All Black team to play England

Good on ya Mitchell, you have picked a team that COULD rip the poms to pieces

15.Howlett
14.Rokococo
13.NONU !!
12.UMAGA !!
11.Ralph
10.Spencer
9.Marshall
8.SO'OIALO !!
7.McCaw
6.Thorne
5.Williams
4.Jack
3.Sommerville
2.Oliver
1.Hewitt

Obviously Mauger is the first choice 2nd 5 but this opens the door for the Umaga/Nonu combination !

Mitchell has chosen a team that is going to try and run England off the park, cos if they try and play a tight game they will be too strong.....

Im so looking foward to saturday night !!!!

Spot the Hurricanes fan?

15.Howlett
14.Rokococo
13.Nonu
12.Umaga
11.Ralph
10.Spencer
9.Marshall

All great play makers - oh hang on - WHAT THE HELL IS CALEB RALPH DOING THERE!

-Ralph +Muliana, so Muliana/Howlett can do their wing/fullback rotation that they do so well.

Otherwise - quite happy with the team, and looking forward to Saturday.

Gayleb Ralph shouldn't be there, he's a boring player...


Certainly a team picked on attacking abilty & form


Lets hope the wheather comes to the party...........

Im not a fan of "Gayleb Ralph" either BUT he is fairly consistent and strong on D , it gives the team balance imo ....?

I don't know why Ralph is an All Black at all... but, he does have experience (not a whole lot, but it's a fairly inexerienced back line, with 2 players on debut, and one on debut in that position (Howlett)...

I guess that was his thinking anyway... wouldn't be surprised to see a sub at half time, depending on how the game is going...

http://www.allblacks.com/teams/allblacks/ralph_caleb.asp


He's over 6 foot and pretty quick, he made his All Black debut when he was only 20 !

I dont want to knock him too much cos he hasnt done that bad has he ??

Putting Howlett at fullback is a huge risk given that he has a poor kicking game and he is likely to be tested by the English big time.

England are a boring team so we need some so called boring players as well. Caleb Ralph may not be as exciting as some players but he is dependable makes few mistakes and is strong defensively. Enhgland are a very good team and we can't afford to rely solely on our flair.

It's actually conceivable that we'll lose this game... a one off game, first one of the season, we haven't had a run as a team.... and England is about as strong as it's ever been...

I just hope that the public isn't too harsh if we do lose... I think England my struggle to make the semis of the WC, just because the conditions will be so different.

Great All Black team, pity no one can kick. Thats why I think we will lose.

Kicking? You mean goal kicking or kicks in play?

hmmm... not sure what you mean boss... carlos is in the best kicking form of his life (in play that is) and he is a solid goal kicker too... plus there is carter off the bench if the C man goes down (touch wood)

Not a fan of ralph but I would have picked him in my team for this game for the reasons Mutant said (btw its actually 2 players new to their position, umaga as well). Solidity is needed somewhere their and muliaina is not that much better. OVerall I like the team, especially nonu getting the centre spot.

I think it's a great team with 2 exceptions; Cullen should've been there from the start & not McDonald as originally selected (hate to sound like a parrot but I gave my reasons in another thread), & Holwlett should be obviously in his natural position of wing instead of Gaylep Ralph (I actually call him Fag Nuts!!!).

Otherwise, given fine weather, we should thrash the Poms. If it's wet, it's gonna be bloody close...

Sick of hearing people refer to Caleb Raplh as fag nuts or gayleb. Of course all you homos that criticize him are world class rugby players too. He plays on the right wing and we don't have a lot of good right wingers in NZ to replace him with.

Its a disgrace when someone who deserves to be in the All Blacks is ridiculed in the way that some of the losers here are doing.

oh for goodness' sake - and who are you? his freakin manager or something? get a grip bro...

all these people are trying to say (however misguided their language may be) is that his place isn't justified...

I'm not his manager and I'm not related or a mate. As far as I know he's not a fag and if all these people don't like him they don't need to refer to him as gay or whatever. He is a good player and maybe the rest of you know something the All Black selctors don't. I don't think so.

Cher cher; exactly. The beauty about being a New Zealander who loves watching rugby is that we're all psuedo All Black selectors!!!

Now why don't all you knowledgeable rugby people name our other top right wingers in NZ. There's a huge difference between playing on the right and left wing which is something a lot of people forget. Having a solid dependable player is a good thing. There is currently more than enough flair in the team and these days test matches are becoming very close and can be won or lost on a single mistake.

eh, ralph a right winger ?

he's on the left, he debut for NZ at centre.....

with afato so'oialo and Vuninbaka taking the right wing for the crusaders the last few years Ralph has made the left wing his......

I think he's decent enough, who else is gona play there ?

Rokococo if Howlett was starting on the right but he (roco) is a right wing specialist so ralph is the BEST option at left wing.

Thanks Richy my fuck up.

the only reason i think ralph doesn't deserve to be there is because i think the 'howlett-cullen-rokocoko' back 3 has a lot more flair AND dependability than a 'rokocoko-howlett-ralph' back 3...

i think he deserves his pace in the squad, but with macdonald out i think cullen should get a shot

Good reassons I suppose smf. It would be good to see a blues back three who have all played together. Still got two players with a lot of flair and two of the quickest in NZ rugby in Howlett and Rococoko. Hopefully they can use Howletts pace and can attack from the back. bit worried about the swirling wind that is likely to be present at the cake tin.

That swirling wind your talking of dude will work in OUR favour too !

Spencer should be unleashing some HUGE bombs against the young English fullback.........

Im happy as with the team, the only player that should be there is
LOMU ! but he's ill so theres nothing that can be done about that!

Imagine the possibilities, Lomu vs England at the cake tin !

I think our fowards are gona do a great job too !

I think if Ralph had played for any other team for the last 2 years, he wouldn't be there... he's just riding on the back of the crusader's performances.... That's what people here are saying.... that he hasn't played well enough to be an All Black.

Half the fun of following sport is being an arm chair critic. It'd suck if we all say here and said "John Mitchell is always right!".. then what would we argue about?

especially when its the AB's were talking about, theyre OUR team, we should all be able to voice our views......

Imagine if one day they actually let the public pick the team ?? like on a voting system, then the coach had to work with the players selected ???

could it work??

I dont mean ALL the time but mabey a one off game ?

Fair enough mutant. I suppose that now that the Hurricanes and expecially the blues are performing better that we have a better mix in the All Blacks. I never persoanlly liked to see so many crusaders in the team and this is from someone who was born in Chch (now lives in Auckland).

Well the wheather for Wellington tomorrow night is gonna be fine.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

SMF: What I mean is ideally at this level you have big punters (off both feet) at 1st and 2nd 5/8th position. Also, your fullback should have long range kick as well. As far goal kicking goes, I'm not convinced Carlos Spencer has the range and accuracy to be a truely first choice goal kicker.

why are people doubting his(spencer) goal kicking ? the last time he kicked in a test match was 1997 and hes been kicking pretty good all year, goals and general play, infact his in play kicking has been HUGE this year....

I cant EVER go against my team weither it be AB's or Hurricanes ,I always have complete faith in them !!

who read what David Kirk said today in the Dom post ?


"Spencer will be the spark that lights the fire that England will struggle to contain"

"England will not be able to match Spencer, Umaga,Howlett & Nonu for
daring,instinctive attack and fluent lines of running"

AND...
'They(eng) will do well up front and defence will be sound,but suddenly two or three times an electric move will cut them to ribbons and the match will be lost"

BRING IT ON !!!!!

Just like to pre warn everyone that this won't be a walk over and I honestly think England have a good chance of beating us. Predicting a close game.