Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Elliott Smith: ZB's Rugby Commentator on All Blacks v England Test

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Elliott Smith: ZB's Rugby Commentator on All Blacks v England Test · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: NEWSTALKSIB Rugby commentator Elliott Smithers with us, make good morning.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning, like cold, yes, cold.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: But it's indoors and so who cares? Is that stadium
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: too small for a first Test against somebody who's esteemed
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: as England? Do you reckon?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Quite possibly? Look at I know that they were looking
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: potentially at Eton Park for the first match, but they
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: bet some reason swapped them around to have this match
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: in Dunedin. Obviously, perhaps christ Church if there was a
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: proper stadium, there might have been the sentimental option if
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: they had the biggest stadium that was ready incomplete for
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the Scott Robertson's first Test. But as it is, that
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Sudneden and that's the option we've got tomorrow night.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Done as a buzz.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah. It feels like there's a real test vibe
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: around the city, which, to be sure, I haven't felt
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: for quite some time. It feels like there's a sense
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of the unknown with the Scott Robertson era starting and
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: all sorts of different questions around how this team would
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: look before it was named yesterday, So there is a
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: real sense that this is a Test match city and
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: we're heading into some of the unknown, perhaps for the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: first time and quite some time with this this all
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Black stuff.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: And what about the England side of the equation, because
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: that's a bit different, thank god. So it's not the usual,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: you know, to open the season.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And look at this England team has had
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: more time together than the All Blacks. They finished the
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: sixth Nations really really well. They beat Ireland, they lost
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: to France narrowly in Leon. They beat Japan a couple
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: of weeks ago. And this isn't the old England teen
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: man rugby sort of style. Steve Worthwick has managed to
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: imprint some style on this team. They've got an ability
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: to actually use their outside backs. It's not the sodgy
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: old England side. So they have players in that team
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: that are capable of causing the All Black some issues.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Have certainly been together longer than the All Blacks have
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: as well, so that could create the All Black some
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: issues tomorrow night.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have that whole rust thing if
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: it doesn't go well and go they weren't together long enough.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: We're going to do that again this year if you know?
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Well, possibly, but I mean you look at the team. Yes,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: they've lost some players white lock Brod you metallic, Richie Wonger,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Dane Coles, isn't there, Sam Kaine. But a lot of
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: these players, I think eight or nine of them started
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: in last year's World Cup finals. So while you've lost
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of experience, a lot of these players have
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: played before. You got the will Player of the Year
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: in Artista Via back there again. Yeah, Damian McKinsey is
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: playing ten for the first time and a wee while
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: in terms of the big Test, but he's been around
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: seven years in this team. A lot of the players
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: in this team. There's no debuitantes in the twenty three bikes,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: So in terms of the RUSS you could possibly make
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: that argument they've only got together last Wednesday, But this
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: is a nucleus of a team that has actually been
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: together without the coaching staff of course, for a number
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: of seasons. Now.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Raiser look comfortable, very comfortable.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, it looked like he he just stepped up in
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: style from the Crusader's job. Spoken to a couple of
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: times in the last week or so, and it doesn't
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: feel like anything fazes them. And you know you got
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: this job March twenty first of last year. He's waited
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: a long long time to actually coach in All Blacks,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and you get the sense he just wants to get
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: a game under his belt. He can dismiss all those
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: questions about how he's feeling and the nerves and everything
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: like that and just get into test match drugby rather
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: than concentrating so much on himself and that story to
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: how he's got to this point. So once we get
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: to tick off seven oh five tomorrow night, those questions
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: can start being answered and he can start talking about
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: stop talking rather about himself.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I only got twenty seconds. Let's call it, and I'll
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: hold you to it.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: All right, I'm going to go to the All Blacks
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: by five tomorrow night. I think a tight start to
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the season, but I'm saying the All Blacks get a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: winning start under Scott Robertson.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: You're a good man. You have a good weekend. Elliott
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Smith is calling it for us.
• 3:37
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• 3:41
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• 3:45
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• 3:48
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