The Silver Fern

I think if you look at the whole picture it’s clear to me that the selections of not just the wings but the whole team is about trying to capitalize on our points of difference relative to other teams. The easy conservative selections against Springboks would to choose defensively and match them. Choose Owen Franks, choose a big 6, choose Bender at fullback and Jordie on one wing to counter their kicking. Instead Hansen chooses to capitalize on our points of differences areas that we don’t just match the opposition but where they will struggle to beat us. Props who can handle, an electric back row, form wings who can finish, an irrepressible full back. I salute Hansen for making the aggressive selections and I think he was leaning that way on the wings in 2015 with NMS and Naholo, but Naholo disappointed in pool stages.

Back row still feels undersized for me.

So far it just seems to be a masterclass from Hansen and his coaches, Despite my complaints about leaving J. Ioane at home and B Smith out of the 23, the selections have been outstanding so far. The balance of experience and youth has been perfect, even if it would have been easier to go the conservative route Hansen has been aggressive and it’s paid off. The young Crusaders in the backs have repaid Hansen’s faith enormously. Also amazing is tactically the ABs seem to be adjusting to the rush defenses and defensively they also seem to be going lower in the tackle. Was always confident ABs would win by more than a try but the possibility of a hiding was material and that’s what we got. Bring on England.

@mariner4life said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@nzzp said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@mariner4life said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

I think half the problem is, up until the start of last year, the ABs thought they were perfectly positioned. And then they got muddled in their thinking, panicked, and left us in a mess. And a few chickens came home to roost as well with regards to developmental processes.

Lost faith in their senior players who fell off a cliff, didn't keep experience on the paddock, had terrible luck with injuries, missed a strong leader, and you get the volatile performances that wind up in a semifinal spanking.

In a world cup year it's a bit much to
change your back 3
constantly shuffle your midfield
change your 10
change your thinking at 6. twice.

In my mind way simpler than that, our three workhorses Rettallick, Whitelock and Read all came up empty. Read probably stuck around 2 years too long, Rettalick underdone and Whitelock nothing left in the tank.

I really don't get why Akira/Frizell is is making heads explode, I am happy for the depth. When you think historically how long the likes of Zinny, Kaino or Buck had to wait its a nonissue for Akira to wait. The rate of attrition in test rugby is so high, having 5 class loose forwards is not a problem.

@cgrant said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

People in this forum are great fans of Richie Mounga. He's had a mare : missed an easy tackle on Daly who is not the quickest fullback nor the strongest one (this led to England's first try), then could not handle the English rush defence. Let's hope he'll learn from this very disappointing performance.
The Bounga experiment was clearly a failure with BB's kicking from hand being an issue. Would DMac have done better ?

I hate the loss but I hate these kind of posts after the loss even worse. No complaints about Bounga after Wallabies, South Africa or Ireland , now its a failure? Nothing to suggest any other available combo would have done better. Really did not think Ritchie was the problem.

I think I am mostly with Bones and Booboo here in general I would say

1. Fozzie is probably not most peoples first choice but he is the coach now , I think its only fair to give him a chance.
2. Fat jokes are pretty old.
3. Not much point in comparing ABs to SA or England when we have no clue what they will be like, better to concentrate on whats in front of us for now.
4. I'll take the record so far but obviously 4 tests to go to judge the year.
5. I'll take the selections so far, plenty of debate but no disasters and has blooded 5 new ABs in the first 2 games. Selections have been pretty close to what I would have selected.

@Bones said in Argentina One: Parramatta, 14 November:

@pakman said in Argentina One: Parramatta, 14 November:

I agree with a lot of the general theme of posters about the development (or not) of AB game, but if players don't use their heads not a lot the coaching team can do.

I'm on the fence on this eh. I started off blaming the players for being stupid and still do to an extent but like I said in my first post, what the fuck is going on outside the games that is causing very accomplished players to become shells of their former selves?

A year or two ago Taylor was easily our best hooker and many were touting for Perenara over Smith. Now they look like NPC is their level. That can't all be on the players? It's so prevalent.

Yes I am struggling with this, over the last two games seem to be so many of our experienced guys who are underperforming. That’s 2 games in a row where I would struggle to find 3 MOTM candidates.

@sdrggyy said in Worst All Black RWC exits:

2019 we lost solely because of own our fault - no external factors involved.

I think England were an external factor, honestly don't think there was much between ABs, Boks and England, on any given day any of the three teams could have won imho. England caught us flat, Boks caught England flat.

My issue with BB at 10 is in the past the backline just has not hummed with him, really static, and for some reason his kicking from hand in that position not inspiring either.

Surprised at the ones who still want to see Reece at test level. I mean how many times do you have to underwhelm for the ABs to stop getting picked? Feel the same way about Havilli too.

@Bones said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:

Will have to watch again but thought Frizell was really good, as he was in Auckland.

He was ridiculously busy, especially in the first half. Pretty low impact ball in hand but certainly didn't stop him doing it time and time again, which must have an influence on the opposition defence.

I said it earlier, I thought he had a really strong game, him and Whitelock were the pick of the forwards for me. I do feel like this back row is a very tight one, no one shirks the hard stuff and they just get buried in everything. Great for wet weather matches. I think with Ardie a little looser, more turnovers and more on the wide channels. Both combinations great, love having all four players in the 23.

@stodders said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:

@victor-meldrew the biggest criticism of the evening was that the ABs put themselves in a position to close the game out. In possession and seconds on the clock. Boks had looked threatening with the ball, but not "strike from 80m" threatening.

TJP should have hoisted a box kick and put the pressure on Boks to win it from 80m. The breakdown is too much of a lottery to wind the clock down.

I’m guessing we would have killed him for not letting the forwards grind out the clock. That part has to be at the feet of Tuipolutu and others, Ardie did magnificently to put us in that position.

@hydro11

I think this AB team has shown they can beat anyone on a given day but reasonable to say you would not have confidence that they can win three tough tests in a row.

Problem I have with Razor is many of his selections and tactics seemed like he was just trying not to lose, meanwhile we lost a lot of games we could have won anyway so that experience did not help us. Let’s be real he should have been working on replacements for Reiko , ALB, Reece, Beaudie for months.

I think people putting far too much weight into that England game, we were flat as England were against SA. Our “small” team was certainly big enough when we played the Boks and I would say our back row and midfield came out on top. ALB/Laumape/Goodhue/Ennor all have the physical/skill requirements to excel at Test level. My one question would be our line speed in defence, we have not been that consistent as to whether we push really hard or hold back a little even though results have tended to be good if not a little mixed. I think Savea cannot be left out f starting XV and Cane if fit has to have a place which definitely leaves room for one big unit in Reads abscence and though all contenders have all been a little dissaponting you hope someone puts their hand up this season. In the second row Tuipolotu can solidify his spot and Barrett minus silly penalties plays above his size.

Good news is the growth of Laulala, Hames, Taylor and Tuingafasi in the front row is awesome at least it should be Crockett’s last year.

I wish I could remember the name of the poster who called me arrogant and delusional for saying any fringe AB back row forward could walk into a test rugby team. He claimed Luke Whitelock could not replace Robshaw or play in England 2nd row and here Brad Shields has done both! Still think it is a bad decision not to wait for him to step onto English soil, it just sends a bad message.

Will be interesting to see the adjustments that both teams make, I do have the sense that the English outside backs are more settled but England really need parity upfront to have a chance. Totally underwhelmed by Itoje and have been for a while.

I still think the NH are really missing the things and areas that make the ABs so good. They went into this game pretty much ignoring the ABs mid year form and considering a fatigued EOYT. Games 2,3,4 of the year are generally the ABs at their best and unlike what Gatland said the step up from Super rugby is wide. I also think if the pundits are lauding the Lions for their ball in hand game they will play right into the ABs hands, its the kind of game the ABs want the lions to play and there is no ways that they will have the players to back it up over 160 minutes. In my opinion they missed the try scoring chances simply because they do not have the skills to execute consistently under pressure. I cannot imagine the Lions finishing any of the AB try scoring chances but I can imagine the ABs converting all of the Lions chances.

@antipodean said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:

@Kirwan said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:

@antipodean said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:

@Kirwan said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:

@mariner4life said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:

@ACT-Crusader said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:

@mariner4life said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:

@Kirwan said in The 'How is Fozzie going?' thread:

Your basic point is right. We are great front runners, and struggle when matched up front by teams that don't play much.

but laying that at Foster's feet is a touch disingenuous because we've been like that for a long, long time. Slow the ball, limit turnovers, kick the ball out have been the keys to beating us for ages. We have, for a long time, played a simple game that is holding the opposition, then punishing the fuck out of errors (mainly bad kicks).

We don't pick teams apart with clever ball movement. We don't roll teams in the tight in a field position game and accumulate points. We rely on ruthlessly exploiting the opportunities that come from opposition errors, and a defensive system that keeps the opposition to 20 points or less. That's AB rugby.

And that predates Hansen

yes it does. It predates Ted as well.

So I guess my point is the fix is long overdue?

I've got to ask, the fix to what? England beat us last year because that was their sole focus for four years. Even then it was close. Our winning percentage has been remarkable. Every time we've shown some hubris (Ireland) we've learned a valuable lesson and rectified it.

Fozzie basically said in the last round of interviews that we've been struggling to play in the wet for the past few years and are guilt of overplaying.

The 2015 side could switch gameplans to the point we could play like England (tight and hit drop goals) and it won us a tight semi final against the Boks in terrible conditions.

The current side reminds of 2003 where we rely on opposition mistakes and them kicking to us. If our opposition plays conservatively, or kicks well, this team is going to struggle.

I thought we played pretty well in the conditions on Saturday night. It was refreshing to hear Fozzie make mention of the third quarter where we didn't maintain the standard, sop he's making the right noises for me.

The reality is we don't know how good or bad the team is playing just the one opposition, how much of their errors are created by our pressure. Imagine if Covid hadn't interfered with the schedule and we were busy flogging the Welsh?

Thought we were trying to earn the right to go wide, lots of carries by the forwards in close in and Mounga , Smith and Barrett varied the kicking game. As poor as the Ozzies were I think we have improved over 3 games.