RWC Week 1: France v All Blacks
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@No-Quarter said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Fainga'anuku has some experience in the mid and could be used as a crash ball merchant to free up some space for Rieko. Maybe that's part of the plan with all these outside backs? As I just haven't been able to get my head around the squad makeup thus far.
me neither. do not understand it.
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@mariner4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@reprobate said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@mariner4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
The World XV is a bit different these days
The talent around is very even, and very spread. If people were asked to give the XV you would get a heap of different answers.
I'm not switching our 13, 11, or 14 with anyone. Sam Whitelock is still a very very good player. Aaron Smith is still the best 9 if you want a guy who gets the rucks fast and gets the ball well away from the breakdown super fast.
That's a 3rd of our team who would be in the conversation1 good forward and some good outside backs sounds a bit like early 2000s Hurricanes - except those outside backs were all best ever candidates, and they still finished 9th or so out of 12 teams...
Except that's not what I said is it?
God when did we become such scared bitches? You would think that every opposition team is full of the best players in the world (despite the impossibility of that statement) with no weaknesses
The French are good but they aren't 2015 ABs good, and they have key injuries
The Irish are good, but they lack points and if you nullify sexton the rest will fold
We beat the Boks pretty handsomely already this yearThe way I see it is the rugby we see over the next few weeks will be a different sport to that we have seen win the interim since the 2019 World Cup. It's a well trodden path at this stage. It's typically scoreboard advancing in increments of three, cagey affairs where the players and refs can be perceived to freeze big time depending on whose fans you talk to.
Wayne Barnes in 2007, Joubert in the Scotland v Australia game in 2015, Bryce Lawrence in 2011 (which ended his career), Joubert in 2011 final etc.
This New Zealand team does not have a body of work behind them that suggests they can come from behind against the big teams or grind out an arm wrestle and win by a score in the dying minutes like McCaws boys could. There was a mental steel to that vintage which I haven't seen in this crop.
For most of Fosters tenure the team has been all fur coat and no knickers. Flashes of brilliance with no cohesion, no discernible game plan to the amateur eye and headless chook stuff on the field in some of the defeats. It's one thing to lose. But lose like you know what you are doing out there. I also think Foster has got a lot wrong at the selection table and players like Cane and Beaudy have lived charmed lives. There is a lack of ruthlessness from the top down. Even Robinson dropped a bollock in not sacking Foster. The only time in recent memory the team showed (for want of a better phrase) "big dick energy" was when they ran over the top of the Springboks in NZ this year.
I can see us pumping some teams and taking a scalp or two but it will be harem scarem stuff with some Will Jordan or Telea magic getting us over the line.
I also think its fair to say the Aura is well and truly gone. We are the most carded team in the world since the 2017 Lions tour and Allblacks are routinely sent off for infringements that other teams (at times) seem to get away with. It's almost like a CV padder to ping them off the park. To show your "strength" as an official.
I also think rightly or wrongly the refs don't really "fear" Cane in the same way they were aware of McCaw's presence.
I think with McCaw in the team, the opening ten or so minutes in Twickenham against the Boks doesn't happen. It would have been sorted with the ref after the first ping of the whistle.
I also think we have been led a merry dance off the field in relation to ref/laws/citings/TMO chat and playing the media. We have been on a charm offensive throughout the social media age turning the other cheek after any perceived shafting. Other coaches (rightly or wrongly) use the build up to a test match to build a narrative, plant seeds and reflect on stuff that happened in the previous test. Rassie in the Lions tour, Eddie Jones etc. Sexton does it on the field at every ruck!
Foster should have been talking to media about Springboks getting tactically injured every time they have a player in the bin. Running the clock and acting the maggot. There are diplomatic ways to say it. Similarly he should have cried blue murder after Porter broke Retallicks orbital bone and only got a yellow after Ta'avao the week before. You need to kick up such a stink that they daren't do it to your team again. Its professional sport folks.
In spite of all of the above, by luck (through injury) rather than design, I think we can cobble together a superb 15 on any gameweek and fancy us to beat anyone in the tournament on any given day.
Can we do it 3 or 4 weeks on the spin is the question...
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With this game, I'm less interested in a win than I am in coming out with as few injuries to key players as possible.
It's a fair assumption we will qualify and we need as many of our no. 1 squad of 23 as fit as possible for the knockout stages if we are to do well in this thing.
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@Duluth said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
'Weakest in history': France will 'trounce' All Blacks in opener says former French international
Former French international Olivier Magne has brutally labelled the 2023 All Blacks the weakest in history ahead of the Rugby World Cup opener in Paris on Friday night.
I am forced to listen to magne because he commentates on French tv. After the last game, all I can say is that if his mum looked under his bed, she would find a copy of SA rugby almanac 2023 with the centrefold stuck together.
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@Steve I agree, apart from your first sentence. It is only once it hits the knockouts the game grinds to a halt. Pools can be quite free wheeling, even in the big ones.
A win and pool topping would be good, despite the fact we most likely will hit either Arg or SA in the 1/4s. There is a chance Scotland get through, but I can't see them topping the pool.
And I am sure Foster would rather add the first-ever loss to Scotland, rather than the first-ever RWC pool loss to his CV.Getting Sco in the 1/4s and a relatively weak Pool C/D opponent in the semi, would be great - only one game we really have to fluke, the final! -
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@Machpants for De Groot, or for Lomax?
Paps at 6, no thanks, surely they'd pick Jacobson. Get Blackadder on a plane already, the ABs are beginning to look very mediocre.
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@Canes4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@Machpants for De Groot, or for Lomax?
Paps at 6, no thanks, surely they'd pick Jacobson. Get Blackadder on a plane already, the ABs are beginning to look very mediocre.
I so want Ethan to be there. I have every faith in him, in any position in the backrow. He is no worse size wise to any of the other 3 incumbents.
He would go out on his shield anyway.
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@Canes4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@Machpants for De Groot, or for Lomax?
Paps at 6, no thanks, surely they'd pick Jacobson. Get Blackadder on a plane already, the ABs are beginning to look very mediocre.
Yeah Lomax, brain fart
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@Steve I'd love to see a Blackadder, Cane and Savea combo. Paps isn't a 6, he isn't big enough and with both him and Cane in that loose forward trio, we lose too much offensively as they aren't very dynamic with ball in hand.
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@Steve said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@Canes4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@Machpants for De Groot, or for Lomax?
Paps at 6, no thanks, surely they'd pick Jacobson. Get Blackadder on a plane already, the ABs are beginning to look very mediocre.
I so want Ethan to be there. I have every faith in him, in any position in the backrow. He is no worse sidewise to any of the other 3 incumbents.
He would go out on his shield anyway.
Lineout option too.
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@Canes4life said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
@Steve I'd love to see a Blackadder, Cane and Savea combo. Paps isn't a 6, he isn't big enough and with both him and Cane in that loose forward trio, we lose too much offensively as they aren't very dynamic with ball in hand.
We were both right about Jordie at 12. Time will vindicate us regarding Blackadder too. Mark my words.
When Ethan is on the field, you know he's on the field. There are no quiet spells.
The other team will know they were in a game.
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Papalii is the biggest of all of the fit loose forwards. The problem is that in his only start at 6 (2nd test vs Ireland) he was ineffective.
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@Machpants said in RWC: France v All Blacks:
Herald are reckoning
Laulala forGrootduh Lomax
Codie to start
Paps in 6 (three 7s is a winner)
Jordie not risked and ALB in 12ALB will be gobbled up. They don't need to worry about him at all. Can drift off him onto Rieko all day long.
Has no kicking game, no pace, no physicality, no RTS style step. Vanilla. A shirt being filled.
Id sooner give Leicester a go there with no practise.
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So, its starting to look like
De Groot, Taylor, Laulala
Barrett, Whitelock
Paps, Ardie, Cane
Smith, Mounga
ALB, Ioane
Telea, BB, JordanHow many starters are we missing, Lomax, Frizzel and Jordie from starting 15 and BBBR on the bench? So 4 of the 23 or am I missing someone?
David Kirk: What the All Blacks need to do to win the Rugby World Cup
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