The Silver Fern

And on behalf of the other half (does that make it a quarter?). Jeff Lynne being too ill to play BST Hyde Park tomorrow and the whole thing being cancelled (including Doobie Brothers and Steve Winwood).

Exercises in indulgence.

Phil Collins doing In The Air Tonight without drums at Live Aid.

Yusuf doing a shithouse church band, gospel version of Peace Train at BST Hyde Park.

Neil Young going through every poorly known cult fan hit excluding actual chart hits at BST Hyde Park.

Fuck them

@OomPB jumping into the tackle and obstruction.

@Mauss said in All Blacks v France 2:

@Bones said in All Blacks v France 2:

Well it's a good theory, but what are they going to do? Rotate in half the squad that narrowly lost to an undercooked AB's to play alongside the other half that got spanked?

I guess...? Basically starting the more experienced squad members (Fickou, Villière, Bamba, Bourgarit) with some of the Top 14 finalists (Barassi, Bochaton) as the strongest combination.

That being said, it could just well be some French journalists who are trying to make sense of the whole thing and ending up overthinking it. Who knows, Galthié could end up playing an even less experienced team in Hamilton.

They're going to get done by an experimental AB side. Rassie can be happy with trying to be a clever fluffybunny against Italy B while we sneak in another RC.

@Mauss said in All Blacks v France 2:

@voodoo said in All Blacks v France 2:

Seems odd that a visiting team would target the dead rubber Game 3 of a series as “the big one” that they want to win, but who the hell understands the French eh?

The logic seems to be that they'll target the third game because that's the game where the ABs were always expected to rotate their squad.

It's less odd when you start out from the premise that the French would be more than happy with a 2-1 series result. Then it makes (sort of) sense that they'd target the Test where the ABs are at their least experienced.

Not particularly in the spirit of the series but it's clear that both sides have very different approaches to these Tests.

Well it's a good theory, but what are they going to do? Rotate in half the squad that narrowly lost to an undercooked AB's to play alongside the other half that got spanked?

@stodders said in Springboks v Italy II:

@Bones best have a wash too 😂

Let's not get carried away

@African-Monkey said in AUNZ XV vs British and Irish Lions:

@NTA said in AUNZ XV vs British and Irish Lions:

@Bones said in AUNZ XV vs British and Irish Lions:

@Old-Samurai-Jack Solo.....solik... Sally.... yeah that's one of the best games I've seen Aussie 5 play.

LSL

Lol he's hardly a random too.

Lukhan Solokaio-Bell rolls off the tongue. Take a leaf out of Angus' book.

@stodders I'm tempted to side with Victor having too much red and eyeing up a shark jump.

@Mauss I think it just points to the bench being a lot more lackadaisical than the starters, where it's supposed to be the opposite. It seems logical that a guy like Razor would promote a "take it easy" stance to injecting yourself into the game, but players might be taking it a bit too literally.

@Victor-Meldrew said in Springboks v Italy II:

@Bones

Thinking more about how much better SA are at developing players.

And playing for 80 minutes...

EDIT: The Barrett Conglomerate make up for stupid cards though.....

I'm just at a bit of a loss comparing Italy development team to France development team. And the bit about 4 debutants really made my whoosh alert spin.

I'm thinking I've been whooshed

@Victor-Meldrew said in Springboks v Italy II:

@Bones said in Springboks v Italy II:

@Victor-Meldrew said in Springboks v Italy II:

Hate to think what they'd do to the French team currently in NZ.

Lose horribly.

Who are the new players?

I heard the Saffa commentators talking about 4 debutants.

Strikes me SA are years ahead of us player-pool/development wise

By playing 4 debutants against what appears to be a weakened Italy?

I can't tell if you're taking the piss or angling on a foster defence.

Norris, Holland, Kirifi, Tavatavanawai....

@Victor-Meldrew said in Springboks v Italy II:

Hate to think what they'd do to the French team currently in NZ.

Lose horribly.

Who are the new players?

I only just realised that's not Kolbe on the wing 🤣

Watching the springboks, think they're buying into their own hype and pleasing to see our discipline improve while theirs declines - ABs sans Barretts might even go a game without a card.

Would've been red a year or two ago, but will be mitigated to yellow for the change in direction.

@DMX said in All Blacks v France 2:

@Bones said in All Blacks v France 2:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks v France 2:

@mencey said in All Blacks v France 2:

Funny NOT. Hows Holland going ah ?

Tonight was not a great night for Proctor. But yes Holland is fast looking like an integral All Black.

You still watching last week's game?

Proctor’s performance really pleasing, I am hoping pretty soon he will be amongst first names on the team sheet. I think his upside is awesome.

Marked improvement on last week, much better awareness and positioning on the outside break right from the start was really pleasing to see, as well as getting to contribute on attack.

@Victor-Meldrew said in Springboks v Italy II:

@Bones said in Springboks v Italy II:

Wiese goes full Wiese. Red card for a headbutt.

I thought there was nothing in that - just touched his forehead with the Italian player. Totally deserved Red for stupidity in today's reffing environment, though.

Prexactly. There's zero reason to do it, doing it either shows you've lost your head or you're trying to aggravate others to. Fuck it off.

And the Italian on the sideline in acres of space, knocking it on spectacularly from a fine pass, illustrates why.

Prolly about time Rassie and his boys got their comeuppance for their antics, but can't see Italy taking advantage.