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All Blacks 2021-2023 Thread

Just seen that lomax, the iones, mckenzie, and smith arent in the maori squad, therefore likely in the all blacks (some quite obviously) and tupaea and proctor, rakete stones, parkinson, harmon, are in the maoris therefore not the all blacks. No surprises really
 
How do peeps think Foster will pick the back row with Cane out? Ardie to 7 or stays at 8? Would love to see Sotutu given a chance at 8. Stick with Akira, but he's hardly played for the Blues or back to Frizzel?
 
How do peeps think Foster will pick the back row with Cane out? Ardie to 7 or stays at 8? Would love to see Sotutu given a chance at 8. Stick with Akira, but he's hardly played for the Blues or back to Frizzel?
Well i think ardie and frizell are unlikely to be available for the first tests. Its tough to know who theyll pick tbh. Frizell will be first choice when he comes back, on ardie it depends whether they want to play him in the role they see him in when cane is around, or if they just go for the best team. Ardie is a far better 7 than 8.

in the mean time i imagine theyll want to see a few different players. Traditionally the incumbents get first crack, so we might see an all blues loose forward trio. Perhaps blackadder is on the bench because he played once at 7 for the crusaders, but will come on to replace akira.

second game jacobson gets a go at 6, papalii at 7, sotutu at 8. Kirifi on reserves and replaces sotutu, with papalii moving to 6, jacobson to 8.

third game depends on how they all went in the first two.
 
Yeh funny How Akira's form has dipped when playing for the Blues or is it because he's been replaced by Robinson, captaining the Blues? Frizell last year didn't take his chances. There's always the thought that a player is more adept to international rugby than super rugby. A bit like how Nonu was.

Yeh, a Blues back row would be interesting. If Foster is going to experiment then this summer's tests are the time to do it.

All about getting the balance/mix right with back rows. Always a big challenge to replace the Kaino, McCaw, Read combo - which I always thought was the perfect blend. Even at the last RWC I didn't think it was right in that semi with Scott at 6.

I see no mention of Boshier, so depth is no problem for the ABs.
 
Yeh funny How Akira's form has dipped when playing for the Blues or is it because he's been replaced by Robinson, captaining the Blues? Frizell last year didn't take his chances. There's always the thought that a player is more adept to international rugby than super rugby. A bit like how Nonu was.

Yeh, a Blues back row would be interesting. If Foster is going to experiment then this summer's tests are the time to do it.

All about getting the balance/mix right with back rows. Always a big challenge to replace the Kaino, McCaw, Read combo - which I always thought was the perfect blend. Even at the last RWC I didn't think it was right in that semi with Scott at 6.

I see no mention of Boshier, so depth is no problem for the ABs.
Ok so i found an article that gives up to date info in injuries, tells us the squad is supposed to be 36 players, and mentioned two omissions from the Maori abs that i missed (TTT and sullivan).

apparently frizell is likely to be fit, though wont have had game time. Nobidy knows anything about savea. Bridge will be fit.
moody, ofa, alb, ardie might be available towars the end of the series

so this is what im predicting (because of injuries im suggesting they pick 38)
Bower karl moody
Taylor coles aumua
Laulala lomax ofa
Whitelock tuipolotu retallick barrett vaai
Ione blackadder frizell
Papalii kirifi savea
Sotutu jacobson
Smith weber TTT
mounga barrett
Bridge leicester
Havili PUJ
Ione ennor alb
Reece jordan
Mckenzie jordie
 
Apparently more than 20 overseas based players turned down playing for tonga due to travel restictions. They have a 30 man squad comprising 22 players who are already based in nz, ie thats all they can get. Only 2 of those are super rugby players, some arent even in provincial teams.

this test is going to be a joke. I think the fiji squad is going to have similar problems, but for them there are about 6 star players who wouldnt have been able to play if they wantwd to because theyll be in top14 playoffs and then wouldnt have wnough time to go through quarantine in nz.
 
Ok so i found an article that gives up to date info in injuries, tells us the squad is supposed to be 36 players, and mentioned two omissions from the Maori abs that i missed (TTT and sullivan).

apparently frizell is likely to be fit, though wont have had game time. Nobidy knows anything about savea. Bridge will be fit.
moody, ofa, alb, ardie might be available towars the end of the series

so this is what im predicting (because of injuries im suggesting they pick 38)
Bower karl moody
Taylor coles aumua
Laulala lomax ofa
Whitelock tuipolotu retallick barrett vaai
Ione blackadder frizell
Papalii kirifi savea
Sotutu jacobson
Smith weber TTT
mounga barrett
Bridge leicester
Havili PUJ
Ione ennor alb
Reece jordan
Mckenzie jordie
Actually scratch ttt, i think theyll pick christie.
 
Actually scratch ttt, i think theyll pick christie.
Turns out they only picked 36.
its what i said minus ofa, joe, PUJ, leicester, kirifi, plus tupaea (they tricked us by picking him in the maori all blacks), ethan de groot, taavao (who i did initially pick when i thought ofa wouldnt be there).

in sum
Karl, bower, de groot
Coles, taylor, aumua
Laulala, lomax, taavao
Whitelock, tuipolotu, retallick, scott, vaai
Akira, frizell, blackadder
Papalii, savea
Sotutu, jacobson
Smith, weber, christie
Mounga, beauden
Bridge
Havili, tupaea
Rieko, ennor, alb
Jordan, reece
Mckenzie, jordie
 
Called it back in March. ;).
Ive enjoyed tupaea from the first time i saw him play, but didnt think hes make the all blacks, nit yet at least

i reckon it was a last minute decision, otherwise he wouldnt have been in the maori squad.

did you see the try for the maori all blacks last year?
 
Very happy to see Havili back in the squad, probably one of the most under rated players in NZ rugby in my opinion. Thrilled to see Ethan Blackadder there too the man is a workhorse! Mitchell Drummond can probably count himself as unlucky not to have been there instead of Christie.
 
Ive enjoyed tupaea from the first time i saw him play, but didnt think hes make the all blacks, nit yet at least

i reckon it was a last minute decision, otherwise he wouldnt have been in the maori squad.

did you see the try for the maori all blacks last year?

No, not seen that yet.
 
Plenty of fantastic options for the AB on the loose, the midfield looks a bit shaky at the moment, the back three has all the explosiveness in the world.

It will be interesting to see if Foster will make the same mistakes of the last years by trying to shoe horn in his best players rather that the best player for each position.
 
I think ill follow suit and post here. Theres arguably not enough interest in the all blacks on this forum to justify dedicated match threads.

first, well done to fiji. Especially Their 6 and 8 who were the best players on the park last night.

i thought the all blacks were pretty poor. The scoreline didnt reflect the match, for the most part, just reflected that fijis discupline could have been better, that beauden can kick the ball out on the full between the 5 metre line and the goal line from a penalty, that our lineout can finction, and that our ability with the attacking maul is better than fijis ability with the defensive maul.

our ability to secure our own rucks was terrible. One could argue fiji werent always supporting their body weight, but noone can argue that we let them get to the ruck first, in a giid position, and failed to clean them out. You could argue they were unlucky to give away penalties a few times too, instead of being given the turnover.

so whos fault is that? The coaches, definitely. But no matter what your structure players need to adapt and take responsibility. So youd have to say the entire forward pack was partly to blame. Its hard to say people shouldnt have gone to ground when they did, taken it to th line when they did. A lot if the time it would only have taken a little bit more eagerness and alertness from the suppirting players to clear the ruck. To fijis credit i think they chop tackled a lot more than the all blacks were expecting, so we put more emphasis on eunning hard at the line with low body position to make ground, because we expected theyd be trying to drive us back in the tackle. It was especially frustrating that we didnt seem to address the problem in the half time break because, although fiji got penalised, we got ourselves isolated at the very first ruck in the second half.
its going to be hard for thw all blacks to pick a team next week, since so many of the players last night were poor, but it would be unfair to compare the performances of the players last week who played agains a much inferior opposition
patrick at least brought a physical presence that we would have struggled without. First game back for brodie, so perhaps he can be excused. Shannon has been without game time for a reasonably long period, so can expect him to get better. Hoskins did some good things.

Im not sure who else is available next week. Ardie? Alb? Ennor?

coles continues to show he makes a difference at test level, and no im not talking about 'his' three maul tries.

whitelock is clearly our best forward, clears rucks good.

papalii put his hand up.

apart from that?

i think for next week id go fir the back 5 firwards
Whitelock
Tuipolotu
Jacobson
Papalii
Sotutu
I think that has a good balance
 

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