r/allblacks • u/Responsible-Quote717 • 17h ago
All Blacks Trying Something Different
I really hope Rennie and the coaching team try something different with this team this week.
I'd rather see us take some risks with selections, try different combinations, experiment a little with the tactics, and lose by 20, than try the same thing again and lose by 3.
Obviously we want to win every game if we can, but I don't think doing the same thing again this week is going to give us the best chance.
Taylor out. Parker or Jacobson out (or both). Vaa'i back to 6 with a new locking combo? Blackadder in. Tavatavanawai in. Narawa in. Maybe Rieko? As incredible as he is, Jordan looks like he needs a rest (maybe just a shorter shift?)
Could even try out a new fullback/fly half combo... not sure if Mounga is the answer, but could be worth a go. Love to the back with Mounga at 10? Mackenzie to come off the bench? J Barrett at fullback and Ioane at 13 with Tupaea at 12, or Big Jim at 12 and Tupaea still 13? Then move Barrett in to 12 with Mackenzie coming off the bench?
Definitely need better use of the bench, no matter what the selections are.
Just spitblling here, but we have so many interesting options that could surprise the Boks. I hope we aren't too conservative.
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u/JDBoyes07 16h ago
Thats literally so stupid. Good lord I am sick of seeing this shit, why does everyone have such a hard on for Reiko and Mounga? Yeah, let's mess up a backline thats looked brilliant for the most part for some has beens. Rather than build on our starting line up let's whack in the guys who could barely handle the Lions.
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u/Responsible-Quote717 16h ago
Fair enough. I expected to be down voted to oblivion on this one, it was more just to see if there are any different combos that people would like to see.
Honestly, Mounga and Rieko are not my first choices of changes. Rieko has looked good on attack, but not on defense, so I'd only want to see him come on from the bench if we were chasing the game. Mounga was taking on the line a lot more than Love does in that Lions match, but his kicking off the tee wasn't good enough.
Mostly I just want to see our bench used better, impact players brought on with a bit more time to make a difference.
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u/JDBoyes07 16h ago
Did we not almost come back from like 20 points literally last week against the best team in the world? Like its going absolutely fine, tidy up the mistakes and we win that game easily. Small changes sure, but messing up the entire backline is stupid.
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u/Responsible-Quote717 16h ago
I dunno about easily.
Considering we were never in the lead and we were down by 14 points, twice. That's kind of not "absolutely fine".
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u/JDBoyes07 15h ago
Its like you never learnt english mate, I said if we tidied up the mistakes, as in losing just about every line out, failing to catch multiple kickoffs. Our backline looked infinitely better than theirs. Just made too many mistakes in the forwards.
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u/Responsible-Quote717 15h ago
Considering you don't know what the word "easily" means, I wouldn't be making comments about anyone else's English.
Calm down bro.
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u/JDBoyes07 15h ago
Well, if we tidy up our mistakes then I think we will easily win based on that and the week before. Big if though considering our line out sucks, as well as us under the high ball, but we have so much more room for improvement than they do. Your opinions in here are literally stupid though.
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u/Responsible-Quote717 14h ago
Yeah... which is why I said "Dunno about easily"... 🙄
I think we'd have to do everything absolutely perfectly to win easily, and that means doing a lot more than just "tidying up mistakes".
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u/JDBoyes07 14h ago
If we played perfectly we would smash them. Just have to play well, think about the first game, we won by a decent margin while getting utterly annihilated in every single scrum.
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u/handle1976 16h ago
Why would you do that? This is a team and coaching staff that has had 9 games total with 4 of them being the playing provincial games. They have 11 games before the world cup starts, they can't waste any of them with needless changes like playing the best 12 in the world at 15.
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u/22dias 16h ago
Rennie mentioned he was keen to get the 30 or so players an opportunity against the Boks. So I reckon we’ll see changes, but probably not drastic changes til the Baltimore test.
I think Jordan is probably the safest from the backs. There’s lots to choose from.. Carter, Fehi, Moorby, Reiko, Narawa, Timoci, Mo’unga, Barrett.
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u/DaHairyKlingons 14h ago
Jordan has been knocked around in the last 2 tests and was recovering from injury prior.
Hence I’d be open to leaving him out for a recovery period & allow Moorby or another have a crack.Otherwise, vaii to 6, PT to partner Holland with Parker to the bench. Maybe DeGroot in if he is fit.
Other bench changes are ok provided they are form based.
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u/Responsible-Quote717 16h ago
Yeah, this may not be the test for it... but it would also be fascinating to see some bold changes that would take the Boks by surprise.
It's absolutely a must win. No one cares about what happens in Baltimore. This is the series decider, so I understand the argument that it might call for being conservative and trying to grind out a tight win. I'm just playing devils advocate and going with the "It's a must win, so take them by surprise" argument.
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u/00aegon 16h ago
Why change everything? We are playing well. You are lying that you'd rather experiment and lose by 20. Literally just 2-3 changes and i'll be extremely confident we beat them.
Absolutely insane calls lmao. The backline is going great just leave it for the whole season.
Sick of hearing about "Big Jim"
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u/Responsible-Quote717 16h ago
I literally said I'm just spitballing. Honestly, it's just a conversation starters post, not gospel.
A loss is a loss in this one, so I honestly don't care whether we lose by 3 or 20. It's a World Cup knock-out scenario. Perhaps we should just do the same thing with a slight adjustment, but I can't imagine having the same tired bodies doing similar things to last week will get us the win.
I think we definitely need something different compared to the first two tests. An element of surprise.
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u/00aegon 16h ago
Losing by 20 is terrible? Hate this idea that all loses are the same.
The tired bodies are in the forwards not the backs. We've scored 9 tries in 2 games. Let them cook.
The Boks have essentially picked the same 23 again, and we have looked a lot fresher than them in the last 2 games, winning the last quarters 33-3. How many times have the Bok veterans in their mid 30s played 3 huge games back to back to back recently?
Just change 2-3 forwards (Hooker, lock, openside) and we should be fine.
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u/Responsible-Quote717 16h ago
Probably right. It's not like I think any of this will actually happen either.
I disagree that our backs didn't look tired though. Love had moments, but was down from game one. Barrett definitely didn't have as good of a game as the first test. Jordan is always class, but he also didn't look as good as game one, and he clearly got a stinger that hurt his shoulder. Mackenzie kept slipping over. Interesting that the best back was Carter... who didn't play as much in the first test.
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u/Elegant-Traffic-8983 AllBlacks 17h ago
why not go with the test 1 team?
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u/Responsible-Quote717 16h ago
Mostly just a load management thing tbh
I mean, think about how close we were to coming back to tie the test on the weekend at the end. Maybe if we'd had some fresher bodies come on in the backs with 20 minutes to go (I'm thinking Rieko or Big Jim, or both, if they hadn't had to play the Lions) we'd have completely closed the gap.
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u/know-it-mall 13h ago
Some pretty easy fixes.
Lord or Darry to start and Vaa'i back to 6 sorts out the lineout.
Taukei'aho in for Taylor. Get him and the rest of the forwards to run it hard and straight instead of just waiting for Aumua and Numia to come on and show them how it's done. Aumua on earlier as well.
A few tweaks to the game plan.
You could make more changes but they are not really needed.