@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.

@Landers92 I like the look of that. Ratima will need a much better game than he had last weekend.

The AB coaches are obviously adding some extra locks for their training sessions. Laghlan McWhannell and Dylan Eti were shown on TV tonight, and I am sure Hugo Plummer was there in Wellington. There will be other bodies to make up the numbers.

@Landers92 said in All Blacks v France III:

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

I don’t know. They could have their first choice backline and, for example, swap out one inside and one outside back each week or just swap out the halfback and first five or the two midfielders. Two players not in their favoured starting lineup each week and if someone stands out while amongst the core group, they might stay on for the next week. No need for wholesale changes every third or fourth week.

@Bovidae said in All Blacks v France III:

The AB coaches are obviously adding some extra locks for their training sessions. Laghlan McWhannell and Dylan Eti were shown on TV tonight, and I am sure Hugo Plummer was there in Wellington. There will be other bodies to make up the numbers.

Never heard of Eti. Plummer is vaguely familiar.

@Landers92 cheers landers, would hope Narawa gets another shot in the championship would hate too see him get 1 cap for 3 years straight

@brodean said in All Blacks v France III:

Never heard of Eti. Plummer is vaguely familiar.

Eti is a Chiefs U20/Chiefs NDC/NZ U20 player. Plummer plays for Wellington.

@Bovidae said in All Blacks v France III:

@brodean said in All Blacks v France III:

Never heard of Eti. Plummer is vaguely familiar.

Eti is a Chiefs U20/Chiefs NDC/NZ U20 player. Plummer plays for Wellington.

Plummer also plays for the Canes.

On the pack I’m thinking Savea, Holland and Taylor will start - captain, only 100% fit lock, need to keep some experience in there.

Tosi could do with more game time. Bower is an option also.

Are there any fit locks around if Patty is ruled out?

If Luke J is fit, I would bring him in. Add in Finau as they obviously see him as the number two #6 for this series.

@ACT-Crusader Finau's been disappointing in the first two Tests. If they select him, he'll need a good game to be retained in the squad for the RC.

In general, I'd favour as few changes in the forwards and picking as strong a pack as possible given injuries. Beating France (even without the players to choose to keep in Europe) in all three Tests will be a sweet achievement.

@sparky said in All Blacks v France III:

@ACT-Crusader Finau's been disappointing in the first two Tests. If they select him, he'll need a good game to be retained in the squad for the RC.

I thought the first test he wasn’t too bad. Came on and did a number of things that had a positive impact.

Last weekend wasn’t great. He just needs one of those tests where he knuckles down and makes his tackles, create havoc at the tackle by playing quick off set piece and then provides at least 5-7 runs.