Just starting an early thread as there’s injury news that will impact the weekend.
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Wales getting pumped as predicted. 13-31 at 50’ I make it by the radio
Great to see Italy hold on for that win. Should keep the Georgia 6n crowd abayed for another couple of years
Pretty messy game of Rugby in France v NZ. Another international game where territory was 50% plus determined by the referee not the players which I personally hate. I think Barrett’s 2 decisions to go for 3 and get it close rather than attempt to get the points that would win the game were mistakes.
Razor also did not select well for this match. Jordan is not in form at 15, and Reece is very out of form at 14. Both players made mistakes that led to massive territory or points to France. Given how well McKenzie played against Ireland I still think the better selection was Jordan at 14 with Barrett at 15.
Finau’s early injury forcing Lakai to play 78 minutes probably meant the bench impact wasn’t as good as the last two weeks; though having said that the loose forwards looked really good even once when they were rejigged. But I think they really missed Cane’s leadership at times in that game - at points looked a bit panicked.
It sounds weird given they got 30 points, but I think in a way France won without having to do too much. The big thing was absorb the pressure, their counter-attack was full of pace and very effective and in the last 60 minutes their defence was very strong. So long as they just managed to stay on the right side of the ref they got the W.
Playing to the ref is what good teams do tbf. I’ve seen Scotland get that wrong for years. I missed it sadly, but it sounds like a fine margin game, yet another good episode of the France vs NZ epic :)
Scotland were really scrappy against Portugal. It wasn’t even the new caps being green. Matthews and Horne were not on point.
England seem to either pick attack or defence as their plan every game. Then they stick to one and completely ignore the other. They are attacking today. Smith continues to be great.
Going to miss NZ/France unfortunately. Foolishly agreed to socialise this evening when I should be holed up watching rugby!
Yeah you shouldn’t be leaking 3 tries to a team like Portugal really, but oftentimes games like that can kinda degenerate to somewhere in between each teams level.
Re England, I’m starting to wonder if its possible that the age of the rush/blitz defence might be coming to an end and that’s why they’re adapting already having just perfected it 6 months ago.
Teams might have finally worked out how to stress it enough that unless you’re a Springboks with a whole replacement forward pack on the bench you just can’t maintain it for more than 70 minutes. Too early to tell yet, but the next full calendar year of games will be interesting to see how things change. Though WR’s foolish adjustment to refereeing escorts might counter any gains attack have had as teams can just go back to YOLO up a kick to relieve pressure.
Haven’t decided if I can be bothered watching the ABs game or not, feels like a somewhat unproductive use of time watching footie during the daylight hours.
Argentina nearly did it tonight. Ireland ultimately with too much discipline in that defense to overcome. And too many caps, far too many caps - when are some of the 100+ retiring?
Looks to me like Ireland’s old bodies aren’t going the distance and they’re not getting a lot out of their bench so far. Probably similar to the ABs they should have started getting more experience into some of the players sooner.
Envious of Argentina. We were 5th in the world once but have never been able to take the next step in terms of collecting the big scalps.
Nor did Argentina take that scalp tonight. And we were 4 pts shy ourselves this year in Dublin. Home adv may mean that it’s a coin flip in 2025!
Don’t give me hope!
Confirmation that Sam Cane is out under concussion protocols after that nasty gash to the head, plus Tele’a is out with an injury as well. Sam Darry is also injured from training and is or has already gone home.
Du Plessis Kirifi and Chay Fihaki have been called in from the All Blacks XV squad as cover.
After earlier confirmation that Luke Jacobson wouldn’t make the tour, its now been confirmed that Ethan Blackadder and Daltan Papali’i are also not travelling north at all now as well.
So with Cane out injured it will be very interesting to see how Razor selects the team and bench. There’s a few options.
- Call Peter Lakai or Kirifi in at 7 and keep Finau on the bench, with Sititi & Savea staying at 6 & 8
- Shift Sititi and Savea to 8 & 7 then bring Finau into the starting team with Lakai onto the bench (is already in the squad and covers more positions than Kirifi.
- Do the same shift but move Barrett to 6, leaving Finau on the bench and starting Tuipulotu at lock with Lord coming in as cover on the bench.
With Tele’a out there’s also lots of possible permutations for the backline - particularly with McKenzie playing so well against Ireland.
- Shift Jordan back to 14 where he is playing better and bring Barrett into the 15 jersey
- Reece back in at 14
- Bring Reuben Love in at 14 or 15, and then McKenzie or Barrett cover from the bench.
Should make for an interesting team announcement in a day or two.
This is what Razor & the coaches have gone with:
1. Tamaiti Williams (17)
2. Codie Taylor (93) 3. Tyrel Lomax (42)
4. Scott Barrett (78) (Captain)
5. Tupou Vaa’i (36)
6. Samipeni Finau (7)
7. Ardie Savea (92) (Vice-Captain) 8. Wallace Sititi (8) 9. Cam Roigard (8) 10. Beauden Barrett (132) 11. Caleb Clarke (27)
12. Jordie Barrett (67) (Vice-Captain) 13. Rieko Ioane (79)
14. Sevu Reece (31) 15. Will Jordan (39)16. Asafo Aumua (18) 17. Ofa Tu’ungafasi (66) 18. Pasilio Tosi (6)
19. Patrick Tuipulotu (49)
20. Peter Lakai (1)
21. Cortez Ratima (10)
22. Anton Lienert-Brown (82)
23. Damian McKenzie (60)With Ardie moving to 7 this could well be a sign of the future - particularly as the most balanced loose forward trio would see him at 7 for Moana Pasifika next year as well to ensure Inisi gets plenty of game time at 8. I feel like Ratima is a bit unlucky, he didn’t get much from the forwards against Ireland, and while Roigard definitely got the ball out of the ruck cleaner & faster, the passes were often going quite high so by the time it was in McKenzie’s hands it wasn’t a great deal better than Ratima’s service. Still, Roigard is the future starting 9 - he’s just too good to leave out now he’s fully recovered from injury.
The only things I would have done differently was to play McKenzie at 10 so Beauden could play 15 and give us a good kicking option. As it stands, if i’m France i’m just kicking into Sevu Reece’s side of the back field all game, piling territorial pressure on. Jordan’s kicking game has been very weak from Fullback in the internationals since he returned from injury so that puts the whole responsibility on BB to track back and deal with it.
With that positional switch, i’d have liked to see Jordan at 14, and then Love or Perofeta on the bench. But Razor’s kinda one-track minded on Jordan is our best 15, even though a lot of us kiwis would see that as more of a situational/depending on the opposition type thing and it ignores how incredibly successful he has been at 14 over his time in the jersey.