All Blacks end of the year tour 2010

Discuss.

First thing. Vadz, if you ever even mention Donald's name in any of your sentences, I will knock you out cold.

IMHO opinion, we needed a loss. I'd rather them losing every game now then next year. The reality of all this however, is that Henry for some reason is picking some players that have no future with ABs. Slade should have been picked for this tour as a back up 1st 5/8.

Donald is cunt who should be banned from pulling an All Blacks jersey ever again by law. He showed the sort of composure which has lost us every World Cup since 87, in fact, fuck him I'm pretty sure every loss the All Blacks have ever had were somehow Stephen Donald's fault. He should be sent home right as punishment because there can be no doubt whatsoever that he is simply not All Black material.

The fucked up thing is bro, I'm sure Henry will stand by him and play him again in upcoming games. In fact I wouldn't be suprised if he starts against Scotland.

Let's hope Jane's injury isn't serious too.

The loss aside, this was the best rugby match I've watched in ages.

Field was a disgrace as was Henry's white lovechild Donald and his brown lovechild Toeava.


Kurtley Beale rocking the Mexican Gringo Rapist Moustache = Good times

Yeah, but the condition of the field was pretty average last time they played there. I just like close games. Of course it would have been better on the winning side. But we can't win every game.

Anyone with ANY recollection at all of ANY of Donald's matches last year would not have selected him, maybe Henry has amnesia?

But vads will be happy his star player was chosen

Stephen Donald is a good player
Like I've said before, not great, but good

Second best flyhalf in NZ. EFT.

Run along now children!

Was Jamie Joseph AB material? Aaron Pene?

He is not the second best flyhalf vadz. You're as delusional as my ex.

In other news looks like Jane is out.

Looks like Nonu and SBW might start side by side.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/4301805/Massive-All-Blacks-midfield-firms-for-England

BOOM!

ABs on at 3:30am after a big night at the double header.

Woah.



gc.

Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Mike Tindall, Shontayne Hape, Mark Cueto, Toby Flood, Ben Youngs, Nick Easter, Lewis Moody (captain), Tom Croft, Tom Palmer, Courtney Lawes, Dan Cole, Steve Thompson, Andrew Sheridan. Reserves: Dylan Hartley, David Wilson, David Attwood, Hendrie Fourie, Danny Care, Charlie Hodgson, Delon Armitage.

oh god, they're gonna let Donald have another run around on the field this weekend at Twickenham ... just knew Henry would do this ...

They have to be able to rule him out for good.

Like I said before, they wont send him back.

Like I said before, they wont send him back.

When? In the post immediately preceding?

I wrote 3 days ago:

in this thread - http://www.biggie.co.nz/discussion/stephen_donald#m3772621

SBW at centre!

Mils Muliaina, Joe Rokocoko, Sonny Bill Williams, Ma'a Nonu, Hosea Gear, Daniel Carter, Alby Mathewson, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (captain), Jerome Kaino, Sam Whitelock, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock. Reserves: Hika Elliot, Ben Franks, Anthony Boric, Liam Messam, Andy Ellis, Stephen Donald, Isaia Toeava.

Fuck that backline should do a lot of damage. Mathewson gets his chance. I still hold my position on him being a better halfback to Weepu. This game should tell really.

MEAN!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111



gc.

Starting SBW is madness at this level. I just hope his defence has improved since the ITM Cup, otherwise if he turns out to be a disaster and the English waltz past him it could ruin him forever at this level. He should have come off the bench in this game (the hardest of this tour) and maybe started against much weaker opposition like Scotland. Henry and co made a few gambles on this trip and both Toeava and Donald have failed; They've now got the balance of their squad wrong and are little bit clutching at straws.

They should have taken Slade and Fruen instead of Toeava and Donald.

Who exactly do England have that will 'waltz past' SBW?

And I don't know about you, but all I saw him to in the ITM cup was TEAR IT THE FUCK UP.



gc.

SBW haters can GET THE FUCK OUT! :>

Shontayne Hape and co. are shitting bricks right now...

Hape is a pretty awesome footballer....but lol @ anyone "waltzing past" SBW. WILL NEVA

SBW will soon be one of the 1st names on the starting sheet, haterz

Yes, Tindall who is covering him will dance... off the field with a broken face maybe. lol

Btw I haven't seen SBW miss one tackle in ITM Cup. I'm not sure you're right about that fb.

Edit: I wouldn't care if we lost ALL of our games on this tour. Tours like these are made for coaches to experiment. I agree with Slade should have been there. I also think you should give Toeava a chance. He had came on for 10 minutes against a disparate Aussie side after not playing on that level for couple of years.

He was pretty brittle going backwards, his inexperience showed out and he panicked a bit. Further, he played the ITM cup at 2nd five, not centre - although I thought that in his one game at centre SBW was outstanding. I have no doubt that if he gets his hit on he'll smash his opponent, but everything happens a lot quicker in tests and being instinctive about the defensive system is all important. If you are still as much a newboy as SBW then you might get caught out of position or panicking hard on defence. Conrad Smith is the chief mid-field defensive organiser in the AB's, Nonu ican be frail on defence - that was shown up yet again in Hong Kong. Having the positionally suspect Nonu with the newboy SBW in midfiled is taking a LOT of risk. And remember we have also lost Cory Jane, a converted fullback with fautless positional play, and replaced him with another big, hard, fast runner.

And that leads me to the other thing that worries me about the balance of this side and that is apart from Carter, who is our kicking option? Having just one kicker makes it easy to attack our defensive kicking game. Jane was the second fullback and kicked a bit. He isn't there. Muliana isn't really a kicker, and Gear and slow-poke Joe? I don't think so.

PS I am not a SBW knocker, I think by the RWC he'll replace either Smith or Nonu in the starting team. I am just wondering about the wisdom of running him out in his first test start against England at Twickers, and if the gamble fails how that might affect him - remember, this selection panel has a habit of doing this and fails more often than not. Hopefully SBW will rise to the occassion and smash the Poms.

Mils can punt a ball a decent distance if required. Plus have ou seen England's kicking options? Toby Flood is a nobody journeyman who's only in the team because Cipriani has been utterly found out at test level.

SBW is used to pressure he's played in an NRL Grand Final and a better club competition in Union than most of the England team currently play in. You are giving Tindall and Hape way too much credit, Tindall is rated by no one outside the British Isles and Hape is another NZ reject who's not good enough for our league or union sides.

Was waiting for fishboys anti-Nonu spiel......

haha England backs running it? wtf are you talking about.

Can't wait to see some SBW offloads to Nonu!

Also, can't wait to see SBW do the Haka!!

Yeah - 'dangerous English backline scything through the All Black midfield'.



gc.

Honestly hoping SBW loses us the RWC final

then I get to say "I told you so" for 4 years

Your treacherous cunt. You obviously hate our country.



gc.

Jesus that game was annoying. SBW definitely earned his place on the team !

Hows that haterade tasting vadz? need a top up?

No, I love New Zealand more than you. I don't want to see the glory and honour of our country besmirched by it being represented by scum.

He was mediocre.
he wasn't horrible.

However, I remember a guy called Daryl Gibson who had a much better debut than SBW... how did that end up?

heh, definitely in need of haterade top-up

I thought the game was really crap. Poms have a way of slowing down the pace of the game and somehow make other teams look really shit. Wtf with all scum penalties? English front row stood up or collapsed it every time the ball was put in and our team gets pinned? Weird.

SBW did ok. In second half he was hardly mentioned, but his potential is obvious. I think he might have struggled with the pace of the game tbh. But it's only his first game. If I was Henry, I would not have started him against England. Would have been better to start him against Scotland though. His confidence is a little down after that start, because he said that he played like "shit" (LOL), which I don't agree with.

North Hemisphere referees are just utter shit. So much has been missed on both sides that it's not even funny. As for fishboy's call on Nonu's poor defence, I just don't know how I can tell you this, but your observational skills are very poor. He was tackling like a man possessed.

The other thing I've noticed is that MIls did a lot of kicking from 1st receiver position. I don't think Carter is 100% tbh. Although I was super relieved not to see Donald on the park. heh

Toeva redeemed himself in my books. That try saving tackle alone is worth him being the bench man for now.

I'm over seeing Rokocoko running like a headless chicken. His work rate might be high, but omg his mistakes rate is also damn high. At some points of the game he looked like he lost the plot. Just seems to me that he's trying too hard. By all means he should, but not by trying to do fancy shit that he was not build for. Run and score tries Joe.

Does anyone else think that Woodcock has been behaving rather dirty lately (not in the he's a slut way)? He's been involved in so many off the ball fights and going at players without his arms etc. I don't know, maybe it's just me.

Reid is a fucking machine. I'm very impressed with him. Apart from one scrum where he didn't get the ball out fast enough, in which English knocked on the ball anyway.

It is pretty straightforward -- in an ideal world our players would have returned to their provinces and the played in the ITM cup, with the last game of the season being last Friday night.

Instead, they are asked to make yet another mental and physical peak for an end of year money making trip to Europe. The players are mentally tired and already thinking about the end of the season. It is the same every year when we tour up there.

Oh and Carter was knackered by the end and yet he wasn't subbed in a tight finish. Tells us all we need to know about how much confidence the selectors now have in Donald to perform in the big games.

Don't worry about that... It's Mealamu who should be worried. During the game I noticed that head but and on the replays it looked pretty darn intentional and brutal... It's going to be hard to chalk that down to an unlucky head clash. He even held the guys shirt as he dove at him. Was surprised he didn't get spoken to/carded at the time..

Cited for that headbutt, will be interesting to see what happens.

We need a bit of mongrel!



gc.

Mealamu's tour is over - he just got a 4 week ban. It was pretty clearly deliberate and fairly deserved some punishment.

At least now the opportunity for someone else to step up is forced upon the team. Might be a good thing in the long run.

Fair enough, even if it was an accident it certainly didn't look that way.

It looked like he was trying to clear the ruck, but slipped, imo. :>

Starting: Mils Muliaina, Isaia Toeava, Conrad Smith, Sonny Bill Williams, Hosea Gear, Daniel Carter, Jimmy Cowan, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (captain), Liam Messam, Sam Whitelock, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Hika Elliot/Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock.
Reserves: Andrew Hore, John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Daniel Braid, Andy Ellis, Stephen Donald, Ma'a Nonu.

This is the big chance for Hika Elliot.

Mealamu is 31, Elliot is 23. None of the other hookers have really seized their opportunity. If Elliot can step up, he could have the makings of a long AB career.

Finally, Joe gone!!

Replaced by a Utility...LOL

Seems crazy to have Ice playing on the wing when we have so many good wingers.



gc.

Yah, only have to get up at 6:30 for the game instead of staying up till 3:30 :>

Good Lord, according to the paper this morning one of the Scottish centres is only 82kg and 1.7m tall. SBW will brush him aside like a gnat!

From this touring squad the first choice wingers Cory Jane and Sivivatu are both injured... and Joe needs a kick up the arse at the very least

Not convinced Hika Elliot has the potential to be a long-term all black...poor discipline/work ethic and he cant scrummage!

Poor old Scotland, they didn't know what hit them. oh and Nonu must see the writing on the wall. SBW plays like Nonu does, only better.

ABs for the weekend:
Mils Muliaina, Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Hosea Gear, Dan Carter, Andy Ellis, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw, Jerome Kaino, Tom Donnelly, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Hika Elliot, Tony Woodcock. Reserves: Andrew Hore, John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Liam Messam, Alby Mathewson, Stephen Donald, Sonny Bill Williams.

Back to more regular 15. I am so so so soooo happy Gear retained his spot.

ABs for the weekend:

Mils Muliaina, Isaia Toeava, Conrad Smith, Sonny-Bill Williams, Hosea Gear, Dan Carter, Jimmy Cowan, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (c), Jerome Kaino, Sam Whitelock, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock. Reserves: Andrew Hore, John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Daniel Braid, Andy Ellis, Stephen Donald, Ma’a Nonu

SBW's biggest test so far imo. :>

Great news- Rockobooboo out of the 22 again

hahahah... fuck YUS!

So David Campese keeps his record a little longer
At least with Rokocoko we'd have a chance of getting that back
you people honestly are so shortsighted

<3 Vadz

Overall figures Player Span Mat Start Sub Pts TriesDescending Conv Pens Drop GfM Won Lost Draw %
D Ohata (Japan) 1996-2006 58 55 3 345 69 0 0 0 0 27 30 1 47.41 investigate this query
DI Campese (Aust) 1982-1996 101 100 1 315 64 8 7 2 0 67 32 2 67.32 investigate this query
SM Williams (Lions/Wales) 2000-2010 79 75 4 265 53 0 0 0 0 36 40 3 47.46 investigate this query
R Underwood (Eng/Lions) 1984-1996 91 91 0 215 50 0 0 0 0 58 31 2 64.83 investigate this query
DC Howlett (NZ) 2000-2007 62 55 7 245 49 0 0 0 0 51 10 1 83.06 investigate this query
CM Cullen (NZ) 1996-2002 58 56 2 236 46 3 0 0 0 42 14 2 74.13 investigate this query
JT Rokocoko (NZ) 2003-2010 68 66 2 230 46 0 0 0 0 55 13 0 80.88 investigate this query

but not Donald :<

Quiet but solid performance by SBW. Toaeva haters need to gtfo, the guy was on fire. I admit this is first time he actually played well tho.

I think Gear has that number 11 jersey and I don't think anyone can take it away from him now. :>