Is Lakai selection more of a reaction to our implosion in the final 20 when the bench guys came on or has he just not been 100% fit until now?
I just don't understand why Kirifi was getting picked over him for so long when Lakai's ceiling is higher, he's 22 vs Kirifi 28 and he's 110kg vs Kirifi 103kg.
Papali'i & Darry should be there over Finau & Lord... but we don't pick Blues with this coaching setup.
Monstered the Chiefs in the 1/4s missing 2 abs and took Crusaders to 86 mins in the Semi.
Razor must think Cotter is a coaching demi-god considering their clinical performances in the playoffs 2024 & 2025 with barely any test quality players!
@Bones Josh Beehre being too small at 198cm & 118kg at 23 years is news to me, he's already quite a bit heavier than Darry & Lord who are both older, being over 198cm isn't so important (Maro Itoje is 197cm) it's more about arm reach and jumping height isn't it?
@Mattasaurus said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe I:
The fact we are still tossing Rieko's name around "cos of his defense" .. sums up the issues we have in midfield for me.
Ikitau and Suaalii are far better and more complete midfielders and create so many opportunities for the outsides... we simply have no center's standing up and demanding to be picked at least not any with a complete game on both defense and offense.
They are.... because they've been training under Schmidt for 18 months - those guys were not exactly setting the world alight in Super Rugby - B.Sullivan, Q.Tupaea, ALB, Tawawanavai, Umaga-Jenson, Proctor, were statistically the best performers in Super Rugby this year.
We just have poor technical coaches like our 'midfield specialist' Holland who has overseen the midfield functionality going from world-class under Schmidt in 2023 to steadily going backwards in 2024 and 2025 under Holland.
Not a single midfielder has improved under Holland's watch, they have regressed in every aspect - defense, offense, positional play - Ioane, Barrett, ALB, all performed significantly better under Schmidt.
Stop blaming the players and wake up.
Eddie Jones' unsparing verdict on Andy Farrell's Ireland
Japan head coach Eddie Jones believes Ireland are on the downward slope of their recent golden era, suggesting they're “coming off their peak
I agree entirely with Eddie's verdict here... and think England will pose a much bigger threat to the Grand Slam.
New Zealand dominating a game, putting it to bed, totally losing their heads and throwing it all away and then squeaking it out at the end with some AB magic. The quintessential NZ rugby experience.
@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:
@canefan said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:
@Mauss said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:
Can you get those stats? It would be also interesting to see how many times Proctor passed for the Canes compared to the ABs. Just totally different gameplans which isn't helping him progress and get comfortable in one of the hardest positions within the team.
RugbyPass these days has player profile pages where you can look at specific stats for each competition (TRC, SRP, NPC, and so on). This is Proctor's page, for example:
Get Billy Proctor stats, ratings, news, & video on the world's largest rugby player & team database. Click here to get the latest news on Billy Proctor
If you want to know how often he passed for the Hurricanes, you can take his total number of passes during this year's Canes season (73), divide it by his total playing minutes (517) and then multiply by 80 to get a match average.
So he'd get to a number of 11.3 passes per 80 minutes, which is considerably more than what he averages for the ABs during the TRC (5.1 passes per 80 minutes).
Thanks for pulling this data out, just paints a picture that because of the way the ABs have decided to play, Proctor is getting barely any chance to make a proper impact.
Same probably went for Reiko
I'm not anti-Rieko, and would have no problem with him being selected based on his defence - but he has hardly carved it up or shown a great passing game for the Blues over the past 2 seasons - which may of course be a reflection of how they have played too.
The last time I think he was really good was the WC.
Maybe that speaks to what Joe Schmidt was able to extract from him? The current AB coaches definitely aren't getting the best out of him.
@brodean said in England Vs All Blacks:
@restofit said in England Vs All Blacks:
@DaGrubster said in England Vs All Blacks:
CLW, Josh Beehre and Caleb Tangitau added to the squad as training cover.
Finau and Jacobsen are heading home
Clarke, Jordan, Tangitau - the back 3 for 2027 World Cup?
It sounds exciting but I honestly don't see us winning an RWC with Jordan at 15.
We need someone at fullback with a better aerial game, a better boot, and a better play making ability.
Lol, the WC isn't going to be won or lost depending on whether Jordan plays 15 or 14 for god's sake.
@KiwiMurph said in Wales v All Blacks:
A missed opportunity if you dont include Tangitau (which I dont expect them to). A perfect chance to debut him.
yes - it's a pretty dick move by Razor to not give him a debut considering he missed the final All Black XV game against Uruguay to train with them, I mean we've really got nothing left to lose - the England test was all that mattered and Wales are essentially a tier 2 nation at this point...
i agree with other posters - instead of meaningless b comp that no one will care about why not extend the SR season? it's too short and doesn't give wider members enough opportunities.
@African-Monkey 1-5 Ryan, 6-8 Razor, 9-10 Hansen, 12-13 Holland, 11,14,15 Rangi
don't ya remember?
@booboo said in Wales v All Blacks:
@sparky said in Wales v All Blacks:
@Number-10 said in Wales v All Blacks:
Worst ever All Blacks test team.
I've seen worse
In the context of the tour and 2025 season, players we needed to develop/cut, it's pretty bad.
Our current defensive structure is still my main concern - why not employ the highly regarded Cory Jane to oversee our defence (who is already on NZR's payroll as D-coach for both Hurricanes and ABs XV) and move Ellison back to his original role of breakdown & contact skills coach?
@stodders said in All Blacks 2025:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2025:
@nzzp said in All Blacks 2025:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2025:
I've felt Holland has been out of his depth ever since he automatically got the head coaching gig at the Canes, was even more baffled when Razor wanted him on his team.
Holland was assistant coach to Canterbury at the same time as Razor. Razor seems to be a relationship guy - he trusts people he has known for some time. It's great, but only if they are actually really good coaches.
Which Holland has proven he’s not.
Holland is the strike play coach, no? Out of all the coaches this year, he’s been earning his corn off first phase. Not a great deal he can do if the team can’t win good first phase ball. They did in the first test against Boks and they carved them open for 2 tries. That suggests some degree of good coaching, no?
Bryn Evans has been responsible for most of the All Blacks tries off set-piece this year, there was a recent article that detailed the difference Evans has made to the strike plays, which were a real weaknesses for us last year & Razor bringing in Evans is the best thing he's done all tenure - that wrap around try off the back of the scrum in Wellington was a play Evans used previously at the Hurricanes.
@Trig said in Blues 2026:
@Tim said in Blues 2026:
@Daffy-Jaffy I wonder if James Cameron will be on an NDC contract. Maybe the prop is in WTG?
James Cameron was confirmed by Blues as Full Squad 2026
well, that's a blockbuster signing for them.
@MN5 said in All Blacks & All Blacks XV EOYT Squads 2025:
@brodean said in All Blacks & All Blacks XV EOYT Squads 2025:
@nostrildamus said in All Blacks & All Blacks XV EOYT Squads 2025:
@brodean said in All Blacks & All Blacks XV EOYT Squads 2025:
Zarn Sullivan is the most similar to JB and hes been showing strong form over the last few weeks.
In his (Zarn's) customary fullback role? Or has he changed positions?
A couple of years ago fullback was JB's customary role too.
Sullivan is probably a better crash ball runner, offloader, and exit kicker than JB too.
Sullivan has always been a freakish talent. Just as talented as JB. It's interesting that JB was brought in as a 20 year old and persevered with until he came right despite some brain explosions and crappy kicks. Sullivan hasn't been afforded the same special treatment as a kind of project player. I guess Sititi is the project player we have at the moment.
JB is a very good player but for the red carpet that was rolled out to him he's been a bit of a disappointment for me. He should be close to the best player in the world based on his talent and nurturing but he isn't. He hasn't been pushing for world player of the year and he's not even definitively the best 12 in the world.
Probably difficult to achieve when you have coaches like Foster and Robertson.
Or maybe De Allende, Esterhuizen, Aki etc are just better players ?
I'm not sure the narrative around 'such and such a player being world class if it weren't for those darn coaches' is accurate in a lot of cases.
do you even keep up to date with test rugby? Aki has been in utterly disastrous form recently, almost singlehandedly lost the 3rd test for the Lions.
@Grooter said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe I:
@canefan do people actually care that much that Leicester is holding tackle bags for the ABs? The only guys in the country that should be bothered are Daniel Rona & AJ Lam
Bailyn Sullivan would feel most aggrieved, he was a gun for the canes this season.
@canefan said in Poll: Best AB coach - professional era:
@African-Monkey said in Poll: Best AB coach - professional era:
@mariner4life said in Poll: Best AB coach - professional era:
He'll get no love because he's a weird fluffybunny
But Mitch in successive weekends put 50 past South Africa and Aussie at their houses, and then won back the Bledisloe. Brought through some great ABs.
Yeah it's funny with Mitchell, because even though he lost the public, we did some insane things in 2003, and he wasn't afraid to make big calls.
Putting McDonald into midfield at RWC2003 wasn't his smartest move
Deans selected the backline, you can't blame Mitchell for that.
@DaGrubster said in England Vs All Blacks:
CLW, Josh Beehre and Caleb Tangitau added to the squad as training cover.
Finau and Jacobsen are heading home
Clarke, Jordan, Tangitau - the back 3 for 2027 World Cup?
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@restofit said in All Blacks 2025:
@stodders said in All Blacks 2025:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2025:
@nzzp said in All Blacks 2025:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2025:
I've felt Holland has been out of his depth ever since he automatically got the head coaching gig at the Canes, was even more baffled when Razor wanted him on his team.
Holland was assistant coach to Canterbury at the same time as Razor. Razor seems to be a relationship guy - he trusts people he has known for some time. It's great, but only if they are actually really good coaches.
Which Holland has proven he’s not.
Holland is the strike play coach, no? Out of all the coaches this year, he’s been earning his corn off first phase. Not a great deal he can do if the team can’t win good first phase ball. They did in the first test against Boks and they carved them open for 2 tries. That suggests some degree of good coaching, no?
Bryn Evans has been responsible for most of the All Blacks tries off set-piece this year, there was a recent article that detailed the difference Evans has made to the strike plays, which were a real weaknesses for us last year & Razor bringing in Evans is the best thing he's done all tenure - that wrap around try off the back of the scrum in Wellington was a play Evans used previously at the Hurricanes.
I am not sure about that Evans is in charge of the line outs and they have not been great.
Holland was also involved in that strike move as it was from a line out involving the backs..
And that is really the only strike move I have seen that has come off in the last 4 tests.
Are you sure about that?
It’s a try Roigard has scored before for the Hurricanes, which blindside flanker Tupou Vaa’i noted after the match when he credited Evans as the mastermind behind the move.
“We honestly stole that from the Hurricanes eh,” Vaa’i said. “We saw it early on, actually here [in Wellington], against the Highlanders. They did that trick play around the front.
“Bryn is such a creative guy and we’ve been saying for years we need a lineout coach and he’s definitely bringing a different flavour to the lineouts and it’s obviously paying off.”
