Overlooked Chiefs show the size of Robbie Deans' task

My point was, moaman, that Ben T and Charlie F are both untested. They have promise, as a lot of players do, but at the moment I think it's optimistic to be referring to propping strength in depth. I'm a big fan of the pair, and called for Charlie F to be an All Black during the Ireland series. Personally I just don't see Mackintosh or Crockett being Test quality. I've seen Crockett up close during the Crusaders v Sharks game at Twickenham and was amazed at how tall and comparatively lean he was. Just couldn't see him being an option against the better Test 3s. Agree that Rettalick and Romano look good, but playing away in SA is a different kettle of fish to nilling Ireland. Xavier Rush looked pretty good against England in that series when Simon Shaw was sent off (or was it Grewcock?), and look what happened to him. If Woodcock and Whitelock happen to go down at the same time then IMO there's a real problem. Obviously this is worst case scenario, but just a though.

I'm a cricket fan too mate. Imagine supporting the Blues AND the Black Caps! I still believe the Black Caps have the makings of a pretty decent team with the right Coach and management. The batsmen desperately need a good batting coach. Their tendency to accept mediocrity is bewildering when you consider the effort our young bowlers are putting in to keep them in the game. Being the self-confessed one-eyed All Black fanatic that I am I'm very confident in this All Black Team and even Shag's early direction. I still have reservations over Foster's involvement but time will tell as always. This is not to say we won't suffer one or two away losses and the SFS and Suncorp do present the Wallabies with their best opportunity to regain the Bledisloe in years. I think it would be outstanding to see Cruden running the ship with SBW outside him although I'm not sure Hansen will risk this against the big boys. Their partnership for the Chiefs has been instrumental in the franchise's success. Bring on the Darkness!

Mornin' Riccardo. As usual I am pretty upbeat about the upcoming campaign.Won't be betting my shirt on the outcome but quietly confident that our boys will be competitive ;-) As a cricket fan also I can only give thanks aplenty that we have a decent rugby team to cheer on. I can't wait to see what combo they throw out at Sydney.It wouldn't be unthinkable to have Cruden start (although I don't expect that) and it's always exciting to have fresh blood..er...new people in the lineup.We don't have a whole lot to moan about when it comes to the rugby and it's structure.Looks like we need to have a think about our refs though and their development.

You know plenty Moa. Good post. The All Blacks have some depth issues just like any International Squad. I think it was OJ who commented that the All Blacks strength was that they were able to adapt and cover these potential weaknesses better than most teams.

Ben S.....You probably have a better handle on the merits of NZ forward play than me even though I'm living a bit closer to the action but I'd like to throw a couple of comments into the mix. You correctly identify Charlie Faumuina and Ben Tameifuna as up-and-coming props;The former was earmarked as an AB quite a while ago and showed great form early on in the Super rounds before injury wrecked his season.Tameifuna,on the other hand,only got his shot with the Chiefs due to the timely injury to another promising prop in Ben Afeaki.Tameifuna made a meteoric rise to being named for the wider AB training camp prior to the Irish series.He is seen as one for the future whereas Faumuina and Afeaki have arrived. Crockett has had some difficulties in the past-including the infamous Test in Italy a couple of years back-but I heard some knowledgeable expert singing his praises and citing technical improvements as recently as the Crusaders-Chiefs semi-final. He and Mackintosh seemed to have had chronic binding problems in the past though they aren't alone in that. NZ has dabbled with quite a few locks over the past few seasons;the names are plentiful but some are inconsistant,some are aging and some are injured. Eaton,Donnelly,Boric spring to mind.The latter was very impressive(imo) but serious injury threatens his career I believe. Other players have yet to be handed a chance to impressive-Clarke,Behuis etc. I don't share your reservations regarding Samuel Whitelock.Romano and Retallick both seem international class to me too. Finally-With two aged hookers-NZ does appear to have an issue.I like Hikawera Elliot but he couldn't force his way to a starting berth for the Chiefs when it came to the crunch games and the AB selectors appear to have reservations about him so what do I know?

Disagree with your prop assessment, Sam. The starters, Woodcock and Owen Franks are excellent when on form, but beyond them there is only Ben Franks, a journeyman IMO, and two props with promise in Charlie F and Ben T (lazy spelling corruption on my part). Who is the next bonafide NZ loosehead? It certainly isn't Mackintosh or Crockett. Personally I think Hansen will have a big issue when Woodcock, Mealamu and Hore run out of steam, which is likely to happen in the next two seasons, I'd wager. Obviously somebody might announce themselves in the interim period, but atm there isn't a standout. I think the same applies to the lock position too. Romano looks the good IMO, and Rettalick has shown a lot of promise, but I'm still not sold on Whitelock as a consistent 5. The Ireland series convinced me that Romano can be the next All Black 4, but I'm not sure what happens if Whitelock is injured. In certain areas I think there's a real issue of depth which could be problematic in coming seasons.

very stiff to suggest smith wouldnt make the ab's. i'd love to see how smith would have gone at the side of a dominant pack where he wasnt required to do everything. mccaw would obviously have been as heroic as smith behind a beaten pack, i would just love to have seen smith play when he could pick his involvements a bit more...

Interesting that both Robbie Robinson and Tim Nanai-Williams were batling for thier starting positions at the cheifs. Both have started a fair few games from the bench. Horrel has been a huge surprise for mine.

ps retallick rocks as well. awesome workload accuracy and hits a little bit harder than whitelock just not as often. awesome combo of whitelock and retallick. starting locks for the rest of the year

OJ - agree with kuruki here. whitelock despite being invisible doing all the dark arts still appeared alot during the irish tests. whitelock is the perfect team player as his performance isnt based on how the team is doing. his standards, accuracy and workloads are high. cant believe your saying he hasnt captured his form from 2010. he's never had a slump and i've never seen him have a bad game. he's relentless and tireless. i'd rate him as the top lock in the world at the moment. his work load is phenominal on par with mccaws or any highworking 7 out there. his set pieces are solid. next time keep a close eye on what whitelock does and see how many rucks & mauls he hits/secures. the guy would be one of those AB's that are first choice but the public take for granted because he's so consistent.

The two real significant changes that may affect the results are the retention of SBW and more significantly the loss of Palu. In fact Palu's absence may be the game changer.

I think Robbie deans task will bd made harder if he keep pick players from nsw. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

As someone who has watched wallabies games for 40 years, we often forget how much we struggled pre 1984. I laugh at the arguments that our super 15 teams are the weakest - of course they are! Melbourne and Perth dont play rugby! Canberra has been a beautiful and unexpected birthplace of some our best in recent years, to the delight of us all. We've always had this problem prior to a wonderful decade where we had a great team. Really, we've always had anywhere from none to say 7 world class players, and the rest have been battlers. We forget easily. However we hope! And we don't enjoy our NZ cousins telling us to shut up when we have a view. Case rests.

not this year cobbers ... King Richie and superstar DC are coming over to get the Bled for ten years running.... And Woodcock will score another try vs Australia ....

J2, MM, ITM Cup teams last year had an extra prop (number 23 jersey) so it's been trialled at a lower level. Not sure if Currie Cup has trialled it

Time will tell. Some people are judging some of these guys at super level v franks who is proven at test level. Proping in a test is a different thing al together. Many a prop has looked awesome at provincial level but died at test level....Matt Dunning, Jamie Mackintosh just to name a couple.

As a Kiwi I reckon TPN would go close at Hooker, but mostly on future potential rather than currently being the best. And Higginbotham would go close at No.6, as he and Messam are very similar players. Other than that, probably only Genia in the backline would be considered for the AB's, as NZ already has more than enough wingers as good/better than Ioane. The Australian midfield is limited in attack and top class talent is already being ignored at fullback in NZ (Taylor, Robinson, Piutau). I can see the idea of giving more young talent a crack by expanding the Australian Super Conference, but at present it only seems to have thrown up a greater number of mediocre players. Whether there are genuinely enough top class athletes to warrant a pro contract remains an unknown. Simply put the ARU needs more kids playing the game...

Eales. but u r absolutely right about the aru.

I would not agree entirely with the fact that the boks have been flatterred by the bookies and ultimately anyway the bookies are just that,an opinion. lets look at the reality Paul. new talent that has come into the bok team,marcel coetzee,eben etzebeth and the return of frans steyn,and their depth will be tested with the loss of jp peterson but mvovo will provide adequete cover. il tell you the main problem the boks have will be dependant on the form of morne steyn and francois hourgaard with the injury to goosen being a stern test on what the boks can come up with as regards cover. the boks infact are a pretty decent outfit with brilliant fowards to match and the games will be won based on the foward dominance,collisions,momentum created by them and the ability for morne steyn to convert the opportunities such dominance affords. the allbalcks would rightly be the favorites but the loss of both SBW and smith to an eye injury will disrupt them,cruden is the form fly half but form is seldom a replacement for sheer class.the same is provided in aburdance from carter and his experience should make him a sure starter,cruden is a brilliant ten however although he is improving i he still lacks as regards a complete fly half. super rugby is good and competitive however with travel and home advantage being an issue i would like to see cruden tested(similar to when carter pipped a drop against ireland under presure) and with regard to drop gaols should the game become much tighter in the later stages with all teams having played together more worked on combinations and sturdied oppositions more and in that regard it brings me to the stregnth of the wallabies. super rugby may stretch the austarlian talent across the franchise and wear thin their ability to win but the fact of the matter is,numbers do not lie and the reality is the australians had the lowest numbers of teams in the finals,the worst record(the reds loss regardless of referees was a hiding) their forwards have been lacking and although they can offer a decent scrum are even below the argentines in this regards. the main stregnth of the wallabies will be their poaching - under pockock the same will aide in giving australuia several penalties as well as disrupt momentum mainly for the boks. Berrick Barnes has shown a steady hand and his ability to mix both a running and kicking game combined with drop goals and an eye for territory should make them a decent side,i doubt they will have the ability to match the all blacks in phyisicality,breakdown,scrums but should take them in the line outs. my take is the rugby championships somewht favours the boks as regards the schedule as should they beat the argentines at home and face the same jetlag the argentines will have in mendoza and beat them there plus have a decent showing in australiasia against the blacks and wallabies they should settle down for the home legs relatively cormfatably.

Whitelock was outstanding against the irish. We have never had two hardworking locks like Rettalick and Whitelock together. They may not be noticeable because they are always doing the jobs that get no credit but make everyone else look good. They are defensive terriers.