2025 All Blacks v France series
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@chchfanatic said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@brodean pretty sure that didn’t happen.
The headbutt was so strong Razor has no memory of it
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where are all these sick new usernames coming from?
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@mariner4life said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
where are all these sick new usernames coming from?
unleash the AI
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The selectors are really going hard on the loose forward positions being interchangeable and not being wedded to who's playing where.
I was thinking when they named their original five that actually they had three people who could play each position.
- Finau, Sititi, Jacobson
- Kirifi, Savea, Jacobson
- Sititi, Savea, Jacobson
But with CLW coming in - if Luke is ruled out and Dalton also comes in, really we'd have:
- Finau (I guess Dalton at a pinch)
- Kirifi, Savea, Papali'i
- CLW, Savea
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Blackadder and Bell both been training with ABs this week.
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@AmberArmy said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Chris-B which makes it very hard to fathom why Blackadder hasn’t been brought in. Something is definitely off there.
Razor thinks Ethan lacks impact. So that would suggest he's down the pecking order and may have been told to address that in the NPC?
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@nzzp said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@mariner4life said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
where are all these sick new usernames coming from?
unleash the AI
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@antipodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@AmberArmy said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Chris-B which makes it very hard to fathom why Blackadder hasn’t been brought in. Something is definitely off there.
Razor thinks Ethan lacks impact. So that would suggest he's down the pecking order and may have been told to address that in the NPC?
Took him long enough.
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@Tim said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Chris-B It was mentioned in the Herald a couple of times this year (and by @george33) that Papalii had increased his weight to have more impact in collisions, so he may be looked at as a seven and six cover.
He may be doing the right thing, but it's bloody hard to know.
On the one hand they appear to be picking utility guys who are going to be good in general play - almost left and right flankers - but not great at lineouts or where massive speed is a necessity.
On the other hand, they're picking Kirifi (a whippet) and Finau a big body.
I can't tell whether they want two or three generalists or three specialists.
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@MN5 said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@antipodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@AmberArmy said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Chris-B which makes it very hard to fathom why Blackadder hasn’t been brought in. Something is definitely off there.
Razor thinks Ethan lacks impact. So that would suggest he's down the pecking order and may have been told to address that in the NPC?
Took him long enough.
Yeah, after all in the playoffs the impact of Finau, Jacobson, Papalii, Sititi against Blackadder was what exactly?
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@reprobate said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@MN5 said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@antipodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@AmberArmy said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Chris-B which makes it very hard to fathom why Blackadder hasn’t been brought in. Something is definitely off there.
Razor thinks Ethan lacks impact. So that would suggest he's down the pecking order and may have been told to address that in the NPC?
Took him long enough.
Yeah, after all in the playoffs the impact of Finau, Jacobson, Papalii, Sititi against Blackadder was what exactly?
Razor has decided it’s too little too late
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@Chris-B said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Tim said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
@Chris-B It was mentioned in the Herald a couple of times this year (and by @george33) that Papalii had increased his weight to have more impact in collisions, so he may be looked at as a seven and six cover.
He may be doing the right thing, but it's bloody hard to know.
On the one hand they appear to be picking utility guys who are going to be good in general play - almost left and right flankers - but not great at lineouts or where massive speed is a necessity.
On the other hand, they're picking Kirifi (a whippet) and Finau a big body.
I can't tell whether they want two or three generalists or three specialists.
That's my concern, we keep picking squads which don't really make any cohesive sense to me. Savea and Kirifi makes sense - if they're picking Savea as a 7. If they're picking Savea as an 8 and Jacobson as a 7 on the other hand, then LJ and Kirifi are completely different.
CLW in for Sititi would make sense if they were planning to play Wallace at 8 - but CLW wasn't actually picked as that, he was picked as cover for Jacobson... who he plays really quite differently to.
And obviously Finau and who? Surely they can't be serious about the locks - they might provide a comparable lineout option, but they will not be up to scratch in other areas. And the other loosies picked don't play like him at all either. What do we do if he doesn't work out? Is there a plan for that? Because there bloody well ought to be given it is exactly what happened last year. -
@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:
Think you guys are forgetting the 4 locks that cover 6.
The slight problem with that plan is that the two guys who cover six are also pretty clearly our top lock pairing.
Maybe the plan will become obvious once they've named a couple of teams - or maybe it will be like last year where the plan was so cunning it needed to paint itself purple and dance naked on top of a harpsichord singing 'Cunning plans are here again' for us to recognize it!
