All Blacks solve injury question and make one more change for Boks sequel

You might be surprised by Numia. It’s true that he has an atypical profile. He’s not particularly big and is a little stocky, but he’s incredibly strong through the lower body, which gives him tremendous drive in the scrum.

I remember watching him go up against Taniela Tupou a few years ago in Super Rugby, and he didn’t give up an inch of ground.

But yes, the task will be difficult against TDT. He might hold his own or at least limit the damage… we’ll see.

Looking at the way hes scrummed so far on tour I reckon he is itching to get out there and a justified selection

Good comments

Guess in lot’s of ways his hands are tied as players like Nacewa, Ioane and Blackadder all played on Tuesday at attitude, so tough to expect them to back up.

Parker, still confused how he is in the ABs, in the recent test missed couple of tackles and dropped line out ball - hopefully he proves me wrong.

Last week thought the Boks would win by 12plus and still expect that, as I can’t see the Boks being so execution poor.

With Pollard starting, expect them to take points and given wet conditions, expect them to again attempt to scrum us into the ground.

If we can just gain pariety in the scrums and retain line out ball, we can win this. Hopefully Codie Taylor is a little more discplined in his game this week and Lomax needs to start showing the WC qualities that we evident in the 23 WC and 24 tour of SA.

Agree BM - perhaps what you are seeing is that the teams selected is very similar to Razor’s team that played in Auckland and Wellington. There are some non injury forced key positive differences - Love for BB and Aumua for Brodie, Roigard for Finlay but largely we are seeing Razor’s picks reincarnated. And bar Love, a fit Roigard and Aumua would have been picked by Razor too. The change in the structures and the vibe are very different though - NBs article shows just how far this team has come in that score. But for Rennie this is a conservative team - Taylor was poor last week at scrum time and headless at other times and why is ALB there and not another forward like Sititi or Blackadder who will be much needed with 20 to go.

Rennie just can't win can he???

Maybe true BM but Renns deserves some trust now I think. I will go with this calls.

I looked up the stats for Aumua and Marx for a comment on another article, B. Surprised to find both weigh 116 kgs, but Marx is 1.89 m, 6ft 2.5”, Aumua 1.77m, 5ft 10”.

Once the front row was sorted the scrum was absolutely fine with Vaa’i at lock as it has been for the past few years.

Yeah, it seems they are banking on the benches to deicide a tight game in the final quarter.

Agreed. Carter has struggled to make an impact at this level. Same with Parker. An odd replacement for Vaa’i, who was busy running down the tramlines last game. That’s just not what Parker does. The loose forwards look a bit weaker. Bigger - but weaker as a unit.

Would have made sense. Leave Vaa’i at 6, and bring Blackadder onto the bench. If anyone played their way into selection contention, it was him.

Yes totally agreed.

Vaa’i was so good in that wide channel and set up a crucial try. I just don’t see Parker doing anything close to that. Maybe parker defends in the middle and V’aai still plays out there on attack?

I have no issue with Vaa’i at lock, but Jacobson and Parker are not there for their ball carrying, which makes Ardie very easy for them to target. Parker is a bit ponderous from what we’ve seen so far.

Blackadder played the house down and looks a good like for like replacement for Segner rather than Parker. Same with Narawa - I think he would cause more problems on attack and defence than Carter. I would add Reiko to the list too. We know he’s a great defender, and is looking better and better each game with ball in hand - based on form and impact it’s hard to see why ALB is there instead.

Picking Taylor and starting Lomax both pretty big calls too. They both have a lot to prove this week.

Overall I think the forwards will be stronger once the bench is on, but the backs will be weaker.