Can the lads do it or will they be overwhelmed as so often happens in world cups?
Your reading / understanding skills need improving. No one said that at all.
South Africa will almost certainly join the 6 nations in the next few years, but Argentina unless they base themselves in Spain or something, I can't see them joining.
Japan have no business joining the 6 nations, South Africa and Argentina are at least in a near enough time zone, Japan are 9 hours out from UTC.
I can't believe people are taking these posts seriously
It wasn't the exact same. Completely different dynamics.
Would I have complained if it was red? Slight grumble, but not really.
Barnes didn’t make the decision. A team of four officials did. Including the TMO from the previous test. Also the citing committee agreed with them. Considering your observational skills with what’s being posted. I would have more faith in what they saw in the difference than you to be honest.
It's been a tough few years for N.Z. 1st England dominate them and send them packing at the world cup. Then last year's record! Which I thought was damn good but, others thought was poor and now a series lost at home. N.Z welcome to our world!
For me, the loss in the RWC wasn't too surprising. England are always tough to beat. It's more annoying that South Africa went on to win it. NZ easily beat them in the pools and probably would have had their number in the final.
Rumour is that Foster is to hold on to the top job with the all blacks, but his coaching staff are to go, and Cane to lose captaincy. Schmidt to join the coaching team as well.
Is Schmidt going in as a DOR or as an assistant coach according to the rumors?
I agree South Africa had the easy route by playing two of the weakest teams to reach the final: Japan and Wales and avoided two of the toughest teams: Ireland and England. By the time they played England in the final they were just warming up and England were totally f****d after playing the best game they have ever played beating us in the semi. Then they make a film about what legends they are because they won the RWC… too funny.
Well it turns out none of the rumours were true, and the All Blacks are to continue as they were.
Schmidt has come in as a selector, but has a secondary role analysing the opposition and assisting with strategy. He's not part of the coaching setup, though.
It seems from Foster's press conference that he left the door open to still potentially removing Brad Mooar (the attack coach), Scott McLeod (defence) and Greg Feek (scrum). He supposedly namechecked Plumtree specifically as helping him select the squad, so reports I read considered it unlikely Plumtree would be chopped.
Surprised at the lack of changes in the squad, only two changes bringing in Ethan de Groot and Shannon Frizell. Only two players dropped out, Karl Tu'inukuafe and Pita Gus Sowakula. Retallick still there despite supposedly being out for weeks.
That will be the case sometimes, and I’ve already acknowledged you can’t remove this stuff from the game entirely. However there are loads of cases where tacklers can get lower and don’t.
Not it wasn’t. In the second the tackler was moving forward into the tackle. That meant he brought his own momentum and therefore his own force into the collision. Porter didn’t. It’s a pretty fundamental difference in terms of impact and levels of danger. If you ran directly into a parked car you wouldn’t be hurt as badly as if you ran directly into a car that was driving towards you.
There isn’t a red card problem. There’s a player behaviour problem.
Makes sense dropping Big Karl as he's off to France (Montpelier I think). I was surprised he was in the squad for the Irish matches. Frizell is a good call. Was surprised Sowakula was there in the first place.
Selecting Shannon Frizell and Sevu Reece for the SA tour is certainly a choice.
No dickheads allowed apparently.
You clearly don't understand what that means, although based on your comment you do understand what one is.
Yeah, on a pure rugby level I get the Shannon Frizzell selection, he looks to be the profile of 6 they're badly missing at the moment.
Was he not selected for the series against us because of the controversy last year or on a pure rugby reason?
Who else unlucky to miss out? Cullen Grace seems the name most frequently mentioned, but thought Tom Robinson looked excellent in Super Rugby. It looks like they're going a different direction behind Aaron Smith at 9 and backing the development of Christie and Fakatava, which makes sense.
Can we have Feek back at Leinster, please?
What's the minimum for Foster on the SA tour? Is one win enough, or does he have to win both?
Two losses and he's definitely gone. The funny thing is, two losses is very conceivable, which would make it 6 losses in 7 for NZ, which is insane.
Come on now, even the most blinkered fan would have to acknowledge the hypocrisy of the so called "no dickheads" policy if that's even supposedly still a thing.
They haven't shied away from picking guys like Sevu Reece, Shannon Frizzell, Richie Mo'unga in recent times despite some fairly famous controversies, and Aaron Smith, Jerome Kaino and George Bridge all had some pretty bad news stories too.
The 'no dickheads' rule is to do with putting the team ahead of themselves, not acting with entitlement etc. It's not to do with transgressions outside of the sport.
I'm not saying these things should be ignored, but it's separate to the no dickheads thing.
regarding whos unlucky not to be there, id look at whos lucky to be there and suggest other options. Ethan de Groot certainly suffered second season syndrome and was part of a pretty ineffective and average highlanders pack for the season gone. alex hodgeman is unlucky not to be there ahead of de groot.
if ethan blackadder wasnt injured, he would be there ahead of frizzel.
the backline pretty much picks itself, its an embarrassment of riches and a damning indictment that Foster cant get a game plan together that creates space for those players.
Yeah. I still think their centre partnerships look a bit forced.
Anton Lienert Brown is still injured I think? But I do think the quality of some of their overseas players would make a big difference, guys like Ngani Laumape or Damien McKenzie (I know he's back now).
It's really telling the number of new caps they've awarded to props in the last 4-5 years, without ever really being able to settle on a combination they like. By my count going back to 2017 they've newly capped 9 players over that time period, in addition to another couple who were newly capped in 2016.
Yeah theyve never properly replaced Owen Franks and Tony Woodcock.
I think if I was selecting the New Zealand team I would go for:
I'm glad that they are still willing to select those guys after they've faced the consequences for their actions. They screwed up and were rightly punished. They've served their time so to speak so they should be allowed to get on with their lives. And that includes playing for the ABs if they're good enough. If they were repeat offenders, that would be different.
1 win would be a good return. Can't believe I'm actually saying that.
2 loses and we are heading towards the dark days of 1998 where we lost 5 in a row. I don't want to go back there.
picking B Barrett in a position he has never, ever, ever, ever, ever, played his long career so far ???
some might call that a bold move... others would call it different
Not going to bother engaging. I've an issue with domestic abusers getting a free ride. Evidently that doesn't appear to be as big an issue elsewhere.
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