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PapanuiPirate

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Joined February 2015

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Rabid Canterbury, Crusaders and All Black supporter currently based in Sydney. Former Player and Coach at the Sydney Subbies level.

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Will Jordan in the conversation if his appearances last year don’t count against him, which given the circumstances maybe shouldn’t! His try scoring numbers are crazy and his play has been very good, but I think Kellaway’s performances have had more impact on his team than Jordan.

World Rugby's player of the year award is back: Who's your pick?

HL,

In our fine tradition I can’t disagree with any of your picks.

Michael Hooper is THE standout player in the world this year in my eyes (And I think I watched every international involving a top 10 nation). Even in his worst games against New Zealand and Scotland he still looked like one of the better players on the park and his best performances of the year have been nothing short of spectacular.

Any thoughts on Rookie International of the year? Andrew Kellaway and Ethan Blackadder are the standouts for me, along with Basham from Wales. Marcus Smith also worth a mention though England’s opposition in the mid-year tour counts against him.

World Rugby's player of the year award is back: Who's your pick?

I suspect they have genuinely different focuses based on who is paying their wage Jacko. In the premiership their RFU bosses tell them to be hard on players releasing at the tackle and the offside line. WR tell them to be sharp on side entry and to allow a contest at the breakdown for test matches.

The Wrap: Dumb rugby sees Wallabies sacrifice too many points at Murrayfield

I made the mistake of staying up to watch the All Blacks – Italy game. Two hours of sleep I’ll never get back.

Unfortunately for the All Blacks South Africa exposed a way to unsettle them, which all teams that don’t have a core gameplan will seek to use against them. Rush defence, with extreme midfield pressure and reliance on highball is just something NZ will have to select for to negate in the future. That means a couple of high ball specialists in the back three (A la Jordie Barrett and Will Jordan) a balanced midfield and a at least one backrower who can get you over the gainline.

As for AAA’s cleanout, that style is becoming more common as referees aren’t sharper on tacklers properly releasing and rolling away. If that player stays where he is he provides a leverage platform for his teammates use when jackling (basically kneeling on that player to stay upright) and he gets his hands in the way of the player placing the ball. You will see many “on-the-ground” cleanouts like that from all sides during a game.

The Wrap: Dumb rugby sees Wallabies sacrifice too many points at Murrayfield

Gotta have a big body getting over the gainline at pace to get the LQB humming HL!

Blindside is rugby's new most influential position

Squire was good but unfortunately his body and personal circumstances kept him from ever locking the position down.

JC was a little short and a little wild to be the perfect 6 but god was he destructive. It’s true a truly top class blindside should terrify the opposition.

Blindside is rugby's new most influential position

The golden age of locks led to an absolute nadir for 6’s in my opinion Harry. That desire for a third lock just pushed a heap of decent second rower into being poor 6s. Mostert is probably the best recent example. A top class lock, a pretty ineffectual 6. Scott Barrett is similar.

Lawes and PSDT are the standouts and I think that’s because both are actually blindside style players who were tall and so were put in the lock bucket from early in their careers. Both play better on the side of the scrum from what I have seen.

What I will agree on is it’s great to have a guy who can play either lock or 6 in a pinch if you have an injury or depth issues, but I will always call for role clarity in selection first, with broader team considerations only after you uncover a gap.

Blindside is rugby's new most influential position

Wasn’t TJs defensive role fascinating GP?
I’m not sure I have ever seen it’s like, having the halfback shoot up and disrupt the shorter passing channels. Not sure I saw him make a tackle with the maneuver but it certainly seemed to really spook the Welsh attack.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

In fairness to Papalii he is a perfectly good link man and his deck-work is passable if not spectacular. I often notice him making telling contributions on attack and he is pretty much a perfect 7 in his tackle stats. I don’t see any issue with him at 7 though I would like to see a little more focus on winning the ball every now and then.

Akira’s problem from where I sit is his engine. He runs out of steam when called upon to work hard in the tighter exchanges. So if he is in a team where he doesn’t need to be working hard all the time he can focus his limited energy of a few high impact involvements, which also make the most of his explosive physique. You can carry that kind of player if you have another couple of high workrate players in your back row but a guy like Savea, who can do the tight work when necessary, performs so much better when he has the freedom of not carrying a low workrate teammate.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

Reuben Thorne I think he was getting at Moaman.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

thanks SB.

I have whole articles written about backrow balance. I’m still a proponent of of specialist players in the backrow so:

Blindside: Dominant Defence, Hard Carries, solid clean-out when required and good workrate.
Openside: Link play on attack and defence, wide ruck security, on ball presence either to slow or steal, very accurate defence with high work rate.
Number 8: High Skill, VERY mobile, line breaker, powerful spot tackler but lower workrate.

With one of either the blindside or 8 also being over 195cm tall and a genuine 3rd lineout option.

The Blackadder, Papalii, Savea backrow is pretty close to that but is missing a bit of physicality at blindside (EB may well pick this up he was dominant at super level) and missing a lineout target. I would be happy for Blackadder to lose a half-step of pace if that’s what it took for him to add 5kg of muscle and start smacking around even the prime bokkie beef.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

“We have been playing it like its a permanent position for a single player.”

Read and Coles did this a lot and it was clearly a specific part of their roles. The big difference is both those players are VERY mobile and could reposition themselves quickly when they needed to. Akira Ioane is not fast enough at repositioning and gets caught out all the time. Codie Taylor is decent but still occasionally isn’t where he needs to be. Ardie however did this a lot during the Wales game but it was less noticeable as A. he didn’t get much ball on the fringes early and B. he repositioned himself very quickly back towards the centre when required.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

As a Crusaders fan I’ve been watching Blackadder very keenly and his lineout is a work on from where I sit. At 190 he isn’t a genuine third option on height so he needs to get there on technique which he looks to be developing. It doesn’t help that he plays for the Super Rugby team with perhaps the most effective lineout driven through two international locks with excellent understudies!

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

“The ABs have always used a No6 or No8, at No2 in the lineout. Think of Thorne, Kaino, Rodney S, Read, Squire, Jerry…..all these guys stepped up, when our lineout was under pressure in the middle and back, to win some ball up front.”

That’s kind of exactly my point OB. The two shortest of those guys (Rodney s and JC) were also the weakest of the lineout options. Thorne played a lot of lock and so was a good lineout technician. Kaino and Squire were both very tall, acting as genuine third targets along the length and Reado was the best of our “short” options as he was again a fantastic lineout technician. As is stands EB and DP don’t look to be at that technical level yet, nor can they rely on height. This concerns me as lineouts are becoming an incredibly technical battle as lineout analysis gets better and better.

As to lifters, once you get to international level every guy in the forward pack barring hooker should be a competent lifter and the variation in “snap” off the turf tends to be about the speed/height of the jumper’s natural hop. This is part of the reason Kieran Read was such a good defender at lineout time, his speed into the air was incredible!

I’ve belted him from pillar to post on the other aspects of his game but in fairness Akira Ioane has the height and had been working hard on his lineout game and is probably the best lineout exponent of the newer crop. Shannon Frizzell is a genuine third lineout option and is probably our best lineout backrower currently capped. If we were really keen on targeting the lineout at some point we might see that aspect finally give Tom Robinson an opportunity as he is both very tall at 198 and a very good jumper.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

Blackadder hasn’t looked out of place by any means but he was making mincemeat of runners in Super and I haven’t seen that in the international arena. I think he recognises that teams like South Africa are a step up physically and he has some growth there.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

I basically draw the line for a tall backrower at about 195. Guys like Kaino, Squire and Frizzel are all at or over 195. Now for sure that’s an arbitrary point and a guy like Read, a renowned lineout exponent, can be a genuine third target by having good technique and a nice quick hop.

Blackadder and Papalii are both fairly slow jumpers, not much spring off the turf and aren’t tall enough to make up the difference. This wasn’t a big problem against Australia as Australia also played some relatively short backrows and have had a average lineout, and it went fine against a Wales side shorn of their lineout general in the first 20 mins. Against teams like the Boks and England who will consistently have a lineout with 3 guys over 2m tall? That starts to look difficult.

If one of these players graduates into being an international quality lineout exponent? happy days! And they are both young and it’s not beyond them but I’d like to see SOMEONE in the back three providing extra height and/or focus at lineout time.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

We finally got our wish HL!

I wasn’t expecting to learn anything new from this game and had figured we would see a more assured backrow performance with the selected trio, but I was wrong! Some really interesting takeaways for me:

1. Ardie played like an 8. He had the role down to a T and got his running game going, something which has been missing for a while. What this showed me was he can play there and play the role we need from 8, rather than just playing as another 7. That’s good news for the ABs and bad news for Luke Jacobson (who is firming as the bench option)
2. Papalii is probably our best available 7. Given less of the tackling work to do his over ball presence was much stronger, his link and running game got going and he just looked like he had far more freedom. Cane-like was good description, with a little bit more in his wide game a little less sting in his tackles.
3. Blackadder is becoming the new conundrum. He’s bang on a hybrid 6/7 and looks to have the biggest engine in the team. But he is a little bit short and I have not seen his physicality make the step from Super Rugby to tests. I hope he gets a decent off season and a bit of time in the gym to just get his body up to test standard, but nothing will solve the fact that a Blackadder, Papalii, Savea backrow lacks tall timber for the lineouts.
4. Havilli is being found out a bit on offence when he hasn’t got room and can’t get his feet going, but his DEFENCE has been steadily improving and I thought that would be his Achilles heel as a test player.

So some of the same challenges remain. Midfield needs a direct presence in either 12 or 13 to support one of Havilli or ALB (I suspect the Chiefs pair of Tupea and ALB will get the nod if they can string a decent super season together) and we need at least 1 taller backrower to shore up the lineout.

I think you are right about the two dedicated playmakers point, but this is more a feature of the players available. You don’t need a fullback playmaker when you have Havilli at 12. Even then, both Jordie Barrett and Will Jordan are perfectly capable of doing a little bit of first receiver work if.

What a balanced All Black loose forward trio can deliver

Influential is a fun twist on the player question!

For the All Black’s it can only be Jordie Barrett. No other player in the team strode so far forward in terms of their importance to the team and he basically single handedly made the All Blacks Competitive against the Boks. What the AB’s were seriously missing was an influential forward. The closest they had was a Rookie in Ethan Blackadder. With Guzzler not reaching great heights and Codie Taylor’s form chart being a bit all over the place they need to find the leader in that pack and fast.

Australia is a three way tie between Hooper, Cooper and Kerevi. Hooperis having one of the all time great seasons as a captain and as a player. His influence is so massive so regularly that it’s just his benchmark which makes him strangely hard to notice sometimes. Expectation is the killer of perspective apparently. Cooper gave the Wallabies something they have been missing for years: Shape. His ability to influence attacking play through depth and by threatening (and not delivering) the long pass had a huge influence. Kerevi gave the Wallabies go forward in midfield, which is just absolutely critical against the Rush defence, and probably more than anyone gave them the confidence to bend and break the line. I cannot split those three.

The Most influential player for South Africa was Faf de Klerk and I can’t even imagine another player coming close to his influence on their gamelan. The boks cannot play the way they want to play without Faf and while I would say he wasn’t at his best, he was still good enough to keep them in the hunt. The natural inclination seems to be to pick a Bok forward but they can only win games playing the forward oriented game if Faf is firing.

For Argentina it was Montoya plain and simple. He is their best player by a country mile at the moment and his work on the deck basically kept them looking competitive. Without him, what was a disappointing campaign could have become utterly disastrous

The Thursday rugby two-up: Standout players of TRC

I think generally Oliver has made the common mistake of selecting a South African 6 rather than a South African Blindside, forgetting that the jersey numbers are swapped in RSA.

Hooper v Kolisi on the openside is largely going to be an argument around personal preferences I suspect.

Time to 'do a Lions' and pick a Southern Hemisphere All Stars to bring four nations together

Who in the world is a better openside Flanker right now? Hooper is incredibly well regarded overseas and I’m a kiwi putting him ahead of any option from my country. I like Siya Kolisi, think he’s a great openside and a great leader, but I don’t see him having the same impact that Hooper does especially in a mixed southern Hemisphere side which can more reasonably balance a backrow with a guy like Hooper in it.

Time to 'do a Lions' and pick a Southern Hemisphere All Stars to bring four nations together

Always a fun concept to bandy about!

To make it more palatable to the bean counters I’d probably run one multi country tour every 4 or 8 years, rather than a single country tour.

As for selections, I like your choices Oliver, but you make the same mistake many an armchair Lions selector makes. The Lions are about the best team you can out in the paddock from the available players, not who are the best players from the pool available. To that end you have an extremely unbalanced backrow. Hooper is the best openside flanker in the world right now and would get the captaincy as he has matured into a fine leader. Savea probably goes to the bench. Kolisi basically out of the side until Hooper gets injured when he goes straight into the starting openside jersey and grabs the captaincy.

If PSDT is healthy he goes into the blindside jersey without question. If he isn’t there things get very murky, I’m probably putting Marcos Kremer there but next on the list is probably A.Ioane or Van Standen. 8 goes to Thor as the only specialist 8 showing any form. I’d be tempted to look at Facundo Isa if we really want to cast the net wider. Rob Valetini is probably a season or two off being the best 8 in the southern game, and he’s handy at 6 too, so he is solid bench material. Pick him for the games against France and England, with Savea on the line for the less physical nations.

Despite years of sour blood, I’d say Cooper v Mo’unga is a toss up. A mature Cooper has some great game control skills that Mo’unga had only sporadically. Against the rush defence of England I’m probably picking Cooper as he varies his depth better. Mo’unga against all others.

Midfield is a crapshoot. Lukanyo Am had a few shockers this year, but was amazing in the win over the ABs. Havilli has had a break out year but he still feels a bit frail at the top level. Kerevi probably the only certain pick, but he plays best with 12 on his back. Very hard to find balance among those choices.

Time to 'do a Lions' and pick a Southern Hemisphere All Stars to bring four nations together

No need to edit out passion after all!

'It was alien, poetic': Why I'm forever watching Benji

The Roar needs another rank for professional writers who jump in only when their heroes move on!

Great stuff Dim!

'It was alien, poetic': Why I'm forever watching Benji

I suspect Kintetsu would release him so I think this is a case of his manager just making sure his club knows that his first responsbility is to them.

I’ve said this before, Japan and the Japanese club sides are at a stage where they want to keep World Rugby on side and have a real respect for the traditions of the game. Things like Barbarians games, while certainly having no bearing on anything crucial, are still considered by players and fans to be important to the fabric of the game.

They are an opportunity for players to meet and bond and network which can be critical to their life after rugby, and also helps maintain rugby’s image as a game played by goods sports and for sheer enjoyment of the game. That marketing is hard to replicate.

'At no stage have I agreed to play': Quade Cooper denies Barbarians commitment

This was never really in doubt, the clubs have no ability to hold the players over the international window due to Reg9. All this means is those players can play all 4 games instead of the 3 stipulated in Reg9.

The only game they reasonably would have been NOT available for would be the game against Japan, which already shapes as the most likely test of the tour in which to try out fringe players.

Everything Rennie said about Holmes' 'shock', McMahon role, Jake over Tate and Argies shambles

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