Honest take, crew: we should rest our top guns in the July tests even
Rest the lot in July, I say, and I'll take the heat for it. Anyone crying about losing a July series against whoever they wheel out hasn't watched us limp into a Rugby Championship short-handed before. Ardie Savea done for the big one just so we can lift some mid-winter participation trophy? Madness, plain and simple. The July tests are a fitness run with extra steps — play the fringe boys, blood the young locks, and if we drop a test so be it.
Funny how the same blokes screaming "win at all costs" in July go quiet come September when the legs are gone. Wouldn't shock me if half of them had a multi on us going unbeaten through winter too, getting fidgety already 😏 Rest the guns, win when it actually counts. Everything else is noise, mate 🤡💸
12 posts
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✓A mid-winter participation trophy? A series loss at home in July hurts plenty on its own, mate. And nobody's shown me a single injury where July minutes caused the damage, Ardie got hurt in test rugby proper last year, didn't he? Rest the blokes who actually need it after the club seasons, sure, but blanket-rotation to hand a series away is just laziness dressed up as a plan.Sample first, conclusions after.
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Nah mate, July at home means something to us fans 🔥 Rest ONE or two, sure, but chucking the whole series? Madness. Ardie out there leading the haka every time 💪On the terraces since I was a kid.
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FixIsIn_Denier has a point buried in there, even if I'd phrase it differently. I could be wrong, but my table across the last few July windows says the sample is too thin to prove rotation cost us anything. Injuries to frontliners have mostly come in Rugby Championship and end-of-year tour fixtures, i.e. heavier loads later in the season. So the "July minutes broke Ardie" theory doesn't hold up on the evidence we've got in front of us. That said, GoTheDistance isn't mad either. There's a nuance here: resting Savea for one July test costs you little; resting the lot risks a home series loss AND leaves your Championship picks underdone, because match sharpness in July is what carries into August. My line: rotate in two, maybe three spots per test, keep Ardie's minutes sensible, and you protect the big one without gifting anyone a trophy. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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July tests meant everything back in the day. Eden Park nights, full houses, no half measures. Seen worse than a rusty Championship, but you protect Ardie at all costs 😉Been here longer than some have followed.
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FixIsIn_Denier asked for receipts on July minutes causing injuries, show me the numbers then, because "sample too thin" cuts both ways. Where's your proof rotation prevented anything either?Hype isn't an argument.
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Kev's got a fair point there, Chris, absence of proof cuts both ways 📊. I lean with UnderdogNightmare though; my own log says rest Ardie in game one, play two.Do the math before you argue.
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Chris needs thin samples to dodge Kev but somehow the Bledisloe never gets this "rest them" treatment, funny that 😏. Ardie limps off in July and half you blokes will be at the TAB wondering where it all went wrong. Play him one test, wrap him in cotton wool, done - anything else is just cosplay as a selector 🤡Any stat can be bent.
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Chris needs thin samples to dodge Kev but somehow the Bledisloe never gets this "rest them" treatment, funny that 😏. Ardie limps off in July and half you blokes will be at the TAB wondering where it all went wrong. Play …@BadBeatAndy don't laugh but I had to read that twice 😅 the Bledisloe point is a fair one though, nobody ever says rest them for those. What does "thin samples" mean here though? I'm keen to actually understand before picking a side 🙏Learn something new every day.
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Who's got a TAB slip on Ardie going down? Anyone? Thought not 😂 Rest him game one and we still smash the series, we always do 💪🔥
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Smash the series every year, eh? I watched us lose Bledisloe nights at Eden Park resting fellas too, mate. Play him two tests, guard the minutes.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Two tests sounds right to me on the surface, but there's a nuance here: which two. Resting him in game one assumes the series is still alive by test two, and if we've dropped the opener at home the second match becomes must-win, that's exactly when the coach can't afford to sit his best player, and the plan falls apart in week two. So the load-management argument only holds if we're picking the games before the series starts, not reacting to the table after it. My own running log says the minutes saved in July are worth roughly what you'd expect on paper, small sample though. Three seasons of rotation data isn't much to hang a policy on. OldSchoolEst66's point about Eden Park nights gone wrong while resting fellas is the counterweight I keep coming back to. I'm genuinely torn on this one, and I suspect the answer depends on how the Super Rugby Pacific run-in treats our guys' legs more than anything we decide in advance. Keep the thread open, I reckon.