@mariner4life said in Bledisloe I:

@hooroo said in Bledisloe I:

@mariner4life said in Bledisloe I:

If square-wheels Crotty gets burned by Beale I'll kick someone or something.

I'm not sure how tongue in cheek you are being with Crotty but at the moment for me, he is first pick in midfield and then select around him.

He is the current Conrad Smith of the midfield in terms of organisation and execution. I'm really liking his work. Smith didn't exactly have hotwheels

Conrad Smith is one of the all time great All Black centres. Don't sully his name with comparisons to Crotty. Poor man's Smith at best.

Don't get me wrong, the comparison isn't between the two people, the comparison or likeness is about the roles they perform for the team and Crotty does that very well currently.

@duluth said in Bledisloe I:

Bench TH injured, replaced by a LH

Is Tu'inukuafe covering TH now?

Five Super Rugby franchises and New Zealand has only two tightheads?

@mariner4life said in Bledisloe I:

@duluth said in Bledisloe I:

@duluth said in Bledisloe I:

Bench TH injured, replaced by a LH

Is Tu'inukuafe covering TH now?

From stuff:
It is not clear yet whether Perry, or fellow reserve prop Karl Tu'inukuafe, who is also a loosehead specialist, will cover the tighthead side. A spokesman said that would be confirmed by coach Steve Hansen at his team naming press conference

Not sure the current Aussie bench props are the best blokes to have a make-shift tighthead against

Agreed. Their tight five and replacements are no longer shit.

JTA has been brought into the squad; so there's a TH in the squad to replace Ofa. I guess they didn't name him on the bench because he's missed this week's preparation? Although I wouldn't be surprised if they make a late change to the bench on Saturday, or after the captain's run ...

Marc Hinton is claiming that Naholo has been picked on form, which is just weird.

@tim said in Bledisloe I:

Marc Hinton is claiming that Naholo has been picked on form, which is just weird.

We all know form means nothing, it's checklists. Hinton needs to get with the program

Should be a good contest. The Wallabies are just as skilful as their All Black counterparts according to Mick Byrne. Wasn't he the kicking and catching coach?

Also, predictably, McArdle appears to spend most of this podcast talking about the haka. James Horwill to his credit says he likes it.

@duluth said in Bledisloe I:

@duluth said in Bledisloe I:

Bench TH injured, replaced by a LH

Is Tu'inukuafe covering TH now?

From stuff:
It is not clear yet whether Perry, or fellow reserve prop Karl Tu'inukuafe, who is also a loosehead specialist, will cover the tighthead side. A spokesman said that would be confirmed by coach Steve Hansen at his team naming press conference

Exactly the situation I was pointing at when the squad was named. Pretty sure the Mako tried using Kane Hames at tighthead last year vs Canterbury and he got done like a dinner and I'd rate him a stronger scrummager than Perry.

I think Canterbury used Joe Moody as a tighthead a few seasons back. Having him switch sides if necessary might be the most solid option - but, means at least one of the starting props has to go 80.

Get JTA on the bench Shag.

Yeah crazy stuff, I remember you pointing it out and it was a very WTF moment

@sammyc said in Bledisloe I:

@kiwimurph said in Bledisloe I:

@sammyc playing at 13

I still don’t think he’s earned a starting spot.

Do you think Naholo has?

And 13 is a vastly different position to 15, AB fans of all people should know that!

Look, our options aren't great. But Jordie has proven himself more than capable at test level - he was MOTM in the decider against the Lions on debut which is probably the biggest pressure cooker environment you'll get outside of the WC.

Naholo on the other hand has either gone missing or shat the bed when the pressure has come on. He is very far from proving himself at test level, so in what is probably the most important match of the season I'd prefer they go with proven performers.

Granted none of this is likely to be the winning/losing of the game (unless Naholo puts in another performance like he did against the Tahs of course!) but we've got to argue about something - selections have become a bit of a bore.

@no-quarter

I think I am with you that Naholo underperforms at test level when the pressure is on and I don't really know what he has done to prove himself at this level. He is an accident waiting to happen when he chases high balls and I think there are at least 3 guys at Super level who deserve to be in before him. That said no big fan of Jordie either, way to selfish with the ball , the number of times during the season that he ignored Ben Lam outside him was unbelievable. To me Naholo and Jordie are both weak links in the squad.

I'm in the Naholo has under performed at test level and no issue with JB being left out camp.

I'm in the they should have selected Alaimalo camp ....

@nepia said in Bledisloe I:

I'm in the Naholo has under performed at test level and no issue with JB being left out camp.

I'm in the they should have selected Alaimalo camp ....

Add ALB being robbed and I'm in

@Nepia I'm a massive fan of Alaimalo, would love to see him brought in sooner rather than later.

Failing that we could just play a back two of Rieko and BFA. We've always backed ourselves as being innovative...

@no-quarter said in Bledisloe I:

@Nepia I'm a massive fan of Alaimalo, would love to see him brought in sooner rather than later.

Failing that we could just play a back two of Rieko and BFA. We've always backed ourselves as being innovative...

are we really innovative any more? Or do we just do the basics really well for longer?

@mariner4life we are just better than everyone else at this rugby thing and adapting to changes

@taniwharugby said in Bledisloe I:

@mariner4life we are just better than everyone else at this rugby thing and adapting to changes

that's some startling insight right there. It's this kind of knowledge that makes TSF the best rugby site on the planet...

@mariner4life said in Bledisloe I:

@no-quarter said in Bledisloe I:

@Nepia I'm a massive fan of Alaimalo, would love to see him brought in sooner rather than later.

Failing that we could just play a back two of Rieko and BFA. We've always backed ourselves as being innovative...

are we really innovative any more? Or do we just do the basics really well for longer?

Maybe we save out innovation for when we need it? The innovation at RWC 2015 was to spend the pool games testing shit for the finals which worked, just with the unfortunate side effect of nearly making all the fans meltdown.

@nepia said in Bledisloe I:

@mariner4life said in Bledisloe I:

@no-quarter said in Bledisloe I:

@Nepia I'm a massive fan of Alaimalo, would love to see him brought in sooner rather than later.

Failing that we could just play a back two of Rieko and BFA. We've always backed ourselves as being innovative...

are we really innovative any more? Or do we just do the basics really well for longer?

Maybe we save out innovation for when we need it? The innovation at RWC 2015 was to spend the pool games testing shit for the finals which worked, just with the unfortunate side effect of nearly making all the fans meltdown.

probably something to that. Not sure i have seen too much innovation on the field for a while, but maybe it's the off-the-field stuff where we still lead. Which doesn't help the rampant speculators (ie us).

It was a serious question by the way.

@mariner4life short memory. How could you forget the Dagg hit up innovation in the Lions series?

@mariner4life it's the truth; the truth is out there bro, you just need to know where to find it!