The Silver Fern

@Stargazer

Good on Mitchell for honouring the bet. Awful voice though.

@Stargazer said in Australia v England - 1st Test:

I actually agree with the decision in Swain's case. That was the softest head butt to get red-carded I've ever seen. It was stupid to respond to a provocation like that, no doubt, but it's ridiculous that he gets suspended while the grub who pulled his hair (and the incident earlier in the game) didn't even get a mandatory meeting with the Disciplinary Committee.

The softest I've ever seen was Mose Tuiali'i on Marius Joubert. It was more like a head push than a butt. Tuiali'i was red carded in the first half, the Stormers would still lose and Tuiali'i would be suspended for 3 weeks (entry point was 6 weeks).

And some say history doesn't repeat?

Swain decision definitely seems worthy of getting the blood pressure up over lol

@gibbon-rib said in Wallabies v All Blacks (Melbourne):

@booboo said in Wallabies v All Blacks (Melbourne):

@gibbon-rib said in Wallabies v All Blacks (Melbourne):

when the 80 minute hooter went, and the crowd went mad

Reminds me of a number of videos of the 2011 RWC final. The bandwagon jumping Kiwis who thought we'd won when the siren went ...

It's no surprise at all in Melbourne, expect better from Auckland though

Was really weird. Even some videos of the crowd at the ground. May track them down when more compos mentis.

Back on subject ... a trip to Melbourne in Spring would not be all bad ..

Full match on the World Rugby YouTube channel. Geo-blocked in NZ, so you need to use a VPN to watch it.

Finally got around to watching the Breakdown interview with Chelsea Semple. Was interesting to hear some of what she thought is so different with the new coaching and in doing so highlighted some of what was previously wrong.
There’s no feeling of places being anything but contested with the coaches actively turning over rocks and giving new players chances to show what they have. The older players are actually being pushed to be better to hold their places.

@duluth And that three-match ban will become a two-match ban ...

The No.8 will miss the Brumbies’ Super Rugby Pacific trial matches against the NSW Waratahs on January 29 and the Brumbies’ development team the following week plus their competition opener against Moana Pasifika on February 18.

But Valetini can opt to complete a Head Contact Process Coaching Intervention course to have his ban reduced to two matches.

That avenue is available to offending players in the hope of modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contributed to the foul play.

I hadn't realised that that option to complete a Head Contact Process Coaching Intervention replace one of the matches a player is suspended for, had been adopted for the November internationals. Is it part of the law trials, or is it an official rule now? I only remember it being trialled by the the U20s a few years ago.

By the way, that a game of the Brumbies development team counts towards his suspension is ridiculous.

@nta said in England v Australia:

@higgins no ruck - play on, unfortunately.

Further to that: the option for Ikitau was to hit the deck and wait, but it wouldn't have made a lot of difference - only Leota and McDermott were in frame and there were about 8 Poms on their feet.

@mn5 said in Scotland v Australia 2021:

@gibbon-rib said in Scotland v Australia 2021:

I just checked the 6N odds out of interest. Clearly the bookies / betting public don't think this is a new dawn for the Scots

France 48/29
England 5/2
Ireland 9/2
Wales 6/1
Scotland 12/1
Italy 1000/1

12 is better than 1000 though

True. And probably better value too.

@stargazer said in Japan v Wallabies:

Wallabies media release:

Nathan Williamson  /  Oct 20, 2021 Hunter Paisami returns for Wallabies to face Japan Hunter Paisami returns for Wallabies to face Japan

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has confirmed Hunter Paisami will replace the injured Samu Kerevi for Saturday's match against Japan.

When I hear the name Paisami I always think of some sort of Italian charcuterie I really must sample.

@nta said in Wallabies v Pumas II:

Good press conference from Rennie.

"In my day it was a sprained ankle. Now it's syndesmosis which is apparently worse..."

Not sure that you need us to send you Moses, you've been playing quite well the last few games.

It's a feeling I haven't had in a while as a Wallaby fan: to be happy with a comfortable win, but feeling we played a bit below our best. We left at least three tries on the park. JOC bombed one, Nic White didn't realise the law around grounding on the post pad had changed (unforgiveable), and a few times we lost our cool with numbers out wide.

But our general play around the park was as good as it's been in a long time. Defended well, secured our own ruck ball, created space and then exploited it with simple catch-and-pass. Our 10-12-13 is the best it's looked since the Foley-Giteau-AAC axis at the 2015 World Cup.

Sets up our NH tour really nicely. Not sure how undermanned we will be but that England game looks very enticing.

@machpants said in Wallabies v Springboks II:

@nta said in Wallabies v Springboks II:

@smuts said in Wallabies v Springboks II:

Congrats Aussies. First time in forever that I’ve not even watched the highlights. Hope it feels great.

Cheers. Not a great couple of games by your okes but hopefully they'll take it out on the ABs 😉

I don't know much about your coach, but a quick wiki search shows he's Rassie's man, and TBH it smacks a little of nepotism. Hopefully there is a bit of a shakeup and the Boks find their groove. And some fitness training!

One thing on which I agree with Keo: trying to play like someone else is just going to hurt the Boks. Use their strengths by all means, but they've not yet made sure they can execute that to the level required against faster teams.

That would never happen in the ABs……

Not a little smack, no...

@machpants said in Wallabies vs Springboks I:

@frye said in Wallabies vs Springboks I:

alt text

Malherbe hardly in fine fettle either.

Can you imagine what he's gonna look like after retiring? 😲

Foster? 😜

must have been a cold day..

@nostrildamus said in Wallabies vs All Blacks 3 (Perth):

ooh baby

Tom Decent  /  Sep 9, 2021  /  Rugby Union He’s back: Cooper to partner McDermott against Springboks, Bell starts He’s back: Cooper to partner McDermott against Springboks, Bell starts

After 1541 days in the international rugby wilderness, Quade Cooper will be back in a Wallabies jersey this weekend.

Too traumatised to face ABs, so now Noah is a mental wreck from the same!

I have another apology for the AB coaches, I thought in an earlier Bledisloe the coaches had the bench replacement timing all wrong. Maybe, but it is clear that a bigger issue is, the AB bench just isn't of the same calibre.

@pakman said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:

@nta said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:

@pakman said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:

@chris said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe 1 Eden Park 7th Aug:

Smashed in the scrum not good by the subs

Bell monstered Ta’avao.

Having Matt Philip behind him helps. I've only just reached that point.

Having just rewatched it may be Ta'avao has been a bit hard done by. First scrum after Patty T on and Whitelock swaps sides. PT packed very high on Karl, and looks like Sam slipped off Ta'avao, who then has whole Wallaby pack driving through him.
Poor cohesion by Black pack, whereas Wallaby changes seem to have been upgrade.

Ta'avao did Ok at previous scrum with Codie and BBBR still on, although scrum did collapse on his side.

@stargazer said in Wallabies v France 3:

@gibbonrib said in Wallabies v France 3:

@steven-harris where did you find that?

Sadly that statement doesn't clarify the decision at all. I'd like to watch that video to see if that helps (fully expecting that it won't though).

@stargazer said in Wallabies v France 3:

@gibbonrib It's only the media release. Not the decision.

Oh, shit, I forgot that if a red card is dismissed, there won't be a written decision. Just the media release.
So the media release is all we get. It has been published on the WR website now, btw.

Forget getting a further clarification of the decision.

For those nerdy enough to care, WR have released a written decision:

https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2021/07/21/231213a5-9cec-4fe5-9fbd-82ec2b9f40f9/HRM000.1.996-Decision-M-Koroibete.pdf

It's a bit wordy, but I've read it so that you don't have to. Key points it makes are:

There was no contact to the head Initial contact was to the shoulder There was contact to the neck This means it is technically foul play The degree of danger was not high, so it should not have been a red

Things it doesn't clarify are:

Whether the degree of danger was low (starting sanction: penalty) or medium (yellow card) Whether there was significant mitigation (it mentions both players dipping into the tackle, but doesn't rule on whether that was relevant to the decision) Whether the correct decision would have been a yellow, or just a penalty

Things it doesn't say, but strongly implies:

Jelonch is a cheating git

@booboo said in Wallabies v France 2:

@mariner4life said in Wallabies v France 2:

Until last night the only rugby i had watched all year was the first 50-odd minutes of the Super Rugby TT final (and taht was on a small screen with no volume, through a boozed up haze, while simultaneously punting on harness racing and asian gallops), but that test reminded me why i love this game.

I know it's not great for the purists, or if you actually are supporting one of the teams, but errors make good rugby. Errors offer up opportunity, and when both teams are willing to have a crack at that opportunity, it makes for a spectacle.

What i saw was a young Aussie team with deficiencies in key areas having a real fucking go. You can't fault their endeavor, just their execution let them down at precisely the wrong time. Veletini was bloody good i thought, made repeated dents in the defense and never stopped throwing himself at the French. With the ball the Aussie forwards had a heap of vigour, problem was they couldn't muscle up on defense. And their ruck work was very ordinary. That little 2nd pop pass really is more miss than hit. They played most of the rugby, but could never make it count on the scoreboard. They were still full of running at the end too.

The French were pretty good too. Not much on attack outside of some eye catching counter. it was route 1 football and it was often brutally effective. The hooker had approximately 58 pick-and-goes, the 7 was in to everything, and i was impressed with the work of the skipper at #8. The fullback looked fucking classy as well.

Short turn around to the final test will be interesting. World Cup pool-of-death sort of stuff.

Front paged

Great. Cements the evidence that a certain poster doesn't even watch rugby but has lots to say about it 😉