New Zealand vs England 6th July Dunedin

First topic message reminder :

England (Copied from Poorfour's post)
Furbank
Feyi-Waboso
Slade
Lawrence
Freeman
Smith M
Mitchell

Marler
George
Stuart
Itoje
Martin
CCS
Underhill
Earl

Replacements
Dan
Baxter
Cole
Coles
Curry
Spencer
Smith F
Sleightholme

The match is under cover, at the Forsyth Barr stadium

Kick off is 7:05pm local time and 8:05am UK time.

The build-up has been very low-key. While both Tests are expected to sell out, the NZRU says around 800 tickets are still available for Saturday. Official capacity for the Forsyth Barr is 30,748. Pushed to name England players, most New Zealand supporters would struggle to come up with more than Tuilagi, Farrell, Vunipola and Lawes, who have all gone. Some might remember Ford's World Cup masterclass against Argentina, and he's not on tour either.

Marcus Smith does get coverage. When Wigglesworth appeared on "The Breakdown" yesterday, Jeff Wilson remembered how he changed the game against New Zealand at Twickenham. Aside from him, though there's not a lot of awareness, and most probably don't know that Jamie George is captain.

The real focus in NZ has been on Scott Robertson, and what he might bring to the table. "The Breakdown" says the All Blacks have fourteen tests this year, including away fixtures against South Africa, Ireland, France and England. While no New Zealander wants to countenance losing any matches, Mils Muliaina suggested he might be satisfied with just 9 wins across the season.

Rugby Fan wrote:On his podcast, Dan Cole says Joe Marler has more than a bruise on his foot. As he was recording, he still didn't know if Marler would fly back early, or stay with the squad. Cole says he still good to have around, even when not playing. On the other hand, if he needs surgery, then it might make sense to leave as soon as possible.

Sometimes after an injury it is better not to travel for a while. That could be in the mix here as well, pending the nature of the actual injury.

Could that be Marlers finale? If Manny shows up well this weekend....

Genge, Baxter, Iyogun , with Brantingham, Haffar etc progressing aswell....

Geordie wrote:Could that be Marlers finale? If Manny shows up well this weekend....

Genge, Baxter, Iyogun , with Brantingham, Haffar etc progressing aswell....

Possibly, though I suspect he will be around the squad until he retires fully next year [1], if only to mentor the younger players. Given the injury rate among our props, I can see him getting a few more games.

---

[1] Yeah, right.

Poorfour wrote:

RDW wrote:Brave defence from England undone by a brainless no arms tackle.

But penalty not taken in time! Why is there no shot clock anymore?

There was: it was clearly there in the bottom left of the screen behind the posts.

The All Blacks get a pen to end the game but England will know they could have won that. I think next week will be close as well.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/new-zealand-to-provide-shot-clock-for-second-test-after-damian-mckenzie-error/

I thought there wasnt one!

Fair enough - there was certainly a patch on the big screen that looked like one. It's a really weird choice not to have one in the first place, though.

Poorfour wrote:Fair enough - there was certainly a patch on the big screen that looked like one. It's a really weird choice not to have one in the first place, though.

Agreed! Do they really expect a kicker to count to 60 in their heads? As I mentioned at the time I don't remember the ref giving a warning either.

RDW wrote:

Poorfour wrote:Fair enough - there was certainly a patch on the big screen that looked like one. It's a really weird choice not to have one in the first place, though.

Agreed! Do they really expect a kicker to count to 60 in their heads? As I mentioned at the time I don't remember the ref giving a warning either.

If you're running down the clock then it really is on you to make sure you don't run out of time to take the kick.

Rugby Fan wrote:

I did like how he talks about the Kiwis going to a heavy kicking game in the second half particularly in light of that Kiwi commentator talking about England's 10 man rugby.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Rugby Fan wrote:

I did like how he talks about the Kiwis going to a heavy kicking game in the second half particularly in light of that Kiwi commentator talking about England's 10 man rugby.

Ah, but the guy doing the kicking had 23 on his shirt, so it was by definition more expansive than England kicking off 9 and 10. Simples.