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Rugby World CupEnglandNew Zealand

The game that made Maro Itoje a star in rugby

Jim Hamilton gives an analysis of the incredible performance of Maro Itoje in the Rugby World Cup semi final against New Zealand in 2019.

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Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

The All Blacks may have inadvertently happened across the midfield partnership to take them to the 2027 World Cup

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'Tonyball, ageing warriors and worrying growth' - What the Springboks learned from the Rugby Championship

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Comments on RugbyPass

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PMcD 13 minutes ago
Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

I have no problem if Razor doesn’t want to coach but whoever is needs to be very good and capable of getting the results.

When you look down his coaching list, they all pretty much lacked experience at this level and they let JS walk out of the role, who had done a great job under Foster and then went and improved one of your key competition.



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PMcD 25 minutes ago
Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

Embrace Shalk Brits & Agustin Creevy. They both maintained their game and form in those later years, which also helped only having to play 30-50 min appearances.

If anyone can do that, Codie is a good candidate.



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PMcD 29 minutes ago
Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

Sorry, my mistake earlier, you are correct Choco is 12. Too many posts across too many RugbyPass forums. 👍

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BleedRed&Black 29 minutes ago
Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

On the evidence, they rate Fainga’anuku as a 12, so a backup/challenge to Barrett, and Tupaea as a 13, which leaves another slot at 13. Ioane as winger has failed, and he is a very defender, so it seems probable they would go back to him as the backup/challenge/safety net. Hopefully with that group of relatively experienced players they will look at cutting elsewhere.

In third place in both positions there is no evidence that Tavatavanawai and Proctor are up to playing against the best test teams, anymore that Havilli, McLeod, Ennor were. ALB has spent 10 seasons in the AB's without ever showing he's a first choice AB and capable of performing against the top teams, and they finally seem to have gone cold on him. From what I can see, that only leaves Daniel Rona as a player who might be able to step up.



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Carlos 30 minutes ago
Are Wallabies still on upward trajectory after TRC or has progress flatlined?

The order of factors does alter the result….

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PMcD 31 minutes ago
Jake White: Why I'm deeply troubled after stellar Rugby Championship

Don’t worry G,

I am in agreement with you.



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Carlos 32 minutes ago
Are Wallabies still on upward trajectory after TRC or has progress flatlined?

Far better than the WB? I wish it was true. Once they have four or five good props maybe…For now, they are quite competitive.

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Carlos 33 minutes ago
Are Wallabies still on upward trajectory after TRC or has progress flatlined?

Me too. He’s hairless.

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Carlos 36 minutes ago
Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

I’m pretty sure Choco is 12 and Cinti 13. Need to double check.

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Ardy 1 hour ago
Jake White: Why I'm deeply troubled after stellar Rugby Championship

A very timely write Jake. The rugby world is forgetting it’s origins to expand it’s concepts and bring in the essential money. In Aus we are in deep trouble, the number of schools playing rugby has shrunk dramatically. We are now looking at league players and I suspect AFL players will also get offers. We have the talent in the country, but it is spread over many sports.

We need a generational change that wants to play a contact sport again.



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GodOfFriedChicken 1 hour ago
Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

And this is why the pack also needs some more players who could play that sort of expansive game. This is why having good ball runners like Lakai or Hoskins as an option in the squad is important because if you want to play an expansive sort of game, you need players who bring that sort of skillset. It’s also why the decline of NZ Sevens is an issue because a lot of the forwards that the All Blacks have used for that sort of role often came from Sevens (Ardie being one of the last that we’ve had come through there).

Furthermore, to quote an NZ Herald Premium article by Gregor Paul:



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Skinny Pins 1 hour ago
Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

Do you mean when Tupaea came on at Eden Park when the Boks were down to 14 men after the yellow card to Kwagga Smith? Yes, Tupaea played well for those 10 minutes. Anyone would have. Similarly the Wallabies spent a quarter of the match in Perth playing with 14 men, and still with zero line speed. Perhaps you need to rethink your own “narrative", and learn to analyse rugby intelligently.

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A S 1 hour ago
Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

Load of nonsense. Tupaea and Jordie already did this against the Boks earlier this year, but keep ignoring what doesn’t fit your narrative.

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GodOfFriedChicken 1 hour ago
Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

Yeah I’d be more worried about Codie’s form by then, especially at a physical position like front row. Ardie should definitely be captain as most of NZ outside of Canterbury and maybe Taranaki have been calling for, especially since his season for Moana. Personally I think number 8 can be rotated between a few players to give them some game time because we have a lot of hard running loose forwards - Sititi, Lakai, Papali’i has played there a bunch for Counties and also Hoskins (who was robbed of a chance to show his improvement last year). Some could be 8s that feature in 2027, others could feature at 6 or 7, but at the very least we’ve given regular game time to a number of loose forwards and got an idea of who’s good around the park. Worked for Ardie.

With the midfield, keeping Jordie in NZ next year may be beneficial for his combination with Proctor. They seemed to lack chemistry at test level. The game plan though just didn’t seem to work well through the midfield, especially with how much we kicked the ball away.



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CM 2 hours ago
'Tonyball, ageing warriors and worrying growth' - What the Springboks learned from the Rugby Championship

I feel that a convincing win against Ireland is more of a must than beating both Ireland and France. Ireland have been this sides dark horse, and we need the confidence boost that will come with beating them by a somewhat decent margin, or even just being overwhelmingly dominant and coming out with a win.

I think we’ll be alright at hooker, Wessels looked quite comfortable there and seemed to make an impact when he came off the bench for Marx. His throwingwas also decent. Bongie should feature in the November tour, and I feel he will stick around as a mentor to help get the other hookers up to scratch.



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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Tonyball, ageing warriors and worrying growth' - What the Springboks learned from the Rugby Championship

Yes. I expect transition defense is compromised because it is not independent of the attacking shapes. Players are in new places on attack, and a turnover in open play finds the Bok defense (especially deep defense) differently positioned than they would have been in Nienaber days.

Agree that #2 has been a strangely unaddressed position in the Rassie introduction of nextgen players. Outside of Marx and Bongi we seem to have Wessels and vd Merwe as the go forward bets. Their introduction is strangely gentle, and you’d have to believe that Rassie thinks they need more time as apprentices.



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CO 2 hours ago
Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

The Allblacks need to stop their fixation on trying to annoint long term incumbents. It's shrinking their talent pool and peak potential.

It's no coincidence the Boks reached a new peak record against the Allblacks as they continue to build depth through rotation.



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GodOfFriedChicken 2 hours ago
Flavour of the month selections for the All Blacks are not viable long-term

Either way, he’s already in decline and will be hitting 30 in the next World Cup. Wings notoriously expire early unless they play other positions due to the amount of athleticism required. I don’t blame it all on him though, the backline has been a mess in general and the ball rarely gets out to the wing unless it’s kicked there. It’d be pretty crap to be someone actually playing well on the wing all season to have your chance at a black jersey held back by someone who hadn’t even played wing at any level for years. I personally think he could’ve been used in a utility role for the Blues to help with that but their wings are already too stacked for him to switch around.

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Tk 2 hours ago
Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

I was surprised that Quinn was at 13 over Leicester but he was great. One swallow doesn't make a summer, but just maybe Jordie, Quinn and Leicester will be the 3 match day centres to the world cup.

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Skinny Pins 2 hours ago
Have the All Blacks stumbled across the perfect midfield partnership?

Every. Single. Year. Gregor. Misses. The. Obvious…

Australia is the only major international team that doesn't bring line speed on defence and pressure our 9, 10, 12 and 13. Every year those players struggle, then play the Bledisloe, then struggle again. Every year Gregor lights up with excitement at Jordie “finding form" and some or other 13 outside him playing well, but it is the Australian opposition enabling this, not those players themselves. Rest assured, the midfield will resume struggling again on the Northern tour. Rest equally assured, Gregor, a professional rugby writer let us not forget, will entirely miss the point when this happens.



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