D
dundeesmiffy
Guest
I simply have just never liked Carlos Spencer as an All Black. Period. At club level he was always fantastic and creative and fun to watch. But the moment he stepped on the field for the All Blacks, he was never the quite the same. Sure he was brilliant at times but he was always an error prone guy even at the best of times. The only difference being that at the test level, top teams capitalize on mistakes. I predicted disaster a year out openly saying that if Spencer is leading the All Blacks we're doomed for failure. Sure me just being the spiteful asshole that I am had a lot to do with it, but also I had serious concerns about his decision making and the fact that he couldn't goal kick consistently. Having him in the lineup meant somewhere along the line you need to pick a goalkicker over perhaps a more talented player (mind you that didn't happen). Which might explain why Ben Blair was in the squad, though I don't really understand his selection either.
Overall, bad defence, no goal kicking and little experience was the death of the team.
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Which clip is more representative of his current form?
all i can say about spencer is that when he threw the ball between his legs and did no look passes that went to a player who scored - you were smiling too. the simple fact was, mertz was just - just underform, and carter was in his first season of test level. we simply didnt have anyone left - apart from mitchells bum buddy macdonald who is, aparantly, a god at 1st 5.
yes spencer was a risk taker. but it did open peoples eyes to what can be done. like in the wc, when he was going to go for touch, he then tap kicked and scored a try. im not saying hes the best 5/8 ever, but at the time, he was extremely entertaining to watch, and was murdered undeservingly after the wc.
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People blame him for the semi final in 2003, but they forget that he wasn't the one missing a bunch of kicks and getting outmuscled up front (as well as getting steamrolled at 13 like Panadol was), and he was the sole reason we scored our try - all Thorne had to do was virtually fall his sorry carcas in the direction of the try line. I remember Chiro or Gay Guy making a post a couple of years ago about how MacDonald ran different lines to Umaga, and if Umaga had been playing in that backline move it wouldn't have been intercepted.
And the on the whole fullback / centre thing, the only time that can really be blamed is 2003 IMO when Panadol got steamrolled by Mortlock. Cullen made a decent fist of it in 1999, it wasn't like he imploded Nonu-at-Twickenham style. Ditto with Mils at Cardiff (Although Toeava did look a hell of a lot better when he came on).
Is there footage of the game mentioned above where he got run over by Jamie Noon and a rookie Anthony Allan?
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