Right now we'd give our left boot for a proper enforcer at blindside
Word is there's been a quiet look at a certain Chiefs lock with a bit of mongrel in him, nobody's saying anything official, mind. Would sort our soft edge at the breakdown quick smart. I'd put a lazy twenty at the TAB on it happening before June, but then again I'd back my own nan to win a scrap, so take that as you will 😏
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✓A quiet look, eh? And you heard this from whom exactly, your mate's cousin who cleans the chiefs' gym? Source on that, because "word is" has carried a lot of nonsense through this thread already. Sounds good but I'll believe it when I see him in the squad photo. Every thread someone pipes up with an unnamed Chiefs lock and half of you start planning the victory parade. If there's actual mongrel being recruited, the release papers will surface sooner or later - until then it's just a rumour with a nice accent. I'd love to be proven wrong, mind, provided you can point to literally one credible report.Sample first, conclusions after.
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Nah don't care who it is tbh, just give me someone who hits rucks like he owes money 🔥 scrum folding at Eden Park is giving me ulcersOne love, one side ❤️
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Fair point from Rob about sources, but the actual stumbling block here is age and contract maths. Anyone with mongrel who's playing regular game time for a Super side isn't going to be cheap or young, and NZR's pay envelope simply doesn't stretch to poaching an established enforcer when we've got a development pipeline to fund. I'd put realistic odds of that Chiefs rumour being true somewhere around what a punter gets on a long-odds multi, worth a flutter for a laugh, nothing more. The saner path has always been growing one ourselves: pick a young blindside with an edge, give him two full seasons of minutes, and accept some ugly afternoons at Eden Park while he learns. I could be wrong, but I reckon that's how you get a Scott Barrett with teeth rather than hoping the board signs one off a rival's roster. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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FrontRowFan's got a point about the pay envelope, but I'd push back on the "established enforcer has to cost a fortune" bit. Look at the tackles-per-80 versus payroll table I keep, some of the meanest hits per minute in the comp come from guys on development money. Small sample though, and contract maths is murkier than anyone here admits. There's a nuance with the Eden Park scrum angle too: we're blaming the loose trio's edge softness when the reset numbers suggest the tight five's endurance is the actual leak. A mongrel blindside patches one symptom; fix the second-row depth and the deckchair stops folding regardless. Fullback_Faithful, happy to be proven wrong about your Chiefs whisper. Just don't vanish when the squad photo drops without him 📊
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Spreadsheets with tackles per 80, eh, back in my day we just called that bloke a loose forward and fed him after the game 😄 Fair enough, the development-money lads do bring the hits, but mongrel off the bench in the 60th minute won't stop a scrum folding at Eden Park from the first whistle. You need a bloke who's been slogging 80 tough minutes week after week, and those fellas don't come cheap, table or no table. Seen worse squads than ours mind, but I'd still pay the money for the enforcer who starts.Been here longer than some have followed.
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Watched a development-contract bloke fold a Test lock in half at a NPC game last season. No fanfare, just mean. Bet there's a few on the TAB line every week nobody's noticed. 😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
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FixIsIn has a point and I'll grant the development-money lads do dish out the hits, but on condition that someone actually shows me the numbers over a full season, not one flat-out big moment. A bloke folding a Test lock once looks mean in the highlights; doing it every week at NPC level is a different question. Went to a Bay of Plenty game last winter and watched one of these "mongrel" signings get piggy-backed all match by anyone clever, physicality without discipline gets punished fast. Show me tackle counts plus penalty counts side by side and then we can talk.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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heh, I've heard the "quiet look at a chief" line before. back in the day we all heard whispers about a big southland lad being courted for exactly that blindside mongrel role - never happened, he signed a deal that suited the farm more than the franchise, and that was that. rumours like this fall over more often than they land, usually over money or the missus not wanting to shift cities. that said, if someone on development coin is genuinely folding test locks at npc level, get the selectors along to a few games and see it with their own eyes over a full season, not one highlight. until then I'll believe it when the team sheet says so. ah well, we'll see 😄Seen it all, lads.