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<blockquote data-quote="UilamOsa" data-source="post: 449512" data-attributes="member: 52898">Personally, I don&#039;t compare Slade &amp; Thomson to Carter &amp; McCaw.They are both okay at test level - but they haven&#039;t lit the world on fire given the opportunities that they&#039;ve had.I compare Slade to the first fives in NZ at the moment, and whilst he&#039;s solid and probably the best of the rest - I think in the matches so far - most people are happy to select Piri over him. That statement in itself is fairly critical of how he&#039;s handled both the pressure and his actual ability. That our previously 2nd ranked half back - is a first choice five eigths.Thomson, has been given opportunities, not as much as Messam but plenty and he has failed to be a standout. There&#039;s not too many people that can cover the ground in NZ like McCaw can, but if we compare Thomson with Kaino in the same position then it&#039;s still not even close. No one&#039;s asking him to be Richie, but if he can&#039;t even get close to a Marty Holah type performance, when Thomson is (arguably) fitter/athletic/faster than he was - then what&#039;s the point? Or put it this way:If one of current top AB&#039;s backrow is down, and Thomson had to replace them - what would he add? Based on what&#039;s gone on before (and not even including Brisbane) not much.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="UilamOsa, post: 449512, member: 52898"] Personally, I don't compare Slade & Thomson to Carter & McCaw. They are both okay at test level - but they haven't lit the world on fire given the opportunities that they've had. I compare Slade to the first fives in NZ at the moment, and whilst he's solid and probably the best of the rest - I think in the matches so far - most people are happy to select Piri over him. That statement in itself is fairly critical of how he's handled both the pressure and his actual ability. That our previously 2nd ranked half back - is a first choice five eigths. Thomson, has been given opportunities, not as much as Messam but plenty and he has failed to be a standout. There's not too many people that can cover the ground in NZ like McCaw can, but if we compare Thomson with Kaino in the same position then it's still not even close. No one's asking him to be Richie, but if he can't even get close to a Marty Holah type performance, when Thomson is (arguably) fitter/athletic/faster than he was - then what's the point? Or put it this way: If one of current top AB's backrow is down, and Thomson had to replace them - what would he add? Based on what's gone on before (and not even including Brisbane) not much. [/QUOTE]

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