All Blacks 2023
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@Kirwan said in All Blacks 2023:
Our best performance of the year was when Foster took a holiday and Schmidt or the players ran things. Ironically, saving his job.
Thought that was Ireland 1.
Mind you, I've drunk so much in the last 2-3 years to forget the losses I'm probably getting thngs mixed up.
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2006
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@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2023:
@Kirwan said in All Blacks 2023:
Our best performance of the year was when Foster took a holiday and Schmidt or the players ran things. Ironically, saving his job.
Thought that was Ireland 1.
Mind you, I've drunk so much in the last 2-3 years to forget the losses I'm probably getting thngs mixed up.
More likely that I've misremembered it.
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@Kirwan said in All Blacks 2023:
@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2023:
@Kirwan said in All Blacks 2023:
Our best performance of the year was when Foster took a holiday and Schmidt or the players ran things. Ironically, saving his job.
Thought that was Ireland 1.
Mind you, I've drunk so much in the last 2-3 years to forget the losses I'm probably getting thngs mixed up.
More likely that I've misremembered it.
Pity we can't simply forget....
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@Machpants Hurricane Whitelock and Hurricane Smith, unsure who the other 2 are.
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2023:
@Machpants Hurricane Whitelock and Hurricane Smith, unsure who the other 2 are.
Was joking about the name of the boy band, as it looks like a moody album cover
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks 2023:
@Machpants Hurricane Whitelock and Hurricane Smith, unsure who the other 2 are.
A bigger version of the picture with a couple more faces. Kurt Baker and maybe Andre Taylor?
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@Nepia you're wrong, Crosswell played for the Canes aswell.
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@Bovidae pretty sure that isn't Kade Poki. Looks more like Nigel Hunt, but not sure it's even him either.
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2023:
@Nepia you're wrong, Crosswell played for the Canes aswell.
So the guy who hadn't been identified at the time I posted also played for the Canes. Sweet.
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@Chris said in All Blacks 2023:
The last 4 years under Foster would have massively aged everyone.
He looked 40 when he first started playing for Canterbury, same with his brothers.
You Cantabs will blame anything on Fozzie. I'm surprised he hasn't been retrospectively blamed for the earthquake.
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@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2023:
@Bovidae pretty sure that isn't Kade Poki. Looks more like Nigel Hunt, but not sure it's even him either.
I think that photo includes players from the Manawatū area schools. Poki went to Hato Paora College, near Feilding.
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Nice to see it confirmed, still stuck in a defensive time warp
Why All Blacks' near-century won't have Ireland or South Africa sweating
The All Blacks' 79-point win over Italy confirmed what New Zealand's main rivals already know.
You would think that beating a team from the Six Nations tournament by a margin of 79 points would be enough to make any World Cup-winning hopeful sit up and take notice. In fact, New Zealand’s demolition of Italy will only confirm what the likes of Ireland, France and South Africa already know: that if you give the All Blacks the gilt-edged opportunities they want, and play right into their hands, they will score a hatful of points.
Question and answers alike circle like vultures over the New Zealand defence. Its fundamental shape and philosophy has not changed much for the better part of 10 years, and in the knockout stages of World Cup 2023 it will be challenged like never before.
The All Blacks will operate their Venus flytrap, dragging the opposition attack wide with the honey of easy pickings, then the jaws will clap shut at the least sign of weakness at the ruck, and the counter-attack begins. It is a formula devised by ‘The Professor’, Wayne Smith, and it has proved its value and stood the test of time.
But the times have moved on, and the ghosts of the three wise men, Sir Graham Henry, Sir Steve Hansen and ‘Smithy’, stand in the dim distance. The spectres of a decade of Kiwi dominance may just be ripe for exorcism.
