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'Finally found their 6 since Jerome Kaino' - The performance by Akira Ioane that should settle who the All Blacks blindside flanker is

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

The All Blacks bounced back to a 38-0 win over the Pumas in Newcastle, exacting revenge for their loss two weeks ago at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney.

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After a slow start and some misfires, the All Blacks raced away in the second half on the back of two tries in two minutes to substitute Will Jordan, one of a handful of relative newcomers who impressed on the night.

Aside from Jordan’s cameo, blindside flanker Akira Ioane put in a magnificent performance in what was his second start after his shortened debut in Brisbane against the Wallabies three weeks ago. Ioane was replaced by Shannon Frizell for the first test against the Pumas who was outplayed by Marcos Kremer and his opposite Pablo Matera in the loss.

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Sam Cane and Ian Foster after the All Blacks win

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Sam Cane and Ian Foster after the All Blacks win

This fan wrote ‘Last test match, Shannon Frizell can’t handle Pablo Matera, this time around I think Akira Ioane can handle Pablo Matera.’

https://twitter.com/luqmanabdsalim/status/1331840906538876928

Ioane carried strongly, punching through Pumas defenders to clock up the most metres of any All Blacks forward on the night while completing nine of 10 tackles and winning two turnovers.

The Blues loose forward came up with two critical steals in the tackle, ripping away possession in contact from the Pumas as they were pressing into All Blacks territory.

His performance didn’t go without notice online, with fans calling his emergence as a ‘positive for the Foster regime’ after they have ‘finally found their number 6 since Jerome Kaino’.

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After the win, All Blacks head coach Ian Foster singled out Ioane for his efforts saying it showed that he ‘wants to be here’.

“Akira should be really proud of his game,” he said.

“It was his second start, but his first full game (he played 65 minutes). I thought he showed he really wants to be here.

Foster said it had been a difficult year for everyone after a tough succession of test matches but thought that his side is developing.

“A fortnight ago we’d just played our fifth test in six weeks and it was tough. You saw Argentina play their third test in three weeks and it’s tough. There’s been a lot of challenges for all the teams.

“For us there will still be a few niggly hurt moments, particularly the loss to Argentina, but at least we had a chance to fix it; to show that we can play, that this group is developing. We’ve got a bit more to go, we’re clear about that, but it’s a better way to finish.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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LONG READ 'Steve Borthwick hung his troops out to dry - he should take some blame' 'Steve Borthwick hung his troops out to dry - he should take some blame'
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