I can't decide who would be the first name penciled in on the AB forward pack team sheet, Whitelock or Retallick. I'd be writing them down ahead of precious Franks and the captain and his designated heir in #7, that's for sure.
Of course the team for the Lions completely picks itself and has been etched in stone for fucking months now. Getting a wee bit edgy over the overall complacent safeness of it all though, virtually NO challenges for starting spots. They aint gonna biff the youngest Barrett out there when he’s never even kicked in a test match. Surely not.
Re:midfield, ALBrown at Soup Level seems to be just a solid invisible glueman. As is Crotty. Fekitoa is an embarrassing dogs bollox on attack and Her Royal Highness SBW is lost at fucken sea in his 1.5 games so far this season. Starting to get anxious re:Lions and this semi-shitty array of choices. IhOmo, Faddes and Buckman look better than any of them. Even Jack Goodhue has already shown 20x the straight running draw-and-pass instincts Fekitoa ever has
Starting to think Ric Ricci “Rick” Riccitelli might be the 2nd best hooker in NZ? Very pacey with good instincts and does core jobs. Codie Taylor in Cantabland seems to have been usurped a bit by Ben Funnell? Coltman is meh, Parsons may as well be fuckin' Alan Parsons. Oh well, AB selectors will probably just go with their default option; that being, whatever Cantab is fit and healthy and next off the rank for his 10-year tenure. Speaking of which, Franks & Moody vaguely giving me the shits with their penalty sketchiness and their unchartered inability to play beyond 43 mins. What happens if it all goes pear shaped and one of the precious princes has to play 75 whole fucking minutes?
Naholo looking very fit. Didn’t really open the throttle on the dodgy hammies in his comeback half though. Maybe needs more voodoo. Midweek hammie voodoo rubdown. With extra leaves. And silly cross-eyed chanting.
