is stephen donald the worst all black of all time?

[TRF_Cymro]

What Welsh players go to Ireland?
Forgot this as well: Everybody -> Scotland

Ruddocks, Loxton and Jarvis

 

[Draggs]

Ruddocks, Loxton and Jarvis

One cap. Rhys and Ciaran were born in Ireland as well.
Loxton barely plays for Connaught, Jarvis benches occasionally.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

What Welsh players go to Ireland?
Forgot this as well: Everybody -> Scotland

Ah, I thought it was a filter thing.
The players are born in the PI, the best go to NZ, next lot go to England etc.

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk 2

 

[Draggs]

In a sense, the one I posted was, but not intentionally.
The bad NZ players go to England and Samoa. Best English go to Wales. Best Irish... wait, what?

 

[admartian]

Worst All Black? For me, it's a toss up between Lauaki and Caleb Ralph.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Worst All Black? For me, it's a toss up between Lauaki and Caleb Ralph.

thank god i know i'm not alone!

 

[psychic duck]

Worst All Black? For me, it's a toss up between Lauaki and Caleb Ralph.

Why do people think of Caleb Ralph as one of the worst All Blacks?

He scored 8 tries in 14 caps (albeit against weaker teams), so what is it that he did so wrong in an AB shirt?

 

[Kiwiwomble]

for me it was more a case of he shouldn't have been given one to start with, everyone could see he was made to look good...when he did look good...for the crusaders by a world class backline (except him), i could have scored a lot of his tries and when he looked a bit ropey it was excused because he scored tries....false logic</SPAN>

 

[Draggs]

Tries =/= Success.
Morgan Stoddart has 5 tries for 7 starts (including a partial first half before injury).

There were a fair few ABs during 2000/2003 that never really made it:
http://stats.allblacks.com/asp/playorder.asp?icount=900#pagestart
http://stats.allblacks.com/asp/playorder.asp?icount=1000#pagestart

Quite a few with fewer than ten caps.

 

[Amobokoboko]

The Herald posted a similar topic on their site a while ago. I wouldn't say Donald is crap as he won the WC for NZ. This being said he 's playing **** poor.

 

[donmcdazzle]

The Herald posted a similar topic on their site a while ago. I wouldn't say Donald is crap as he won the WC for NZ. This being said he 's playing **** poor.

No he didn't.

 

[Tony Manx]

The Herald posted a similar topic on their site a while ago. I wouldn't say Donald is crap as he won the WC for NZ. This being said he 's playing **** poor.

...............and a lot of people thought it was the ref?

 

[psychic duck]

He came on the field and we only narrowed a 5 point lead to a 1 point. Stellar effort. I was correct in saying that Aaron Cruden would overtake Donald however.

Some other All Black fly halves have single handedly lost matches against France by themselves though so Donald's effort was pretty good in comparison ...

Haha - I'd have him in the team over Donald. He's a much better fullback mind you. I've at least been consistent - I was of course happy we won the World Cup, and pleased Donald didn't screw up so much to make us lose (to suggest he was great like Larksea does is way over the top - he kicked a penalty and didn't miss too many tackles. Still can't run a game to save his life).

Do you rate Donald and Robinson better or worse than Mike Delany out of interest?

To be fair to Donald, his record as first choice 10 for a Super Rugby team for about 6 seasons and the Chiefs best ever points scorer is a lot better than the likes of Robbie Robinson or even Colin Slade.

 

[nickdnz]

Some other All Black fly halves have single handedly lost matches against France by themselves though so Donald's effort was pretty good in comparison ...



Do you rate Donald and Robinson better or worse than Mike Delany out of interest?

To be fair to Donald, his record as first choice 10 for a Super Rugby team for about 6 seasons and the Chiefs best ever points scorer is a lot better than the likes of Robbie Robinson or even Colin Slade.

Well Simon Culhane isn't my favourite 10 either, but he certainly performed better than Donald on most occasions. Any 10 can get charged down, I'd be suprised if any top 10 in the world didn't at some point in their career. We shouldn't have been close to France on the scoreboard in the first place.

First, the thing to remember about Robbie Robinson in regards to point scoring - is that he he hasn't been the Chiefs goal kicker and he really isn't anywhere near as good a 10 as he is a 15, at this stage anyway. He was thrown into Super Rugby too early as the Highlanders' savior at 10, and he didn't handle that pressure well. He was better at 10 for Southland in his first few seasons though - pretty much kept them holding onto the Ranfurly Shield for a season.

In terms of Donald v Delany it's weird. I'd have preferred Delaney personally - he wasn't fantastic but he was safe. At international level the problem with Donald is that he just just make the right decisions. He used to be actually pretty quick for a number 10 and he could run hard - but it was just those moments where you think 'what are you doing?!'. Mike Delaney is a very safe player, you can see what he's thinking and he doesn't have a great deal of imagination (thus why the Highlanders moved sideways more than forward last season), but he's not going to ruin a match.

Also to be fair - I talk about Donald as an international player. As a SR player he was solid. It's not suprising he's the highest point scorer for the Chiefs, Glen Jackson and David Hill are probably the only two other 1st 5/8ths the Cheifs have had that anyone can name (before they stole our Cruden). They've hardly been blessed. The Cheifs team was also better - in fact removing Donald for Cruden and adding a couple of players here and there - the Chiefs win the whole competition.

 

[Teh Mite]

Donald being a "solid" SR player probably says more about the style of rugby you saw in the Super 14 then it does about Donald himself. He's Bambi in the Headlights for Bath and was easily outshone by Barclay (who hardly set the world alight himself).

 

[nickdnz]

Donald being a "solid" SR player probably says more about the style of rugby you saw in the Super 14 then it does about Donald himself. He's Bambi in the Headlights for Bath and was easily outshone by Barclay (who hardly set the world alight himself).

Sure - a different style is bound to effect how he plays, simply on the basis of what he is used to. Fly Halves are often used quite differently in the NH than in the SH. With that said - he did manage 7 penalties against the Quins to win - so he is in many ways adapting. He has also averaged 14.5 points a game (not all he has started and goal kicked) - so by the same qualities that I say he was a 'solid' player in SR, I'd use the same to describe him in the Aviva Premiership.

 

[Teh Mite]

He's nothing like solid. At all.

Playing for Bath may not help, but that's not an excuse foe being about as effective in his role as a porn star with erectile dysfunction.

 

[Keithmurdoch]

Obviously all too young to remember Chris Tregaskis

 

[Larksea]

Donald's good work in combination with his stellar effort in the world cup final (he made more tackles per time on the field than any other All Black) more than made for his scratchy performances for the All Blacks which were really only a few of his 22 tests.

for me the worst AB in recent history was Issac Ross. 8 tests 50% winning record - shocking for the all blacks and the trademark of that period was the complete failure of the All Blacks line out which fixed itself when Ross was dropped for Tom Donnelly.

Some of the blame should go to Hansen for the poor showing of Ross. Who came into the AB's as a rookie and was asked to call the line outs, really should not have been his job. And his skill set did not complement Brad Thorn well - as a combination neither were top class line out jumpers.

 

[nickdnz]

Donald's good work in combination with his stellar effort in the world cup final (he made more tackles per time on the field than any other All Black) more than made for his scratchy performances for the All Blacks which were really only a few of his 22 tests.

for me the worst AB in recent history was Issac Ross. 8 tests 50% winning record - shocking for the all blacks and the trademark of that period was the complete failure of the All Blacks line out which fixed itself when Ross was dropped for Tom Donnelly.

Some of the blame should go to Hansen for the poor showing of Ross. Who came into the AB's as a rookie and was asked to call the line outs, really should not have been his job. And his skill set did not complement Brad Thorn well - as a combination neither were top class line out jumpers.

Also ran the ball into touch - unopposed - more often than any other All Black. He really wasn't as good as you seem to remember...