ineos or has this been a net gain?

@SBW1 said in "Could Dylan Brown be a Wah or an All Black?":

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/seven-possible-nrl-landing-spots-for-eels-superstar-dylan-brown-and-rugby-twist-as-1m-frenzy-looms/news-story/746e03f1f25f95501d8e609e4e766c79?fbclid=IwY2xjawH1SGBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHT9t9z79ZswqJQk5HJDWaqZivEzCIzK_WPRsyDVBd5Qt30k0Tf0S-9KTVg_aem_MxLmQxe-i6FeEeQlkla_2A

the dirty Sanchez mo screams league.
(Nobody mention Paps).