Test window is coming and I'm calling it now
Gut call time then: I reckon the pack decides it, same as it usually does in a tight window. Front five fitness matters more than any backline highlight reel when the Tests get grindy, and I could be wrong, but depth off the bench is where the All Blacks traditionally pull away in the last twenty. My bold one? A rookie Lock starting ahead of the household name. Who's brave enough to top that?
10 posts
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✓Nah Chris, front row scrums decide it and our lot never make it easy 🔥 Comfortable win at home, nail-biter away... trust the depth 💪Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Seen worse windows than this, and from memory the tight Tests down here usually turn on the last quarter, bench legs against tired forwards. I remember Bledisloe nights at Eden Park where the game swung on a scrum penalty with ten to go, nothing pretty about it. So my gut says nail-biter for an hour, then the deeper pack pulls clear. The young lot never saw that, but trust me, it's the old pattern 😄
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Seen worse windows than this, and from memory the tight Tests down here usually turn on the last quarter, bench legs against tired forwards. I remember Bledisloe nights at Eden Park where the game swung on a scrum penalt…Everyone's picking the bench to win it on memory of old Eden Park nights, but without current set piece stats that's just nostalgia doing the thinking. Show me the numbers first.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Fair point from the sceptic, but there is no table to show you here, Tests have no ladder. Small sample anyway, so gut feel on the scrum battle is all anyone's honestly got.Numbers > vibes.
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Put the TAB multi on a home win and a nail-biter away, scrum penalties decide both 😭 betting on old Eden Park nights has landed for me before.Value over a big price 💸
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RobbedAgainHater318 has a point about nostalgia, but I'd flip the burden of proof on him. He wants fresh numbers from a sample that's tiny by nature, a couple of Tests a window, and set piece stats only tell you what already happened, they don't tell you whether the current props can hold up at minute 65. I could be wrong, but the reason I back the pack is simpler than any table: All Blacks can rebuild a front row twice over, plenty of opponents can barely rebuild it once, and that shows up in the last quarter regardless of what any stat sheet said in June. So my bold call sits with ChrisDiehard387 and FrontRow88, just for a different reason. Tight home win, nail-biter away, and I'd take the bench maul defence as the swing factor over scrum penalties this time. Lucy, that multi looks sensible to me, though the TAB line on a tight away Test usually eats punters alive. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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Seen this argument a hundred times over the years and it always ends the same way, fellas shouting about numbers while the props decide it anyway. Old mate at the pub in Rotorua used to say the tight five writes the story, the backs just read it out 😄 I've watched as long as I have and you'll get it: no stat sheet ever pulled a scrum out of trouble. Nail-biter at home, that's my call.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Seen it all, heard it all, and none of it predicts anything. "The props decide it" is a story people tell after the whistle, then they pick whichever facts fit. Show me the numbers on bench impact across a window and I'll back a claim, until then a pub quote from Rotorua is worth exactly what you paid for it.
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Josh, seen worse arguments settled by a tired prop in the 70th minute 😄 pack decides it, season still wide open though.Been here longer than some have followed.