Honest debate, family: should the Drua start our young Fiji-born
Funny how everyone suddenly becomes a development coach when the kid shines at training, aye. The U20 centre looks sharp, brilliant for him, but throwing a 19-year-old straight into the Crusaders cauldron at Christchurch? That's not development, that's feeding him to the shredder and calling it a pathway 😏
The import wing is our top try scorer. Tries win games, sentiment wins nothing. If he goes down under the high ball against a full Crusaders lineup and we're chasing the game by minute 20, the same people preaching "play the youth" will be first on here screaming about selection. Wait for the fanboys to pile in with their highlight reels from training though 🤡
Start the scorer. Bring the kid off the bench. Laughable really that this is even a debate.
16 posts
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✓Christchurch cauldron? The kid's Fijian, mate, he was born for exactly that sort of noise. Where's your evidence anyone's actually been shielded from it?
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GloryDays has it spot on 🔥 the kid was raised on that noise, he'll eat it up tbh. Christchurch crowds are fierce but Fijian hearts beat louder 💪 if he's tearing training apart then play him and back him, imports come and go but our boys are why we bleed this jersey 🙌In the stands since I was a kid.
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Andy's got a point though, sample size on training form is tiny, one week of running at cones. But I'd still start the kid; Christchurch away, we're likely copping a hiding anyway, so learn from it. 📊Numbers > vibes.
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back in the day we threw teenagers into christchurch all the time and half of them came back better men for it 😄 remember when untested youngsters got blooded against the crusaders and learned more in 80 minutes than a season of training cones? watch as long as I have and you'll get it, the kid's tearing training up, play him and back him, seen worse debuts than this.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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SeenItAll_Guy summed up the old-school bloodings nicely, and BootToBallGuru's logic earns my nod too, Christchurch away is a free education if you treat it that way. My only caveat: give the kid a proper run of weeks in the 23 first, because one sharp training block tells you less than people think. I could be wrong, but half my Year 12s look brilliant at a practice exam and fall apart when the real marks count 📊Do the math before you argue.
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Play the kid. If the import wing sulks about it, he can watch from the stands 🤡 Free hit at Rugby League Park anyway. Sure thing, mate 😏
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Sorry but "copping a hiding anyway" is a munted way to pick a team 😱 If we've already written off Christchurch, why send anyone? Back the kid properly or keep him fresh 💪🔥One love, one side ❤️
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FullbackNut has a point that picking a team to lose is a munted habit, I'll grant him that 😉 but fullback, back in my day we didn't wrap the young fellas in cotton wool until they were 23, we threw them in and most came out the better for it. The kid from the U20s earned his shot at training, and Christchurch away is the hardest classroom in the comp, no two ways about it. Sit the import if his head's not right, blood the boy properly, and whatever happens down there he'll be a Drua man for years after.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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OldSchoolEst66, funny how the "we threw them in" generation always forgets the ones who got chewed up and never came back. Nobody remembers the centre who met Sam Whitelock's shoulder in round three and vanished from rugby entirely. One live observation worth adding: the kid's been training against our own pack for weeks now, and they know his lines. The Crusaders don't. There's genuine value in an unknown quantity in a road game, and I'd concede the point about the U20 form being real - but on condition that the coaching staff actually name him in the 23 for a few weeks running, as FrontRowFan said, rather than one cameo and back to the bench. The import wing keeps his spot until the kid takes it off him in a match, not at training. That's how selection should work anywhere.
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Retro_Faithful, that's the bit nobody wants to hear, and I reckon it's the most honest point in this whole thread. I could be wrong, but for every bloke we remember being blooded young, there's a handful who got eaten alive and we never speak of again, the survivorship hides in plain sight. My caveat though: it depends how you count it. Throwing a kid in against the Crusaders at Christchurch with no protection around him is cruelty; starting him alongside experienced loosies and a 10 who talks is development. I kept a run-sheet of our backline minutes last season and the pattern that stood out was how isolated the young fellas were whenever we reshuffled, no wonder the samples look ugly. My old coach at college used to say you blood a centre at home, never away. I'd start the kid in Suva first, then hand him the import's jersey when the fixtures soften up.
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Funny how the import's our top scorer and suddenly he's the problem 😂 I put him in my TAB multi every week, start the kid off the bench and sure thing, mate, we'll all "trust the process" from the couch.Any stat can be bent.
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Funny how the import's our top scorer and suddenly he's the problem 😂 I put him in my TAB multi every week, start the kid off the bench and sure thing, mate, we'll all "trust the process" from the couch.@Gary_Legend so your multi is the real selection panel aye 😅 I still don't get one thing though, if the import is our top scorer why would we bench him just to blood the kid? FrontRow88's point about young blokes coming back wiser makes sense to me, but I'm still learning this stuff. Happy to be corrected 🙏Dumb questions are my specialty.
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😂 Gary your TAB multi is doing more selection talking than the coach aye. Kid off the bench, import starts, we sort it at Christchurch the hard way 💪🔥Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Retro's got a fair point but I'll say this much, back in the day the young blokes who got chewed up still came back wiser, look at how the greats got blooded. Christchurch is no graveyard for a kid with confidence, and honestly the import wing keeps his spot anyway, we're arguing about one centre jersey. Trust the coaches, family 😉
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My old maths teacher used to say a wrong answer worked through properly teaches more than a right one copied off the board, and that's sort of where I land here. Christchurch away is the harshest classroom in the competition, no arguing that, but the import's tries have come in a run where our midfield has been creating nothing much anyway, so small sample though it is, the kid's training form isn't against air either. Here's my open question to the thread: what exactly are we protecting him from? If the plan is genuinely to blood him for next season, does a twenty-minute bench run at Christchurch hurt more than it teaches, or less? Andy's cauldron point and FrontRow's blooded-young point aren't actually in conflict, they're arguing about dosage. Nobody in this thread has settled the dosage yet, and I don't think I can either. 📊Numbers > vibes.