All Blacks v Argentina II
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We will be ok.
Razor it's time for the new players.
Roigard's return will be massive. We have to commit to Love Carter Clarke.
Captaincy comes from Sititi Roigard
Reinstate DMac after he fell out of favour in 2024 NH tour after playing well.
We definitely have the players to do well -
A few people have been impressed by Parkers debut I for one was disappointed and I am a fan of his.He tackled well but did miss a couple, but clearing rucks hitting over the advantage line and just hitting bodies hard I felt he was a bit passive.
I hope it is just First test nerves.
Siti came on and hit the line hard in my mind he needs to start at 8 against the Boks.@Chris said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
A few people have been impressed by Parkers debut I for one was disappointed and I am a fan of his.He tackled well but did miss a couple, but clearing rucks hitting over the advantage line and just hitting bodies hard I felt he was a bit passive.
I hope it is just First test nerves.
Siti came on and hit the line hard in my mind he needs to start at 8 against the Boks.I don't think Parker would have gotten much of a mention if everyone else didn't shit the bed so hard. I tend to agree with you, but also think he was one of our better players out there. Agree re: Sititi he definitely starts now he is fit and has had a run from the bench. I see him as a future AB captain, the kid is all class and will make a difference against SA. Who wouldn't follow William Wallace into battle?
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@Frank a back three of Clarke, Jordie and Jordan could handle it fine. Clarke is excellent and Jordie could help over Jordan if he's struggling. Is Clarke fit? Man we miss him.
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@Frank a back three of Clarke, Jordie and Jordan could handle it fine. Clarke is excellent and Jordie could help over Jordan if he's struggling. Is Clarke fit? Man we miss him.
@No-Quarter Clarke should be very close - I'd expect him to get a run this weekend with Auckland. Auckland put out a graphic last week stating he was 1-2 weeks away
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@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
2 or 3 years ago, the argument was NZ had all the cattle it needed and a change in coach would solve all the problems. Well, guess what - it didn't.
Hold on a second.
After the home series loss to Ireland in 2022 the ABs made huge changes their coaching staff.
In 2024 the ABs came within a whisker of winning the world cup and completed blunted Ireland along the way.
I would say the calls to change the coaching staff were correct.
Look at how far the Wallabies have come in 2 years under Schmidt.
@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
Hold on a second.
After the home series loss to Ireland in 2022 the ABs made huge changes their coaching staff.
In 2024 the ABs came within a whisker of winning the world cup and completed blunted Ireland along the way.
I would say the calls to change the coaching staff were correct.
Maybe they were a sticking plaster for deeper issues? We really can't say one way or another
We have changed the coaching staff. after RWC2023. The only area we haven't is Jason Ryan - the one area where things are looking good.
It's probably not what people want to hear, but let's take a deep breath and get someone experienced and outside the circle like Rennie or Cotter to have a look at the whole damn thing, understand what the issues are provide support/advice before making knee-jerk changes.
Lets be a bit smarter than the ARU or England with their constant changes.
Look at how far the Wallabies have come in 2 years under Schmidt.
But isn't that a re-hash of the "look how well the Crusaders have done under Razor" argument? Maybe there's deeper problems.
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@Frank a back three of Clarke, Jordie and Jordan could handle it fine. Clarke is excellent and Jordie could help over Jordan if he's struggling. Is Clarke fit? Man we miss him.
@No-Quarter said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
@Frank a back three of Clarke, Jordie and Jordan could handle it fine. Clarke is excellent and Jordie could help over Jordan if he's struggling. Is Clarke fit? Man we miss him.
Agreed on Clarke, but let's not forget he was not named in the first test team when available, and only made the 2nd test lineup due to Reece's giant head taking a knock.
After being really good last international season too. -
@Frank a back three of Clarke, Jordie and Jordan could handle it fine. Clarke is excellent and Jordie could help over Jordan if he's struggling. Is Clarke fit? Man we miss him.
@No-Quarter said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
@Frank a back three of Clarke, Jordie and Jordan could handle it fine. Clarke is excellent and Jordie could help over Jordan if he's struggling. Is Clarke fit? Man we miss him.
I'd still like to see Love at 15 with Jordan and Clarke on the wings
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Love is athletic, but he's little. He and McKenzie are both skilful under the high ball, and will both inevitably get beaten by bigger men if those big men are also skilful and the kicking is accurate.
On the other hand... couldn't be much worse of course. -
Love is athletic, but he's little. He and McKenzie are both skilful under the high ball, and will both inevitably get beaten by bigger men if those big men are also skilful and the kicking is accurate.
On the other hand... couldn't be much worse of course.@reprobate said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
Love is athletic, but he's little. He and McKenzie are both skilful under the high ball, and will both inevitably get beaten by bigger men if those big men are also skilful and the kicking is accurate.
On the other hand... couldn't be much worse of course.Little man Corey Toole was marvellous under the high ball on the weekend vs Boks
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@Chris said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
A few people have been impressed by Parkers debut I for one was disappointed and I am a fan of his.He tackled well but did miss a couple, but clearing rucks hitting over the advantage line and just hitting bodies hard I felt he was a bit passive.
I hope it is just First test nerves.
Siti came on and hit the line hard in my mind he needs to start at 8 against the Boks.I don't think Parker would have gotten much of a mention if everyone else didn't shit the bed so hard. I tend to agree with you, but also think he was one of our better players out there. Agree re: Sititi he definitely starts now he is fit and has had a run from the bench. I see him as a future AB captain, the kid is all class and will make a difference against SA. Who wouldn't follow William Wallace into battle?
@No-Quarter said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
@Chris said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
A few people have been impressed by Parkers debut I for one was disappointed and I am a fan of his.He tackled well but did miss a couple, but clearing rucks hitting over the advantage line and just hitting bodies hard I felt he was a bit passive.
I hope it is just First test nerves.
Siti came on and hit the line hard in my mind he needs to start at 8 against the Boks.I don't think Parker would have gotten much of a mention if everyone else didn't shit the bed so hard. I tend to agree with you, but also think he was one of our better players out there. Agree re: Sititi he definitely starts now he is fit and has had a run from the bench. I see him as a future AB captain, the kid is all class and will make a difference against SA. Who wouldn't follow William Wallace into battle?
Out of the current squad I’d say everyone except Finlay Christie if I’m being honest
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It would be a good one for the statisticians. Which players in NZ Rugby are best statistically under the high ball?
Based on the subjective eye test, I'd nominate Caleb Clarke, Jordie Barrett and Ruben Love as possible members of a bomb disposal squad.
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Love is athletic, but he's little. He and McKenzie are both skilful under the high ball, and will both inevitably get beaten by bigger men if those big men are also skilful and the kicking is accurate.
On the other hand... couldn't be much worse of course.@reprobate said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
Love is athletic, but he's little.
If hurricane stats are realistic, he's 1.84 m, 92kg when last weighed.
https://www.hurricanes.co.nz/squad/player/ruben-loveBigger than DMac, taller than Dan Carter, and probably about the same weight now. He isn't a towering fullback but he's not that little.
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I took this seriously until the Welsh Anthem bit.
https://twitter.com/sportnationnz/status/1959732351086338250?s=46
@sparky said in All Blacks v Argentina II:
I took this seriously until the Welsh Anthem bit.
https://twitter.com/sportnationnz/status/1959732351086338250?s=46
"I used to be the norm. It is not good enough."
That would be right, no one is 'supposed' to be best in the world. It's not a given. Teams have to fight for it.
It doesn't matter if their club teams are amateur if their national side has international experience and their coaches (cough cough) are better than ours.
Not impressed with his manchild rant. -
Had a little re-watch this evening. A few things that spring to mind.
We made far too many largely unforced errors. Early on dropping cold a couple of catchable passes, Jordie's skewed chip, giving away dumb penalties and towards the end a couple of lineout malfunctions. You could easily find ten errors from poor skills or foolishness that stopped momentum cold.
Three yellow cards to nil - again handing momentum to Argentina - and points. A killer, but still not terminal even for this side - though Sevu's probably gets close.
Kicking. The Argentine's seemed to largely be kicking with momentum behind them - so their kicks were attacking kicks, while most of ours were defensive. They mainly kicked off shorter than we did and got arms up into the receptions to contest (and win), while we mainly kicked off deeper. Similarly, with box kicks - especially later in th game - almost all of theirs were contestible and they were rolling the dice by getting an arm up to disrupt the catcher - sometimes knocking on, but other times causing us to spill the ball loose. Ours were mainly too deep to contest. Sometimes to touch. Maybe we were backing our lineout?
These things are fixable.
What I wonder about our backline, though is - do we have to go back to the lesson of RWC 1991.
That day, we fielded Bachop, Fox, Timu, McCahill, Innes, Kirwan and Crowley.
Afterwards Simon Poidevin (the Wallaby openside) said the game was pretty easy for him because he knew neither Fox nor McCahill would run - so he just headed straight for Innes. Crowley also wasn't much of an offensive threat and Timu a bit mediocre. So Innes and Kirwan - can't remember if Bachop ran or not. Late in the game Foxy dummied and broke clear, but the cover mopped him up because he had no real pace.
The lesson was - almost everyone in your backline needs to offer offensive threat. Otherwise it's too easy to mark the threats and shut them down. We need size, speed, outrageous skills.
When you're running around with Christie, Beaudy, Rieko, Jordie, Billy, Sevu and Will - who will, apart from Will?
It's pretty bland offensively.
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Had a little re-watch this evening. A few things that spring to mind.
We made far too many largely unforced errors. Early on dropping cold a couple of catchable passes, Jordie's skewed chip, giving away dumb penalties and towards the end a couple of lineout malfunctions. You could easily find ten errors from poor skills or foolishness that stopped momentum cold.
Three yellow cards to nil - again handing momentum to Argentina - and points. A killer, but still not terminal even for this side - though Sevu's probably gets close.
Kicking. The Argentine's seemed to largely be kicking with momentum behind them - so their kicks were attacking kicks, while most of ours were defensive. They mainly kicked off shorter than we did and got arms up into the receptions to contest (and win), while we mainly kicked off deeper. Similarly, with box kicks - especially later in th game - almost all of theirs were contestible and they were rolling the dice by getting an arm up to disrupt the catcher - sometimes knocking on, but other times causing us to spill the ball loose. Ours were mainly too deep to contest. Sometimes to touch. Maybe we were backing our lineout?
These things are fixable.
What I wonder about our backline, though is - do we have to go back to the lesson of RWC 1991.
That day, we fielded Bachop, Fox, Timu, McCahill, Innes, Kirwan and Crowley.
Afterwards Simon Poidevin (the Wallaby openside) said the game was pretty easy for him because he knew neither Fox nor McCahill would run - so he just headed straight for Innes. Crowley also wasn't much of an offensive threat and Timu a bit mediocre. So Innes and Kirwan - can't remember if Bachop ran or not. Late in the game Foxy dummied and broke clear, but the cover mopped him up because he had no real pace.
The lesson was - almost everyone in your backline needs to offer offensive threat. Otherwise it's too easy to mark the threats and shut them down. We need size, speed, outrageous skills.
When you're running around with Christie, Beaudy, Rieko, Jordie, Billy, Sevu and Will - who will, apart from Will?
It's pretty bland offensively.
