All Blacks 2026

Ardie seems very concerned with his image. That's a hard pass for me as AB captain.

Roigard or Taylor.

@Frank said in All Blacks 2026:

Ardie seems very concerned with his image. That's a hard pass for me as AB captain.

Roigard or Taylor.

Taylor is 100% AB captaincy material. As in born for the role. Only reason would be if he didn't want the responsibility or it was felt it might infringe on his own game.

@nonpartizan said in All Blacks 2026:

@Frank said in All Blacks 2026:

Ardie seems very concerned with his image. That's a hard pass for me as AB captain.

Roigard or Taylor.

Taylor is 100% AB captaincy material. As in born for the role. Only reason would be if he didn't want the responsibility or it was felt it might infringe on his own game.

He will be 36 by the time of the RWC though - hopefully his body holds up

Rieko has already learned to pass anyway.

Progress.

All Blacks set to beef up coaching ranks to improve tactical kicking and high-ball work

@Tim said in All Blacks 2026:

All Blacks set to beef up coaching ranks to improve tactical kicking and high-ball work

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Oh we need another coach to learn how not kick the ball away aimlessly.

This reads like Razor trying to get ahead of any more serious changes being made.

We were bad at this under Foster, anyone could tell that from the couch.
It takes a professional coach 2 full seasons to realise it needs to be fixed?

The All Blacks’ kicking out of hand has been found wanting at times this year

At times....id say most of the time

@reprobate Every Silverfern Match thread for a long time has been pointing out how bad our kicking from hand has been and more recently how passive how defence is.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the obvious flaws in the AB's game.

@Tim said in All Blacks 2026:

All Blacks set to beef up coaching ranks to improve tactical kicking and high-ball work
60909917/all-blacks-set-beef-coaching-ranks-improve-tactical-kicking-and-high-ball-work

Is my prediction of Cory Jane as high ball coach going to materialize? He's already been with the All Black XV team for the last two season & made a big impact - surely he's the obvious candidate?

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:

We were bad at this under Foster, anyone could tell that from the couch.
It takes a professional coach 2 full seasons to realise it needs to be fixed?

Reminds me of the old adage of "A Camel is a Horse designed by committee".

@restofit said in All Blacks 2026:

@Tim said in All Blacks 2026:

All Blacks set to beef up coaching ranks to improve tactical kicking and high-ball work
60909917/all-blacks-set-beef-coaching-ranks-improve-tactical-kicking-and-high-ball-work

Is my prediction of Cory Jane as high ball coach going to materialize? He's already been with the All Black XV team for the last two season & made a big impact - surely he's the obvious candidate?

Bring back Room Raiders.

Loves a Fizzy does our Cory.

The All Blacks 2026 home Test schedule is:

Nations Championship
All Blacks v France, Saturday 4 July, One New Zealand Stadium, Christchurch, kick off 7.10pm.
All Blacks v Italy, Saturday, 11 July, SKY Stadium, Wellington, kick off 5.10pm.
All Blacks v Ireland, Saturday, 18 July, Eden Park, Auckland, kick off TBC.

Bledisloe Cup
All Blacks v Australia, Saturday 10 October, Eden Park, Auckland, kick off 7.10pm.

Just said to Mrs, we will book Wellington for July, I really don't do Eden Park as I gone right off Auckland as a place to go, and kind of feel similar about Chch (not quite as strongly though)

@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2026:

All Blacks v Italy, Saturday, 11 July, SKY Stadium, Wellington, kick off 5.10pm.

Giving Italy a real shot here.

4 home tests out of 17.

I, for one, welcome our new Silver Lake overlords.

@nzzp To be fair, I guess if we want to return to the old days of proper tours, we have to accept big chunks of away games.

Presumably, we'll get a quid pro quo vs SA touring here in (2029?).

It's a pretty brutal season, though - if the wheels really came off there's a dozen lose-able games in that schedule.

No game against Argentina next year

@Kiwidom said in All Blacks 2026:

No game against Argentina next year

Aust has two games in Arg, but the Pumas don't play SA either. That's due to the SA-NZ series.

Next season looks really really ominous.

I have haka fatigue, social media fatigue, learnings fatigue already.

Not sure I can take a full tour of them fellating the Springboks on their socials and giving uncle Siya reacharounds in the sheds.

I want to see people getting their heads caved in.

Bring back the biff.

@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:

Next season looks really really ominous.

I have haka fatigue, social media fatigue, learnings fatigue already.

Not sure I can take a full tour of them fellating the Springboks on their socials and giving uncle Siya reacharounds in the sheds.

I want to see people getting their heads caved in.

Bring back the biff.

Troy Flavell, Keith Robinson and Brad Thorn are long retired unfortunately.

@Jet Loves a long soak in the bath too…. as is my understanding.

@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:

Next season looks really really ominous.

I have haka fatigue, social media fatigue, learnings fatigue already.

Not sure I can take a full tour of them fellating the Springboks on their socials and giving uncle Siya reacharounds in the sheds.

I want to see people getting their heads caved in.

Bring back the biff.

"felleting"

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2026:

@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:

Next season looks really really ominous.

I have haka fatigue, social media fatigue, learnings fatigue already.

Not sure I can take a full tour of them fellating the Springboks on their socials and giving uncle Siya reacharounds in the sheds.

I want to see people getting their heads caved in.

Bring back the biff.

"felleting"

?

@game_film said in All Blacks 2026:

@Jet Loves a long soak in the bath too…. as is my understanding.

Not sure of the euphemism, but I do love a bath (with a beer).

@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:

@game_film said in All Blacks 2026:

@Jet Loves a long soak in the bath too…. as is my understanding.

Not sure of the euphemism, but I do love a bath (with a beer).

@barbarian does a bath count as colonic irrigation?

@nzzp said in All Blacks 2026:

@barbarian does a bath count as colonic irrigation?

So you are going to use that expression on a daily basis now?

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2026:

@nzzp said in All Blacks 2026:

@barbarian does a bath count as colonic irrigation?

So you are going to use that expression on a daily basis now?

yes.

Although I do not plan to google it.

@nzzp said in All Blacks 2026:

@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:

@game_film said in All Blacks 2026:

@Jet Loves a long soak in the bath too…. as is my understanding.

Not sure of the euphemism, but I do love a bath (with a beer).

@barbarian does a bath count as colonic irrigation?

Depends on the shape of the bathtub, I think

I think the tour next year either makes us or breaks us , I dont mind it ,

We either rise to play at the level required to compete with the benchmark or we dont , sink or swim

i think its more beneficial than playing weaker opposition with guaranteed wins and patting ourselves on the back , at least we find out where we are at,

Probably a bit off topic for this thread but south africans seem confident Tony Brown is very happy and about to extend his contract with Rassie .

@nzzp said in All Blacks 2026:

@barbarian does a bath count as colonic irrigation?

Not if you share the bath.

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks 2026:

I think the tour next year either makes us or breaks us , I dont mind it ,

We either rise to play at the level required to compete with the benchmark or we dont , sink or swim

i think its more beneficial than playing weaker opposition with guaranteed wins and patting ourselves on the back , at least we find out where we are at,

Probably a bit off topic for this thread but south africans seem confident Tony Brown is very happy and about to extend his contract with Rassie .

I like you, love the idea of a good bloody hard year. If we crash , we crash. So we only get 4 home tests? Big deal, how many who want to go to a test will miss out. I bet I get ticket to any test I want to go to. Mind you I reckon we could of dropped a test against Aussies if we needed one against Pumas.

@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:

Next season looks really really ominous.

I have haka fatigue, social media fatigue, learnings fatigue already.

Not sure I can take a full tour of them fellating the Springboks on their socials and giving uncle Siya reacharounds in the sheds.

I want to see people getting their heads caved in.

Bring back the biff.

It's funny you say that about Siya and the SM.

in his book his talks about how the Springboks of the 2017/18 era were on social media "to cover up the fact that we weren't doing the basics properly" whereas he says.......

"The All Blacks weren't putting pictures of their training up on Instagram were they? They were working hard for each other without shouting about it, and when it came to noise - well, was 57-0 loud enough?".

Tbh I'm not sure how exactly you effectively navigate managing players and teams in the social media era where style takes precedence over substance and SM is seen as such an invaluable marketing tool. However, as a coaching group/administration you would have to have a conversation about how you prevent SM becoming a distraction and stop players becoming preoccupied with curating an image of themselves and losing sight of what's important. As has been stated here many occasions Ardie is very much into cultivating his image in a way that prior All Black leaders such as McCaw and Mealamu never were. You need authenticity and sincerity in your leadership group.

At the end of the day, SM is part and parcel of the current climate. But at the end of the day that shouldn't stop our players from rolling up their sleeves and putting in a shift.

@canefan said in All Blacks 2026:

At the end of the day, SM is part and parcel of the current climate. But at the end of the day that shouldn't stop our players from rolling up their sleeves and putting in a shift.

The boks are all over FB and Insta......usually with the same post with Cheslin Kolbe standing next to all the locks.

He's heaps shorter than they are.

Hilarious.

Doesn't stop them dominating.

I don't think anyone would give two fucks what the ABs were doing on Social Media if they were actually winning.

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2026:

@canefan said in All Blacks 2026:

At the end of the day, SM is part and parcel of the current climate. But at the end of the day that shouldn't stop our players from rolling up their sleeves and putting in a shift.

The boks are all over FB and Insta......usually with the same post with Cheslin Kolbe standing next to all the locks.

He's heaps shorter than they are.

Hilarious.

Doesn't stop them dominating.

I don't think anyone would give two fucks what the ABs were doing on Social Media if they were actually winning.

True but doesn't it all start to feel a bit like reality TV where you can't really tell what's real and what's fake? And it's all about producing content more then anything else?

Like when Holland was first picked for the squad the cameras are there to film the announcement and then it's turned into content for NZR and ditto when the ABs go to the Boca Juniors or Chicago Bulls matches.

I get that social media is there whether you like it or not but it seems like it's become the point of the whole exercise and the rugby is only part of it.

Just win the damn games

@nonpartizan said in All Blacks 2026:

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2026:

@canefan said in All Blacks 2026:

At the end of the day, SM is part and parcel of the current climate. But at the end of the day that shouldn't stop our players from rolling up their sleeves and putting in a shift.

The boks are all over FB and Insta......usually with the same post with Cheslin Kolbe standing next to all the locks.

He's heaps shorter than they are.

Hilarious.

Doesn't stop them dominating.

I don't think anyone would give two fucks what the ABs were doing on Social Media if they were actually winning.

True but doesn't it all start to feel a bit like reality TV where you can't really tell what's real and what's fake? And it's all about producing content more then anything else?

Like when Holland was first picked for the squad the cameras are there to film the announcement and then it's turned into content for NZR and ditto when the ABs go to the Boca Juniors or Chicago Bulls matches.

I get that social media is there whether you like it or not but it seems like it's become the point of the whole exercise and the rugby is only part of it.

That's marketing. I have the sneaking suspicion NZR has focussed on what looks good first rather than what actually produces the goods.

When it works, it works. Holland is a great marketing opportunity, he looks a real star and actually is a real star.

When it doesn't work, you get Scott Robertson