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

[cashead]

Hookers:
Asafo Aumua (Hurricanes/Wellington)
Dane Coles (Hurricanes/Wellington)
Codie Taylor (Crusaders/Canterbury)

Props:
Alex Hodgman (Blues/Auckland)
Nepo Laulala (Chiefs/Counties Manukau)
Tyrel Lomax (Hurricanes/Tasman)
Joe Moody (Crusaders/Canterbury)
Karl Tu'inukuafe (Blues/North Harbour)
Ofa Tu'ungafasi (Blues/Auckland)

Locks:
Mitchell Dunshea (Crusaders/Canterbury)
Quinten Strange (Crusaders/Tasman)
Patrick Tupulotu (Blues/Auckland)
Tupou Va'ai (Chiefs/Taranaki)
Sam Whitelock (Crusaders/Canterbury)

Loose Forwards
Sam Cane (Chiefs/Bay of Plenty, Captain)
Shannon Frizzel (Highlanders/Tasman)
Cullen Grace (Crusaders/Canterbury)
Akira Ioane (Blues/Auckland)
Dalton Papali'i (Blues/Auckland)
Ardie Savea (Hurricanes/Wellington)
Hoskins Sotutu (Blues/Auckland)

Halfbacks:
TJ Perenara (Hurricanes/Wellington)
Aaron Smith (Highlanders/Manawatu)
Brad Weber (Chiefs/Hawke's Bay)

Five-Eighths
Beauden Barrett (Blues/Taranaki)
Richie Mo'unga (Crusaders/Canterbury)

Midfield
Brayden Ennor (Crusaders/Canterbury)
Jack Goodhue (Crusaders/Northland)
Rieko Ioane (Blues/Auckland)
Ngani Laumape (Hurricanes/Manawatu)
Anton Lienert-Brown (Chiefs/Waikato)
Peter Umaga-Jensen (Hurricanes/Wellington)

Back Three Quarters
George Bridge (Crusaders/Canterbury)
Caleb Clarke (Blues/Auckland)
Will Jordan (Crusaders/Tasman)
Damian McKenzie (Chiefs/Waikato)
Sevu Reece (Crusaders/Tasman)

Utility Back
Jordie Barrett (Hurricanes/Taranaki)

Players in italics are new All Blacks.

Brayden Ennor is out for 9 months, so that's his season done.

[cashead]

By Super Rugby team:

Blues
Alex Hodgman
Karl Tu'inukuafe
Ofa Tu'ungafasi
Patrick Tupulotu
Akira Ioane
Dalton Papali'i
Hoskins Sotutu
Beauden Barrett
Rieko Ioane
Caleb Clarke


Chiefs
Nepo Laulala
Tupou Va'ai
Sam Cane
Brad Weber
Anton Lienert-Brown
Damian McKenzie


Hurricanes
Asafo Aumua
Dane Coles
Tyrel Lomax
Ardie Savea
TJ Perenara
Jordie Barrett


Crusaders
Codie Taylor
Joe Moody
Quinten Strange
Sam Whitelock
Cullen Grace
Richie Mo'unga
Brayden Ennor
Jack Goodhue
George Bridge
Will Jordan
Sevu Reece


Highlanders
Shannon Frizzel
Aaron Smith

[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?

[cashead]

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?

I'll take that challenge (with extra players called in as cover)

Team 1
1. Joe Moody
2. Dane Coles
3. Ofa Tu'ungafasi
4. Sam Whitelock
5. Tupou Va'ai
6. Shannon Frizzel
7. Sam Cane (C)
8. Hoskins Sotutu
9. Aaron Smith
10. Richie Mo'unga
11. Caleb Clarke
12. Anton Lienert-Brown
13. Rieko Ioane
14. Sevu Reece
15. Will Jordan

16. Asafo Aumua
17. Ayden Johnstone
18. Tyrel Lomax
19. Scott Scrafton
20. Lachlan Boshier
21. Brad Weber
22. Josh Ioane
23. Peter Umaga-Jensen

Team 2
1. Karl Tu'inukuafe
2. Codie Taylor
3. Nepo Laulala
4. Quinten Strange
5. Patrick Tuipulotu (C)
6. Cullen Grace
7. Ardie Savea
8. Akira Ioane
9. TJ Perenara
10. Beauden Barrett
11. George Bridge
12. Jack Goodhue
13. Brayden Ennor
14. Mark Telea
15. Jordie Barrett

16. Ash Dixon
17. Alex Hodgman
18. Angus Ta'avao
19. Mitchell Dunshea
20. Dalton Papali'i
21. Mitchell Drummond
22. Damian McKenzie
23. Leicester Faingaanuku

The players in italics are obviously ring-ins, based on squad members from the North vs South game

[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?

[cashead]

Yep, Tyrel is indeed John's kid, so yeah, he was immediately eligible as soon as he signed with Tasman back in 2017 (and he'd been involved with the MABs right away).

I was honestly surprised Tahuriorangi got selected ahead of Bryn Hall to begin with. He's struggled for consistent gametime with the Chiefs, since Brad Weber has pretty much made the 9 jersey his own and was in excellent form despite the team struggling, so the fact that he even made the North Island squad was a bit of a shock, to be honest, even if there was no way in hell he'd even make the bench with Nugget and TJ knocking about in the same team.

[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.

[cashead]

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

On paper, there shouldn't be a significant difference between the two sides. Taylor is in better form than Coles at the moment, Bridge is still the best 11 in the squad, Goodhue is the better-rounded 13 than Rieko, and honestly, I'd take Paddy T over Va'ai any day.

On the other hand, Mo'unga was consistently the better 10 during SR:A this year.

[cashead]

Ennor busted an ACL in the North v. South match.

Being down a midfielder, the immediate candidates for a replacement are:

TJ Faiane (Blues) - not the flashiest player, but is an excellent defensive organiser. He'll provide stability and leadership in the backline, and is a specialist 12 in a squad short of such players.

Alex Nankivell (Chiefs) - very good attacker, but some question marks on defence, where he was industrious but exposed at times.

Peter Umaga-Jensen (Hurricanes) - took his starting team opportunities well, but still many questions about his defensive consistency.

[Spiffy]

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

[cashead]

Yes. He needs some time to build into form properly, but his performance against the Crusaders should have eased any doubts when he played the single best game any NZ openside has in Super Rugby this year.

[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.

[cashead]

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.

Seems like the main contention was that while the Australian government was willing to allow the entire squad to train together during the mandatory 2-week managed isolation, the NZ government was only willing to allow for groups of 15 and was only willing to compromise to allow for 25.

Like, I get where they're coming from, but on the other hand, if the teams are kept in their bubbles together anyway in managed isolation, what's the harm in allowing the squad to train together?

There has been a weird lack of consistent logic in their decisions at times, like "everyone 2 metres apart... unless you're in school. No required social distancing in classrooms, yeah?" or "facemasks are mandatory on public transport. But not school buses." That's just the shit that is in my orbit on a day-to-day basis, so I'm assuming there'd be similar things in other fields.

I also have issues with our Minister of Education shouting "yeah, send your kids to school! It's the safest! Yeah yeah yeah!" all the time as well. Like, shit off, cunt. Have you actually thought about the other people that are in the classrooms?

[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.

[cashead]

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.

[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...

[cashead]

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...

Both would have done the mandatory 14-day isolation (and the Avatar crew did) and since there's no COVID-19 detected in the community in Wellington where the filming is going on, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Also, based on the requirements for the version of the NZ Screen Production Grant awarded to Avatar, there'd be a significant boost to plenty of local businesses. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

[morepork]

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

[cashead]

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

Don't care much about the films myself, and can barely remember the original one (saw it exactly once at the cinemas, and have pretty much forgotten about it), but I do care about the fact that it leads to a significant re-investment into the NZ film industry and other surrounding businesses that are at the periphery. According to a report by the MBIE, they basically see a return of roughly double what gets invested into the film by the NZSPG. When production has halted around the world, this could also be a life-saver for some poor fucker who'd been out of a job for months.