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Rokokoco might leave after the RWC ( or earlier)

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What a player, can't believe hes only 27, one of my favourite players. Will never forget the try he scored in 2003 World Cup (can't remember who against) where he caught the ball and did a sort of dodgy swivel sort of turn, anyway it was an amazing try and I would love to see Joe Rokokoco in Europe, cough. Dragons :D
 
He's one of my favorite players as well. He's a player that for people that don't even know much about rugby his names sticks. My friend for example, who is still in the dark on the sport, said it best that 'even though his name is catchy it isn't why you remember the guy, it's what he pours into the game every time he pulls on the shirt.'
 
MichaelBoard said:
What a player, can't believe hes only 27, one of my favourite players. Will never forget the try he scored in 2003 World Cup (can't remember who against) where he caught the ball and did a sort of dodgy swivel sort of turn, anyway it was an amazing try and I would love to see Joe Rokokoco in Europe, cough. Dragons :D
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I'll take Will ;)

He (Roks) seems to have been off for a bit, but I think a French club would turn him around. I'd love to see him join Toulon.
 
He's not scoring heaps of trys but he's still a great player with a lot of skill. He's very good on defence, has a huge workrate and he always looks very awkward to tackle because of his size, effort he puts into his attack and running style. I know there are so many great options on the wing in NZ but it's hard to imagine the AB's without Rokocoko for the world cup. His size in particular gives him an edge over many of the other options around - being ~6ft 3 and over 100KG he is better at getting "go forward" ball with almost nothing to work with compared to players like Guildford, Maitland & Jane - his size also adds an edge to his defence for the same reason.
 
I'd still have him in the World Cup. Four more tries till he reaches 50 and overtakes Doug Howlett, and those four could come against Canada and Japan. No secret I love Rokocoko, from 2002-2006 he bas the benchmark for what I love in a wing. He didn't really have a kicking game, but he was very very quick and could make tries out of nothing, even in pressure games. It seems to be he has been blunted, as I just don't think he has the confidence any more. Regardless, I'd love to see him in the RWC and have a final flurry, and then he can leave to Europe and earn some cash, and I'd bet he'd be worth it too.
 
Roks is playing crap at the moment even thou the Blues are at the top of the table. I'd pick Rene Ranger, Zac Guildford, Sean Maitland, Hosea Gear and Isaia Toeava over him
 
Doesn't Graham Henry still love Roks? Used to be a helluva player, but hell, he's done bugger all lately for the Blues.
It's a shame, coz i think it's predominantly down to confidence. He's still strong, he's still fast, but maybe he's seen the likes of Ranger constantly being faster than him in training, maybe he's noticed he's not got the speed he once has. I don't know what the problem is, but whenever he takes the ball, he'll either kick it or pass it. What happened to that daring winger we once saw?
Blues aren't benefiting with him there this season.
 
Obviously I don't know as I don't watch that much Super 15 but surely he hasn't lost that much speed has he? At only 27 he shouldn't have lost much if any of his pace. For example Shane Williams at 34 has lost very little of his pace.
 
TRF_RC said:
Doesn't Graham Henry still love Roks? Used to be a helluva player, but hell, he's done bugger all lately for the Blues.
It's a shame, coz i think it's predominantly down to confidence. He's still strong, he's still fast, but maybe he's seen the likes of Ranger constantly being faster than him in training, maybe he's noticed he's not got the speed he once has. I don't know what the problem is, but whenever he takes the ball, he'll either kick it or pass it. What happened to that daring winger we once saw?
Blues aren't benefiting with him there this season.
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Not the case. In fact he was quicker than any of the All Blacks that played in 2010 according to the EoYT speed tests, at least over 40m. He'd be a hell of a lot quicker than Ranger. If you watched Blues v Hurricanes this week, he absolutely burned Hosea Gear to dive on the ball, and pass it. He's still very, very quick, and he's very strong. Physically I'd say he is the best winger in terms of speed and size apart from maybe Gear. His problem is with how he is playing the game. Count how many rucks Rokocoko finds himself in compared to Rene Ranger. Rokocoko is all over the place, which means he will rarely be where he needs to be in space. When he does get in a bit of space, he doesn't seems to hit the gas, but instead tries a little side step.

He's young enough to have a change of form, and even another potential World Cup, but I doubt he'll stick around for either. I can't find where he burns Gear in the highlights, but look how quick Rokocoko is moving to get to Cruden before Hosea Gear's try: 1:55



And he almost got to his feet to try and chase down Gear, but slipped.
 
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TRF_nickdnz said:
Not the case. In fact he was quicker than any of the All Blacks that played in 2010 according to the EoYT speed tests, at least over 40m. He'd be a hell of a lot quicker than Ranger. If you watched Blues v Hurricanes this week, he absolutely burned Hosea Gear to dive on the ball, and pass it. He's still very, very quick, and he's very strong. Physically I'd say he is the best winger in terms of speed and size apart from maybe Gear. His problem is with how he is playing the game. Count how many rucks Rokocoko finds himself in compared to Rene Ranger. Rokocoko is all over the place, which means he will rarely be where he needs to be in space. When he does get in a bit of space, he doesn't seems to hit the gas, but instead tries a little side step.

He's young enough to have a change of form, and even another potential World Cup, but I doubt he'll stick around for either. I can't find where he burns Gear in the highlights, but look how quick Rokocoko is moving to get to Cruden before Hosea Gear's try: 1:55

And he almost got to his feet to try and chase down Gear, but slipped.
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An interesting theory, but if you look at the stats you will find that Ranger appears to hits substantially more rucks than Rokocoko. www.ruggastats.com has a statistical breakdown of each individual game, including how many times a player has been amongst the first three to arrive at a ruck. I've summarized the results for premier NZ wings (not included this weeks game) and found that Rokocoko hits on average 8.1 rucks/80 mins. This puts him slightly only above the average for NZ wings, with Maitland, Guildford, and Hosea Gear all hitting a similar number (all 7.7/80 mins). The two Chiefs wings hit the least amount (Sivivatu 5.9/80 mins, Masaga 4.2/ 80 mins), while Rene Ranger is actually second highest among NZ wings hitting 10.5/80 mins, behind only Kade Poki (with 11.9 rucks/80 mins). Kade Poki seems like a strange person to be leading this category, but this is due to him playing for the Highlanders whose game plan means all their backs hit a lot of rucks. Interesting the two leaders in hitting rucks (Ranger and Poki) are also the leaders in linebreaks/80 mins.

Rokocoko hasn't had a great Super Rugby season, but he certainly hasn't been as bad as many people have suggested. He's had a good work rate, and has set up some great go forward ball for the Blues with some strong runs. He hasn't made that many clean line breaks, but he almost always made it past the advantage line with the ball in hand. He seems to be trying to hard at times, and because of this has made a few errors.

He doesn't appear to have the pace he used to with the ball in hand. However speed tests suggest he is as fast as ever (as Nickdnz pointed out), and at times over the last few weeks he's shown glimpses of extreme pace (the two occasions Nickdnz pointed out, and when he burnt Ben Smith with ease against the Highlanders). He just doesn't seem to back himself the ball in hand like he used to.

I certainly wouldn't rule him out of AB's selection this year, as Henry and co. have shown a lot of faith of both him and Sivivatu in the past, and I'd imagine they will likely want to have one or other in the squad.
 
I dont believe Rokocoko's form is as bad as people suggest and I still think he's very much in contention for WC selection. Even more so when you consider that he has for the most part performed better for the All Blacks in tests than he does for the blues in super rugby.

Gear is awesome on attack but there are things about gears game that worry me, mostly his ability to perform under pressure and some of his positional play on defence. Where Roks may not have the finishing ability of Gear he does have a very high workrate and he's very good under pressure on defence. he's also a great option for crash ball - he very well may be the best winger in NZ in that area. His size and height seem to make him very aquard to tackle and he alwats gets over the advantage line.

Gear was awesome on the EoY tour but that was against northern sides. He hasn't been tested in big games against the likes of SA and Aussie.
 
Larksea said:
Gear was awesome on the EoY tour but that was against northern sides. He hasn't been tested in big games against the likes of SA and Aussie.
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