I guess week 1 was really NZ v Japan last week, but somehow I don’t think that really counts.
Ran out of puff at the end of the NPC so haven’t been posting much, but lets have a thread to discuss this weekend’s matches.
Have to say, with Codie Taylor possibly/probably injured Scott Robertson’s team’s Hooker selection strategy is looking very grim.
In the ABs he picked Taylor, Aumua & Bell. The latter looked ok when Taylor was rested in the first half of Super Rugby, but is very much a prospect, not anything like a guaranteed international player. And all 3 of them have had line out throwing troubles, particularly Aumua who has had issues for years.
Then in the AB XV he selected Brodie McAlister, Bradley Slater & Kurt Ekland. None of these 3 are starting Super Rugby hookers, Brodie McAlister was behind Taylor & Bell, Slater was behind Taukieaho, and Ekland was behind the Blues starting hooker Riccitelli.
Now, unless the latter has told NZR that he’s intending to go overseas and try to qualify for Italy or something, not rating the championship winning hooker in the top 6 in New Zealand is just bizarre. He’s not an especially flashy player, but has a high work rate and crucially does the key roles, particularly line out throwing, better than most other hookers in NZ.
Selection is capital h Hard. Balancing experience with on-form with team cohesion with defensive roles is what head coaches get the big bucks for. And this England team are anti-rugby currently. Could well be he picked for the grind and he did get the result
https://www.munsterrugby.ie/report/report-brave-munster-effort-falls-short-against-all-blacks-xv/
Reads like Munster had a blast last night, I bet that was a great match to be at too
I watched the 2nd half of the Munster vs AB XV and it was a cracker. I’d have watched the whole thing but I got times wrong and didn’t realise it was clashing with the Fiji vs Scotland game I was also trying to watch.
No lie, I had barely any interest in these upcoming games, and then I saw the team list for the All Blacks XV vs Munster and Devan Flanders picked at 8 (after missing out on the squad and only getting called up because Lio-Willie has been called into the ABs proper.
Then I was reading reddit /r/rugbyunion (stopped posting, but occasionally check it out to see what the mouth breathers are banging on about ;) ) and someone asking where Brayden Iose was and that the ABs XV didn’t have a proper 8.
Which is a bit silly given Flanders is an 8 for Hawkes Bay, swapped with Iose a couple of times for the Hurricanes, and really only plays blindside because he’s good enough to be in the team so they fit him in somewhere. I rate him hugely - massive human, always thought he was talented as a player but then watched him warming up at a Magpies game at McLean Park and this giant lad was covering so much ground with pace and power.
He’s got the size and physical attributes to be a great international 6/8, just needs time free from injury playing to build form at Super rugby level. You can’t teach size and pace.
All Blacks XV v Munster, 2 November 5.30PM (GMT) / 3 November 6.30AM (NZDT), Thomond Park, Limerick, Ireland
All Blacks XV match-day 23:
- George Bower* (Crusaders / Otago)
- Brodie McAlister (Crusaders / Canterbury)
- George Dyer (Chiefs / Waikato)
- Isaia Walker-Leawere (Hurricanes / Hawke’s Bay)
- Fabian Holland (Highlanders / Otago)
- Oliver Haig (Highlanders / Otago)
- Du’Plessis Kirifi - Captain (Hurricanes / Wellington)
- Devan Flanders (Hurricanes / Hawke’s Bay)
- Finlay Christie* (Blues / Tasman)
- Harry Plummer - Vice-Captain* (Blues / Auckland)
- Kini Naholo (Hurricanes / Taranaki)
- Quinn Tupaea* (Chiefs / Waikato)
- AJ Lam (Blues / Auckland)
- Chay Fihaki (Crusaders / Canterbury)
- Shaun Stevenson* (Chiefs / North Harbour)
- Bradley Slater (Chiefs / Taranaki)
- Xavier Numia (Hurricanes / Wellington)
- Marcel Renata (Blues / Auckland)
- Naitoa Ah Kuoi (Chiefs / Bay of Plenty)
- Corey Kellow (Crusaders / Canterbury)
- Noah Hotham* (Crusaders / Tasman)
- Josh Jacomb (Chiefs / Taranaki)
- Ruben Love* (Hurricanes / Wellington)
*denotes capped All Blacks player
A few uncapped here, are they awarding caps for taking on Munster? With Ireland not playing this weekend, Munster will be after a scalp!
It’s just a first class equivalent cap I think, not a full All Blacks cap - when the ABs XV replaced the Junior All Blacks as our second team there was much consternation that it might count against eligibility, but (at least back in 2020) it didn’t. Given the cynics though Hoskins Sotutu was withdrawing to protect his coming eligibility for other nations maybe that changed - or maybe they just don’t know what they’re talking about.
Of the uncapped players, the ones to watch are the two starting locks, especially Fabian Holland, Kirifi & Flanders (Haig is a bit more of a journeyman but is still a prospect). AJ Lam was a revelation for the Blues moving into the midfield (he wasn’t pushing Telea or Clarke off their wings) and on the bench, Numia was very close to an ABs call-up and Ah Kuoi is almost the perfect bench lock/6 who’s had a great NPC.
UK timings for the nations cup
No idea if the Munster match is being shown sadly
I use WheresTheMatch as it appears to have more coverage of games and the channels they are on.
https://www.wheresthematch.com/live-rugby-union-on-tv/?showdatestart=20241101&showdateend=20241108
Looks like its on Access Munster. https://accessmunster.ie/
[Edit] s/move/more
There’s a chance I’ll catch some of Scotland v Fiji but the England v NZ game is basically the most unfriendly time possible for kiwis and I don’t even care enough to watch it on replay fast forwarding all the mucking around.
Never seen the ref in this Scotland vs Fiji game, but I can understand how Fiji are struggling with him given his 0 comms style. Most of the Fiji players will be used to SH form of refereeing where there’s information flowing from the referee confirming when ruck has formed, when hands should be off etc.
Instead this bloke just pings them over & over, its not cheating or anything but really Fiji are playing against 16 Scotland just get to piggy back down the field by kicking penalties rather than having to play much rugby to get territory. Very ugly sort of game to watch.
And that “obstruction” call near the end of the first half was pretty whack. Almost 0 impact on the tacklers ability to effect anything on Lemani who had released the box kick before he got there anyway (ie, at worst he blocked a late tackle).
I was in the stadium, and he was pretty whistle happy. Even with the ref going to the PA he wasn’t forthcoming for lots of explanation. Fiji out of window are a different breed, that was a tough game for them. Still, they did string together 3 unanswered tries, so there is something for them to take away. The welsh better be on their game next week!
Yeah, I don’t mind that he had to penalise Fiji because they were infringing a lot; but for mine its not a very proactive refereeing style. I know some people hate referees “coaching” the players, but because there’s so many possible things happening at once I think its a rational response which keeps the game flowing and rugby being played rather than referee forceback.
The ruck calls etc were mostly right but if he’d communicated the Fijians would have stopped what they were doing & he wouldn’t have had to whistle. There were other calls I thought were a bit questionable - the obstruction below and blowing so many scrum penalties when the ball was already won.
I really hate knock-on scrums turning into scrum penalties, i’d favour free-kicks unless the feeding team is attacking in the opposition 22m or something. A scrum happens to re-start the game after a mistake, so in effect at the moment we end up penalising knock-ons and forward passes which just feels a bit overly harsh.
