Match thread

Canes4life

Who leads the haka? Ioane?

That backline is a wasted opportunity for me. Looking forward to 2026, we aren’t going to learn anything useful from ALB and Rieko.

One could argue that it gives DMac a great chance to show at 10, and Love gets a go at 15 with experience all around, but hard to see anything done for cohesion.

And, if the backline DOES set the house on fire, where does that leave us going forward?

MN5

@pakman said in Wales v All Blacks:

That backline is a wasted opportunity for me. Looking forward to 2026, we aren’t going to learn anything useful from ALB and Rieko.

One could argue that it gives DMac a great chance to show at 10, and Love gets a go at 15 with experience all around, but hard to see anything done for cohesion.

> And, if the backline DOES set the house on fire, where does that leave us going forward?

Give ourselves an uppercut and remind ourselves it’s only Wales

Canes4life

Two players that I would love to see in the ABs are Tangitau and Flanders. A fit Flanders is better than Parker IMO and Tangitau is just a gun, noting he has a bit to work on defensively.

Torian

@Bovidae almost feels like they forgot to drop Reece from the squad back in October lol, he's getting himself a free cap this weekend hopefully it's his last

SouthernMann

Well, this side is a real fullstop on the end of the season.

Gives the vibe of waking up after smashing an entire pack of darts on a night out. Just a bit grim.

Jesus, we are a real mess aren't we?
What are we hoping to achieve with that selection? It's just 'make sure everyone gets a go' day in what is supposed to be a high performance environment, when we have not made the progress we need to and have a heap of unanswered questions.

Donsteppa

"And at half time we'll swap the backs around with the forwards". Hmmm....

canefan

@reprobate said in Wales v All Blacks:

Jesus, we are a real mess aren't we?
What are we hoping to achieve with that selection? It's just 'make sure everyone gets a go' day in what is supposed to be a high performance environment, when we have not made the progress we need to and have a heap of unanswered questions.

Another wasted opportunity

Ardie Savea and Beauden Barrett aren’t playing. Now we get to see how things go without them. 😬

Missed opportunity to run Savea off the bench as 7/12 cover.

antipodean

@Number-10 said in Wales v All Blacks:

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Kirifi, ALB, Reece, Christie. It's like a fucking nightmare.

The only bright aspect is no Savea wasting a position on the field and Damien has to make a turd sandwich palatable.

booboo

@hikastags said in Wales v All Blacks:

Not sure i've seen anything from Dyer that justifies him being an All Black.

Who is your alternative?

I would've had Marcel Renata ahead of Mafileo. Renata can also play both sides which is why Mafileo was picked.

I know he's 31 so on the older side, but props age like wine these days.

So both these dude's in front of Dyer? Cool. Not sure I can add any value to that.

But when we're down to numbers 4, 5, and 6 in any position it's getting somewhat subjective.

Appreciate your response. But what have you seen in Renata and Mafileo that justifirs them as All Balcks? (Genuine if somewhat smart arse question.)

@KiwiMurph said in Wales v All Blacks:

A missed opportunity if you dont include Tangitau (which I dont expect them to). A perfect chance to debut him.

yes - it's a pretty dick move by Razor to not give him a debut considering he missed the final All Black XV game against Uruguay to train with them, I mean we've really got nothing left to lose - the England test was all that mattered and Wales are essentially a tier 2 nation at this point...

@stodders said in Wales v All Blacks:

Ardie Savea and Beauden Barrett aren’t playing. Now we get to see how things go without them. 😬

Except we don't, because everything else has changed too.