The Silver Fern

Its very, very seldom that the ABs lose two matches in a row, so I waded through a great number of your 600+ and counting comments. The emotion in the immediate aftermath is to be expected however distance gives a slightly different perspective.
First the comments show the NZ public is passionate and knowledgeable. A good base to work from.
Second a number of valid points have been raised. In particular gt12's "just choose". This would generate tremendous competition for a number of places in the team and incredible performances would result. The battles for 2, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15 in particular would show off more talent than is available anywhere else in the world.
Third. There are some weaknesses and its unrealistic to think there would never be at least some. Depth at lock is clearly an issue. A weakness that needs a lot of good coaching for sure. But a weakness non-the less, not a disaster.
Fourth a poser for me. The ABs have been brilliant at scrambling wins, often in the dying moments when many facets of the game have not been working. Why, then, do they collapse when they loose a player? A loss last year was understandable but not the extent of the drubbing. And this year against rookie Wallabies and when they even enjoyed a 10 min numerical advantage???
And just stepping back a bit. The draw. How different if Rico had grounded the ball. Against Argentina. If Rico (again, but I do believe he is a very fine player) had caught that second half pass and Also HS passing with the line at his mercy? So close to 3 wins from 4 and very different emotions I suggest...

Congratulations the ABs came back.

As was to be expected:
• Win built on forward dominance (almost walkover)
• Had plan to go round the rock-solid mid-field defense - by kicking over and to the wings
• AB hookers were badly behaved
• Given half a chance, WJ will find his way to the line
• Akira did justice to the 6 jersey
• Argentina folded under the pressure

What was not expected:
• Save for a few just-outside the 22 bombs, kicks were just a waste of ball
• Backline failed to spark
• SB was impressive

Summary. "Just pick one" would have had Beauden on with Ritchie having an off day - important in close games when an extra spark is needed (remember Chicago). Most of the time the ABs are still the team to beat BUT they have developed a worrying (for their supporters) tendency to go off the boil, and when they do they are far less formidable than they have been in the recent past.

Hope [at least (dream)] one of the games to be arranged before the Lions will be Boks v ABs.

Just happened on your thread Wairau

Incredibly industrious with your physical training. You may have said so in one of your threads over the 8+ years so apologies if I have missed it. My question is: why?

I am surprised that, unusually, I am unable to find many positives in an AB performance. Thankfully there was at least one - WJ's try. Another is the opportunity to learn from ones mistakes.

The biggest is the Springbok disease of excessive and aimless kicking. The ABs have punished them time and again for it so why afford Ireland the same opportunity?

It does not hurt to have too much grunt up front in a test match or any rugby game for that matter. Against any serious opposition Ardie must start.