Honest take, fam: this All Blacks side is the most exciting since
Some of you lot have spent three years telling anyone who'd listen that this side was finished, and now that the forwards are flinging offloads around Eden Park like it's touch rugby you've all gone shy. Funny that. Half the moaners in this thread wouldn't know an attacking structure if it ran over them - they just miss complaining about Foster because it was easier than actually watching the footy. This is the most watchable All Blacks side since 2015 and deep down you know it.
I've had a few on at the TAB backing this team to run up scores and it's paid better than listening to the "old ways" crowd, I'll tell you that much. Remind me of your ROI, lads? 😏🤡
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✓One decent night of offloads at Eden Park and suddenly three years of criticism gets rewritten? Fine, call them exciting, on condition that it holds up past one Bledisloe test.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Na, hold up - the forwards have been offloading like that for a while now, Eden Park was just when the doubters finally saw it 😤 One test? Watch the whole season before you talk, mate 🔥
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I keep my own table on the offload counts, and VeteranSinceKid has the right of it: Eden Park was the loudest data point, not the only one. I could be wrong, but the forwards' handling numbers have been trending up for most of the season, that night was just when it all clicked in front of the whole bay, against the Wallabies, in a Bledisloe test nobody had easy. RobbedAgainHater318, fair point on the sample size, and I'd usually be the first to demand a bigger one before crowning anything. Two things though: Foster's critics went quiet because the tape backs the noise now, and the first thing to drop from a side that plays scared is the ball out of contact. If the offloads keep coming against decent opposition past one test, I'll happily update my spreadsheet 📊 and eat a bit of humble pie.Do the math before you argue.
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I was at Eden Park back in '87 as a kid, and again for those great Bledisloe nights, and I'll tell you, forwards throwing cut-out passes used to get you benched, the young lot never saw that. Whatever Foster's doing with the big fellas now, it reminds me a bit of how Wayne Smith always said skills win tests. Seen worse sides than this one, plenty worse. 😄
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Exciting? Put money on them at the TAB next test then, RobbedAgain, see how loud your doubts are then 😏 Old ways got us bounced in '15 semi prep too, but sure.Any stat can be bent.
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Andy mate you'd know all about bad beats at the TAB aye 😂 And FrontRowFan, one spreadsheet of offload counts doesn't beat the eyeball test, I coached the juniors Saturday and even the 12-year-olds are running that stuff now. Whole bay at Eden Park was up, I was there, trust me 🔥On the terraces since I was a kid.
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ha, andy calling anyone loud at the TAB is rich coming from a bloke who still owes me NZ$20 from the '19 semi 😄 look, i'll cop to being one of the old guard who grumbled early on. watched test footy since before the cup was professional, and i'll say plainly: this lot have earned the excitement. those forwards handling at eden park reminded me of nothing so much as the great nights when the bay used to rise as one, and foster copped plenty from me, so credit where it's due. but fellas, keep the powder dry. seen worse teams than this one get carried away by one good night at the park. enjoy it, sure, just don't crown them before springbok country does its worst. the old saying holds: one swallow never made a summer, aye 😉Been here longer than some have followed.
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Scared of change? The 'old ways' crowd wanted set-piece dominance, which nobody's actually taken away, forwards are still winning those collisions, they're just offloading out of them now. So what exactly got lost? UnderdogNightmare, fair on you for conceding it, though I'd note the moaning stopped once the results did, which tells you the argument was never really about style.
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GloryDays actually asked the sharpest question in this whole thread, so I'll have a go at it properly. I keep my own table every round and the thing that jumps out is the dual layer: collision stats holding steady across the last few tests, offload volume climbing noticeably. Those two facts aren't fighting each other, they're stacking. The set-piece base never went anywhere, we just stopped treating it as the whole ceiling. I could be wrong, but I reckon the "old ways" crowd and the excitement crowd are describing the same team from two angles. What I won't pretend to settle is whether this structure survives when a side like Springboks targets it with kick-heavy pressure, because that's the real test of whether the offload game is habit or luxury. Ask me again after the Bledisloe legs and I'll give you firmer numbers. 📊Do the math before you argue.