@voodoo if anything it’s a compliment. a shit Richie McCaw > good Peter O’Mahony QED.

Cane showed the mouthy Irish git exactly that in the QF. He was immense that night, inviting reasonable comparison with the Incomparable. Takes some going to make the ludicrous a serious consideration, even for just a game.

Go well, Sam Cane. They asked the impossible of you: leave the jersey better than you found it. You failed gloriously, honourably. Coming up to the scratch over and over, seemingly undaunted by the heavy yolk of your responsibility. Unbowed by a broken neck, still less the critics’ ludicrous, invidious comparisons.

Each of the 99 times you toed the mark reducing the awful weight of that famous jersey for the next few men to shoulder.

@dogmeat said in Should Ardie play 7?:

@mariner4life reddit are banning all nudity and adult content from October

looooool

and so dies Reddit, gone the way of tumblr

@dogmeat said in What makes Eden Park so special?:

@nzzp TBF he was asked what he would skull immediately after mowing the lawns on a blisteringly hot summers day.

Yep.
He rates it though. Apparently often used to serve it to people withouth them knowing - and then telling them after they compliemnted the craft pilsner 🙂

It's a very good beer I reckon. Fresh. And not in a shitty plastic bottle for $$$.

@Mr-Fish Couldn't agree more mate!

@Mr-Fish said in NZ First Five Crisis:

@cgrant said in NZ First Five Crisis:

Plummer is a stop gap if DMac gets injured. Jacomb and Simpson won't be ready before two or three years. They are the most promising 1st Fives right now. I am not on the Godfrey's bandwagon. He is more a fullback than a 10 IMO. Harkin looks fine at NPC level (so do Jacomb and Simpson). Let's see how these young guys perform at SR level (which is no more the best competition, BTW) to have a clearer view.

Jacomb is 23 and was NPC POTY after leading Taranaki to a title last year. Yes, he's not played an awful lot of Super Rugby - but he's certainly ready for some lower level international matches. Get him on the EOYT and he can play against Japan and Italy.

It's crazy that so many good players don't get a chance to play international rugby well past the age that they had breakout seasons

Imagine if Little and Horan had to wait until they were 23 to play for Australia for the first time

@Bovidae said in Pacific Nations Cup General:

3rd/4th game
Samoa 18 - 13 USA

Final
Japan 17 - 41 Fiji

Another loss for Jones.

He reckons he'll be back on the wagon when the ABs come to town

Hope he’s recovering well. Knew his brother in club rugby. Good people.

@Auckman its also not rocket surgery to say that maybe we only want to be playing each team once a year at home, playing aussie at the same ground in subsequent weeks when people were still covid cautious was always goign to be an uphill task

@dogmeat said in BOP - 20 years since the shield victory:

@Donsteppa I recognise way more names than I would if today's respective teams were named.

I knew every name in that BoP team - except for the guy mentioned in the article. I don't remember him.

@Cyclops said in Afghanistan vs Black Caps, only test:

@African-Monkey

Random bit of trivia - kiwi umpire Steve Dunne was named to stand in two tests at his home ground, Carisbrook. Both were abandoned without a ball bowled (although the second was replaced with an unofficial one dayer).

For some reason, I feel like I came across that question before in quizzes haha.

The standard of officiating won't be helping the cause. I watched 10 mins of the Wellington Vs Southland game last weekend and there was about 3 massive blunders in 10 mins. One of them a Southland player stood fully over the line and the AR missed it and let play carry on. That one especially was an absolute disgrace.

Looks like Akira is not playing, with Segner at 8

@Bones they couldn’t teach us maths or reading comp, you really think they even attempted the powerful French?

@taniwharugby said in Northland 2024:

Northland have scored 131 points so far, with only 39 of them in the 2nd half, and 0 in the last 2 2nd halves.

Wow who knew Northland are up there with the ABs!

Meant to say yesterday that I thought last night's stage might have been one for Corbin Strong - since Wout Van Aert has withdrawn - especially if Corbin got over the mountains and Kaden Groves didn't.

Kaden did - and won - Corbin got beaten by several others in any case.

Got to think Corbin has the tools to win a Grand Tour stage at some point.

BOC keeps the red jersey and probably a decent chance of doing the same tonight - though five seconds is a wafer thin margin. Looks like a couple of small climbs at the end tonight that might let Roglic gap him. They might also suit George in a breakaway - though I think tomorrow (Stage 19) might suit George in a breakaway more - 8km steep climb to a mountain finish.

Stage 20 will be a killer - 7 climbs - 3 Category 1.

No draw option available ?

@antipodean said in Leon MacDonald Quits:

@KiwiMurph I get the feeling reading some rugby media that they wait until this forum has had a go at fleshing out the argument and then asking an AI to summarise the thread and write them an article.

We done a few of those now, works surprisingly well.

Rassie Erasmus and his 'B' teams continue to divide and conquer Rassie Erasmus and his 'B' teams continue to divide and conquer

The Springbok mastermind has built vast depth across his South Africa squad and his bold selection policy often pays off.