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All Blacks 2021-2023 Thread



This 1996 team v the 2015 RWC winning team. Who wins?

Well, that series win in South Africa is the most impressive thing the all blacks have done since I've been watching, ranks much higher than a World Cup to me, and to the players at the time (that was the first series victory against the boks in south africa, and back then we had a close to 50 50 win loss ratio against the boks at any venue, boks I think having slightly more wins).

but that doesn't mean they would beat the 2015 all blacks (assuming they played in the same era). The 2015 all blacks only scraped passed the boks though.

I cant remember if lomu was playing against the boks, might have been sick? He played against the wallabies on that fateful rainy day at Eden park. still, without lomu we had umaga or Osborne, in addition to Wilson, with Cullen at the back.

I dont know, your question is too hard, neither of those teams could lose.
 
Yeah, honestly the level of Info in rugby is really poor, they rely on people already liking rugby, then catering to the fans through sky sport. That's a really good point about marketing because I wouldn't say they do much with regard to marketing (they have never even really had to ads like they do for the nrl), they should be owning it, not relying on the media to disseminate information.

NZ herald has a little bit more for the less than casual fan, but you have to pay for it (I don't).

the media resource is relatively limited, so they tend to prefer to say something high level or write about nzr failings, or silver lake, or changes due to covid, or how crap the wallabies are, or how foster is crap, rather than saying something about fosters game plan or vision.


Might be better here

Yeah, it either comes across as naive/amateurish or hugely arrogant, i had this discussion with some back in NZ a couple of weeks ago.

me: "Havent seen much advertising for the NPC, only just realised its starting on Sat"
him: "theres been lots"
me: "really? im looking on the NPC facebook page and theres been like three things about the start in the last few weeks"
him: "well, if you know where to look and follow all the right social pages theres been a lot"
me: "....yes...famously the best kind of marketing...where the consumer has to go out of their way to find it"

and this is me who belongs to more than one rugby forum...apparently im not following the right socials
 
Well, that series win in South Africa is the most impressive thing the all blacks have done since I've been watching, ranks much higher than a World Cup to me, and to the players at the time (that was the first series victory against the boks in south africa, and back then we had a close to 50 50 win loss ratio against the boks at any venue, boks I think having slightly more wins).

but that doesn't mean they would beat the 2015 all blacks (assuming they played in the same era). The 2015 all blacks only scraped passed the boks though.

I cant remember if lomu was playing against the boks, might have been sick? He played against the wallabies on that fateful rainy day at Eden park. still, without lomu we had umaga or Osborne, in addition to Wilson, with Cullen at the back.

I dont know, your question is too hard, neither of those teams could lose.

Yep, put up an impossible question, which has no answer. All subjective really. But those two line ups against each other. Wow. Still, can only compare achievements and seeing SF banging his fists on the ground at end showed how much it meant from a historical basis.

Post amateur era v Peak pro era so far.

Lomu did not play in that 2nd test v SA. Osbourne played on the left wing. Not sure he played in the first one.
 
Yep, put up an impossible question, which has no answer. All subjective really. But those two line ups against each other. Wow. Still, can only compare achievements and seeing SF banging his fists on the ground at end showed how much it meant from a historical basis.

Post amateur era v Peak pro era so far.

Lomu did not play in that 2nd test v SA. Osbourne played on the left wing. Not sure he played in the first one.
They really emptied the tank in that one, as did the whole nation watching it (yeah, back then pretty much the whole nation followed the all blacks, now it's a minority of us).

gives me goose bumps just remembering it.
 
He's a really passionate player who is calm under pressure, thats a very rare combination. And he's a nice guy. I know people don't agree but to me he's a natural leader.

problem is they're playing him at 8 where it's not clear he's the best player. Though To be fair he played really well there in the last game, and played a proper eights role.

Interesting too that hes apparently captain for the remainder of the rugby championship.

anyway, I'm happy for him.
 
im happy enough, at least theyve picked someone who is going to start rather than picking a captain that might displace someone else like the thorn and blackadder eras


I can see the natural leader aspect, not sold on the "rugby brain" thought, where as you could believe someone like mccaw understood everything about every position ive always thought savea comes across more like a "i'll do it myself" type leader
 
Well, that series win in South Africa is the most impressive thing the all blacks have done since I've been watching, ranks much higher than a World Cup to me, and to the players at the time (that was the first series victory against the boks in south africa, and back then we had a close to 50 50 win loss ratio against the boks at any venue, boks I think having slightly more wins).

but that doesn't mean they would beat the 2015 all blacks (assuming they played in the same era). The 2015 all blacks only scraped passed the boks though.

I cant remember if lomu was playing against the boks, might have been sick? He played against the wallabies on that fateful rainy day at Eden park. still, without lomu we had umaga or Osborne, in addition to Wilson, with Cullen at the back.

I dont know, your question is too hard, neither of those teams could lose.


Classic Bledisloe from 25 years ago with one of the all time great AB line ups. This one with Lomu playing. Made a few good classic Lomu runs, without ever threatening to score. Don't know how often this full XV played. Defo comparable to the 2015 lineup.

Lol at 11:06 of the video when Bunce gets clobbered 8 or so times by the Wallaby number 8. And just gets a telling off by the Scottish ref Jim Fleming.
 
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He's a really passionate player who is calm under pressure, thats a very rare combination. And he's a nice guy. I know people don't agree but to me he's a natural leader.

problem is they're playing him at 8 where it's not clear he's the best player. Though To be fair he played really well there in the last game, and played a proper eights role.

Interesting too that hes apparently captain for the remainder of the rugby championship.


Classic Bledisloe from 25 years ago with one of the all time great AB line ups. This one with Lomu playing. Made a few good classic Lomu runs, without ever threatening to score. Don't know how often this full XV played. Defo comparable to the 2015 lineup.

Lol at 11:06 of the video when Bunce gets clobbered 8 or so times by the Wallaby number 8. And just gets a telling off by the Scottish ref Jim Fleming.

Yeah remember that, I think that was game two where the wallabies had the lead early, and yeah Michael brial laying in the punches and bunce just took it. Bledisloe one was epic, rainy day at athletic park yet we won something like 43 - 6, and lomu was on fire all game, as was Cullen, jones, zinny, kronfield, all of them really.
 
A - rugby players.png
Sun 5th Sept {Perth}
6pm {NZ Time}

ABs : 1. George Bower, 2. Codie Taylor, 3. Nepo Laulala, 4. Brodie Retallick, 5. Scott Barrett, 6. Akira Ioane, 7. Dalton Papalii, 8. Ardie Savea (C), 9. Brad Weber, 10. Beauden Barrett, 11. Rieko Ioane, 12. David Havili, 13. Anton Lienert-Brown, 14. Will Jordan, 15. Jordie Barrett.
Reserves : Samisoni Taukei'aho, Karl Tu'inukuafe, Angus Ta'avao, Tupou Vaa'i, Ethan Blackadder, TJ Perenara, Damian McKenzie, George Bridge.

WALLABIES : 1. James Slipper, 2. Folau Fainga'a, 3. Allan Alaalatoa, 4. Darcy Swain, 5. Matt Philip, 6. Lachlan Swinton, 7. Michael Hooper (c), 8. Rob Valetini, 9. Tate McDermott, 10. Noah Lolesio, 11. Marika Koroibete, 12. Samu Kerevi, 13. Len Ikitau, 14. Andrew Kellaway, 15. Tom Banks.
Reserves : Lachlan Lonergan, Angus Bell, Taniela Tupou, Izack Rodda, Pete Samu, Nic White, Reece Hodge, Jordan Petaia.



Ardie Savea is great at 7 & 8, he has really explosive power off the back of the scrum & with his leg drive can consistently break tackles to get us over the advantage line... it's a worry though having Papalii at 7, he's better suited to 6, we need an openside that's much quicker than him who is able to got to the loose ball quickly & has the pace to link up with the forwards, just suits the ABs fast paced game that we have played for ages.

Bower is a bit lucky to be starting when we have better props on the bench.

Rieko Ioane definitely isn't a midfielder, keeps getting caught out of position there, he's back on the wing where he should be playing, him and Jordan give us a ton of pace on the flanks... good to see J.Barrett at fullback too.

All midfieders should have good passing skills & read situations well, but they're all very similar types of players, need more variation on attack there, we're really missing an intimidating power runner in the midfield like Laumape, thought it was crazy they didn't want him in the squad.

Mo'unga is clearly our best 10, he shows much better composure than B.Barrett in that position... BB tends to kick too aimlessly in general play & has given away a fair few intercept tries through lack of thought.
 
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BB still an above average place kicker. Mo'unga offers a more complete package.
 
BB is very skillful too... reckon the main difference is Mo'unga's option taking & composure is better.
 
We all expected the AB's to win, but I didn't think the Jaguares would get skunked 39-0. They've really fallen off.
 

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