Best Team Ever

[Keithmurdoch]

http://www.allblacks.com/news/20917/How-does-Canterbury-measure-up-with-other-great-NZ-sides

Holy jesus this is a bit ridiculous really. This article compare the current canturbury team to the best teams of the past... including their all blacks.
I'd just like to point out that, without being an auckland fan (in fact through their sheild era I lothed them) the article highlights the following players as standing out (I've added their late 80s Auckland counterparts), and it just seems freaking ridiculous to be honest:
"A powerful front row"
Wyatt Crockett : Steve McDowell
Ben Funell : Sean Fitzpatrick
Ben Franks : John Drake or Peter Fatialofa

George Whitelock : Allan Whetton or Micheal Jones

Andy Ellis : Junior Tou'u
Tyler Blyendaal : Grant Fox
Robbie Fruen : Joe Stanley
Tom Taylor : Matthew Ridge or Terry Wright

bear in mind that these are just the selected "strong points" of the current Canterbury team, so for 80s Auckland I've not mentioned the Ingi Tuigamala, Gary Whetton, John Kirwin, Zinzan Brooke, Craig Innes, Robin or Marty Booke or Andy Hayden... actually

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrgAWE6Bqk8

Until our top players go back to provincial rugby (which can't come soon enough) this is a stupid arguement.

 

[Andronicus]

This is probably being sentimental, but my best provincial team ever was the Hawke's Bay shield side of the 1960s.

Captained by Kel Tremain, the team dripped with great players: Neil Thimbleby, Rod Abel, Blair Furlong, Bill Davis, Ian Macrae....and at fullback the most courageous taker of a high ball I have ever seen, the slightly built young Ian Bishop.

For three years the side ruled NZ provincial rugby and I loved every moment of it.

 

[The Jones Boy]

This is probably being sentimental, but my best provincial team ever was the Hawke's Bay shield side of the 1960s.

Captained by Kel Tremain, the team dripped with great players: Neil Thimbleby, Rod Abel, Blair Furlong, Bill Davis, Ian Macrae....and at fullback the most courageous taker of a high ball I have ever seen, the slightly built young Ian Bishop.

For three years the side ruled NZ provincial rugby and I loved every moment of it.

Kel Tremain, what a player, that wa sa great provincial team.

 

[Feicarsinn]

View attachment 3418​

That's the most albanian thing I've ever seen.

 

[Amobokoboko]

Waikato 2006, the year I started following the league from more closely and the team I picked won it .
Went to live for one year in NZ in 2007 in the wider Waikato region.

 

[Coastie]

This is probably being sentimental, but my best provincial team ever was the Hawke's Bay shield side of the 1960s.

Captained by Kel Tremain, the team dripped with great players: Neil Thimbleby, Rod Abel, Blair Furlong, Bill Davis, Ian Macrae....and at fullback the most courageous taker of a high ball I have ever seen, the slightly built young Ian Bishop.

For three years the side ruled NZ provincial rugby and I loved every moment of it.

Some rather dubious decisions by the NZRU to finally end that shield reign imho.

Thought I already replied on this thread, maybe another site with a similar fred, would add in the Auckland side of the 1980s.

 

[Larksea]

Waikato 2006, the year I started following the league from more closely and the team I picked won it .
Went to live for one year in NZ in 2007 in the wider Waikato region.

yeah the 2006 Waikato side was pretty special. Liam Messam, Richard Kahui, Stephen Donald, Brendon Leonard, weren't that well known at the time plus many others. This would have probably been the last season that All Blacks played in the NPC and it was stacked with big names in all the big teams.

I went to the final.

The wellington side was stacked with big names like Conrad smith, Umaga, Collins, Tialata, and were expected to win.

I think this was the last of the glory years of NPC, 2007 was cotton wool year because of the WC after that super rugby expanded and NPC shrunk year after year.

 

[Scrum Bum]

06 Waikato were very good, as were Harbour that year IIRC. 80s Auckland and I think it was the mid 00s Canterbury side that really kicked butt. I dislike Auckland and Canterbury very much despite living in Auckland. I'm an Otago fan. Lol. So as far as Otago goes, I think 98 was our best, but 05 was the standout year in a year of mediocrity.

I agree, NPC has been on the decline since the global financial crisis but it has benefitted organisations like Tasman Makos and Hawkes Bay. I think from now on, it will be rarer and rarer for players to jump from NPC straight to the All Blacks.

And I amy add, as a fan who grew up watching NPC in the 90s that I still have the same expectations of the NPC sides. Unfortunately now the standards aren't as high and I've come to expect games to be high-scoring and error ridden.

 

[Jockstap]

Whoops wrong thread.

 

[eidde]

I think from now on, it will be rarer and rarer for players to jump from NPC straight to the All Blacks.

When was the last time an All Black was picked from NPC? presuming we're talking debuts.....

 

[ianw16]

I am too young to have seen the 60's Hawke's Bay or Auckland sides. So on that basis, I'd have to say that the best team I have seen was the mid-late eighties Auckland team. They'd have beaten most international sides without much bother. I posted on another thread that of the 25 players picked for the 1987 WC, 14 were from Auckland.

The team that took the Shield off Canterbury in 1985:
Lindsay Harris, John Kirwan, Joe Stanley, Terry Wright, Kurt Sherlock, Grant Fox, David Kirk, Glenn Rich (soon to be replaced by Zinzan Brooke), Mark Brooke-Cowden (soon to be replaced by Michael Jones), Gary Whetton, Andy Haden (c), Alan Whetton, John Drake, Iain Abercrombie (soon to be replaced by Sean Fitzpatrick), Steve McDowell.

That is a test team in all but name. And the Canterbury team that they beat were a very, very good team. I had been looking on the internet for a few years for highlights from that match, and could find nothing, so gave up. Then, a day or two ago, I noticed that the whole game was posted on Youtube about a year ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc1gB3SeO3g
I would recommend that anybody who is nostalgic, or simply wants to see "The Game of the Century", have a look at it.

 

[The Jones Boy]

Mark Brooke Cowden, hah hah, theres a blast from the past.
He came to my school in 1982 and taught some of the lads how to throw a 'secret punch' in the ruck.
Shocking but funny guy.
Lindsay Harris, so underrated as a fullback.
Kurt Sherlock, a midfield powerhouse who never got his name in lights.
Gary Whetton, the best lock in the world at that stage, just phenomenal speed and tackle breaking ability for a giant lock.
Haden was ancient then already.
Terry Wright, what a legend