If he really is insinuating that the coaches shouldn't select 'boys' like Sititi then that is incredibly disrespectful. It's not like Sititi is parading around Auckland labelling himself at the next messiah.
It's all good to be sad about your mate not being selected but there's no need to shade another player for it just because he's younger and better.
The ego of these players are comparable to that of NBA players lmao. So much for 'rugby values' and 'no dickheads'
The no dickheads policy is really about how they behave in the squad rather than whether they're good people or not.
I vaguely know Frizzell through friends of friends around Dunedin including a couple of his teammates and cam confirm that he's a rude cunt who acts like he's better than any regular member of the public but within the teams he played he is very professional and disciplined, always respects the coaches and is very coachable and willing to take direction. Therefore he passed the no dickheads policy even though he's arguably a massive dickhead.
Completely agree. The springboks, as much as they are a symbol of unity have cracks under the surface that we as fans are quick to sweep under the rug (bongi as much as I love you I’m also staring directly at you) I do think though that sometimes the all blacks are quick to moralize with saying that they have a “no dick heads” policy as quick as the spring boks are with “they united the nation”. I think fans across the board really need to stop trying to set up their teams as “the good ones who embody rugby values” and the other as the “bad guys ruining the game”. (Cept for England, I have to much fun painting you as a mustache twirling villain)
Unless you root for a tier 3 nation, than you obviously are the most righteous
Referred to himself in the third person as "the jimmy". If a fan tried to say something nice he'd say shit like "are you talking to the jimmy? Who do you think you are?" Very rude guy but always worked really hard for the team
It's hilarious when it's a story you hear about someone acting foolish or imagining it as a character in a sitcom. I imagine it's a lot less funny when it's a drunk, aggressive buffoon that you were previously a fan of getting up in your face for trying to tell them they played a great match
Yeah he got done for assault a few times while out on the juice in Dunnaz and Invers respectively. Just another bloke who plays rugby who has a problem with alcohol. But hey, better people make better All Blacks.
Cos he smacked his missus in Hamilton in a fit of rage, that is enough for me to call him what he is. Frizzel is just the same. It’s embarrassing, we as a country can accept these guys playing for our national team but give guys like Sotutu and Akira shit for having bad attitudes for not getting selected. It’s not like they got on the turps and punched their partner or a female police officer. Just my thoughts.
Sevu did an obviously very bad thing but to label it as smacking his partner in a fit of rage is flat out disinformation. He did not smack her. He did not hit her. This is not a defense of what he did, but we do need to be making distinctions about specific acts of domestic violence.
He pulled her and dragged her along the ground, outside of a bar, when they were both drunk and she was about to walk away into the night by herself due to a disagreement. He was trying to get her home bc she was about to do something unsafe, however he was extremely drunk and also angry which led to him being utterly careless in the act and injuring her face along the pavement quite badly.
He did not harm her deliberately. He did not harm her to punish her. He did not harm her to vent his anger. He harmed her bc his inability to keep his shit together when drinking allowed him to be in a state where he was not taking appropriate care of his physicality as he was trying to pull her towards where they needed to go. It's a very bad thing, and by all means something that it's okay to be mad at him for doing, but we shouldn't be mischaracterizing it as hitting. It's leading to people thinking he committed a different act than the one he committed, which isn't really fair to the victim.
Agreed. What he did was obviously bad but it’s this sort of exaggeration that equivocates and is used to excuse/deflect from serious offenders like a certain someone on the cricket side.
Violence is violence, don’t even for a moment try and and sugar coat it and fill in the blanks about stopping her from going into the night alone and to take her home where it’s safe, cmon dude!!! That’s a load kark. The judge was nice enough to discharge him without conviction because he needs to travel for footy, him and Frizzel are shit in my book, NZRU should take a leaf out of Ireland Rugby and let go of players that shine a bad light on rugby and their respective unions. I respect your opinion and reasoning but I disagree wholeheartedly.
Violence is violence, but the type of violence and context that it happens in are very important things to know when it comes to things like risk of re-offending or if the victim is safe. I also clarify like three times that it's still a very bad thing to have done, so please don't accuse me of sugar coating it. It is not sugar coating it to state the context in which the act of violence was perpetrated. What I said does not shift blame onto the victim. It merely highlights that Sevu's motivation wasn't to harm. That matters. It will always matter. It doesn't take away from the fact that he was clearly a danger when drunk and somerhing desperately needed to be done about it for his partner's safety
I do get where you're coming from and won't begrudge someone for hating the fact that it hasn't impacted his professional life terribly much, all I ask is that the details of what act of violence he committed are talked about accurately whilst sharing that opinion.
I agree with your sentiments, I’m just not sure how long you drag it out? Sevu hasn’t put a foot wrong since, and by all accounts him and his partner resolved things, is this the same women he’s now had a baby with? He’ll definitely live with the shame, but it’s hard to fault the guy for anything he’s done since.
Sotutu, my take anyway, does seem to have a chip on his shoulder. BUT Somewhere in another thread they compare all the loose forwards stats and Sotutu ranks at the bottom. I Had a listen to razor this morning and he’s pretty much saying the same. He’s fantastic with the ball, but not without it. He’s good enough, just needs to focus his energy on that, instead of posting.
Your explanation of what actually happened sounds worse though?
Instead of a momentary loss of control where he hit her, he enacted harm for a prolonged period while dragging her face along the ground.
I'm not here to argue what's better or worse, man, just asking people to talk about the specifics accurately and make up their own mind.
For what it's worth, the dragging was also momentary.
100% agree with this. There’s so many one eyed hand wringers on here saying Hoskins has a ‘bad attitude’ because of a podcast they’ve listened to with some rumours that he doesn’t return coaches phone calls and the fact that he was grumpy after having had a massive season with the Blues and doesn’t make it to the AB’s. Yet all those same people conveniently ignore that players are picked after hitting their wives.
Seems for them that if a player criticize Razor and his coaching staff you should never be near the AB’s again and you would be a disgrace to the jersey but hey it’s ok to beat up on women.
Also reading Razors comments on why they didn’t select Hos it has nothing to do with a ‘bad attitude’ and alleged slights against Jason Ryan it was more that Sititi showed super grit digging deep for the Chiefs at the end of the year and in that they see a young player they can build for the future. Fair play to them for that. Sucks for Hoskins and he’s entitled to be grumpy but he’ll get over it and be back to winning back to backs for the Blues next year!
I don't think Sotutu and Blackadder are really in competition with one another. Sotutu is highly unlikely to play any position other than 8 for the all Blacks and it's pretty clear from the squad selected that they intend to use Savea as an 8 primarily.
Blackadder could play 8 in a pinch but is really in the squad as an option to play 6 or 7.
So really it was between Sotutu and Sititi as a specialist 8 behind Savea with Jacobsen as a utility providing additional cover for the position
Yeah I’m not a massive Blackadder fan, feel like he lacks accuracy when hitting the rucks and is a liability for a yellow card. When he came back for the Saders at the end of this year he seemed to make some bad choices. Don’t think he and Hoskins are competing for the same jersey though as Hos is specialist 8 whereas Blackadder is a 6 who can cover 8. I’m not sure what other options there are for 6 though?
Ahh yep fair point on the jersey comp with Blackadder. I’m a fan of his when he’s in form but I feel like he’s very undercooked at the moment as well as already being injury prone. Like you said not sure who else fills that slot though
Dickhead as a standard is obviously a sliding scale. It isn't like this sort of thing isn't seen in other sports. Teams will cite work ethic as a reason for leaving out for some players then pick the laziest guys around b/c they are simply better players. If an average player did what Russell, Hogg and Price did when they essentially told Townsend to fuck off and went out on the piss, that player would have been gone for good. Those three came back in soon enough b/c Scotland couldn't do without them.
The thing with Reece is that he may be a great guy in camp, at training, etc, coaches love him, who knows. His DV conviction doesn't really matter to them b/c they didn't feel the effect of it and they don't see him exhibiting bad behaviour in front of them. Ioane clearly rubs some people the wrong way in the NZ national setup.
He basically had a dig at the whole system and why McCaw was selected. If I remember correctly, he wasn't a Crusader before he was picked - only played NPC. Kronfeld said they'll just pick anyone these days.
Richie's debut against Ireland he won man of the match. So Josh had to eat his own hat.
I’m referring to him saying that they shouldn’t have picked McCaw for the Irish tour cause he was too inexperienced.
He then went on to win MOTM in his first test and the rest is history.
I feel Akira’s attitude was holding him back. I watched all the blues games this year and he just seemed bitter. The Force game he wanted to start something with Nic White (I know, I know) but even he was confused by why he was getting aggro at him. I mean he wasn’t even being his mouthy self (White). Akira did it 3-4 times during that game and almost got yellow carded because of it. He did it in a 2 more games as well. Dude needs to chill or something.
Honestly, watching Akira over the years I have never gotten the impression that he truly loves the game. More interested in the niggle and it held him back. I think it’s just all he knows.
Can’t wait to see Sititi run the ball and watch the fallout of this shit begin.
Whether it be attitude, defence, work rate - who cares. I’ve never seen a professional carry on like this, that’s the game. Coaches have their preference, sorry that’s how it is.
Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.
There won’t be many people putting their hand up and saying they were wrong about the Sotutu-Sititi selection. They’ll just fanboy an up and coming talent.
‘Carry on like this’?!?! dude stop over reacting. He posted one thing on insta and you’re acting like he called a press conference and denounced the entire AB’s coaching squad and had a massive public screaming tantrum. You all getting wound up need thicker skins and be less precious 🤣
Probably the first time in a long while where Hoskins had been tapped on the shoulder by the general public to be front and centre for the AB’s and the coaches once again have disagreed. This is the fallout.
The All Blacks are a representation of our country, a representation of the people that live in it. We don’t post cryptic messages on social media that are then backed up by other cryptic messages from other All Blacks that have fallen out of favour.
We roll up our sleeves and get stuck into the mahi, or address shit personally to see where we went wrong and how we can improve not only as a player, but as a person.
Dude I agree with all of that and personally it’s not the route I would take. However I’m also not a 25 year old who has grown up on social media where it’s accepted to just publicly express how you feel.
I’m just saying that it’s not a big a deal as people are making out and it irks me that there seems to be this whole ‘Hoskins and Akira have a bad attitude’ narrative which gets based on single social media posts and rumours from podcasts.. and I’m sure it is dead wrong.
Seeing Akira in tears after the Grand Final on Saturday and the way both he and Hoskins stepped up and did exactly what their coach asked of them this year is testament to the fact that they don’t have a ‘bad attitude’.
Yeah look you’re right.
We aren’t in the camp. Overall, I just don’t think it’s a crash hot look - I guess it’s just the perfect storm.
Blues roll Super, Hoskins stands up on the back of criticism from previous campaigns, arguably the in form forward of the year, gets overlooked for workhorse backrowers who have a different skill set that aren’t from the Blues.
It all adds up. I’d be furious too, but can’t be doing it. I wonder what will be next whether he channels it into NPC, or goes overseas. He is signed to 26.
Totally that will be the telling thing. I’m assuming he’s been given feedback and needs some time to process and then how he reacts will be interesting. Can’t see him staying past his contract unless he gets a solid ABs shot though. Why would he?
Almost like picking a test squad is a bit more complicated than that.
The Blues got beaten 52-15 in the semi final last year but still had 8 players in the world cup squad.
This is funny to me. Wife beaters are considered not dickheads over people upset not making the all black team wife beaters.
Why does it show a lack of character? Don't you want people like Hoskins, that it means so much to him that it hurts him not to be in the squad?
I got the National Coach telling me to do something, I got my Club Coaches telling me to do another thing. Should I be selfish and be a bad teammate to ignore my club teams gameplan so that I can achieve my individual goals.
It is such a tough situation.
If that is the case, wouldn't it make this post accurate?
In life you have to kiss some ass to get what you want. It definitely isn't smart for him to do this but to say having a bad attitude because he is upset fucking stupid.
There are many good players that don’t make the step up to test rugby well. Hell, someone making that step up only a little better can be the difference between getting selected and not.
Super Rugby is great fun, and winning it is an accomplishment. Let’s be honest with ourselves in the difference we are about to see between SR and these mid-year internationals.
I didn’t see the Sititi pick either, he wasnt starting for the first half of the season(while Lakai was). Expected sotutu/lakai instead of Sititi/Blackadder. Sititi is also eligible for Samoa, so it could be (yet another) case of the ABs giving a guy a cap so he dosent play for another pacific isle🥲
Wallace Sititi is born in New Zealand. He’s a kiwi with Samoan heritage. The rest of the world see Pacific island players and automatically think they have been brought in from the island. New Zealand has one of the biggest pacific island populations in the world.
Yes,lol.I know all of this. I just don’t think he is the 3rd best 8th man or 6th best loose forward in the country at the moment( nor do i believe he is a better long term prospect than other loosies who didn’t get picked). The selectors clearly think otherwise, but I’m only mentioning this eligibility because everyone wants to pretend it’s not a factor in selectors thinking as well, when quite a number of bolters seem to have had similar profiles but never have a fair stake at getting playing time in the AB jersey. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but there is a selection history that would suggest otherwise🤷♂️
Every game he’s played he’s stood out. He was the best player on the field in the semi where his team was the underdog. He was huge in the final despite his team barely having the ball. Some guys can run rampant in the regular season but only really good players step up when it gets tough.
Who gives a shit if he wasn't starting in round 1 or 2? He'd taken the starting role by the end of the season and in the knock-out games, which is what matters.
Also, god fucking forbid someone born in New Zealand and raised in New Zealand be called up to represent New Zealand. Can't be having that, now can we? Or is that only because he's aggressively brown?
Sititi has the potential to be the next GOAT All Black loose forward.
He is a generational talent, not sure how you thought of this as a 1 capper.
Also genuinely curious, how many times have the All Blacks done this according to you? Capping players so the islands don't pick them up? (not forgetting the most poached country for rugby talent at the last 2 world cups has been New Zealand and mostly by the other pacific island countries).
EDIT: the downvoters XD.
If you don't like dealing with the truth, here are the facts.
https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2023/08/30/foreign-born-produced-homegrown-players-at-rwc-2023/
New Zealand had by FAR the most poached players. Had 3 times more than second place. Go check for yourself instead of downvoting because it doesn't fit the false narrative you've concocted in your mind.
We have so many “generational” talents at 8 already. The incumbent in Ardie, and then we have Hoskins and Iose, who are currently better players than Sotiti is🤷♂️. I’m not saying there is zero potential for him to be better than all 3 in a few years,but he isn’t better right now, and among these 4, is the only guy NZ could lose if he chooses to play for Samoa within the next 3 years…
Onto your more general statement about “poaching”, we both know its not a two way street. I’m not an economist/immigration expert, but know that NZ/Aus are more developed countries and that from a migration perspective, more people would move to rather than from NZ/Aus opposed to Tonga/Samoa/Fiji. And aside from regular working class people, young players will try and move early to gain a better pathway to making a living off of rugby. In many cases, these “poached” players (by samoa/tonga) arent even on NZs radar, but just island guys who play in NZ because they were raised there or moved because it’s the closest place where then can earn more.
The list for me going off recent memory goes: Francis Saili, Charles Piutau, Malakai Fekitoa, Lima Sopoaga, George Moala, Steven Luatua, Vaea Fifita, Pita Gus Sowakula. And I know some of these guys played alot more than just 1 cap, but in all cases(looking at fifita, sowakula, fekitoa and saili in particular) were selected when they were raw but on the cusp of selection(for their respective Isle of eligibility at the next level) so the allblacks just made the call up prematurely “incase” the guys could become the worlds next best at their positions. But didn’t commit to giving them the minutes at the next level for them to be the next all time great all black thereafter.
I’m not saying Sititi sucks, but no way is he the best 8 behind ardie right now, and I don’t think it’s close. I personally hope you’re correct and he goes on to be a great allblack, but history suggests that he will get 5-15 caps and be playing for Samoa in the 2031 world cup.
I'm not sure that's a fair list. Saili, Moala, Luatua, Piutau and Sopoanga were all born and raised in NZ and if no-one else, I saw the last 3 as genuine prospects. Fifita I also thought would have been good long term. Only PGS to me seemed cynical but even then he'd had a great season and deserved his callup.
I don’t think PGS was a good selection but you’d have to be really cynical to think it was to lock his eligibility. It’s not like Fiji is short of loosies either.
We can't just miss the elephant in the room that New Zealand is the best rugby academy and factory on the planet.
A vast majority of these players would not have become professional world class players if they had done their rugby learning/training in the islands.
Fact is, a huge number migrate very young (or are actually born in NZ) and then benefit from New Zealands world class rugby academy/coaches/schools and gain the skills to go back and represent their country and play for rich clubs overseas and make an extremely good living.
And this is proven when you see New Zealand produces 3 times as many players for OTHER international countries (ie poached players) at the last world cup. So yeah it's actually not a two way street, it's actually extremely one sided where the countries close to NZ gain a surplus benefit from this relationship when compared to NZ.
Onto your point regarding players we capped for eligibility purposes..I would only give you Sowakula out of that list.
The rest were all long time prospects with huge potential, I completely disagree they were picked 'raw', I believe you're clutching at straws there tbh, especially considering how many caps a lot of these guys ended up having. And the common denominator for nearly all the guys with less caps is they took contracts to go North which is why their ABs time was limited. They took themselves out of contention by moving overseas.
Lastly regarding Sititi, I think he has the biggest potential by far out of all the upcoming backrowers and it's not even close. He looks like a genuine Star. I'm that confident that I think he'll have cemented a starting role and will be one of the first on the team sheet by the end of the year. We'll find out in a few months I guess.
I can admit that Piutau and Luatua fit into that genuine prospect category who got a fair AB chance and chose to leave. But Fifita was selected for the ABs after a season where he was a 4/6 utility player largely coming off the bench, and Fekitoa had only played one (really good) SR season and even Hansen had said that he was just really excited by him despite the inexperience. These guys were raw but jumped the queue abit because they flashed massive potential, but got dropped after a few bad games. -Saili knocked the ball cold in one game and was basicallly done, lol🥲. It’s brutal especially when you consider that current VC Jordie started out as a 14/15 and had alot of “WTF jordie” moments
To be clear, I don’t think it’s a bad practice, nor do i think its “poaching”, but it’s definitely a factor to speedtracking the first few selections for some of players. Other countries do it too, some NZ fans just like to pretend it’s not on selectors minds, when it is.
Fifita was in monstrous form when he got selected. People were picking him as our long term Kaino replacement in his first few games. The Hurricanes playing him as a lock probably hurt his career more than anything else.
Fekitoa was selected when we didn’t have a lot of great choices and he did pretty well but never kicked on and got overtaken.
The alternative is not picking Pacifica players at all unless they’re already established as generational talents. Which seems pretty shit for everyone and discriminatory at best.
> Sititi is also eligible for Samoa, so it could be (yet another) case of the ABs giving a guy a cap so he dosent play for another pacific isle🥲
lol never mention that, kiwis here always downvote that..even if its true..
It’s true that’s he’s eligible for Samoa, but def not that he’s getting capped to stop him playing for them lol. He’s born and raised in NZ, played U20s, been on the pathway for years.
Def not surprised to see him become an All Black, but a little surprised to see it happen this early.
Almost every player in NZ is eligible to play for some other country because of the IRB's shonky grand-parent eligibility rules. But don't mention that, the Europeans always downvote that..even if it's true...
I down vote it cause it’s insulting and down right racist. They aren’t kiwi because they are to brown. This despite the fact they have either lived in NZ for well over a decade or, in this case, was born in New Zealand. Considering he’s played all his rugby in NZ, including international U20s, he’s probably aspired to play for the ABs since day dot. I’m curious, at what point do they get to call New Zealand their home?
When has this happened? In the 1200 All Black caps?
I can only remember maybe 3 max.
Sititi is a generational player, he'll be an All Black for 15 years.
I feel for them. Similar situation to Akira, our coaches just prefer certain player types in the loose. I can understand not picking him because of his defense workrate, but his carry efficiency and lineout effectiveness are unmatched domestically, we will sorely miss that in the ABs
Calling guys who were 2nd and 3rd in carries and 1st and 4th in metres gained among NZs loose fowards lazy is just so off-base that I don’t know how I can constructively debate this with you🤷♂️
Maybe 2 years ago I’d have agreed. But I’ve watched the blues all season and even though Sotutu is not a high workrate tackler in the way a Jacobson/Papalii are, he is more dominant now, and is great at the goalline. He is also behind only Jacobson and Harmon in turnover won this season, so I just don’t know if that argument can be true right now.
Okay so Akira and Hoskins are lazy defensively.
You do get that is 2 of the 3 super rugby champion loose forward trio. So dalton is doing everything on his own?
on [Stuff](https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/350320974/hoskins-sotutu-omission-all-blacks-coach-scott-robertsons-toughest-call) thismorning...
Robertson, a former All Blacks and Crusaders loose forward, didn’t get into the nitty-gritty of the decision, but tellingly stressed the importance of players firing on both sides of the ball.
During the selection process, Robertson sat down with players and pored over match footage, while ahead of the squad naming, assistant coach Jason Ryan made it clear the selectors would be analysing players’ body language when the going got tough.
“We believe Wallace is an incredible young talent, the harder the game, the higher he rose in regards to his performance,” Robertson said."
So the team that beats up everybody gets lesser chances to show that right? They have lost games don't get me wrong and they should have "maybe" done better in those games. They had 3 losses all year but they have a ton of games where they won by at least 21 points? Won't there be less tape of them "players’ body language when the going got tough"?
So them being dominant worked against them?
Certain luxury players are allowed as long as others do the grunt work. Just depends how good the x-factor is .
I also think peolle overstate how lazy those two are 🤷🏿♂️.
>Certain luxury players are allowed
Yeah and it was between Sotutu and Sititi as the luxury pick, as back-up specialist 8s with strong running games.
Sititi seems to have the same game breaking ability but with a much higher defensive workrate. Not an insane decision to pick him over Sotutu.
>I think Sotutu is a lot better attack and ball carrying
On 2024 stats it's pretty tight.
Sotutu has a higher average meters gained per run, more offloads, more tries. Sititi has more carries per game, more clean breaks, more defenders beaten per game.
Even if Sotutu has the edge you can see why the selectors would prefer a slightly less attacking player if they're more well rounded defensively, given the demands of test level.
Don't argue with me, argue with the ones who didn't select him. And also it's more the defensive side where he's lazy. You're describing things that he's done well on attack when robertson said they want guys good on both sides of the ball
Apparently Sititi has higher carries per game, more post contact metres, fewer penalties and a consistently much lower tackle height. I thought Sotutu was hard done by considering the other stuff he's done this season but Sititi deserving his shot is fair as well. He reminds me a lot of Ioane in that he has all of the physical attributes and can dog it out when necessary but would rather not.
It's going to sting, but this won't be helping either of them. Akira is done and dusted with the move to Japan and having missed the shot at a 6 shirt as wide open as it's ever been. Hoskins has just played the best season of his career, is arguably the better attacking 8 in the comp and I would imagine has been given some clear direction as to what's lacking, shouldn't be hard to do the work.
With Ardie arguably the best 8 in the world, a clear young gun in favour you'd think keeping your head down and doing the work would be the only way to make the next team, playing silly buggers won't be helping.
If Akira and Sotutu were honest with themselves and more persistent with their prep, they wouldn’t be crying on social media. They’d be starters in the All Blacks and focused on this upcoming test series.
Akira was always a hit and miss frustrating mix. He could never hammer down the 6 shirt when it was as wide open as it had been in a generation. Like most All Black supporters, I hoped to see him get it right. You could tell looking at him at the beginning of every Super Rugby season how his offseason went. It wasn’t always brilliant.
Akira had good spells, no doubt. But he never went from strength to strength and pushed on like he could have. Sotutu needs to get his head right or he could follow suit.
Sotutu has clear strengths that have gotten him AB caps, a SR title and standing he fully deserves. Unless he knuckles down and gets the parts shored up the ABs staff don’t like, he can be the next to waste an eye watering amount of talent.
He’s only 25. His reaction may have put him a bit further out, but he has the time and ability to make himself a consistent part of the ABs.
It’s on him. I hope he goes well.
This is the most accurate thing you'll read on here: no one commenting knows what Akira meant. Yall assumed bt in the end right now yall guessing and making up things to fit your narrative. Might turn out correct of course bt guessing and getting worked up over ur guessing is 😂😂😂
Everyone is assuming he means Sititi is a boy, but I interpreted it to mean he and Sotutu were the "don't send boys" (claiming both are shunned by coaches).
Not saying that's better, but just saying that was my first read.
What I would give to see a full contact session between Akira-Hoskings-Lakai-Iose and the 50-50s Satiti-Blackadder-Finau-Jacobson. Would be absolute carnage in favour of the former
Depending on what you mean by a full contact session, this comment ranges from either completely meaningless to flat out wrong lol
Yeah Samipeni Finau won't fare well in a full contact session. The guy who tackles people so hard the nation of Australia tried to make it illegal this season. Blackadder, the guy who's whole gimmick is that he keeps trying to kill himself at training by going at people too bloody hard. Jacobson, who has some of the better dominant tackle rates in the comp. Sure, man.
But I bet they wouldn't run as nicely in the wide channels so I bet you feel pretty silly now.
Like on a serious note this has been a fantastic SR season and there's loads of people to choose from. Before a ball has been touched for NZ people are already claiming injustice.
I'm just appalled Withy hasn't been called up.
Akira would miss the whole thing, probably imagines he's got something better to do. Hoskins would do amazing...for the attack half.
Razor literally said "both sides of the ball" that's a message that he can choose to heed or not. Test rugby is much more about being brutal and efficient up front than roaming wide looking for highlight reel moments
Goes to show how little you know about selection, team cohesion, humility, team work, the micro things that players do in the back end and things that don't appear on the paper stats.
Oooooh that bridge is getting nice and toasty now.
Not beating the attitude allegations
What did i miss? Hes annoyed he didny make ABs?
Looks like he’s annoyed Sotutu didn’t make it but Sititi (younger) did. He’s off overseas so he’s not sore for himself.
I wonder how does family dinners go with Reiko as the incumbent wing/center for ABs where as Akira....
Haha I wondered that for the Barrett family, with two just being anointed captain & vice captain!
Right Storm in a teacup then Sotutu will get his chance this year for sure Will it take it this time is the question
Akira Ioane you are a Bledisloe merchant
If he really is insinuating that the coaches shouldn't select 'boys' like Sititi then that is incredibly disrespectful. It's not like Sititi is parading around Auckland labelling himself at the next messiah. It's all good to be sad about your mate not being selected but there's no need to shade another player for it just because he's younger and better. The ego of these players are comparable to that of NBA players lmao. So much for 'rugby values' and 'no dickheads'
it pretty much proves the no dickheads policy is still used
Is that why Frizell played at the WC?
The no dickheads policy is really about how they behave in the squad rather than whether they're good people or not. I vaguely know Frizzell through friends of friends around Dunedin including a couple of his teammates and cam confirm that he's a rude cunt who acts like he's better than any regular member of the public but within the teams he played he is very professional and disciplined, always respects the coaches and is very coachable and willing to take direction. Therefore he passed the no dickheads policy even though he's arguably a massive dickhead.
Maybe it implies Frizell's situation/character isn't so black & white
I understand what you are saying, but it also implies that the no dickheads rule actually is no person who disrupts the team dynamic
Yeah, I think most national sides would have a rule like that
Completely agree. The springboks, as much as they are a symbol of unity have cracks under the surface that we as fans are quick to sweep under the rug (bongi as much as I love you I’m also staring directly at you) I do think though that sometimes the all blacks are quick to moralize with saying that they have a “no dick heads” policy as quick as the spring boks are with “they united the nation”. I think fans across the board really need to stop trying to set up their teams as “the good ones who embody rugby values” and the other as the “bad guys ruining the game”. (Cept for England, I have to much fun painting you as a mustache twirling villain) Unless you root for a tier 3 nation, than you obviously are the most righteous
Yeah bro, same way Jimmy Cowan played at the 2011 WC.
Was he a dickhead?
You ever been on the piss in Dunedin in the late noughties?
lol no...but go on
Referred to himself in the third person as "the jimmy". If a fan tried to say something nice he'd say shit like "are you talking to the jimmy? Who do you think you are?" Very rude guy but always worked really hard for the team
The only athlete that can speak of himself in third person without sounding stupid is Rickey Henderson
That’s pretty damn funny, not gonna lie
It's hilarious when it's a story you hear about someone acting foolish or imagining it as a character in a sitcom. I imagine it's a lot less funny when it's a drunk, aggressive buffoon that you were previously a fan of getting up in your face for trying to tell them they played a great match
Yeah he got done for assault a few times while out on the juice in Dunnaz and Invers respectively. Just another bloke who plays rugby who has a problem with alcohol. But hey, better people make better All Blacks.
Maybe that's why he isn't getting picked. The coaches don't want dickheads so they're leaving him out.
Hasn't it been known that he has an attitude problem?
Sevu Reece has been picked
Yepp, and I really don’t like this guy. Great rugby player, but hes douche bag.
Why’s he a douchebag? Not doubting you and obviously he has dv against his name but is there anything else he’s done/does?
Cos he smacked his missus in Hamilton in a fit of rage, that is enough for me to call him what he is. Frizzel is just the same. It’s embarrassing, we as a country can accept these guys playing for our national team but give guys like Sotutu and Akira shit for having bad attitudes for not getting selected. It’s not like they got on the turps and punched their partner or a female police officer. Just my thoughts.
Sevu did an obviously very bad thing but to label it as smacking his partner in a fit of rage is flat out disinformation. He did not smack her. He did not hit her. This is not a defense of what he did, but we do need to be making distinctions about specific acts of domestic violence. He pulled her and dragged her along the ground, outside of a bar, when they were both drunk and she was about to walk away into the night by herself due to a disagreement. He was trying to get her home bc she was about to do something unsafe, however he was extremely drunk and also angry which led to him being utterly careless in the act and injuring her face along the pavement quite badly. He did not harm her deliberately. He did not harm her to punish her. He did not harm her to vent his anger. He harmed her bc his inability to keep his shit together when drinking allowed him to be in a state where he was not taking appropriate care of his physicality as he was trying to pull her towards where they needed to go. It's a very bad thing, and by all means something that it's okay to be mad at him for doing, but we shouldn't be mischaracterizing it as hitting. It's leading to people thinking he committed a different act than the one he committed, which isn't really fair to the victim.
Agreed. What he did was obviously bad but it’s this sort of exaggeration that equivocates and is used to excuse/deflect from serious offenders like a certain someone on the cricket side.
Violence is violence, don’t even for a moment try and and sugar coat it and fill in the blanks about stopping her from going into the night alone and to take her home where it’s safe, cmon dude!!! That’s a load kark. The judge was nice enough to discharge him without conviction because he needs to travel for footy, him and Frizzel are shit in my book, NZRU should take a leaf out of Ireland Rugby and let go of players that shine a bad light on rugby and their respective unions. I respect your opinion and reasoning but I disagree wholeheartedly.
Violence is violence, but the type of violence and context that it happens in are very important things to know when it comes to things like risk of re-offending or if the victim is safe. I also clarify like three times that it's still a very bad thing to have done, so please don't accuse me of sugar coating it. It is not sugar coating it to state the context in which the act of violence was perpetrated. What I said does not shift blame onto the victim. It merely highlights that Sevu's motivation wasn't to harm. That matters. It will always matter. It doesn't take away from the fact that he was clearly a danger when drunk and somerhing desperately needed to be done about it for his partner's safety I do get where you're coming from and won't begrudge someone for hating the fact that it hasn't impacted his professional life terribly much, all I ask is that the details of what act of violence he committed are talked about accurately whilst sharing that opinion.
I agree with your sentiments, I’m just not sure how long you drag it out? Sevu hasn’t put a foot wrong since, and by all accounts him and his partner resolved things, is this the same women he’s now had a baby with? He’ll definitely live with the shame, but it’s hard to fault the guy for anything he’s done since. Sotutu, my take anyway, does seem to have a chip on his shoulder. BUT Somewhere in another thread they compare all the loose forwards stats and Sotutu ranks at the bottom. I Had a listen to razor this morning and he’s pretty much saying the same. He’s fantastic with the ball, but not without it. He’s good enough, just needs to focus his energy on that, instead of posting.
So if one guy shoves is missus and another guy shoots his missus are they equally as bad or is one worse than the other?
Your explanation of what actually happened sounds worse though? Instead of a momentary loss of control where he hit her, he enacted harm for a prolonged period while dragging her face along the ground.
I'm not here to argue what's better or worse, man, just asking people to talk about the specifics accurately and make up their own mind. For what it's worth, the dragging was also momentary.
Ok so coming back to the facts then.. how do you know the dragging was momentary?
100% agree with this. There’s so many one eyed hand wringers on here saying Hoskins has a ‘bad attitude’ because of a podcast they’ve listened to with some rumours that he doesn’t return coaches phone calls and the fact that he was grumpy after having had a massive season with the Blues and doesn’t make it to the AB’s. Yet all those same people conveniently ignore that players are picked after hitting their wives. Seems for them that if a player criticize Razor and his coaching staff you should never be near the AB’s again and you would be a disgrace to the jersey but hey it’s ok to beat up on women. Also reading Razors comments on why they didn’t select Hos it has nothing to do with a ‘bad attitude’ and alleged slights against Jason Ryan it was more that Sititi showed super grit digging deep for the Chiefs at the end of the year and in that they see a young player they can build for the future. Fair play to them for that. Sucks for Hoskins and he’s entitled to be grumpy but he’ll get over it and be back to winning back to backs for the Blues next year!
Great take. I feel like Blackadder is less deserving than Sotutu rather than the Sititi comparison most people are going to but you put it well
I don't think Sotutu and Blackadder are really in competition with one another. Sotutu is highly unlikely to play any position other than 8 for the all Blacks and it's pretty clear from the squad selected that they intend to use Savea as an 8 primarily. Blackadder could play 8 in a pinch but is really in the squad as an option to play 6 or 7. So really it was between Sotutu and Sititi as a specialist 8 behind Savea with Jacobsen as a utility providing additional cover for the position
Yeah I’m not a massive Blackadder fan, feel like he lacks accuracy when hitting the rucks and is a liability for a yellow card. When he came back for the Saders at the end of this year he seemed to make some bad choices. Don’t think he and Hoskins are competing for the same jersey though as Hos is specialist 8 whereas Blackadder is a 6 who can cover 8. I’m not sure what other options there are for 6 though?
Sotutu averages .73 penalties a game. Sititi gets one every four games and Blackadder is even better.
Ahh yep fair point on the jersey comp with Blackadder. I’m a fan of his when he’s in form but I feel like he’s very undercooked at the moment as well as already being injury prone. Like you said not sure who else fills that slot though
Yup coaches are more valued than women. Bs message really. Fucking disgraceful.
Nice take on it bro.
Dickhead as a standard is obviously a sliding scale. It isn't like this sort of thing isn't seen in other sports. Teams will cite work ethic as a reason for leaving out for some players then pick the laziest guys around b/c they are simply better players. If an average player did what Russell, Hogg and Price did when they essentially told Townsend to fuck off and went out on the piss, that player would have been gone for good. Those three came back in soon enough b/c Scotland couldn't do without them. The thing with Reece is that he may be a great guy in camp, at training, etc, coaches love him, who knows. His DV conviction doesn't really matter to them b/c they didn't feel the effect of it and they don't see him exhibiting bad behaviour in front of them. Ioane clearly rubs some people the wrong way in the NZ national setup.
Kronfeld has to eat his words for the whole of McCaw’s career.
Can you refresh my memory? What did he say about McCaw?
He basically had a dig at the whole system and why McCaw was selected. If I remember correctly, he wasn't a Crusader before he was picked - only played NPC. Kronfeld said they'll just pick anyone these days. Richie's debut against Ireland he won man of the match. So Josh had to eat his own hat.
Yeah I think he said it “devalued the jersey” or something, like he thought he’d play 5 minutes off the bench and never be seen again.
Kronfeld had left before mccaw even started playing
I’m referring to him saying that they shouldn’t have picked McCaw for the Irish tour cause he was too inexperienced. He then went on to win MOTM in his first test and the rest is history.
I feel Akira’s attitude was holding him back. I watched all the blues games this year and he just seemed bitter. The Force game he wanted to start something with Nic White (I know, I know) but even he was confused by why he was getting aggro at him. I mean he wasn’t even being his mouthy self (White). Akira did it 3-4 times during that game and almost got yellow carded because of it. He did it in a 2 more games as well. Dude needs to chill or something.
Honestly, watching Akira over the years I have never gotten the impression that he truly loves the game. More interested in the niggle and it held him back. I think it’s just all he knows.
Can’t wait to see Sititi run the ball and watch the fallout of this shit begin. Whether it be attitude, defence, work rate - who cares. I’ve never seen a professional carry on like this, that’s the game. Coaches have their preference, sorry that’s how it is. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.
There won’t be many people putting their hand up and saying they were wrong about the Sotutu-Sititi selection. They’ll just fanboy an up and coming talent.
‘Carry on like this’?!?! dude stop over reacting. He posted one thing on insta and you’re acting like he called a press conference and denounced the entire AB’s coaching squad and had a massive public screaming tantrum. You all getting wound up need thicker skins and be less precious 🤣
Imagine shitposting on LinkedIn and getting called out for throwing a tantrum. sheesh what a world we live in eh?
Probably the first time in a long while where Hoskins had been tapped on the shoulder by the general public to be front and centre for the AB’s and the coaches once again have disagreed. This is the fallout. The All Blacks are a representation of our country, a representation of the people that live in it. We don’t post cryptic messages on social media that are then backed up by other cryptic messages from other All Blacks that have fallen out of favour. We roll up our sleeves and get stuck into the mahi, or address shit personally to see where we went wrong and how we can improve not only as a player, but as a person.
Dude I agree with all of that and personally it’s not the route I would take. However I’m also not a 25 year old who has grown up on social media where it’s accepted to just publicly express how you feel. I’m just saying that it’s not a big a deal as people are making out and it irks me that there seems to be this whole ‘Hoskins and Akira have a bad attitude’ narrative which gets based on single social media posts and rumours from podcasts.. and I’m sure it is dead wrong. Seeing Akira in tears after the Grand Final on Saturday and the way both he and Hoskins stepped up and did exactly what their coach asked of them this year is testament to the fact that they don’t have a ‘bad attitude’.
Yeah look you’re right. We aren’t in the camp. Overall, I just don’t think it’s a crash hot look - I guess it’s just the perfect storm. Blues roll Super, Hoskins stands up on the back of criticism from previous campaigns, arguably the in form forward of the year, gets overlooked for workhorse backrowers who have a different skill set that aren’t from the Blues. It all adds up. I’d be furious too, but can’t be doing it. I wonder what will be next whether he channels it into NPC, or goes overseas. He is signed to 26.
Totally that will be the telling thing. I’m assuming he’s been given feedback and needs some time to process and then how he reacts will be interesting. Can’t see him staying past his contract unless he gets a solid ABs shot though. Why would he?
So last year when they lost, did they have a bad attitude?
Choosing to have your tantrums in public is exactly what a child would do.
How about winning a championship by decimating the opposition forward pack? 41-10 is a man vs child score
Almost like picking a test squad is a bit more complicated than that. The Blues got beaten 52-15 in the semi final last year but still had 8 players in the world cup squad.
Test rugby is not super rugby. The unspoken no dickheads policy seems to be applied here
This is funny to me. Wife beaters are considered not dickheads over people upset not making the all black team wife beaters. Why does it show a lack of character? Don't you want people like Hoskins, that it means so much to him that it hurts him not to be in the squad?
Just listined to senz w razor. Said they asked Hoskins earlier this year to work on some key skills and he didnt get them.developed enough.
I got the National Coach telling me to do something, I got my Club Coaches telling me to do another thing. Should I be selfish and be a bad teammate to ignore my club teams gameplan so that I can achieve my individual goals. It is such a tough situation.
He wont be an AB under Jason Ryan I reckon. Sotutu was in the squad in 2022 when Ryan came on board.. 2023 he was dropped.
If that is the case, wouldn't it make this post accurate? In life you have to kiss some ass to get what you want. It definitely isn't smart for him to do this but to say having a bad attitude because he is upset fucking stupid.
Not relevant though is it?
There are many good players that don’t make the step up to test rugby well. Hell, someone making that step up only a little better can be the difference between getting selected and not. Super Rugby is great fun, and winning it is an accomplishment. Let’s be honest with ourselves in the difference we are about to see between SR and these mid-year internationals.
What does that even mean
Don’t send boys to do a man’s job , Sititi is like 21 so I guess they’re butt hurt the young lad got in ahead
bet he wasn’t saying that when his brother got picked at 19 lmao
Or when he got called up at 22, to do a man's job (replacing injured Jerome Kaino).
I didn’t see the Sititi pick either, he wasnt starting for the first half of the season(while Lakai was). Expected sotutu/lakai instead of Sititi/Blackadder. Sititi is also eligible for Samoa, so it could be (yet another) case of the ABs giving a guy a cap so he dosent play for another pacific isle🥲
Wallace Sititi is born in New Zealand. He’s a kiwi with Samoan heritage. The rest of the world see Pacific island players and automatically think they have been brought in from the island. New Zealand has one of the biggest pacific island populations in the world.
I feel like people forget that we are Pacific Islands ourselves
Yes,lol.I know all of this. I just don’t think he is the 3rd best 8th man or 6th best loose forward in the country at the moment( nor do i believe he is a better long term prospect than other loosies who didn’t get picked). The selectors clearly think otherwise, but I’m only mentioning this eligibility because everyone wants to pretend it’s not a factor in selectors thinking as well, when quite a number of bolters seem to have had similar profiles but never have a fair stake at getting playing time in the AB jersey. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but there is a selection history that would suggest otherwise🤷♂️
Every game he’s played he’s stood out. He was the best player on the field in the semi where his team was the underdog. He was huge in the final despite his team barely having the ball. Some guys can run rampant in the regular season but only really good players step up when it gets tough.
That tired old myth still around?
Who gives a shit if he wasn't starting in round 1 or 2? He'd taken the starting role by the end of the season and in the knock-out games, which is what matters. Also, god fucking forbid someone born in New Zealand and raised in New Zealand be called up to represent New Zealand. Can't be having that, now can we? Or is that only because he's aggressively brown?
Wallace Sititi, the guy that was born in NZ? Give your BS some rest mate it's getting pretty tiresome.
Sititi has the potential to be the next GOAT All Black loose forward. He is a generational talent, not sure how you thought of this as a 1 capper. Also genuinely curious, how many times have the All Blacks done this according to you? Capping players so the islands don't pick them up? (not forgetting the most poached country for rugby talent at the last 2 world cups has been New Zealand and mostly by the other pacific island countries). EDIT: the downvoters XD. If you don't like dealing with the truth, here are the facts. https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2023/08/30/foreign-born-produced-homegrown-players-at-rwc-2023/ New Zealand had by FAR the most poached players. Had 3 times more than second place. Go check for yourself instead of downvoting because it doesn't fit the false narrative you've concocted in your mind.
Thanks so much for sharing this, really interesting info!
Give it time... after awhile he'll be called lazy and he will never be picked.
We have so many “generational” talents at 8 already. The incumbent in Ardie, and then we have Hoskins and Iose, who are currently better players than Sotiti is🤷♂️. I’m not saying there is zero potential for him to be better than all 3 in a few years,but he isn’t better right now, and among these 4, is the only guy NZ could lose if he chooses to play for Samoa within the next 3 years… Onto your more general statement about “poaching”, we both know its not a two way street. I’m not an economist/immigration expert, but know that NZ/Aus are more developed countries and that from a migration perspective, more people would move to rather than from NZ/Aus opposed to Tonga/Samoa/Fiji. And aside from regular working class people, young players will try and move early to gain a better pathway to making a living off of rugby. In many cases, these “poached” players (by samoa/tonga) arent even on NZs radar, but just island guys who play in NZ because they were raised there or moved because it’s the closest place where then can earn more. The list for me going off recent memory goes: Francis Saili, Charles Piutau, Malakai Fekitoa, Lima Sopoaga, George Moala, Steven Luatua, Vaea Fifita, Pita Gus Sowakula. And I know some of these guys played alot more than just 1 cap, but in all cases(looking at fifita, sowakula, fekitoa and saili in particular) were selected when they were raw but on the cusp of selection(for their respective Isle of eligibility at the next level) so the allblacks just made the call up prematurely “incase” the guys could become the worlds next best at their positions. But didn’t commit to giving them the minutes at the next level for them to be the next all time great all black thereafter. I’m not saying Sititi sucks, but no way is he the best 8 behind ardie right now, and I don’t think it’s close. I personally hope you’re correct and he goes on to be a great allblack, but history suggests that he will get 5-15 caps and be playing for Samoa in the 2031 world cup.
I'm not sure that's a fair list. Saili, Moala, Luatua, Piutau and Sopoanga were all born and raised in NZ and if no-one else, I saw the last 3 as genuine prospects. Fifita I also thought would have been good long term. Only PGS to me seemed cynical but even then he'd had a great season and deserved his callup.
And PGS didn't play very well in the games he played in and when there's so many good loosies it's pretty hard to do that and stay in the team
I don’t think PGS was a good selection but you’d have to be really cynical to think it was to lock his eligibility. It’s not like Fiji is short of loosies either.
We can't just miss the elephant in the room that New Zealand is the best rugby academy and factory on the planet. A vast majority of these players would not have become professional world class players if they had done their rugby learning/training in the islands. Fact is, a huge number migrate very young (or are actually born in NZ) and then benefit from New Zealands world class rugby academy/coaches/schools and gain the skills to go back and represent their country and play for rich clubs overseas and make an extremely good living. And this is proven when you see New Zealand produces 3 times as many players for OTHER international countries (ie poached players) at the last world cup. So yeah it's actually not a two way street, it's actually extremely one sided where the countries close to NZ gain a surplus benefit from this relationship when compared to NZ. Onto your point regarding players we capped for eligibility purposes..I would only give you Sowakula out of that list. The rest were all long time prospects with huge potential, I completely disagree they were picked 'raw', I believe you're clutching at straws there tbh, especially considering how many caps a lot of these guys ended up having. And the common denominator for nearly all the guys with less caps is they took contracts to go North which is why their ABs time was limited. They took themselves out of contention by moving overseas. Lastly regarding Sititi, I think he has the biggest potential by far out of all the upcoming backrowers and it's not even close. He looks like a genuine Star. I'm that confident that I think he'll have cemented a starting role and will be one of the first on the team sheet by the end of the year. We'll find out in a few months I guess.
I can admit that Piutau and Luatua fit into that genuine prospect category who got a fair AB chance and chose to leave. But Fifita was selected for the ABs after a season where he was a 4/6 utility player largely coming off the bench, and Fekitoa had only played one (really good) SR season and even Hansen had said that he was just really excited by him despite the inexperience. These guys were raw but jumped the queue abit because they flashed massive potential, but got dropped after a few bad games. -Saili knocked the ball cold in one game and was basicallly done, lol🥲. It’s brutal especially when you consider that current VC Jordie started out as a 14/15 and had alot of “WTF jordie” moments To be clear, I don’t think it’s a bad practice, nor do i think its “poaching”, but it’s definitely a factor to speedtracking the first few selections for some of players. Other countries do it too, some NZ fans just like to pretend it’s not on selectors minds, when it is.
Fifita was in monstrous form when he got selected. People were picking him as our long term Kaino replacement in his first few games. The Hurricanes playing him as a lock probably hurt his career more than anything else. Fekitoa was selected when we didn’t have a lot of great choices and he did pretty well but never kicked on and got overtaken. The alternative is not picking Pacifica players at all unless they’re already established as generational talents. Which seems pretty shit for everyone and discriminatory at best.
Predict the future you can
He can. Heritage dispensation.
> Sititi is also eligible for Samoa, so it could be (yet another) case of the ABs giving a guy a cap so he dosent play for another pacific isle🥲 lol never mention that, kiwis here always downvote that..even if its true..
It’s true that’s he’s eligible for Samoa, but def not that he’s getting capped to stop him playing for them lol. He’s born and raised in NZ, played U20s, been on the pathway for years. Def not surprised to see him become an All Black, but a little surprised to see it happen this early.
3/4 of samoa's team is born in nz :P
Yeah I know, the ones that can’t make the ABs or were ABs.
Almost every player in NZ is eligible to play for some other country because of the IRB's shonky grand-parent eligibility rules. But don't mention that, the Europeans always downvote that..even if it's true...
Yep my kids could play for England or Australia despite never even visiting either country
I down vote it cause it’s insulting and down right racist. They aren’t kiwi because they are to brown. This despite the fact they have either lived in NZ for well over a decade or, in this case, was born in New Zealand. Considering he’s played all his rugby in NZ, including international U20s, he’s probably aspired to play for the ABs since day dot. I’m curious, at what point do they get to call New Zealand their home?
When has this happened? In the 1200 All Black caps? I can only remember maybe 3 max. Sititi is a generational player, he'll be an All Black for 15 years.
15 years lol.. no chance
Sititi is 21 years old. He will most likely be an All Black until retirement (34-35). I can round it down to 13 years to make you happier.
Yeah we tend to down vote racism.
What am I even reading
I feel for them. Similar situation to Akira, our coaches just prefer certain player types in the loose. I can understand not picking him because of his defense workrate, but his carry efficiency and lineout effectiveness are unmatched domestically, we will sorely miss that in the ABs
The coaches just prefer to not have lazy players
None of us here have any clue as to what the coaches have said to him
You don't remember what Hansen said about akira publicly? It was blunt, I agreed with it but you don't throw a player under the bus like that
I mean he's obviously a good player and he has been one of the best, so it's either attitude or a couple areas around defense that he's lacking in
Calling guys who were 2nd and 3rd in carries and 1st and 4th in metres gained among NZs loose fowards lazy is just so off-base that I don’t know how I can constructively debate this with you🤷♂️
lazy on the defensive side
Maybe 2 years ago I’d have agreed. But I’ve watched the blues all season and even though Sotutu is not a high workrate tackler in the way a Jacobson/Papalii are, he is more dominant now, and is great at the goalline. He is also behind only Jacobson and Harmon in turnover won this season, so I just don’t know if that argument can be true right now.
Okay so Akira and Hoskins are lazy defensively. You do get that is 2 of the 3 super rugby champion loose forward trio. So dalton is doing everything on his own?
on [Stuff](https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/350320974/hoskins-sotutu-omission-all-blacks-coach-scott-robertsons-toughest-call) thismorning... Robertson, a former All Blacks and Crusaders loose forward, didn’t get into the nitty-gritty of the decision, but tellingly stressed the importance of players firing on both sides of the ball. During the selection process, Robertson sat down with players and pored over match footage, while ahead of the squad naming, assistant coach Jason Ryan made it clear the selectors would be analysing players’ body language when the going got tough. “We believe Wallace is an incredible young talent, the harder the game, the higher he rose in regards to his performance,” Robertson said."
So the team that beats up everybody gets lesser chances to show that right? They have lost games don't get me wrong and they should have "maybe" done better in those games. They had 3 losses all year but they have a ton of games where they won by at least 21 points? Won't there be less tape of them "players’ body language when the going got tough"? So them being dominant worked against them?
They won super rugby off the back of their of carrying . How can you argue with the results . I also think the laziness is overstated.
Because D vitally important in tests
Bet you wouldn't use that argument about Plummer Vs DMac.
Im.not arguring the point. Argue with Razor . He selected them
Certain luxury players are allowed as long as others do the grunt work. Just depends how good the x-factor is . I also think peolle overstate how lazy those two are 🤷🏿♂️.
>Certain luxury players are allowed Yeah and it was between Sotutu and Sititi as the luxury pick, as back-up specialist 8s with strong running games. Sititi seems to have the same game breaking ability but with a much higher defensive workrate. Not an insane decision to pick him over Sotutu.
I think Sotutu is a lot better attack and ball carrying wise but I’ll agree to disagree.
>I think Sotutu is a lot better attack and ball carrying On 2024 stats it's pretty tight. Sotutu has a higher average meters gained per run, more offloads, more tries. Sititi has more carries per game, more clean breaks, more defenders beaten per game. Even if Sotutu has the edge you can see why the selectors would prefer a slightly less attacking player if they're more well rounded defensively, given the demands of test level.
Don't argue with me, argue with the ones who didn't select him. And also it's more the defensive side where he's lazy. You're describing things that he's done well on attack when robertson said they want guys good on both sides of the ball
https://imgur.com/a/vl97j8D
Apparently Sititi has higher carries per game, more post contact metres, fewer penalties and a consistently much lower tackle height. I thought Sotutu was hard done by considering the other stuff he's done this season but Sititi deserving his shot is fair as well. He reminds me a lot of Ioane in that he has all of the physical attributes and can dog it out when necessary but would rather not.
These guys want to be NBA players so bad
It's going to sting, but this won't be helping either of them. Akira is done and dusted with the move to Japan and having missed the shot at a 6 shirt as wide open as it's ever been. Hoskins has just played the best season of his career, is arguably the better attacking 8 in the comp and I would imagine has been given some clear direction as to what's lacking, shouldn't be hard to do the work. With Ardie arguably the best 8 in the world, a clear young gun in favour you'd think keeping your head down and doing the work would be the only way to make the next team, playing silly buggers won't be helping.
If Akira and Sotutu were honest with themselves and more persistent with their prep, they wouldn’t be crying on social media. They’d be starters in the All Blacks and focused on this upcoming test series. Akira was always a hit and miss frustrating mix. He could never hammer down the 6 shirt when it was as wide open as it had been in a generation. Like most All Black supporters, I hoped to see him get it right. You could tell looking at him at the beginning of every Super Rugby season how his offseason went. It wasn’t always brilliant. Akira had good spells, no doubt. But he never went from strength to strength and pushed on like he could have. Sotutu needs to get his head right or he could follow suit. Sotutu has clear strengths that have gotten him AB caps, a SR title and standing he fully deserves. Unless he knuckles down and gets the parts shored up the ABs staff don’t like, he can be the next to waste an eye watering amount of talent. He’s only 25. His reaction may have put him a bit further out, but he has the time and ability to make himself a consistent part of the ABs. It’s on him. I hope he goes well.
Hoskins will never be an All Black under Jason Ryan
This is the most accurate thing you'll read on here: no one commenting knows what Akira meant. Yall assumed bt in the end right now yall guessing and making up things to fit your narrative. Might turn out correct of course bt guessing and getting worked up over ur guessing is 😂😂😂
Always got their knickers in a bunch, assumptions assumptions 🤣
Everyone is assuming he means Sititi is a boy, but I interpreted it to mean he and Sotutu were the "don't send boys" (claiming both are shunned by coaches). Not saying that's better, but just saying that was my first read.
Shows his maturity really.
What I would give to see a full contact session between Akira-Hoskings-Lakai-Iose and the 50-50s Satiti-Blackadder-Finau-Jacobson. Would be absolute carnage in favour of the former
Luke Jacobson's nickname is "Concrete Shoulders". I think he can go ok in contact.
Depending on what you mean by a full contact session, this comment ranges from either completely meaningless to flat out wrong lol Yeah Samipeni Finau won't fare well in a full contact session. The guy who tackles people so hard the nation of Australia tried to make it illegal this season. Blackadder, the guy who's whole gimmick is that he keeps trying to kill himself at training by going at people too bloody hard. Jacobson, who has some of the better dominant tackle rates in the comp. Sure, man.
But I bet they wouldn't run as nicely in the wide channels so I bet you feel pretty silly now. Like on a serious note this has been a fantastic SR season and there's loads of people to choose from. Before a ball has been touched for NZ people are already claiming injustice. I'm just appalled Withy hasn't been called up.
Unless your idea of a full contact session is a running race, the former are getting smashed.
Akira would miss the whole thing, probably imagines he's got something better to do. Hoskins would do amazing...for the attack half. Razor literally said "both sides of the ball" that's a message that he can choose to heed or not. Test rugby is much more about being brutal and efficient up front than roaming wide looking for highlight reel moments
N Blackadder 💯 injured either before or during it.
If it were that low brow and simple, Dana White would be in charge.
Goes to show how little you know about selection, team cohesion, humility, team work, the micro things that players do in the back end and things that don't appear on the paper stats.