A hypothetical Bledisloe Cup game

Since you put Bert Cooke in, you must be allowing old farts like me to comment. Great as Cullen was there was not ever any one like Bob Scott. ( Only read about Nepia ) Jeff Wilson was a baby compared to Ron Jarden. Nobody matched Des Conner ( or even Loveridge ) at halfback. ( We know Conner played for both NZ and OZ ) Peter Jones was the Lomu of No 8's You must hace Buck Shelford, and even Wilson Whineray would disagree with his promotion over Kevin Skinner.. DONT SAY THE CURRENT GUYS ARE BIGGER. tHAT IS JUST WEIGHT TRAINING ETC

Jason, With all due respect, both your selections suck, even without my humble opinion!!! Wallabies. Gould on the wing? You could have picked Moon, Tune or Roff in that order. M.Ella at 13? Get outta here! Farr-Jones ahead of catchpole or Connor? Don' think so. Poido at eightman & Cooke at flanker? You're kidding, right??? You've got the props the wrong way around & anyway, Daly was the weak link in the McKenzie-Kearns-Daly frontrow. Where's Topo? The following composite XV is most often selected, not by me, but by the historical experts - M.Burke, D.Campese, T.Allan, T.Horan or M.Lynagh, D.Messenger or several others (Moon, Eastes, Wallace, Kelaher), M.Ella, K.Catchpole, M.Loane, C.Windon, S.poidevin or A.Hodgson, J.Eales, G.Cooke, J.White or W.Cerutti, P.Kearns or T.Lawton, T.Rodriguez or W. Cerutti (again). All Blacks. Not asd confident of my ABs projections. The backline is very good, but then they have so many options of similar ability. Mexted ahead of Zinzan Brooke, Lochore or Buck even? I don't think so. Mexted was very good, but Brooke & Lochore were both better. White was lock against the Boks in 1956. A very good player. Jones should be openside flanker & kirkpatrick blindside flanker. Loe was ruthless, but there were technically better props around. An acquaintance (Aussie & ex-prop) who played club rugby against Whineray reckons he was over-rated. But the kiwis themselves rate him highly. Sorry Jason, perhaps I'm being pedantic. Just trying to provide constructive criticism & lift our collective historical knowledge.

If the two teams played against each other, it would be a very close game. It depends on how the Wallabies handle the NZ forwards, especially Loe, Fitzpatrick and Whineray. But when you look at it, it would be a outstanding game of rugby, great players everywhere. If I was to pick a scoreline, it would be: AUSTRALIA 30 NEW ZEALAND 28.

[Very humbly] Richard "Tiny" White oops should have picked up on that one, thanks Jason. Kerry Fitzgerald had control of the 1987 world cup final and always impressed me with his application of the advantage laws and feel for the game. He earned the respect of players and would talk to them rather than down to them and it was a tragedy that Australia and the world lost his talent at such a young age. Despite the fact that he was Australian you want the best man in charge and anyway aren't all referees neutral?

Jason, I think you have Michael Jones and TIny WHite's posititions mixed up.

If I was to have a choice of venue for this one-off Bledisloe Cup game, if the game was played in Australia, it would be at the SCG, in NZ it would be at Carisbrook, Dunedin. If you're wondering who Richard White was, he was 'Tiny' White who played 23 Tests for the All Blacks from the period 1949-56. As far as the referee was concerned, Andre Watson was a suitable choice seeing he had control of the 1999 & 2003 RWC finals, Bledisloe Cup games (including the 'Game of the Century' at Sydney in 2000), and could do a good job on this game unlike a northern hemisphere referee. Regarding 'Buck' Shelford, I don't think I've ever seen a better leader of the Haka than 'Buck'. Why 'Buck' was not considered for the 1991 RWC still has us amazed on this side of the Tasman. It made the All Blacks chances of retaining the RWC that much harder, for the Wallabies, a lot easier.

Sam Truly always good to hear your opinions. Where's Bunce and Zinzan? Joshua.

I forgot to mention that as coach I would have either Fred Allen who revolutionised NZ rugby in the 1960's by coaching 15 man rugby or Vic Cavanagh - the father of NZ rucking and until Robbie Deans the best coach never to coach the All Blacks.

This should be a fun exercise judging by your last post Jason but I have to wonder who the hell is Richard White for NZ? I'm going to limit my selections to NZ players I have actually seen play as I have only ever read exploits written about famous All Blacks from before the second world war like Bert Cooke, George Nepia, the Brownlie brothers and Mark Nicholls and some players post WW2 eg. JB Smith, Ron Jarden, Tiny White, Kevin Skinner, Wilson Whineray, Colin Meads, Ken Gray, Waka Nathan, Brian Lochore, Kel Tremain, Earle Kirton, Chris Laidlaw and Fergie McCormick. I would also prefer the game to be played under the laws from the 1987 - 90 era or the 1995 - 97 era rather than the ELV's as the backlines in particular operated with greater space and rucking was still a legitimate facet of the game rather than how rucking is interpreted now. Christian Cullen - best broken field runner I've ever seen and very good at reading the play and positioning himself to take advantage of any opportunity Jeff Wilson - Fast, skilful, scores tries, kicks well and can play like a second fullback Bruce Robertson - the prince of NZ centres he made other players around him look good and was very quick Steve Pokere - not a name that would immediately spring to most people's lips but the way he played on the NZ Maori tour to Wales in 1982 left me breathless and had many rugby scribes comparing him to Bert Cooke. He had the misfortune of playing in an era where his ability wasn't ever unleashed or expressed apart from a few glimpses. Bryan Williams - lethal sidestep off his left foot, big and fast and could also kick long range goals Dan Carter - not yet one of the greatest first fives to play for NZ but compared to Bob Burgess, Doug Bruce, Duncan Robertson, Eddie Dunn, Nicky Allen, Doug Rollerson, Wayne Smith, Grant Fox, Andrew Mehrtens and Carlos Spencer, Carter's all round game gets him the nod. Frano Botica would be a close contender also for me and would have revelled in the expansive style of rugby played by the All Blacks nowadays. Dave Loveridge - with the quality of this backline you need a halfback who can clear the ball quickly and Trapper for me was the best halfback I've ever seen play for NZ, his game in the second half into a strong southerly wind in Wellington against the Lions in 1983 should be an education video for all young NZ halfbacks. Graeme Bachop would be the only other halfback who came close with the speed of his clearance. I believe that the great loose forwards also formed a great combination and NZ has been blessed with many but I can't go past the 1987 trio of Shelford, Michael Jones and Alan Whetton. They had it all and Buck of course would lead the haka. Andy Haden - one of our best ever lineout forwards and seldom beaten in an era when lineouts resembled dockyard brawls and lifting was illegal Colin Meads - who else would you want beside you in a dockyard brawl, surprisingly agile for a big man and handled the ball well in those giant mitts of his Olo Brown - don't know much about frontrow play and NZ has produced some world class tightheads but I do know that when Olo played we never went backwards and I always remember Keith Quinn going on and on about how straight his back was whenever he packed down. Also a very good runner with ball in hand. Sean Fitzpatrick - the man every other team loved to hate, accurate thrower, powerful scrummager and seagulled out on the wing to score tries - nuff said. Ken Gray - playing out of position on the loosehead but like Hayman was a very tall man for a prop and was the world's best when that great All Blacks side dominated in the late sixties. Had the privilege of meeting him and he still had a commanding presence and such huge hands, great sense of humour. Buck Shelford would be captain as he never lost a test as skipper. As this is a hypothetical exercise I would have my favourite referee Kerry Fitzgerald officiating, with Clive Norling and Patrick Robin from France as touch judges.