well done NZ, easily the best team. But credit to the Aussie lads they gave it a crack. Giving myself a wrap here but we were watching the game fucking loose as and I called the Carter FG about 5 seconds before it happened and no-one could fucking believe it haha.
Just assumed you were a Hurricanes fan. As for Woodward, it will be difficult to get a chance at the Hurricanes. Savea and NMS will be on the wings and there is also Jane and Proctor floating around.
Woodward is a spud. Played well in NPC to start off with, decent enough at the Rebels, but has taken his foot off the gas since returning to NZ. If he becomes an All Black, then it's back to the bad old days of guys no better than Luke McAlister or Justin Marshall.
I haven't seen him in the last 3 months. Based on seeing him a lot in Super Rugby - it is a sad team that has him as a key player. Yet he is good enough to be a depth player for a team the calibre of the Warratahs or the Hurricanes. My current assessment of him is that he lacks self awareness and thinks he is better than what he is. If he starts to play within his limitations we could see another Tamati Ellison type player.
This is a joke right? First Taylor and Slade aren't up to AB standard are are both off overseas now. What have you seen Dagg kick a couple of goals and think he can kick well consistently at the top level? And can Ben Smith kick goals at all? Making a list like that seems like Barrett kicks at 50% he kicks around 75% I think just not the 85% we want.
NMS will play fullback for the Hurricanes I would think. Jane may not be as good as he was but still better than Proctor/Woodward/Marshall. Plus he is good experience to have outside what will be a new midfield.
NMS will be played at 15 for sure with Jane at 14 and Savea at 11. I reckon given our new centre ranks we'll see Proctor play 13 quite a bit as he did in ITM cup. Proctor's a better wing but I do hope he gets there with being a centre. Started to show improvement this ITM cup campaign. Proctor's actually highly underrated IMO. He's no AB or anything but a good bench/ depth option. We saw Marshall play a lot more than even he was expecting, given Woodward getting injured early on and Jane being in and out a bit. We have so much back 3 depth it's ridiculous. Savea/ NMS/ Jane/ Marshall/ Proctor/ McNicol/ Barrett / Woodward all capable of playing in the back 3.
So what's happened to Dagg and Jane? Just getting on a bit? A couple of years ago I'd have had Dagg on my shortlist for best 15 in the world
I was so shitfaced by fulltime. We had four beers and a line of MDMA each half. Good times. The atmosphere was pretty amazing. Despite the result I'm glad I went to Twickenham for it.
Didn't know you were the sort to pose rhetorical questions genuinely thought you wanted an answer. For the record both slade and Taylor are former all blacks and well worth mentioning their names their pending overseas trips notwithstanding.if both stayed in New Zealand each would come into the mix of players used given our semi rotation policy. i also mentioned there was a drop off to smith and dagg in my post so was only mentioning them for a thorough answer. if the knockout games were tied after extra time my understanding is that there was to be a goal kicking competition involving 5 guys from each team. Ben smith was mentioned as being one of our best 3 in the team.
By the way Squeaks you were lucky to get a response as the tone of your post didn't warrant a friendly reply.