Le Super Rugby Pacific 2024 officiellement lancé

Ma'a benefitted from having legends around him, this team is virtually rebuilding from the floor. JB has lost Mounga & Smith & we have yet to nail in a 9 or 10 for him to consistently "kick, pass, run" outside of. Wasn't the ENG test the first he & BB have played 10/12 combo?

Also, the process to embed Jordan at 15 is barely underway. This will be his jersey under Razor as it was for the Crusaders. One obvious benefit is it allows the dual threats of Telea/Clarke to join him onfield.

Much has been made about JB going to 12 in 2022 but 12/13 has always been his "preferred position". His words back in 2015.

He played 12/13 for for Lincoln Uni Club interchangeable with Jack Goodhue in 2015/16. Both teens were targeted as the next Crusaders' midfield.

Razor selected JB as a 10/12 for NZU20 in 2016 & as a "2nd 5/8th" for Canterbury, the same year. In 2017, JB turned down the Crusaders for the Canes, where he became a 15, wing, wherever they needed him.

It's no secret that Foster was reluctant to play JB at 12 even saying in media that he's "not a 12". After selection he justified it through injuries. I suspect JB will be Razor's man at 12 for full tenure, so yes, the future looks immense if we can nail 9, 10, & 13.

Also would say that England have built a very aggressive defensive system, which is likely to keep opponents to low scores, especially as they settle into it. The NZ tries were well executed, and it is going to take that to create scoring chances against this England team. We will no doubt see more of that when the Boks go up against them.

But the overriding message for me is that they could not execute on the basics in the last quarter. Whether or not England should have been in that position, the fact is that they were positioned to win and could not do the basics well enough to close it out. The reason I find that really problematic is that this is exactly what I thought Borthwick was all about - that he was not targeting the flashy stuff (at least not yet), and was really putting in place a core that could be built on going forward.

Unfortunately what we saw was a team that was clearly unable to raise their game enough to win the arm wrestle in the last few minutes. That feels like a coaching miss.

Having watched the game twice, I don't think Smith missed a kick to touch. Rushing out of the line is the 10's role in the England defence, something that should have been obvious, not a mistake. Has been that way even before this system, hence Farrell's high missed tackle stats (not a criticism). One of the drop goals at least was with advantage, followed by a penalty and cost 0 points.

NZ could have won by more. England could have won. Neither happened. But England had momentum when Smith went off and immediately lost it.

I think he's got room for improvement still too, so happy that he's been told that he needs to perform better if he wants to come straight back in.

In other news campo reckons his Aussie team of 1984 could beat the current Aussie team. Have a look at the size of the players in the old footage most under 85kg…he is having a laugh

I'm eager more to see if he can take the bull by the horns. To go from having your local area baking everything you do to have the hold country questioning everything you do is a big change and has been far more than just a speed bump for him.

I think Jordan needs something more to his game, and the teams coping with that hindrance alright so keep the wingers as they are I reckon.

Agreed re the run threats, happy to see them off Jordies shoulder more if Jordie can continue to make good decisions to run himself instead, like in the examples. Will have to see how relevant him floundering under the pressure of RWC Final is though.

Razor (and possibly Cullen?) is the perfect coach to keep fueling Jordies own flame. Foster on the other hand has to be a people person because he's always trying to douse everyones due to his own lack of enterprise.

I didn't want to nark on the man but we still have Reiks waiting to be ignited as well. His own play when he first moved to center was full of threat and tact. He could cut in just as easily as swing out and had some great ball handling to put people away with. While we haven't seen much more of that since, I think he has at least been working hard on his defence and his books under Foster and Schmidt, and could turn into a Conrad (or even Nonu) one day. I'm not quite so sure Jordie has been making the same progress in the meantime.

I've been really happy with Jordies workons this year however, but that Final was a big learning curve and I've not really sure I've seen the calmness required to pull off Nonu type plays through his career so far. In fact he has often been the opposite and been a bit ropey when he was in more of a playmaker role at 15, I do think he has all the skills and desire to make these sorts of plays though, just having such a wide scope as a 'triple' threat put's a big demand on being able to read the game. So perhaps I might not go too much further than trying to use that big boot, and keeping it simple really. Like Nonu did.

I'm happy with all those 10 and 15 pictures myself, especially the ones where Jordan is playing more of a hand. He is someone who certainly could do with some sort of 'double' threat to help his line breaking ability and I certainly think he has some sort of innate skill to do the right thing. Sadly it's not going to happen in conjunction with Beaudie I don't think. This is going to be retirement. 2nd start back playing with his old courage (he actually did run the ball after all) and he's concussed again, not good.

Trouble is for this team, it could be a completely different 10, 12, 13. That shouldn't stop Razor from encouraging all the options the All Blacks have in those positions, right now. Also looking forward to Perofeta coming into fullback late instead of BB or Dmac going there.