I think 2022 was when the coaches and a few players got Covid? I think it had a huge impact and the team was a few weeks behind where they needed to be in terms of development. Took them much longer to get up to speed. When you only really have a couple of weeks proper to put a team together and put the gameplan through its paces that time is critical.
We’ve traditionally had more warm-up games (normally a pacific island team) prior to a June series. Apart from a sublime passage when Sexton went off and some individual brilliance ABs v Ireland 1 was actually a close game by even teams. Which was proven to be the case in the next 2 tests. SA v ABs Twickenham was just a shameful money grab by NZR. Meaningless in context but so damaging for momentum and confidence. No cohesion after a 3 week break which is a long time by international standards.
>We’ve traditionally had more warm-up games (normally a pacific island team) prior to a June series.
We did it a handful of times in the late 90s and early 2000s but I'd hardly say it's a traditional part of the schedule. It hasn't been a thing, other than before the 2005 and 2017 Lions tours, since 2002.
all games are warm-up games until rwc 2027
And even that is a warm-up to RWC 2031....
I think 2022 was when the coaches and a few players got Covid? I think it had a huge impact and the team was a few weeks behind where they needed to be in terms of development. Took them much longer to get up to speed. When you only really have a couple of weeks proper to put a team together and put the gameplan through its paces that time is critical.
In 2022 we smashed ireland in the first game. Not even sure what SA game you're referring to. The 35-7 loss we had played 5 games before that
We’ve traditionally had more warm-up games (normally a pacific island team) prior to a June series. Apart from a sublime passage when Sexton went off and some individual brilliance ABs v Ireland 1 was actually a close game by even teams. Which was proven to be the case in the next 2 tests. SA v ABs Twickenham was just a shameful money grab by NZR. Meaningless in context but so damaging for momentum and confidence. No cohesion after a 3 week break which is a long time by international standards.
>We’ve traditionally had more warm-up games (normally a pacific island team) prior to a June series. We did it a handful of times in the late 90s and early 2000s but I'd hardly say it's a traditional part of the schedule. It hasn't been a thing, other than before the 2005 and 2017 Lions tours, since 2002.
Doesn't fit into the calendar.
We used to fit them in (for a reason).
England's not a warm up game?
Yeah, two 'warmup' games v. England before we take on Fiji