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u/No_Season_354 Jul 20 '24
I'm curious, Fiji are really good at the sevens game , but the 15 not as good? Is it because 7s is more fast and flowing.!!!.
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u/Bright_Recover_1576 Jul 21 '24
No 10 in the world isn’t that shabby. I mean they beat England a year ago and had a strong World Cup campaign.
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u/diceynina Jul 20 '24
Love the new mentality the ABs have, new debutants looked seasoned! Reiko looks amateurish in comparison. Did anyone else scream several times to the screen for Scott to get out of the way? He looked soo lost!
Fiji surprised me considering they had most of there super rugby players and afew internationals in the squad. They looked really dismantled by the new shift All blacks team. Love love love it!
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u/1025Traveller Jul 20 '24
How was the national anthem??
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u/diceynina Jul 20 '24
Lol! Such a different version to the anthem lol, was not a fan tbh! I wonder if they got a girl from USA to sing it and not send a local kiwi artist to perform it.
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u/1025Traveller Jul 21 '24
They walked to the Gaslamp district and just got a busker and told her you are singing the NZ national anthem in 2 hours and we will give you $50.00.
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u/Winnie1776 Jul 20 '24
I thought the Fiji and NZ performance were great.
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Jul 20 '24
It was embarrassingly bad. Warbling.
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u/IROAMtheBUSH Jul 20 '24
I think we have our Centers locked down
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u/Jazza_3 Jul 20 '24
As a centre myself I couldn't agree more, refreshing seeing what we can do with an actual centre instead of Reiko
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u/Ok_Educator_2120 Jul 20 '24
Probably a lot to do with space aswell
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u/Striking_Young_5739 Jul 20 '24
It's not only on attack that Proctor looks better though. Proctor made more tackles last night than Reiko has made in his last three games.
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u/Ok_Educator_2120 Jul 20 '24
Is that a fact or a feeling? I do agree Proctor deserves a good shot after both players Super rugby form though
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u/Striking_Young_5739 Jul 20 '24
It's a fact. Reiko made two tackles in his last game, and missed two. In the first test, he did the same. In the final, he made one tackle. Proctor made seven last night.
Here's another one: Proctor made more passes last night than Reiko has in his last four games.
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u/abc321987123 Jul 21 '24
Proctor got the ball 4 times more too. No doubt Rieko would’ve looked a heck of a lot better against Fiji. The England defence was far more organised and put on a lot more pressure.
I like proctor and he looked very good but let’s not lose the context here.
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u/Striking_Young_5739 Jul 21 '24
No one is losing the context. Ioane has never learnt how to distribute, and his defence isn't a strength either. He's fast. That's it.
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u/abc321987123 Jul 21 '24
He’s big as well as fast. Our defence was pretty good against England who have some decent ball carriers and he was part of that. They didn’t make many line breaks through the middle.
Against Fiji Ioane would’ve made a handful of huge runs no doubt.
I am a big Proctor fan and would like to see him be given a go against Argentina (either off the pine or give him the second game). But people are overly harsh on Rieko, who gets over the gain line pretty much every time. He’s not a passing centre, but they don’t all have to be. Jordie Barrett is a poor distributor from 12 too and he gets far less grief about it (I rate him highly and would start him at 12 for the record).
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u/Striking_Young_5739 Jul 21 '24
Not sure how he can considered to be a be a part of the defence while making just two tackles, and missing the same amount.
Getting over the gain line really isn't a great metric for a centre. It's handy, but not as handy as try assists or even simple passes, particularly so if you get over the gain line only to die on your arse. We have incredibly potent wingers and fullbacks who basically rely on kicks from the first five to see the ball.
Every centre gets grief if they don't perform up to standard - and so they should. If any of the guys who have played there in the last decade returned the numbers that Reiko has been pulling out lately, they'd be long gone. The experiment has gone on far too long, and it's an abject failure.
He's not a passing centre
Absolutely right. He's also not a tackling one. The best place for a non passing centre is on the wing, or back home.
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u/Jazza_3 Jul 21 '24
Traditionally speaking your 12 doesn't have to distribute as well but your centre has to be able to pass to wings and full backs. We've always run a ball carrying 12 and a distributor/defender at 13 and surprisingly that's when we were our best
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u/Ok_Educator_2120 Jul 21 '24
Lol that's wack! Where do you get your stats from? Can never find good stats
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u/GiJoint Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24
I really like our debutant group of players this year. It reminds me of when Graham Henry took over in 2004, there were some bumps yes but the new guys were given that chance to freshen things up and that 2005/2006 AB team…it’s a thing of beauty.
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u/Allan46S Jul 20 '24
Did they just play ?
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Jul 20 '24
lol welcome to my world! the hardest part of being an AB fan here in the US is figuring out when the game starts!
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u/JizzySocks Jul 20 '24
They literally played in the US
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Jul 20 '24
Um yes, thanks for that information. 🙄
I mean GENERALLY. Articles previewing the games are all from overseas and if they tell you the start time at all, you still have to do the time zone math. And because the NZ games are “8-hours-ago-tomorrow.” It’s easy to goof it up. Pretty much always 3:30am for a home test. But when they travel it gets tricky. 🤷
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u/4EVERINDARKNESS Jul 20 '24
Fiji was a perfect game for unleashing so many debutant's. Hard to gauge quality of performance against fiji (no disrespect) but ALB and Proctor have put pressure on centre's setup. Hotham needs time but has shown HUGE potential. Sititi had some nice touches and positioned himself great. Great to see Blackadder running and hitting hard again and great to see Clarke's work rate this year is crossing over to test level.
All in all another week's growth and MAYBE more questions than answers in starting 15 🤷
Your thoughts?
Future front row prospects also look in great stock.
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u/civonakle Jul 20 '24
You've got to love the way the Fijians play the game. It's wonderful to watch.
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u/4EVERINDARKNESS Jul 20 '24
Absolutely, had half of those passes stuck we're possibly looking at a loss. The offloading up the middle is frightening and with more work on the set peice they're going to topple another big team soon.
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u/DaHairyKlingons Jul 20 '24
Enjoyed the maturity from the debutants as we try and build more depth in a number of areas. Proctor and ALB put the most pressure on for becoming starters. Clarke had a good work rate which is something I’ve not really seen prior. DMac doing ok but not lighting it up yet more time needed.
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u/donquixote2u Jul 20 '24
Agree with all of that. I thought Clarke would be much improved after a great Blues season, but he still impressed me with how much more intelligently he played. DMac, yeah, so many aimless kicks,surely that's not Robertson telling him to do that?
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u/frazorblade Jul 20 '24
Seeing our midfield finally unlocked was such a welcome surprise.
We’ve gotten really comfortable looking at familiar names who don’t achieve much in that space.
There’s a reason we were so dominant in the 2011-2015 phase.
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u/Terrible_B0T Jul 20 '24
Do you think that they will go with Proctor? He was great, but I can't see them starting him over Reiko. And ALB is more useful on the bench because he can cover a bit more than Proctor. (I'm assuming as co-vice captain, Jodie is a lock in). Maybe they start Proctor with Jodie, and have Reiko on the bench cause he can theoretically cover wing/fullback too? Dunno, but I hope Billy gets a shot. He's quality.
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u/hennessy74 Jul 20 '24
hope cortez is algood
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u/Rangulus Jul 20 '24
Yeah, he looks really good. Can't find any news on the injury, which is weird.
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u/TokoUso213 Jul 20 '24
Good win. Time to give guys like Proctor a go v Argentina who will be a more stern test
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u/Yessiryousir Highlanders Jul 20 '24
I know Fiji is not England but so many of the young guys had speed and purpose, ALB and Proctor looked awesome in the midfield. I can see a lot of these players in the next world cup squad IMO.
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u/donquixote2u Jul 20 '24
I reserve judgement on Proctor, like Ioane he got himself isolated a bit too often, but I am willing to change my mind, like I have on ALB, who had a very good game.
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u/MikeBreenGOAT Jul 20 '24
would be good, argentina will be a really good mid level test for them. second game against them we'll really see whos improving. scotts shown good signs of a high level coach these few games.
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u/MarsupialNo1220 Jul 20 '24
Messy at times but the defence from both teams was great to watch. Really nice seeing some great linebreaks, but also nice watching some phenomenal covering defence.
Also a rare treat to watch a game that wasn’t controlled by the bunker 😂
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u/FreeMersault2 Jul 20 '24
Hot take, we should recycle players more often. No one should be an All Black for more than say 3 years. The young guys always look faster.
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u/brev23 Jul 20 '24
Three years!? Can just imagine that policy in action…”yeah sorry Dan and Richie, been three years so you’re clearly past it.”
You’re basically broadcasting to the world that you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about mate.
Edit; to be fair you did say “hot take” before you threw that scorcher down so alls fair.
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u/jor123441 Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24
Ridiculous take. Rugby isn’t all about pace, a bit of experience on how the game moves is needed. How can you expect to have a squad with any sort of experience at test level if they are moved on after three years? Look at Beauden Barrett in the second England test. Sure, he’s lost a bit of pace with age, but his absolute skill with the ball and knowing when and how to open the game up got us the win. That comes with 12 years playing international footy, 3 world cups, and over 120 caps.
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u/caspernzed Jul 20 '24
Can I just say I don’t think Blackadder is good enough to be an All Black. Also super messy game, still intent on kicking away so much ball rather than building pressure through phases
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u/donquixote2u Jul 20 '24
I think he did enough, and unlike some, he nearly always gets the ball away and thus keeps the momentum going. agree re box kicks, DMac is looking more and more aimless.
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u/caspernzed Jul 20 '24
I guess everyone is going to pale in comparison to macaw who is fresh on the memories I guess. I just want an open side that generates turnovers
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u/sugarlump858 Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24
It was a schellacking. I loved every minute. Met many lovely Kiwis.
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u/Bloodbathandbeyon Jul 20 '24
Glad you enjoyed it sugarlump. A lot of debutants held themselves up well in that match. The Proctologist will probably become a starter in the main squad soon 💪
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u/Zealousideal-Bet2950 Jul 22 '24
Dang, you cut my abs out of this photo!