@pakman said in All Blacks v France III:

A backline of Ratima, DMac, Tuapea, ALB, Narewa, Rieko and Jordan will tick the home ground and cohesion boxes.

Bench backs then Hotham, Love and Big Jim.

ALB hasn't played since forever so he can come off the bench and can cover 12/13. I would also start Love at 15, sounds like Jordan has a niggle anyway.

I think the ABs will go somewhere close to this: 9. Ratima, 10. DMac 11. Ioane 12. Tupaea 13. Proctor 14. Reece 15. Love, with the impact players being Hotham, ALB and Jordie, with Jordie having the ability to cover 11-15.

If BB and Reece knock each other out in training, problem solved.

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks v France III:

My preference would be to make two changes to the starting backline, Reece back from HIA stand down, and Jordie rotated out for Quinn. This assumes Jordan is fit to play. If he’s not, a direct swap with Love.

Hotham and Love come on to the bench (or DMac keeps his bench spot) and TNT keeps his bench position.

Roigard
Barrett
Ioane
QT
Proctor
Reece
Jordan (Love)

Hotham, Love (DMac), TNT

I think Beaudy definitely drops out for this test match. DMac will get a chance at home and Love will get gametime, Roberston has already said that all players will get some time in this series.

With Scott Barrett injured I can't see them resting JB given he's the vice captain but I guess we will see. Plus there are no games for month after Saturday.

If they are not resting JB then Tupaea on the bench over Tavatavanawai.

@brodean said in All Blacks v France III:

With Scott Barrett injured I can't see them resting JB given he's the vice captain but I guess we will see. Plus there are no games for month after Saturday.

If they are not resting JB then Tupaea on the bench over Tavatavanawai.

An AB XV without a single Barrett seems unthinkable.

Will be sending in the backline shortly

Here you go. Very early this week which is nice. Backline for week 3.

9. Ratima
10. Dmac
11. Ioane
12. Tupaea
13. ALB
14. Reece
15. Love

Bench
21. Hotham
22. Tavatavanawai
23. B.Barrett

Too many Chiefs

lol fuck.

If this goes sideways as it normally does when you change literally everyone then every single one of these poor fluffybunnies can kiss their year goodbye.

@Landers92 Any idea on the pack this week?

@george33 I have nothing on that at the moment. Forwards seem to be decided a bit later on in the week than the backs

I was really hoping they wouldn't make that many changes. I can see things getting pretty sloppy, especially if they do the same with the forwards. Not sure they'll be able to accurately assess individual players well.

you'd hope the Chiefs 9, 10, 12, 13 combo should help.

@Landers92 thanks

@ShaquilleOatmeal said in All Blacks v France III:

I was really hoping they wouldn't make that many changes. I can see things getting pretty sloppy, especially if they do the same with the forwards.

IMO Jordie was going to get a rest this game given his season and the fact we selected two other 2nd 5s.

The Chiefs 9-10-12-13 may help plus there are still some decent AB experience in there

If that backline clicks could be a great day for our wingers. Between Dmac, ALB & Love some strong distribution

@Landers92 said in All Blacks v France III:

Here you go. Very early this week which is nice. Backline for week 3.

9. Ratima
10. Dmac
11. Ioane
12. Tupaea
13. ALB
14. Reece
15. Love

Bench
21. Hotham
22. Tavatavanawai
23. B.Barrett

Bit of a redemption opportunity for the Chiefs lads. Hopefully the small numbers give them front door ball.

Big opportunity for DMac to show he can run the team from the start

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks v France III:

you'd hope the Chiefs 9, 10, 12, 13 combo should help.

if, a big if, we roll out close to the number one pack. if we make a similar amount of changed in the forwards it is likely to become a mess.
And given the lock injuries, that's probably where my money is.

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks v France III:

Too many Chiefs

And not enough Indian's

@canefan said in All Blacks v France III:

Big opportunity for DMac to show he can run the team from the start

Additionally, a big opportunity for Love in his first test start. Don't think we'll see him play 10 at all with Beaudy on the bench.

I pretty much picked that apart from alb , but he’s an experienced player and familiar with Quinn so it makes sense

I just hope our midfield actually does something, though if Tupaea and ALB rips the French to shreds it will probably rasie more questions than answers.

The Barrett's must have a NZR contract that states that one of them must be in the 23 each test.

Woulda thought they’d give Proctor another go rather than the safe ALB option

Wonderful. We all know how well the Chiefs show up in a finale.

@Windows97 said in All Blacks v France III:

I just hope our midfield actually does something, though if Tupaea and ALB rips the French to shreds it will probably rasie more questions than answers.

The problem is I see it is the last time the French were down here, mentally they were already on the plane for the third test.

But Fabien Galthié has intimated that the third test will be their most experienced 23 on tour.

So if they kill it - typical French already packed their bags - and if they don't...

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v France III:

lol fuck.

If this goes sideways as it normally does when you change literally everyone then every single one of these poor fluffybunnies can kiss their year goodbye.

I hate this sort of selecting so much.
Rotate in one or two guys so you can see how they go. This is only downside unless all of them click, in which case it will still be written off as a dead rubber.

@Wurzel said in All Blacks v France III:

Wonderful. We all know how well the Chiefs show up in a finale.

@MN5 said in All Blacks v France III:

Woulda thought they’d give Proctor another go rather than the safe ALB option

Yeah, he started to look a bit more comfortable in that second half of the second test so would have been good to keep that momentum going. Not like he needs a rest.

@Canes4life said in All Blacks v France III:

@MN5 said in All Blacks v France III:

Woulda thought they’d give Proctor another go rather than the safe ALB option

Yeah, he started to look a bit more comfortable in that second half of the second test so would have been good to keep that momentum going. Not like he needs a rest.

this, shit first test, lost first half of the 2nd test, seemed to find his feet and he gets cut (sorry, rotated). Absolutely worthless bringing ALB in.

@gt12 said in All Blacks v France III:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v France III:

lol fuck.

If this goes sideways as it normally does when you change literally everyone then every single one of these poor fluffybunnies can kiss their year goodbye.

I hate this sort of selecting so much.
Rotate in one or two guys so you can see how they go. This is only downside unless all of them click, in which case it will still be written off as a dead rubber.

Only way I can make it make sense is that it's a team selected for a different game plan. Which probably means big changes in the forwards too.

@Wurzel said in All Blacks v France III:

Wonderful. We all know how well the Chiefs show up in a finale.

Well this year they lost by 4 points playing on the Crusaders home ground. French B/C final rotation team that's never played together before should be easier for them to beat in Hamilton than the Crusaders in Christchurch.

If not the chaff can be disposed of.

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v France III:

@Canes4life said in All Blacks v France III:

@MN5 said in All Blacks v France III:

Woulda thought they’d give Proctor another go rather than the safe ALB option

Yeah, he started to look a bit more comfortable in that second half of the second test so would have been good to keep that momentum going. Not like he needs a rest.

this, shit first test, lost first half of the 2nd test, seemed to find his feet and he gets cut (sorry, rotated). Absolutely worthless bringing ALB in.

This is what happens when you are trying to appease senior players. Ruben Love doesn't get a look in at 10 because that would mean one of Beauden or DMac wouldn't get a run at 10. Same thing with ALB - now he's not injured he must get a run - why? Cos he's a senior player.

The problem is every time you do this the opportunity cost is someone else misses out on a opportunity to play. This is how Ruben Love has only played 1 test (even accounting for his injury issues).

@gt12 said in All Blacks v France III:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v France III:

lol fuck.

If this goes sideways as it normally does when you change literally everyone then every single one of these poor fluffybunnies can kiss their year goodbye.

I hate this sort of selecting so much.
Rotate in one or two guys so you can see how they go. This is only downside unless all of them click, in which case it will still be written off as a dead rubber.

I agree and I'll add that this illustrates poor/reluctant use of the bench to give players more game time. If they thought players couldn't handle a certain number of minutes or wanted to give certain players more game time, that could've been done by making one or two changes per test, playing certain players alongside the core group, as you say, or by bringing players off the bench for more than ten or fifteen minutes at the end of the game. The A team for two weeks followed by the B team just doesn't work well.

At least no one has had two minutes and been discarded.

Yet.

So Ioane will be the only back that will have started all 3 tests in the same position.

With this lineup what will be interesting is if Love got injured early do they revert and put Beaudie at 10 and DMac back to fullback ala first test.

Can’t say I’m a huge fan of Beaudie playing 15 of recent times, whereas I think DMac is a better fullback than 10.

I don’t mind seeing different combinations. In my opinion though, if the backline has that many changes we better not have too many in the forward pack or else it could all be quite clunky.

We moan we don’t rotate and get other players/combinations out there, when that does happen we moan about who gets rotated and we don’t see certain players in certain positions. It’s a pretty hard balancing act.

I’m happy with this backline if all we see is a swap for Vaa’i and maybe a rotation at the prop positions. Bold if Razor is going for heavy rotation in the pack too.

FWIW, I’ll continue to post any AB oil I hear for this match in this match thread. I promise I’m not actually in the AB camp in any capacity

@Landers92 it's good though, there's a lot of "told you so" ammunition in there.

When he rolls out a lolly scramble forward pack and the team don't gel, we can all say DMac isn't the answer, etc.

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v France III:

@Canes4life said in All Blacks v France III:

@MN5 said in All Blacks v France III:

Woulda thought they’d give Proctor another go rather than the safe ALB option

Yeah, he started to look a bit more comfortable in that second half of the second test so would have been good to keep that momentum going. Not like he needs a rest.

this, shit first test, lost first half of the 2nd test, seemed to find his feet and he gets cut (sorry, rotated). Absolutely worthless bringing ALB in.

They get to see favoured wings with alternate midfield.