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Transcript

Rugby Direct Episode 258: One Last Shot at the Springboks · Rugby Direct

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeart Radio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Strike down the middle.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Drop it down and score.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: There's your bonus point.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Try.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: He's pumped.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Try. Game over. Get inside the game from every angle.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It's Rugby Direct with Elliot Smith and Liam Napier. Powered
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: by Newstalk ZB.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Welcome into Rugby Direct, powered by Access Solutions, elevating you
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: and your business to a higher level. Elliot Smith, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: not with me, Liam Napier. Yes, as we mentioned on
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: the last podcast out of Johannesburg, Liam didn't come to
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: the United States, left me and my herald colleague Gregor
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Paul to it, and we'll hear from Gregor in a
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: moment or two. Got Gregor's thoughts on the All Blacks
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: team that has been named for this fourth Test match
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: here in Baltimore. I only arrived into Baltimore, now I'm
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: recording this at 10.30am on Friday morning New Zealand time,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: half past six on a Thursday evening here. I only
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: got in today, had a look around the city briefly.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Look, there is.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Not much of a feel that this test match is
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: obviously going on. But you look at M & T
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Bank Stadium and there's a lot of signage around there.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: I spoke to my Uber driver earlier in the day
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: who was well aware that the rugby match was on
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: this weekend. I think there's probably a sense from people
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: that live in and around the city that there is
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: a rugby match on. But obviously the Ravens starting the
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: NFL season this weekend against the Indianapolis Colts away from home.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: that'll take much of the attention for the city, and
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: that tends to be the case in these big American cities.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: So a bit of work for World Rugby to do
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: as they count down to 2031 and the Men's Rugby
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: World Cup that will take place here. Obviously, the All
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Blacks team name, they need to win to draw the
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: series against the Springboks. It's been a weird week because
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: they've gone from being full noise intensity around the series
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: to definitely having the gears being taken off this week
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: just with the lack of attention that it's garnered both
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: in Washington DC and now in Baltimore but make no
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: mistake this is still an All Blacks and Springboks test
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: and the All Blacks are absolutely desperate to win this
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  Speaker 3: match and finish the series at 2-2 they don't want
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: to draw sorry lose the series and make that three
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: losses in a row to the old foe so plenty
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: on the line between these two sides on Sunday morning
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: New Zealand time later kickoff as well A couple of
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: things around the team that I'll tell you before we
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: play the chat with Gregor. A bit of sickness around
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: the team this week. We spoke with Dave Rennie an
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: hour or so ago before I recorded this, and he
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: said that they had a fair bit of gastro coming
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: off the plane from South Africa. Fabian Holland has been
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: ruled out through sickness. He said if it was early
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: in the week, they would have actually struggled to put
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: together a team, so maybe Gregor or myself might have
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: actually got a game for the All Blacks. But fortunately,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: it sounds like everyone that they wanted to select on
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: the ground, apart from Holland, was fit and ready to go.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Big storyline is obviously Richie Mwonga starting at 10. His
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: first test start since the 2023 World Cup final. Dave
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Rennie stressing very much at the media conference today that
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: they've been happy with Ruben Love. That's the reason they
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: started him in the biggest game that Rennie termed since
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: the 23 World Cup final, but they also need to
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: grow some depth and have a look at other options
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: like Richie Mwonga. So That's the reason behind that change.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: We've got Blackadder at open side flanker. I think that's
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: fairly self-explanatory in terms of it being a like-for-like replacement
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: for Luke Jacobson, or as close to one as you
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: could find. And Cody Taylor, the captain of this All
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Blacks team this week with the absence of Artie Sarvia,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: and I guess Luke Jacobson as well, who would have
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: been perhaps odds-on to captain this team should he be fit,
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  Speaker 3: but obviously he's had to head home.
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  Speaker 2: Due to injury.
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  Speaker 3: Otherwise, in the back line, look, Anton Leonard-Brown comes in
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  Speaker 3: at centre, Josh Morby comes into the starting left wing berth,
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  Speaker 3: and on the bench, Rico Iwani and Bodum Barrett cover
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  Speaker 3: the backs, and Asafa Amor dropping back to the bench.
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  Speaker 2: This week as well.
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  Speaker 3: All righty, Rugby Direct, let's catch up with New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: Herald rugby columnist Gregor Paul on Rugby Direct to get
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: his thoughts on this All Blacks side.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Rugby Direct with Elliot Smith and Liam Napier. Powered by
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Newstalk ZB. Hear every All Blacks game live and free
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: on air and on iHeartRadio.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Well, Gregor, a much-changed All Blacks team for this weekend.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Has Dave Rooney made the right calls, do you think?
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: I think we knew there were going to be changes, Elliot.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: He talked all tour about probably using up to about
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: 30 players across the series. We saw a few changes
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: last week. Some were injury-enforced. Some were about refreshing the team. Again,
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: pretty similar this week. Some are injury-enforced and some are
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: about refreshing the team. It's pretty hard to go four
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: tests in a row. I know that the South Africans
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: are doing that with a few of their senior players.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: One or two All Blacks are doing that. But I
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: think the team will clearly, with no Xavier, no Luke Jacobson, no,
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: help me, Quinn Tapia, three senior players to lose. We're
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: going to see three changes there. I think it was
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: almost likely Richie Mwanga was going to get a start.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: He's been brought back for a reason. and Ruben Love.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: He's had all the game time so far so I
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: think that was pretty obvious Rico Ioane he's been sharp
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: on tour Ethan Blackadder comes in for Luke Jacobson I
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: think Ethan Blackadder is Luke Jacobson 2.0 similar player tough
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: rugged so wears the number 7 jersey Paddy Piloto surprised
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: me a wee bit because he seemed to have gone
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: off him a wee bit on the tour but again
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: I think they might want a heavyweight ball carrier to
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: punch up the middle of the field and And the
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: change at tight head, I think, reflects maybe the scrummaging
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: form that Fletcher Newell's shown when he's come on.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Let's zero in on Richie Maunga, because that's probably the
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: headline selection, I guess, for many people. Reuben Love has
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: started every test match to this point so far this year,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: but now they've made a little bit of a change.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: Does this signal they're not happy with Reuben Love, or
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: do they want to expand their options? For me, I
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: think they want to expand and go, we can't just
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: go with one first five to next year's World Cup.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: And as it stands, Biden Barrett's seen more as a fullback,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: and so too Damian McKenzie.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you've kind of answered your own question
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: there to an extent. Next question.
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  Speaker 4: No, look, I think there's a little bit of everything
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: in there. They'll be very happy with Ruben Laff. He's
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: a young player. He has never started a test match
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: at number 10 until the beginning of this year. In fact,
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: he hasn't played a huge amount of first-class rugby at
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: number 10 because the Hurricanes had him at fullback. So
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: I think he's been brilliant for his experience. He struggled
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: a wee bit maybe in Cape Town, he struggled a
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: wee bit maybe in Soweto, but that's line speed, that's pressure,
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: that's a lot of things going against the All Blacks.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: He didn't goal kick all that well in Soweto.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: He's a guy that has put on the record he
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: wants to be the best player in the world.
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  Speaker 2: He will have learned a huge amount.
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  Speaker 4: All season but particularly in South Africa he would have
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: learned a huge amount I think they'll be really happy
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  Speaker 4: with him but look they need to develop options we
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: know that guys get injured particularly at number 10 Mwanga
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  Speaker 4: has come home they've paid him to come home you
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  Speaker 4: know they've lured him back this was always going to
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: happen they were always going to have to manufacture an
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: opportunity to put him in the team this one seems
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: about right love is probably due a little bit of
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: a break So no, what it does mean is that
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: that jersey is competitive again. There'll be an expectation that,
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: you know, Moana's out there to say, hey, you've got
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: the young buck playing, but look at me.
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  Speaker 2: I can play. Put me in the team.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: We've seen Bowdoin Barrett named on the bench this week.
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  Speaker 3: That hasn't been traditionally sort of a specialist playmaker. We
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: haven't seen Dave Rennie do that in a game so
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: far this year. What do you think that signals? Is
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: it a case of, well, maybe Moana's not up to
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: playing 80 minutes of test rugby yet?
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  Speaker 2: No, I think, again, it's probably....
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  Speaker 4: Barrett covers full-back, he covers 10, he's got 144 test caps.
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  Speaker 2: This is a huge game.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, we could play around with the narrative as
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: much as you like and say, well, you know, it's
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: here in America, the.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Series is over. But it's not over.
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  Speaker 4: As much as traditionalists like myself, and I think you,
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: don't really like the fact that they've got this game.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Tacked on, we have to get over that fact.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: Because it is here, it is a fourth game, and
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  Speaker 4: it does mean that New Zealand have got the opportunity
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: to level things up.
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  Speaker 2: And above all else, I don't really want to lose
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  Speaker 2: three in a row.
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  Speaker 4: And there's a lot of sort of psychological damage that
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: can be done here. So, look, Bowden, I think, is
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: in there because he's... He's had a tough old season,
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: but he's starting to come right.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: And he's a player that they can put in a fullback.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: If they're not happy with Mwanga, they can put Borden
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: in at 10. But maybe things are tight in the
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: final 20 minutes. And look, Barrett's shown he can be
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: a game changer off the bench. It's how he started
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: his career. It's how he kind of re-impressed... In 2024,
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: when Scott Robertson clearly wasn't sure about him and he
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: fired his way back in to be a starting player again,
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: a lot of people have their doubts about Boden. I
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: understand that. He's 35. He didn't have a great blue season.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: I haven't got any doubts about him. I don't think,
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: but like Dan Carter in a similar situation in 2014, 2015, that.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: The guy can play. He knows what he's doing.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: And I think a big occasion coming off the bench,
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: I'd be very surprised if he doesn't make a really
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: impactful contribution.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: The midfield's interesting to me. Anton Leonard-Brown at centre, replacing
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: Quinn Tapia. Now, Anton, I think, is a really good
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: replacement off the bench, and people have questioned that, what
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: he's doing coming off the bench, but I think he's
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: a good two-IC to Geordie Barrett or Quinn Tapia, but
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you can have both of them together,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: and I would have rather.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: gone with Enrico.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Ioane for that punch in the middle of the park,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: but we heard Dave Rooney say last week that Anton's
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: a better defensive player. Are they zeroing in on that reason,
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: do you think, by starting him this week?
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: Well, it sounded like it last week when Dave Rooney
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: gave quite a detailed and critical... answer about because the
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: question was actually about Rico Ioane rather than Anton Leonard-Brown
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: and he kind of managed to put a few put
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: downs in there which is obviously what they're talking to
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: Rico about behind the scenes clearly they wouldn't say it
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: to us if they weren't saying it to him so
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: yeah probably they feel that work like Dave Rennie loves
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: work rate he clearly has a relationship with Anton they
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: played at Cobby with him did they overlap at the
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: Chiefs or did Dave go.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah they did yeah they did so yeah.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: There's look sometimes coaches have a relationship with a player
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: they know that guy better than than the other ones
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: so they they lean into that but they've obviously measured
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: Anton's work great they like the way he jumps onto
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: his feet Rico Ioane to me he look he's slimmed
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: down he's about four kilos lighter he looks quick again
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: he's impressed on that element like when he's had the
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: ball he's looked like his old self but I haven't
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: watched him in the same detail or tracked him in
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: the way that the all blacks have to say well
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: actually you know he's not covering the ground defensively I
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: mean I've always felt that Rico was a massively improved
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: defender as a center as he as he played in
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: that position after 2019 to the point where by the
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: World Cup he felt like he was one of the
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: best so I'm a wee bit surprised that David said
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: Anton's the better defender maybe that's to do with work
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: rate I don't know I think A lot of criticism
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: about Rico, how he used the ball last year and
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: the year before, but there was never any criticism about
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: his defence, but maybe we're not, maybe we know nothing
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: about the game, Elliot.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Maybe we're not watching the right things.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: It's quite possible. Cody Taylor is captain. Interesting selection, although
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: not really surprising. Geordie Barrett, probably the other option, but
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: I think they like a Ford to be captain, but
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: he wasn't selected last week. They went with Armour, who
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: I thought played really well. Now they've gone back to
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Cody Taylor. Is that solid because of the captaincy, do
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: you think?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. I think.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: If you look at Cody, he'd been injured prior to
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: coming on tour. He wasn't fit enough to play until
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: the Bulls game, which was a Saturday before the first test.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: So he played in that game and then he played
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: two test matches. So in essence, he'd played three in
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: a row coming back from injury. And he battled a
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: wee bit in Cape Town. Physically, some of his accuracy
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: was a wee bit off. So I think they said, well,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: you need a week off. But it's hard when you
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: come back from injury to keep stacking the games back
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: to back to back. So I think that's what that
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: was about. I didn't read it as a changing of
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: the guard at that point. I mean, Oumuamua is the
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: man that everyone is looking at right now. He's a
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: little ball of muscle. He's just a cannon that you
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: can fire at the opposition and he can sort of
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: splatter them around a wee bit. Why not throwing a
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: wee bit to be worked on? So look, Almo is
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: a crowd pleaser, but he's a bit more.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Than that as well.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: He's pushing really, really hard on Cody, but I think
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Cody's the guy that you're going to keep in the
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: squad through the World Cup, and Almo's the guy that's
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: going to put a lot of pressure on him, and
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: you're going to have them start and swap off the bench,
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: and you can play around with that, which.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I'm sure they'll do for the remainder of the season.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: This game is, as you said before, quite weird in
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: many regards. It feels like it's gone under the radar
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: this week. even from our own sort of being in
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: a different city to where the game is, moved countries
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: to the United States, all that sort of thing. But
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: can the All Blacks turn around the last couple of
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: weeks and get a serious draw out of this, do
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: you think?
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think they can. Excuse me, to their point,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: their own.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: sense that they're exceptionally close to the spring box I
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: don't doubt that, I don't dispute it in any way,
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: I think it's fair for them to say the first
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: test actually could have gone, I think South Africa walk
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: away from that one going cheaper as we were one
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: scrum away from winning that one, but again you look
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: at two and three and you can make arguments to
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: say New Zealand are one play, whatever it might be
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: one kick-off caught in Soweto and it's a different game
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: or different outcomes So, look, I think that we're here.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: I feel a bit of the air has come out
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: of the thing because we've been in South Africa. We
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: were in South Africa for a long time. It felt
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: like the Obelix were clearly chasing two wins over there.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: And I don't think they would go, hey, we've won
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: the series. But they would have a mini celebration at
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: that point because it would have been a series within
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: a series. But they'd be pretty motivated to win. I
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: think they're taking the whole four-test thing seriously. But, yeah, look,
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: I think they've got to show that they've learned something.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: how they beat South Africa because they've manipulated them they've
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: scored 13 tries they've shown they can get round the
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: outside of them they haven't gone through the middle of
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: them too much but they've got to improve their scrum
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: whatever I don't care who's cheating who's not cheating outcome
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: has to be better for New Zealand because you cannot
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: have an All Black pack going backwards at the rate
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: of knots that they were for that penalty try you
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: can't have a rolling wall start outside the 22 and
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: end up under the posts in a try when you're the.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: All Blacks that's That's not okay. You can't have that.
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: So all the talk about, oh, well, this was happening
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: and that was happening, that just needs to be fixed,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: and that can't happen again.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: And if they can do that and.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: Hold or withstand the physicality that South Africa are producing,
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: then I think they've shown they're better at using the
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: ball than South Africa. 13 tries to Mike Blair, we're
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: talking about that. You and I were talking to Mike
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: Blair about that. It's a wee celebration for them. They
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: can't say, hey, we scored 13 tries, but we didn't
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: win the series. But it is an indication that they
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: can attack, that they understand their attack game, and it
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: is working. 13 against South Africa, that is a lot,
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: because they typically only give away one or two max
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: in a game.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Just finally, obviously, as you said, in Baltimore, I don't
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: think either of us are huge fans of the tacked-on
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: fourth game. We were at the Baltimore Ravens facility, got
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: lucky enough to have a tour of that earlier today.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Funnily enough, my Uber driver did know this match was on,
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: so any questions around that regard? But it's hard to
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: get a sense. You've gone from being in the pressure
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: cooker leading up to the test series of all the
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: tour games in South Africa, and to your point before
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: about the air coming out of the series a little bit,
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: you go from it being... everywhere you look to being
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: nowhere essentially you look, I don't think that's actually healthy
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: for the series as a concept, even if you are
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: managing to cash in a little bit.
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: No, I don't think it's healthy for the series. I
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: think it's going to be, they've sold it out, so
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: that's fine. But I think I would imagine that the
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: vast majority of tickets are being sold to expat South
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Africans and Kiwis and the USA Rugby fraternity that would love,
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: you know, they're loving the fact that these big games
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: are getting played here like we would go to an
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: NFL game if it was played in Auckland type thing.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I don't love it for the series.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: You know, we're actually sitting here about five metres away
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: from New Zealand Rugby Chief Exec Steve Lancaster.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: I had a chat with him yesterday.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: I sort of asked him these questions and he, you know,
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: he got a bit sprightly in return about, no, no, look,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: it's a whole new group of people that get to
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: come to watch the very important for us to be
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: here we're spreading the gospel we're taking RGR and showing
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: how good this rivalry is to whole new markets so
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: yeah you can make all these all these stories and
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: yeah look they are making a lot of money by
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: the way seven million dollars it's the most each yeah
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: yeah each team it's the most lucrative game New Zealand
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: uh the All Blacks have ever played one off um
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: I mean, if you're going to sell your soul, I
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: suppose sell it for something, you know, that's top dollar.
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: But again, I just wonder if all that, you know,
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: you can, you can always make, you can't use money,
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: making money as an argument to trump everything else because
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: then you become a drug dealer almost because you can
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: make any argument you like to.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Say, I don't think that's a healthy proposition. But, you know,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: but here might be a great game and we might
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: feel differently at the end.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: So Gregor Paul there joining us on Rugby Direct. As
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I said, a bit of a different Rugby Direct for
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: you this week. We'll check our diaries, hopefully catch up
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: with Liam to wrap up the series at some point
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: over the next wee while once he's back in New
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Zealand and once we are back in New Zealand as well.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: We'll have an update for you on that in the
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: next wee while. But in the meantime, the All Blacks
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: looking to draw the series against South Africa. 9am on
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Sunday morning. You can catch it live on Newstalk Z.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: Be able to afford your company. Then Thanks to Mark
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Kelly for producing, as always, and Rugby Direct, powered by
• 19:01
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• 19:05
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• 19:09
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• 19:12
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