Māori All Blacks v Scotland
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Would have been good to see Xavi Taele get a crack
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@Bovidae said in Māori All Blacks v Scotland:
Only one Kiwi in the 23.
The captain Stafford McDowell looks like a Scottish version of Jordie Barrett.
Also good to see the Scots having plundered South Africa, Australia, Tonga and NZ of their players have now gone for Fiji too.
Masibaka set to make his debut in a blue shirt.
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@Bovidae said in Māori All Blacks v Scotland:
Only one Kiwi in the 23.
That team is a lot less experienced than I thought it'd be. No Darge, Fagerson, Ritchie, Gilchrist, Steyn, Graham, Rowe, Jordan, Redpath, ...
It's still a decent side that's selected - I always felt like Josh Bayliss was a bit underrated by Townsend - but you'd have to say that the Māori ABs are definite favourites. It's hard to pinpoint any areas where the Scottish team would have a clear edge on the MABs. I figured they would seriously pressure the breakdown with Ritchie and Darge, but Onyeama-Christie and Bayliss aren't close to the same quality there.
So no real clue what Townsend's plan is. The backline has a few good ball players with Hutchinson, Paterson and Smith, so at the very least they should be good to watch.
For the Māori ABs, I think Cullen Grace showed once again against the Japan XV that he’s not really a number 8. A decent option at blindside but can’t really be trusted, I feel, with the responsibilities that come with being at the back of the scrum.
It’s good that he gets another shot at it but I’m guessing if there was another obvious option at 8 in the squad – Broughton has been injured for most of the season so they don’t seem to think that he’s ready – he might not have started this game. It’s unfortunate that Malachi Wrampling-Alec is injured because I would’ve liked to have seen what he could do at this level.
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They need to beat Fiji and Samoa for the World Ranking points to get into the top 6 (currently 7th) for the World Cup draw, so the plan is obviously just to give most of the 2nd string a game in this one since it doesn't matter in terms of World Rankings.
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Māori ABs, ABs .. playing NZ teams doesn't seem to be the drawcard it used to be ...
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Great start! Sammy Nock on his home turf.
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@KiwiMurph weather holding out...was shitty last night, thunderstorm cut power to most of whangarei last night for about an hour.
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Scots forwards are very clinical at breakdown
and they put a ton of heat when the MABs have the ball
Crowd in Whangarei strangely quiet -
..sun will be an issue in the 2nd half
