@TB Going back to the last 3 times we have won the WC, none of them featured a single player that determined whether we won or not (arguably 2003 with IVD might have been an exception but that whole team was full of legends). That is not the case anymore. Yes, we may have had IVD be dominate in NZ, but we were still the whipping girls to Australia who regularly beat us with her. We can’t win anymore without Grace (against the top teams).
No other country picks fitness over form, NZ are the exception. It makes no sense and obviously didn’t help us at the WC.
Having players throw themselves across the line to try and make the fitness standard is just ridiculous. Not one person here can show me any game played by any of the players that have missed the so called fitness test where there so called lack of fitness showed. Every ANZ player is fit.
I just get sick of Noelene talking the talk but not walking it. As someone mentioned, I think we got lucky at the 2019, but it is what it is.
Nolene would not be coaching if the Ferns were held to the same standard as the All Blacks. Nolene should thank the stars that NNZ is not as professional, otherwise she would be long gone. I think from memory she has around a 60% winning percentage with the Ferns. Foster the former AB’s coach had a 70% winning percentage and that wasn’t good enough and he was replaced.
Now she has been retained and has of course kept her cohorts. Here we are, doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. That doesn’t work.
