All Blacks 2025
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I don't know if it had the wind behind it but that kick yesterday was one of the longest I've ever seen, perhaps even longer than Frans Steyn could kick it. If he could get the accuracy he should kick a few American footballs in the offseason and his backup plan can be the Zammit/Petaia route.
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@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Watched the Drua v Crusaders yesterday, and finally got a chance to see what all the fuss with Fihaki is about. Was underwhelmed. He looks a specimen, but doesn't seem to have a good feel for the game, and lacks the kind of raw speed and power that a young Julian Savea had back in the day. Happy to be corrected, but he looks nothing like an AB winger to me
I feel like at this point I've seen him play 12/15/wing? He doesn't seem to have a natural position and certainly isn't enough of an attacking threat for ABs at wing. Has always been a big kicker of the ball though.
Fihaki has never played 12 a wing /FB
I think it would be when I first saw him, probably Crusaders U20s.
Nah he was wing or FB in u/20s
Same for Canterbury . -
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Watched the Drua v Crusaders yesterday, and finally got a chance to see what all the fuss with Fihaki is about. Was underwhelmed. He looks a specimen, but doesn't seem to have a good feel for the game, and lacks the kind of raw speed and power that a young Julian Savea had back in the day. Happy to be corrected, but he looks nothing like an AB winger to me
One thing I have noticed he is doing a lot of defending in the MF against the opposition forwards and pulling off some good hits.
Something the AB coaches were giving him as work ons.
I believe he is in the frame for the ABs like it or not.He's 24 and isn't ripping it up in the try scoring stakes. I don't think he's going to make the grade
Don’t be surprised if he gets an AB jersey sometime in 2025.
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@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Watched the Drua v Crusaders yesterday, and finally got a chance to see what all the fuss with Fihaki is about. Was underwhelmed. He looks a specimen, but doesn't seem to have a good feel for the game, and lacks the kind of raw speed and power that a young Julian Savea had back in the day. Happy to be corrected, but he looks nothing like an AB winger to me
One thing I have noticed he is doing a lot of defending in the MF against the opposition forwards and pulling off some good hits.
Something the AB coaches were giving him as work ons.
I believe he is in the frame for the ABs like it or not.He's 24 and isn't ripping it up in the try scoring stakes. I don't think he's going to make the grade
You're applying selection criteria that exists only for players from the other clubs.
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@antipodean said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Watched the Drua v Crusaders yesterday, and finally got a chance to see what all the fuss with Fihaki is about. Was underwhelmed. He looks a specimen, but doesn't seem to have a good feel for the game, and lacks the kind of raw speed and power that a young Julian Savea had back in the day. Happy to be corrected, but he looks nothing like an AB winger to me
One thing I have noticed he is doing a lot of defending in the MF against the opposition forwards and pulling off some good hits.
Something the AB coaches were giving him as work ons.
I believe he is in the frame for the ABs like it or not.He's 24 and isn't ripping it up in the try scoring stakes. I don't think he's going to make the grade
You're applying selection criteria that exists only for players from the other clubs.
Yeah exactly. "isn't ripping it up in the try scoring stakes" sounds like Crusaders/AB material to me.
Hopefully Macca Springer gets a call up too. He looks dynamic in the Ralph/Hamilton/Bridge mode.
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@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Watched the Drua v Crusaders yesterday, and finally got a chance to see what all the fuss with Fihaki is about. Was underwhelmed. He looks a specimen, but doesn't seem to have a good feel for the game, and lacks the kind of raw speed and power that a young Julian Savea had back in the day. Happy to be corrected, but he looks nothing like an AB winger to me
I feel like at this point I've seen him play 12/15/wing? He doesn't seem to have a natural position and certainly isn't enough of an attacking threat for ABs at wing. Has always been a big kicker of the ball though.
Fihaki has never played 12 a wing /FB
I think it would be when I first saw him, probably Crusaders U20s.
Nah he was wing or FB in u/20s
Same for Canterbury .I honestly had to look that up because I thought I must be imagining it then, as I watched the 2021 Super Rugby U20s tournament. He played 12 vs Blues, 12 vs Highlanders, 13 vs Chiefs.
Back further he often played 12 at school it seems including for NZ schools vs Australia in 2018.
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@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Watched the Drua v Crusaders yesterday, and finally got a chance to see what all the fuss with Fihaki is about. Was underwhelmed. He looks a specimen, but doesn't seem to have a good feel for the game, and lacks the kind of raw speed and power that a young Julian Savea had back in the day. Happy to be corrected, but he looks nothing like an AB winger to me
I feel like at this point I've seen him play 12/15/wing? He doesn't seem to have a natural position and certainly isn't enough of an attacking threat for ABs at wing. Has always been a big kicker of the ball though.
Fihaki has never played 12 a wing /FB
I think it would be when I first saw him, probably Crusaders U20s.
Nah he was wing or FB in u/20s
Same for Canterbury .I honestly had to look that up because I thought I must be imagining it then, as I watched the 2021 Super Rugby U20s tournament. He played 12 vs Blues, 12 vs Highlanders, 13 vs Chiefs.
Back further he often played 12 at school it seems including for NZ schools vs Australia in 2018.
Yeah you are right he did has not played 12 since that tournament.
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@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Watched the Drua v Crusaders yesterday, and finally got a chance to see what all the fuss with Fihaki is about. Was underwhelmed. He looks a specimen, but doesn't seem to have a good feel for the game, and lacks the kind of raw speed and power that a young Julian Savea had back in the day. Happy to be corrected, but he looks nothing like an AB winger to me
One thing I have noticed he is doing a lot of defending in the MF against the opposition forwards and pulling off some good hits.
Something the AB coaches were giving him as work ons.
I believe he is in the frame for the ABs like it or not.He's 24 and isn't ripping it up in the try scoring stakes. I don't think he's going to make the grade
Don’t be surprised if he gets an AB jersey sometime in 2025.
I won't be surprised. Annoyed yes. Surprised no.
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doesn't look explosive enough to me. He's a big boy, handy in the air, reasonably quick, and a big boot - those are all good things, but without super quick acceleration and agression and evasiveness, i wouldn't pick him on the wing. he's just kinda a brown jordie barret no?
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@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Chris said in All Blacks 2025:
@HugeCarrot2 said in All Blacks 2025:
@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:
Watched the Drua v Crusaders yesterday, and finally got a chance to see what all the fuss with Fihaki is about. Was underwhelmed. He looks a specimen, but doesn't seem to have a good feel for the game, and lacks the kind of raw speed and power that a young Julian Savea had back in the day. Happy to be corrected, but he looks nothing like an AB winger to me
I feel like at this point I've seen him play 12/15/wing? He doesn't seem to have a natural position and certainly isn't enough of an attacking threat for ABs at wing. Has always been a big kicker of the ball though.
Fihaki has never played 12 a wing /FB
I think it would be when I first saw him, probably Crusaders U20s.
Nah he was wing or FB in u/20s
Same for Canterbury .I honestly had to look that up because I thought I must be imagining it then, as I watched the 2021 Super Rugby U20s tournament. He played 12 vs Blues, 12 vs Highlanders, 13 vs Chiefs.
Back further he often played 12 at school it seems including for NZ schools vs Australia in 2018.
Yeah you are right he did has not played 12 since that tournament.
Yeah I remembered because those were first games I saw him play and he looked a little out of place so I can understand the move to wing/fb. I just think he's going to struggle to ever hold down a wing spot for ABs when the other options offer more on attack. Even if they want a solid wing/fb hybrid with a big boot Springer has a similar skillset but offers more on attack from what I've seen.
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With Sititi out, Lio Willie the best performing 8 at the moment. Finau is showing his impact on games, and his lineout presence is top-notch these days as well. Savea is absolutely killing it at 7. That is my starting trio at the halfway mark.
Against the Blues pack going through fat man's ally, I thought Kirifi didn't shine. Is he OK against the bigger, tighter packs? Papalii very vanilla, and Blackadder/Jacobson not having the impact they ought to be having. Sotutu is having a tough year. -
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks 2025:
Tangitau let himself down last night. Given his greenness, that performance may have given the selectors the yips for this year. He can't afford any more games like that.
What did he do that was so bad? If that performance is something that would give these selectors the yips, it becomes even more thoroughly confusing how Fihaki gets selected.
Dropped ball, passed to nobody... He had a poor game.
Wasnt he subbed earlyish following a mistake? Or am I thinking of someone else?
But yeah you're right, it won't give the selectors the yips.
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@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks 2025:
@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:
@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks 2025:
Tangitau let himself down last night. Given his greenness, that performance may have given the selectors the yips for this year. He can't afford any more games like that.
What did he do that was so bad? If that performance is something that would give these selectors the yips, it becomes even more thoroughly confusing how Fihaki gets selected.
Dropped ball, passed to nobody... He had a poor game.
Wasnt he subbed earlyish following a mistake? Or am I thinking of someone else?
But yeah you're right, it won't give the selectors the yips.
Had a poor game for the standards he's set so far, yeah. But no worse than those selected last year, he just wasn't ridiculously good for once. Not sure why he was subbed, but it would be odd if it was for a couple of mistakes when that didn't apply to anyone else.
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Classic. 1 below par game for Tangitau, a stand out of the competition that NZ fans should all be excited about but people can’t wait to jump on him when something goes wrong.
He was subbed early yes, but it wasn’t after a mistake. It was at halftime.
As for Fihaki, if he gets named in the all blacks then we should consider ourselves in trouble, not only on the field but with the guys selecting him in the first place. We are talking about a guy who considered himself a fullback, yet couldn’t beat out Hutchinson to be the starting fullback for Canterbury in the NPC… does Fihaki have some nice moments? Sure. But let’s not ignore the fact he just flat out is not near AB level… always happy to be proven wrong because it would benefit NZ rugby, but I just don’t see it. It’s debatable whether he’s even the second best winger in the Crusaders…
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@Landers92 said in All Blacks 2025:
Classic. 1 below par game for Tangitau, a stand out of the competition that NZ fans should all be excited about but people can’t wait to jump on him when something goes wrong.
He was subbed early yes, but it wasn’t after a mistake. It was at halftime.
As for Fihaki, if he gets named in the all blacks then we should consider ourselves in trouble, not only on the field but with the guys selecting him in the first place. We are talking about a guy who considered himself a fullback, yet couldn’t beat out Hutchinson to be the starting fullback for Canterbury in the NPC… does Fihaki have some nice moments? Sure. But let’s not ignore the fact he just flat out is not near AB level… always happy to be proven wrong because it would benefit NZ rugby, but I just don’t see it. It’s debatable whether he’s even the second best winger in the Crusaders…
Don't be so sensitive. He had a poor game and I speculated that it might harm his selection chances, especially if he has more poor games. Our selectors haven't exactly shown an adventurous spirit so far have they?
Agree re Fihaki (but I suppose that was an adventurous selection). I have been scratching my head over Fihaki for years. I have not liked him at NPC level yet alone Super level, but this year he is looking Super level (not AB level before anyone jumps up and down). The only reason I can see why they may have selected him is they were looking for a fullback/wing option. I see Fihaki and Stevenson as similar type players with Stevenson having greater highs and greater lows than Fihaki.
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@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks 2025:
@Landers92 said in All Blacks 2025:
Classic. 1 below par game for Tangitau, a stand out of the competition that NZ fans should all be excited about but people can’t wait to jump on him when something goes wrong.
He was subbed early yes, but it wasn’t after a mistake. It was at halftime.
As for Fihaki, if he gets named in the all blacks then we should consider ourselves in trouble, not only on the field but with the guys selecting him in the first place. We are talking about a guy who considered himself a fullback, yet couldn’t beat out Hutchinson to be the starting fullback for Canterbury in the NPC… does Fihaki have some nice moments? Sure. But let’s not ignore the fact he just flat out is not near AB level… always happy to be proven wrong because it would benefit NZ rugby, but I just don’t see it. It’s debatable whether he’s even the second best winger in the Crusaders…
Don't be so sensitive. He had a poor game and I speculated that it might harm his selection chances, especially if he has more poor games. Our selectors haven't exactly shown an adventurous spirit so far have they?
Agree re Fihaki (but I suppose that was an adventurous selection). I have been scratching my head over Fihaki for years. I have not liked him at NPC level yet alone Super level, but this year he is looking Super level (not AB level before anyone jumps up and down). The only reason I can see why they may have selected him is they were looking for a fullback/wing option. I see Fihaki and Stevenson as similar type players with Stevenson having greater highs and greater lows than Fihaki.
Sensitive is a reach, I’m just pointing out it’s taken until week 8 to have for him to have a stinker and some couldn’t wait to get the forks out. Everyone has their bad games, this is a guy we should be hoping can learn from last night and bounce back in a big way. Absolutely no reason he can’t own a spot in the ABs this year if given a chance(other than selectors staying with the usual of course).
Yeah regarding Fihaki, I’ve said enough there. Way down the list on AB wing candidates in my opinion. Razors though, different story I’m sure.
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@Landers92 said in All Blacks 2025:
@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks 2025:
@Landers92 said in All Blacks 2025:
Classic. 1 below par game for Tangitau, a stand out of the competition that NZ fans should all be excited about but people can’t wait to jump on him when something goes wrong.
He was subbed early yes, but it wasn’t after a mistake. It was at halftime.
As for Fihaki, if he gets named in the all blacks then we should consider ourselves in trouble, not only on the field but with the guys selecting him in the first place. We are talking about a guy who considered himself a fullback, yet couldn’t beat out Hutchinson to be the starting fullback for Canterbury in the NPC… does Fihaki have some nice moments? Sure. But let’s not ignore the fact he just flat out is not near AB level… always happy to be proven wrong because it would benefit NZ rugby, but I just don’t see it. It’s debatable whether he’s even the second best winger in the Crusaders…
Don't be so sensitive. He had a poor game and I speculated that it might harm his selection chances, especially if he has more poor games. Our selectors haven't exactly shown an adventurous spirit so far have they?
Agree re Fihaki (but I suppose that was an adventurous selection). I have been scratching my head over Fihaki for years. I have not liked him at NPC level yet alone Super level, but this year he is looking Super level (not AB level before anyone jumps up and down). The only reason I can see why they may have selected him is they were looking for a fullback/wing option. I see Fihaki and Stevenson as similar type players with Stevenson having greater highs and greater lows than Fihaki.
Sensitive is a reach, I’m just pointing out it’s taken until week 8 to have for him to have a stinker and some couldn’t wait to get the forks out. Everyone has their bad games, this is a guy we should be hoping can learn from last night and bounce back in a big way. Absolutely no reason he can’t own a spot in the ABs this year if given a chance(other than selectors staying with the usual of course).
Yeah regarding Fihaki, I’ve said enough there. Way down the list on AB wing candidates in my opinion. Razors though, different story I’m sure.
It's hardly getting the forks out.
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@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks 2025:
I see Fihaki and Stevenson as similar type players with Stevenson having greater highs and greater lows than Fihaki.
Seems there's all sorts of reaching going on!
