All Blacks 2022

[Old Samurai Jack]

From this armchair, they got the backs right. Forwards have some surprises.

[Tim]

Unavailable for selection due to injury - Joe Moody, Anton Lienert-Brown, Ethan Blackadder.

Unavailable for selection due to New Zealand Rugby return to play criteria - Patrick Tuipulotu, Damian McKenzie.

[ACT Crusader]

@MrDenmore said in All Blacks 2022:

Only one specialist blindside in Akira Ioane? Think they’re going to miss Blackadder’s versatility.

Nah, plenty of blindside options with Papali’i or Vaa’i or Barrett

[antipodean]

And the backs:

[number9]

What the absolute fuck. Karl T plays 60 minutes all season and gets in ahead of De Groot and Hodgman. Absoute bullshit.

[Machpants]

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks 2022:

@MrDenmore said in All Blacks 2022:

Only one specialist blindside in Akira Ioane? Think they’re going to miss Blackadder’s versatility.

Nah, plenty of blindside options with Papali’i or Vaa’i or Barrett

Or Ardie

[Winger]

Highlander 2
Canes 3
Chiefs 9
Crusaders 10
Blues 11

[ACT Crusader]

@Winger said in All Blacks 2022:

Highlander 2
Canes 3
Chiefs 9
Crusaders 10
Blues 11

Too many Canes 😉

[Bovidae]

PGS has played at 6 too. I still have doubts about his ball-handling off the back of the scrum.

[antipodean]

@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2022:

PGS has played at 6 too. I still have doubts about his ball-handling off the back of the scrum.

I have doubts about his ability to flop over the fucking try line.

[MrDenmore]

@Bovidae The way he butchered that try in the semi-final didn’t inspire confidence

[Canes4life]

Is this the most average looking All Blacks team for a while? I feel like there are so many ??, not a good thing 1 year out from a World Cup.

[akan004]

@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2022:

Is this the most average looking All Blacks team for a while? I feel like there are so many ??, not a good thing 1 year out from a World Cup.

No different to the last 2 years.

[antipodean]

At least there's no Bridge.

[Tim]

Good possibility that this will be the starting tight five:

1 Tu’inukuafe
2 Taylor
3 Laulala
4 Whitelock
5 Retallick

Not great.

[ACT Crusader]

@Tim said in All Blacks 2022:

Unavailable for selection due to injury - Joe Moody, Anton Lienert-Brown, Ethan Blackadder.

Unavailable for selection due to New Zealand Rugby return to play criteria - Patrick Tuipulotu, Damian McKenzie.

You’d have to say the first three would’ve made it - Moody over Karl T, ALB over LF, Blackadder over PGS.

But would PT and DMac have been certainties?

PT over Lord possibly. DMac over Perofeta?

[Crucial]

@Canes4life said in All Blacks 2022:

Is this the most average looking All Blacks team for a while? I feel like there are so many ??, not a good thing 1 year out from a World Cup.

Hang on. This is only a couple of selections away from what we all expected or would have selected. Jumping on the negative pretty quickly aren't you?

[Bovidae]

The fun starts when we see the team for the 1st test. We need to see some changes from last year. Obviously they were worried about the scrum to include Karl T.

[Chris B.]

Big Karl and Peter Gus the biggest surprises for me.

Not keen on Big Karl, but Peter Gus is the closest thing we have to a big blockbusting No. 8, which is something I'm very keen on - so if he can lift his skills a bit, he could be pretty handy!

[KiwiMurph]

Those props look picked for set piece vs Ireland.

Backs look a hell of a lot better.