RugbyRebels

New Zealand: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read (c), 7 Sam Cane, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Brodie Retallick, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Joe Moody

Replacements: 16 Nathan Harris, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Scott Barrett, 20 Ardie Savea, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 Aaron Cruden, 23 Ngani Laumape

Laumape off the bench, should wreak a bit of havoc.

Julian has fallen somewhat from grace unless crocked?

There is pretty fierce competition for the back three....
- Dagg
- Smith
- Savea
- Naholo
- Ioane
- Skudder

Savea hasn't been terrible, others have earned their shot I guess.

Glad he has put Barrett back to 10, there was talk he was going to play Cruden.

J Dory wrote:There is pretty fierce competition for the back three....
- Dagg
- Smith
- Savea
- Naholo
- Ioane
- Skudder

Savea hasn't been terrible, others have earned their shot I guess.

its great, and right, to pick on form v reputation

jared_7 wrote:Glad he has put Barrett back to 10, there was talk he was going to play Cruden.

Me too, masochistically

I wonder how long Savea gives not being picked before he eyes up an absolute fortune in France.

Smith - Barrett - SBW - ALB - R Ioane - Naholo - Dagg.


If Dagg is Zen fielding and directing kicks and can keep up upstream of the opposition, then hey hey hey...

Quick glance at the metservice site suggest rain and high winds, will likely hinder the wide game to a degree. I'd expect more of the same from last week, with Naholo spending some time as first/second reciever, SBW amd tje loosies smashing it up and offloading close to the ruck and Laumape being subbed on in the last 20 to steamroll tired tacklers. Wish one of the tests was being played under the roof in Dunedin.

Timbo wrote:I wonder how long Savea gives not being picked before he eyes up an absolute fortune in France.

I think Savea is signed up until 2019.

There's no real outside back cover on that bench, yeah?

morepork wrote:There's no real outside back cover on that bench, yeah?

No, there's not. Could see ALB doing an adequate job on wing, or Barrett floating to FB at some stage. Reality is you're always going to be short somewhere: if you select a halfback and a first-five on the bench, you're going to be short either a midfielder or an outside back.

Good for Naholo. He had a blinder for the Highlanders, couldn't have done a lot more in that game to demand selection. The obvious strategy is for the Lions to pepper Naholo and Ioane with contestable kicks, especially if the weather is bad. Ioane got off lightly last week - most of the kicks went down the other wing. They're both actually pretty good under the high ball really, although neither kicks well.

There's going to be a lot of kicking to start this test. Dagg may be spending a lot of time down the blindside wing on Lions exit plays.

EDIT: That's also one hell of an impact bench.

Spy wrote:

morepork wrote:There's no real outside back cover on that bench, yeah?

No, there's not. Could see ALB doing an adequate job on wing, or Barrett floating to FB at some stage. Reality is you're always going to be short somewhere: if you select a halfback and a first-five on the bench, you're going to be short either a midfielder or an outside back.

Good for Naholo. He had a blinder for the Highlanders, couldn't have done a lot more in that game to demand selection. The obvious strategy is for the Lions to pepper Naholo and Ioane with contestable kicks, especially if the weather is bad. Ioane got off lightly last week - most of the kicks went down the other wing. They're both actually pretty good under the high ball really, although neither kicks well.

Cruden is the absolute pivot for the success of the bench.