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Former All Black named as 'worst signing of 2017' in Top 14
By Online Editors
Amid reports of a flurry of All Blacks being targetted by French clubs, it seems not all ex-All Blacks have lived up to lofty expectations as French newspaper Mid Olympique released it's worst signings of 2017.
Three former All Blacks have been named in a "Flop 10" list of worst French rugby signings from 2017, headed by former Blues first-five Luke McAlister who topped the list.
McAlister has barely been seen for Toulon after signing on for the 2017/18 season, where the 34-year-old was dropped to third-choice first-five behind Anthony Belleau and Francois Trinh-Duc. He was loaned out to Clermont as injury cover before suffering a broken hand in a match against Agen.
Mid Olympique judged former Blues wing Frank Halai the fourth-worst signing, who joined Pau this season after leaving English club Wasps, and former Chiefs hooker Hika Elliot came in at the ninth who was signed by last-placed Oyonnax.
Former Stormers and South African fullback Cheslin Kolbe was named as the best signing of the 2017-2018 season to date, who joined Toulouse and has been a strong performer for the side.
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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