The Silver Fern

How serious is Telea's hand injury. He might be back.

I wonder if Love gets a chance on the wing?

@Bones Maka has some wheels too. The tactics seem to have Collier on one flank so there needs to be one of the speedier players on the other.

Oli Mathis has signed a 2-yr deal for sevens but still wants to play for the NZ U20s.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360494558/demand-oli-mathis-called-all-blacks-sevens-squad-after-breakout-npc-season

I'm still interested to see the full contracted list as there will be a couple of other players added. Taumateine will be used as a prop. He is a no.8. Hopefully there is some more speed out wide in this team.

ND bowled Auckland out for 150 yesterday, and Southee and Wagner took one wicket between them.

2019. 2020 was cancelled due to covid, and now it is regional.

No Auckland or BOP teams - strange.

Looking at the Waikato Mens team that has been named there are some notable players missing, which may suggest they are part of the NZ squad.

Speaking of Peyper, are there any other international teams that have a ref sitting in the coaches box?

@mikedogz said in 2024 UNDER 85KG NATIONAL CLUB CUP:

I read a while ago that they will play an Asian country that we have history with. I am guessing Sri Lanka.

Correct.

New Zealand Under 85kg team to tour Sri Lanka

The Chiefs could go with a 6:2 bench and use Carter as the backup 9. Rona as the outside back cover otherwise.

I'd start Lord and bring Ah Kuoi off the bench. O'Neill ahead of Proffit as the latter is also a LH. I would not be surprised if Brown is in the no.20 jersey as he provides better cover at 7 than Parker.

Being away all weekend I didn't get to see any of the tests live so didn't read this thread until now, after finally viewing the game.

On a couple of important decisions:

For the Ofa neck roll, Lakai cleaning from the side of that ruck made it look far worse than it was. If anyone should have been penalised it was him.

Sititi owes Ratima an apology (and beer). The knock-on at the lineout is on him. I doubt any halfback catches the ball when it lands at your toes. Secondly, why did Sititi join that ruck when the ball was already in front of Tuipulotu? Extending the caterpillar ruck even longer only made Ratima's job harder to get the ball back. Stand to the side of the ruck as a pillar. It was symptomatic of some of the poor ball presentation we've seen. I remember Roigard stuffing up a pass in the 1st half for the same reason.

As many have said, starting BB ahead of DMac was a mistake. We all knew that before the test. Still leaving BB as the main playmaker when both were on the field only compounded their poor decision.

A game between the NZ and Aust winners.

Champions Final headlines 2025 Sky Super Rugby Aupiki draw announcement

History will be up for grabs in 2025 with an inaugural Women’s Super Rugby Champions Final to be played between the respective Sky Super Rugby Aupiki and Super W winners.

Is anyone going to the test?

I've spent a lot of time in Torino, but it isn't near the rugby heartland in Italy.

Back to their preferred loose forward trio. Reece doesn't deserve to start.

@Steven-Harris said in Exodus:

heard from a good source he would have stayed in Rugby if his NPC contract had been topped up as he was only 41k with his NZ 7s contract

A fully contracted sevens player gets SR level salaries don't they? Edit: the lowest tier retainer is $50K.

Leo's PU contract would be a minimum of $25K.

Did any of you with Stan watch the Australia A games? A draw with Bristol and a big loss to England A wouldn't have been what was hoped for.

@MiketheSnow

You've talked up Llewelyn but he was poor in this game. He conceded two penalties by refusing to pass and getting turned over at the breakdown.

A handful of Welsh players stood up but there definitely isn't the quality there. Elias' throwing was shit in Aust too so it was stupid to sub Lake so early,

The only real positive was the scrum.

Most refs are now not rewarding teams for trapping a player in the ruck, or placing the ball into the tackler and expecting a penalty. That is a step in the right direction.

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

A nice business transaction to get a cheeky 20 mill.

~$1M per punch thrown.