All Blacks tour of South Africa

[Marce]

Does anyone else find this absolutely mind boggling?????????

It's called impact player. SBW used to be the impact player when Nonu and Conrad Smith were the starters.

2015 WC Final: Nonu and Conrad started the game and SBW played the second half, everybody knows the result

 

[zer0]

Poor Sotutu being dragged all the way to South Africa to hold sleepy old Foster's luggage. Etzebeth et al got stuck into the opening quarter niggle with Akira last week, am hoping they take the gloves off and flat out end big man Frizell's test career right here.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

6 Frizzle
7 Cane
8 Ardie

Fozzie is absolutely going down with this ship isn't he.

No Sotutu. No Papalii. Not even in the fucking XXIII.

Again.

FFS that forward pack has 40-point loss written all over it. Actually lucky the Boks arent overly interested in the whole "point scoring" thing. They'd rather just stand on your neck for 80 minutes as the life slowly ekes out of you.

 

[Hawko]

Does anyone else find this absolutely mind boggling?????????

Not really. If a replacement front row player is injured then the original player can come back on. So, you can give the new front row player 10-40 minutes, depending how he's going, bring on your best players to finish and if they get injured then the original goes back on. I think the only reason more teams don't do this is because of morale issues in the front row (am I really the best if I get selected at 16, 17, 18?).

 

[Hawko]

Poor Sotutu being dragged all the way to South Africa to hold sleepy old Foster's luggage. Etzebeth et al got stuck into the opening quarter niggle with Akira last week, am hoping they take the gloves off and flat out end big man Frizell's test career right here.

Tyrel Lomax at 3 (!?!??) is a disaster waiting to happen against SA. He'll get slaughtered. Newell is a far stronger scrummager, but then he's on debut.

That team needs at least 30 points start!

 

[Lindommer]

WTF's this Jaapie, Ethan de Groot, doing on an ABs team list? Embedded spy I tells ya........

 

[Hawko]

WTF's this Jaapie, Ethan de Groot, doing on an ABs team list? Embedded spy I tells ya........

Who needs a spy in this NZ team? Just rev up the bulldozer, put it into gear and crush whatever Black ants are in front of you.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Not sure our finishing props & 6 were a whole lot better than the starters last week but RMo offered a smidgen more variety kicking-wise & Beaugan's best work was from fullback so that's a fair enough call. Other than that it's same old same old, innit?

 

[zer0]

Only so much one can do with who they took with them (i.e. no Grace) and the constraints they've imposed on themselves (i.e. Cane as captain).

Just two more days to go

 

[zer0]

Speaking of, does anyone know if any hypothetical new coach be allowed to make any squad changes - and if so, how many - or would they be stuck with Foster's inheritance?

 

[Dismal Pillock]

that team list is reminiscent of browsing the old archived team lists at allblacks.com, the halfarsed dirt tracker midweek sides who lost to some gits, names who were either on the downhill slope or 10 test AB's whose names you'd forgotten till now, oh yeah, that guy, no wonder I'd completely forgotten his name till now, LOL loser.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Nisbo & (mostly) Marshy break it down...

TLDW: conservative selections in positions they could/ should have been bold(er).

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Speaking of, does anyone know if any hypothetical new coach be allowed to make any squad changes - and if so, how many - or would they be stuck with Foster's inheritance?

I don't see there being any way on God's damned and blackened earth that Razor would take over in the knowledge he has to deal with Fozzie's flops.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^ realistically, though, there's not that many guys not in the 36 who should be, are there?

Edit: Grace for Frizell, Weber for Christie, one of the U-J's for Ennor, maybe Williams for one of the potplants & Eklund for Taylor would be about as radical as he could go.

 

[Equalizer]

Hope the AB's have a plan to deal with Malcolm Marx. He's coming off the bench for the Boks and will wreak havoc at the breakdown again. Surely the AB's can't have two games where they are shocking under the high ball and throw so many wayward passes. You know the Boks rush defence will be in your face, you've had a week to prepare and make adjustments. Can't wait to see this game play out on the highveld.

 

[ACR]

For such a technical referee how the fuck do you miss such a clear cut fucking no release. Absolutely pathetic.

 

[ACR]

Jesus Christ. You can't even win a scrum and get a penalty off this bastard.

 

[ACR]

Seriously. There's 10 points directly as a result of the ref fucking up in the last 20 minutes.

 

[ACR]

Omfg, this guy is just on the take at this point. Seriously. How do you gain posession from a not straight lineout. Go through two rucks then commit a penalty and go back to an advantage from the lineout.

 

[Jeffrey]

Great win for the boys. They really needed this.

There were some terrific individual performances - both locks were really good. Samisoni was good. Ardie was his usual self. And David Havili lent great impact. Reiko Ioane is not a centre, but he's our best 11 currently. Jordie Barrett's kicking was exceptional, and pushed the ABs out of high pressure zones.

No matter what, any AB supporter always wants the ABs to win.

What happens after this? Is this the turning of the tide? Is this the watershed where after we turn good? I'm not sure. I think the same issues exist with the ABs. It's not one of individual skill or commitment, it's about strategy and systems, of personal improvements, of correcting glaring weaknesses in our game in both attack and defence.
In these areas, Ian Foster has never proven himself, but he has probably salvaged his AB career. There's no way he's going to get the boot after today.

My opinion shall be an unpopular one after an excellent win. Even if we get a new coach, how much pressure must he be under, so close to the WC? But we need change, fundamental change. The players are not the most serious issue. It's the systems. I hope we are brave and make the call. Change. Don't be afraid of it.