2025 All Blacks v France series

Bones

@African-Monkey by the same strawman token, I'm definitely not convinced EB dominated them either. And yeah I'm guessing the rest of the ABs should be crusaders too, since they dominated their opposites. Give them credit man!

African Monkey

@reprobate said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@African-Monkey said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@reprobate said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@African-Monkey said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@xman said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

Good to see Razor has no hard feelings about the Papali'i headbutt.

What happened between Dalton and Razor?

Think it may have been Blackadder and Razor. Blackadder kicked Razor in the balls.

Thankfully. Now we don't have to see him getting bounced around like a basketball at the big boys level.

Yeah what a relief we get to see the continued dominance of DP, LJ, SF.
If none of them could dominate the clearly fucking hopeless EB in play-off rugby, why should we expect them to dominant test rugby?

I don't recall talking up the others either. Finau has the most potential out of the others, but needs a big season. He has a stop start campaign last year and looked a bit lost with the gameplan, but needs to start showing some consistency.

I'm not getting fooled by players dominating SR, that haven't dominated on the big stage. Blackadder falls into that category. Sure, if he gets another go, I hope he does well, but he got dominated in contact against the Boks, and Bombed a certain try in that game too. If a certain Rieko Ioane did that.......

That's revisionist crap sorry.
He's pretty much universally derided on here, yet got 10% of the MOTM vote in Boks 1. He was close to our best forward, and certainly our best loosie. He didn't play in Boks 2.

I certainly didn't see it that way. I saw him getting bounced out of rucks, and yeah, he did plenty of work, but a lot of the time the SA ball carriers were getting past the advantage line whilst he was 'completing' tackles. I'm also well aware he didn't play in the 2nd Boks test, he didn't play again after Boks 1. So yes, he's industrious, gives it his all, I'm happy yo admit that, but like all his detractors, I side with them, it's ineffective.

African Monkey

@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@African-Monkey by the same strawman token, I'm definitely not convinced EB dominated them either. And yeah I'm guessing the rest of the ABs should be crusaders too, since they dominated their opposites. Give them credit man!

Haha I'm happy to see Crusaders players picked, I've even praised David Havili for his service to the Crusaders and said how good he's been for them. Is he ABs level though? Can't say he is. Blackadder too, who is also another good operator for them when he gets on the field.

I'm also happy to see what Lio-Willie is made of at test level if given the opportunity.

reprobate

@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@African-Monkey by the same strawman token, I'm definitely not convinced EB dominated them either. And yeah I'm guessing the rest of the ABs should be crusaders too, since they dominated their opposites. Give them credit man!

Bro. I'm not a Crusaders fan in the slightest. I care about NZ rugby, and really couldn't give a shit about any franchise other than enjoying certain styles of play more than others, which changes over time. That's definitely not the current Crusaders - TBH I haven't really liked the way they play since Mehrtens. I railed against Fihaki and Bell last year, think Reihana is nowhere near ready, think we have seen enough of Reece and Havili, and don't think Barrett should be AB captain because his spot is soon going to be under threat from Holland.

I do think the Crusaders dominated the loose forward battles in the play-offs. If EB wasn't a big part of that, then who did it? Grace who's not rated by anyone on here either? Tom Christie who nobody thinks is AB material? Or was it all CLW - who also didn't make the initial squad?

brodean

@mariner4life

A 36 year old Englishman playing in a French div 2 comp walking into the ABs 6 jersey?

Times must be tough for the ABs.

brodean

@reprobate

Crusaders start with 4 out of 5 All Black tight five and also one off the bench. The Crusaders tight five sets the platform for their loosies to go nuts. Shalfoon is a hard worker too. The Crusaders loosies aren't doing it on their own.

Besides that the games were very close. The Blues and the Chiefs had their fair share of ball. In the end it was the Crusaders halves and Will Jordan who were the difference between the teams.

Canes4life

@reprobate said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

Tom Christie who nobody thinks is AB material?

He's only good on one side of the ball.

Kiwiwomble

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@mariner4life

Times must be tough for the ABs.

first day on the fern?

KiwiMurph

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

Besides that the games were very close. The Blues and the Chiefs had their fair share of ball. In the end it was the Crusaders halves and Will Jordan who were the difference between the teams.

Yep small margins

With 14 men the Blues ground their way from halfway to the goal line with 35 phases to nearly tie the game and send it into extra time.

CLW comes up with a big play to win it. I think CLW was pretty well supported in terms of people wanting to see him get a shot in the ABs (I'm one of them).

Windows97

I'm gutted about the Sititi injury, mainly because I finally had hope this year that we would get a loose forward trio consisting of players at 6,7 & 8 that will actually play as 6, 7 or 8.
With Sititi gone they'll probably panic and put Savea back to 8, then we have a Finau, Kirifi, Savea combo...

brodean

Some stats showing Blackadders Running Impact:

Tackle Evasion %
34.6 Veveni Lasaqa
26.7 Ardie Savea
22.8 Dalton Papali'i
20.0 Jahrome Brown
19.5 Luke Jacobson
18.4 Du'Plessis Kirifi
8.8 Kaylum Boshier
8.6 Tom Christie
7.1 Adrian Choat
2.5 Ethan Blackadder

Gainline %
73.6 Veveni Lasaqa
73.5 Jahrome Brown
68.8 Ardie Savea
66.7 Adrian Choat
65.8 Luke Jacobson
64.3 Kaylum Boshier
63.0 Dalton Papali'i
54.0 Du'Plessis Kirifi
44.2 Tom Christie
34.1 Ethan Blackadder

Dominant Carry %
44.2 Veveni Lasaqa
43.8 Luke Jacobson
35.5 Ardie Savea
34.3 Dalton Papali'i
33.8 Tom Christie
33.6 Du'Plessis Kirifi
28.2 Kaylum Boshier
24.1 Adrian Choat
13.8 Ethan Blackadder

When Tom Christie, Adrian Choat, and Kaylum Boshier all have more effective carries in all these metrics that's a problem.

Kiwiwomble

cue someone pointing out "stats dont tell the whole story"

No Quarter

@brodean very telling and is basically what Razor said re: his omission - not enough impact in contact, which has always been a problem for him. I'm very surprised anyone is still wanting to see him in black based on SR form, he's a reasonable stop-gap measure but we aren't going to mix it with the big boys with him there.

African Monkey

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

Some stats showing Blackadders Running Impact:

Tackle Evasion %
34.6 Veveni Lasaqa
26.7 Ardie Savea
22.8 Dalton Papali'i
20.0 Jahrome Brown
19.5 Luke Jacobson
18.4 Du'Plessis Kirifi
8.8 Kaylum Boshier
8.6 Tom Christie
7.1 Adrian Choat
2.5 Ethan Blackadder

Gainline %
73.6 Veveni Lasaqa
73.5 Jahrome Brown
68.8 Ardie Savea
66.7 Adrian Choat
65.8 Luke Jacobson
64.3 Kaylum Boshier
63.0 Dalton Papali'i
54.0 Du'Plessis Kirifi
44.2 Tom Christie
34.1 Ethan Blackadder

Dominant Carry %
44.2 Veveni Lasaqa
43.8 Luke Jacobson
35.5 Ardie Savea
34.3 Dalton Papali'i
33.8 Tom Christie
33.6 Du'Plessis Kirifi
28.2 Kaylum Boshier
24.1 Adrian Choat
13.8 Ethan Blackadder

When Tom Christie, Adrian Choat, and Kaylum Boshier all have more effective carries in all these metrics that's a problem.

One of those times where stats don't lie AND tell the whole story........

Callcentre Spunk

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

Tackle Evasion %
34.6 Veveni Lasaqa

Gainline %
73.6 Veveni Lasaqa

Dominant Carry %
44.2 Veveni Lasaqa!

alt text

brodean

@Callcentre-Spunk

He's the anti Blackadder - high impact but also has the lowest workrate in NZ.

Kirifi and Papali'i each average 18 more contact involvements per 80 minutes compared to Lasaqa.

Combine Lasaqa and Blackadder into one player and you get Ardie Savea.

Bones

@reprobate I understand where you're coming from, but @brodean thankfully covered what I was getting at.

With your logic shouldn't we be giving Springer and Fihaki credit because they dominated their opposites?

handa457

Damn Veveni Lasaqa really should be in on the All Blacks Radar based on those stats. Bit of a shame we have so many talented sevens because he needs to be seriously considerd based on those stats.

antipodean

@African-Monkey said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

When Tom Christie, Adrian Choat, and Kaylum Boshier all have more effective carries in all these metrics that's a problem.

One of those times where stats don't lie AND tell the whole story........

Blackadder could benefit from adding more muscle and strength to his frame. With his undoubted engine, that would enable him to have more impact in the collision.

antipodean

@Callcentre-Spunk said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

Tackle Evasion %
34.6 Veveni Lasaqa

Gainline %
73.6 Veveni Lasaqa

Dominant Carry %
44.2 Veveni Lasaqa!

My impression is he doesn't do enough in the defensive side of the game.

The Silver Fern

2025 All Blacks v France series