U18 Academy Games and Australia U18s

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Could be a bad year running into what is likely the best Aus age group Aus side since the McReight 20s lot.

This Aus side has 11 players from last years winning squad back or something like that. Add another year to those guys and you have a good team.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Some people want change in the NZ system and these games might be enough evidence for the change side to win the argument.

 

[bhim]

Definitely agree that this is a very strong age group for Aus.

I would love it if 3 straight losses and 1 year of bad results made NZR completely change their school pathways structure, that has been working for them for the past 30 years. It was only 2 years ago they beat us twice on this same ground with the scores comfortably in their favour.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

NZ playing some good footy now.

Game on

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Feel like that probably ices it. 48/26 with 14 mins left.

Plenty of quick scoring but the Aus bench has brought some fire when the starters began to look a bit like they were going through the motions and let NZ get a few quick ones.

 

[RedOrDead]

it’s a real shame this Aussie team put the cue in the rack so early

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

Beating the clock up until the end of the 1st half. NZ definitely started playing some better footy and their 15 started ball playing in the first line which seemed to make a difference.

If it wasn’t for the NZ 8,9 these games could have been catastrophic.

Once Aus got it past the 10 it was over in attack, Pritchard and Bloomfield looked unchallenged

 

[Mule]

I can't work out why NZ aren't looking like any of the NZ schools teams in the past, sure we have improved our system a bit but they have always been quite dominant at this level with wins being hard to get against them

speaking to a Kiwi parent, apparently political selections (over performance) have been widely spoken of.... and the battle between NZRU and the powerful Schools hierarchy is still opposite to what happened in Aus.... (ie none of the younger leaving schoolkids were eligible for the 'top' team, even thought they're U18 and playing high level club)... NZSS attack was still good enough to post winning scores, but defence was $#%&

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

speaking to a Kiwi parent, apparently political selections (over performance) have been widely spoken of.... and the battle between NZRU and the powerful Schools hierarchy is still opposite to what happened in Aus.... (ie none of the younger leaving schoolkids were eligible for the 'top' team, even thought they're U18 and playing high level club)... NZSS attack was still good enough to post winning scores, but defence was $#%&

They played the NZ U18 Barbarians the week before they played our boys. A team with pretty much all of those not chosen due to age etc. and beat them.

Our boys were just better. It happens. I find it very disrespectful all of these excuses and justifications.

 

[The Ghost of Raelene]

100% agree mate. We heard the myriad of reasons only after a couple of beltings.

Yes, it's a benefit we can pick boys from outside School but they are still U18 and could be at School. They aren't suddenly Lomu because they strap up in Colts. Australia has a very strong cohort in 24-25, the vast majority of key positions returned from the year before that won in NZ and those boys guess what? At School this year ie. Grover, Uys, Lemoto, Fonua, Ross, Talaileva etc.

Aus 18s also had a guy like Makasini playing School Boy Rugby this season but on his contract with the Tigers.

Nothing stops NZ from doing the same if they pull their finger out. They ran into a buzz saw this year in Aus and it could all swing back in the coming years.