@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Surprised to hear Williams and Blackadder have never heard of 'Anchorman'. Holy heck. "Stay classy San Diego".
Bad parenting from Todd and Mr Williams. No two ways about it. Every kid should know the classics
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Surprised to hear Williams and Blackadder have never heard of 'Anchorman'. Holy heck. "Stay classy San Diego".
Great Odins Raven I was too.
@Daffy-Jaffy said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Tamaiti Williams (7)
Asafo Aumua (8)
Fletcher Newell (15)
Scott Barrett (71) (Captain)
Tupou Vaa’i (27)
Luke Jacobson (20)
Ethan Blackadder (10)
Ardie Savea (83) (Vice Captain)
Cortez Ratima (1)
Damian McKenzie (49)
Caleb Clarke (20)
Anton Lienert-Brown (72)
Billy Proctor (0)*
Sevu Reece (25)
Beauden Barrett (125)
George Bell (0)*
Ethan De Groot (24)
Pasilio Tosi (0)*
Sam Darry (0)*
Wallace Sititi (0)*
Noah Hotham (0)*
Jordie Barrett (59) (Vice Captain)
Emoni Narawa (1)
Good to see Proctor starting. He has VG distribution skills which is currently lacking in midfield
Why Reece in preference to Narawa
I would have liked to see what Darry could do starting
Hopefully Tosi gets decent game time. Likewise Sititi
Hopefully Bell get almost no game time. Likewise Hotham
Surprised Blackadder is 29 now. Injury prone and 29. He should really be on his last chance or time to move on
BTW the listed height of the backrow options are
Sititi 1.87cm
Blackadder 1.90 - 1.91
Jacobson 1.91
Savea 1.88
Thrilled for Billy Proctor. He richly deserves his first cap. I hope he puts down a massive marker to keep the 13 jersey for longer.
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Surprised to hear Williams and Blackadder have never heard of 'Anchorman'. Holy heck. "Stay classy San Diego".
Yes I was very surprised by that, given how much time he has spent recovering, one should have watched the classics.
Has Williams lost weight? Does not seem quite as big as I remember.
Main things I'll be looking for performance-wise is the AB lineout and kicking game to go better.
A huge number of players on debut, hope the starting line-up does a good enough job so they all get a run on and some gametime.
Don't think there will be a great deal to take out of this game aside from giving players experience in the black jersey, just hope that the guys go well so they can put pressure on the starting XV.
So in particular I'd love to see Williams and Aumua do well in the carry.
Ratima to build on his good performance against England and firm himself up as the #1 HB.
Proctor to playand distribute well to put pressure on Reiko.
Clarke to come back and play well so he can replace Telea 
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.
Billy leads all the hakas for the Canes, even before TJ. That would be pretty cool for him on debut.
Congratulations to the five players who will make their ABs debut from the bench. A proud moment for them and their families.
@sparky said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Congratulations to the five players who will make their ABs debut from the bench. A proud moment for them and their families.
At least Razor isn't silly enough to start all 6.....
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.
Billy leads all the hakas for the Canes, even before TJ. That would be pretty cool for him on debut.
Generally the senior Maori player does it?
@Winger said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Richie McCaw was slow, he was still effective
Mary Holah was slow.
McCaw wasn't
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.
ALB?
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.
When has a captain led the haka in recent times? I don't recall GOAT or Read ever leading it, Cane didn't, Ardie hasn't I don't recall. It was almost always Aaron Smith in recent times. I always thought it was a player with Maori blood that led it
@taniwharugby said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Good to see Blackadder taking all precautions
He’s heading to the Civic Centre after training to do Pagliacci
@Bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@canefan you've got Google right? Kieran Read leads haka...
Yep, Read did, McCaw did.
@canefan said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Savea to lead the haka? SB could as captain I suppose, as others have.
Billy leads all the hakas for the Canes, even before TJ. That would be pretty cool for him on debut.
Generally the senior Maori player does it?
Billy lead the Canes haka even when TJ was in it. I’d say if Barrett doesn’t do it for the ABs this week then Billy will.
@WillieTheWaiter said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Winger said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Richie McCaw was slow, he was still effective
Mary Holah was slow.
McCaw wasn't
I’m cracking up at the ‘Steve Hansens education with him’ line. What ‘education’ could he possibly give about the gym ?
@Bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@antipodean said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
I'm really liking that loose forward trio. Probably better balanced than the first two tests IMO. Sititi coming off the bench for impact will be awesome.
By balance you mean three 7.5s ?
It will be interesting to see who goes where when Sititi comes on. Does Savea move to 7? Blackadder can't be a realistic option at 6 if he isn't starting there.
Only really comes into play at scrum. Sititi could even pack at 6 for defensive scrums and 8 when ABs want a hard carry.
@MN5 said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@WillieTheWaiter said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Winger said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Richie McCaw was slow, he was still effective
Mary Holah was slow.
McCaw wasn't
I’m cracking up at the ‘Steve Hansens education with him’ line. What ‘education’ could he possibly give about the gym ?
Where the nearest crisp machine was?
@Canes4life said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
I'm really liking that loose forward trio. Probably better balanced than the first two tests IMO. Sititi coming off the bench for impact will be awesome.
have that trio ever played together?
@pakman said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Does the Fern technology permit a poll on how many minutes Niggles will manage before taking a ‘knock’?
but he'll take one for the team, according to Razor, at 110%.
@antipodean I'm not a fan of Jordie at 12 anyway. Think he is better utilized off the bench imo. Don't think ALB is the answer either. Think he is past his best at international level now.
@pakman said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Does the Fern technology permit a poll on how many minutes Niggles will manage before taking a ‘knock’?
I am glad there has been whole sale changes. Give the full squad a go IMHO. we have to build a squad of about 35 - 40 good hardened players. We need depth because the injuries these days are happening all the time. Look at Jorden and Roygard. they are both missed and we need the depth to replace those players. don't get me wrong if the player has been given a few chances and they are not up to it then Sayonara . looking forward to this test to C what some of the new guys can do.
@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
@pakman said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Does the Fern technology permit a poll on how many minutes Niggles will manage before taking a ‘knock’?
oi, he's stealing my nickname for him!
@1kiwi said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
I'm not a fan of Jordie at 12 anyway. Think he is better utilized off the bench imo. Don't think ALB is the answer either. Think he is past his best at international level now.
So with Jordie on the bench and ALB past his best, who starts at 12 in your team?
@1kiwi said in All Blacks vs Fiji:
Or he's taking a truly radical approach and trying out different combinations