All Blacks Squad to play... someone at some point this year, probably

[zer0]

All the props selected are good scrummaging props, which is good to see. Smith has been outrageously good this year, so it feels to me like both Perenara and Weber are both a notable step down from him ATM. Less of an indictment upon them, and more a statement of just how good Smith has been this year. Reece is probably fortunate that it's an enlarged squad and/or that Laumape isn't available; otherwise I imagine he'd have been pushed out with both Rieko and Ennor able to play wing too.

[J Dory]

Hwever you slice and dice it that's a formidable looking squad. Anyone fancy taking a stab at the match day (what match day) 22?

[canta_brian]

Hwever you slice and dice it that's a formidable looking squad. Anyone fancy taking a stab at the match day (what match day) 22?

I don’t know enough now to call that one. Could someone do probables v possibles for me?

[morepork]

That is two out of three 9s that are getting on (although nugget is killing it at the moment). What was Te Toira Kahuriorangi's form like for the 0 from 9 Chiefs?


Is Tyrel John Lomax's boy? Is that how he qualifies despite being born and raised in Oz?

[canta_brian]

Pushing Beuden to team 2 is a call. Is he someone who is cursed by his utility?

[morepork]

Richie is the man at the moment but.

[Spiffy]

Captaincy aside, is Sam Cane good enough to make the starting XV?

[morepork]

A lot of whinging in the media after NZ loses the RC hosting gig, but rugger over biosafety. Yeah, nah thanks. Six Puma squad members are positive for the pest as it is. Seems Oz is happy to risk it, so at least I'll get a couple of hours later in the early AM to watch it from the US Banana Republic.

[morepork]

Yeah, that's messy. School re-openings in USandA have been almost universally punctuated by inevitable new clusters.

I'm not liking the carbon copy resistance to public health initiatives that seem to be springing up in NZ. Social media fueled conspiracy.

I think if everybody is clear in a team, they should be able to stay together and train, but really, now isn't the time to be trying to force feed an international sporting comp. If even one person comes down with the pest, the rest of that bubble is then a risk to the population and shouldn't be out and about. The 8 nation thingy they are planning in the UK in a couple of months is just madness given where the UK is at currently with the pest.

[morepork]

The argument being made is that it would provide a significant economic opportunity for the regions that would host the teams, but I'm not sure how much of an argument can be made when there's no fan contingent either.

We also saw similar voices having a massive whinge while they angrily shit their pants when James Cameron and the Avatar crew were given special permission to come into New Zealand to begin production on those movies, so ymmv.

If the teams/film crews are in a bubble....no eggs bennie in Wanaka/queenstown/aucks or Welly, no real net gain apart from a few hotels in isolation. Both the tournament and Avatar crew will invariably fuel community transmission, so...

[morepork]

Billions of dollars spent on cgi blue unicorns. This fucking world...