The Silver Fern

Breaking.

WR have closed their investigation. Mbonambi cleared to play.

I am uncomfortable with writing off people who make mistakes.

On Sevu Reece for example. I haven't seen the court docs but I gather it was a rather low level incident against his partner after which he attended an anger management course, turned his life around and has remained with the same partner ever since.

I don't have an issue with him being an All Black. Reeces story is not uncommon in my experience. People do dumb things, get the help they need and don't get in trouble again and end up in fulfilling relationships with the person they abused.

The last thing we want to do is cut that pathway off for people, whether they be All Black's, nurses, lawyers or whatever. There's nothing more guaranteed to cause conflict than evonomic deprivation and stopping people from earning a living.

Full disclosure - I am a family lawyer.

There is no provision to bring a try back because a ref impedes a defender. Does not exist in the law book.

I think the first 3 scrums show a pretty clear PK.

To the AB's.

The Bok prop alters his bind to Moody's arm and then exerts downward pressure. He had an excellent long bind, and then in each case he released and went onto Moody's elbow. Of course Moody's elbow went down to the ground, it had nowhere else to go. I suspect Garces saw the elbow on the ground, was not sure which team was infringing and so with the ball at the back he just played on.

The 2 scrums cited where SA got on top and the video make claimed a PK were ridiculous. The AB's went backwards but did not infringe. They did very well to get the ball out of the scrum asap to avoid a PK.

Both knockons were very marginal and should have been let go - I thought so at the time. I also thought the A Smith one might have been a knockon, though probably it was . To be consistent, having called the other two, Garces probably should called the A Smith one.

The in the side offences aren't really comparable. It's apples to oranges.

The first SA one shows the Bok player coming in from the side and going right onto the ball (he also went straight onto his hands as well, but that is by the by). Had he been allowed to profit from his in the side, his team would have probably won the ball. The other examples are very different.

The Moody one was in the side, but it was to clear out a player who was already ineffective and the ball won. I can easily see a ref just waving that on. Marginal shoulder charge that happens in just about every ruck. Not great, but hardly worth worrying about.

The Coles one certainly looks bad (and was very material because it cleared out a player on the ball) but probably wasn't in the side. He get's one foot behind the last part of the tackle before making contact with the tackle. That is enough in my view to not be in the side.

I haven't gone through the game on slow motion, but I refuse to believe that only the AB's were coming in the side to clear out like that. In fact, if they were the only team doing it, that could be seen as an indictment on the Boks for not reading the situation properly.

Notably not shown are:

• The first PK the Boks got, in which the jackler clearly went off his feet and played the ball;

• The dubious lineout PK against Whitelock, which should have been a Free Kick To NZ (not bringing the jumper down safely);

• The non YC given when 5m from the line;

• The 3-4 high tackles from the Boks that were not picked up.

So the video is a bit of right, a bit of wrong, but mainly just a lot of yawn. Anyone with enough time, and an axe to grind can make a video like this after every test match showing "grievances".

Frankly I wonder if the video might have been made by a fan from another country to troll the South African fans a little bit.

Is it OK to admit that I have a mancrush on Goodhue?

@Kirwan said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

@Damo said in All Blacks vs Ireland - series decider:

I turned the TV off. For those still watching - can anyone tell me if Foster has done the decent thing and resigned yet?

Not interviewed yet.

First question at the press conference is surely

"Just a question around timing. Will you resign now or are you going to give it a few days and resign next week".

That was a good game for us really.

• BBBR had a run and looked pretty good for 30 minutes.

• ALB confirmed he is in stellar form

• The team scrambled well on defence

• We were under pressure for a while

• We were able to change strategy at half time

• No injuries, and probably no citings

• Jordie showed he is maturing and can play with poise if required

• 11 tries.

It's all good fellas. Couldn't ask for much more than that.

Highlanders look lethargic and generally useless.

On the plus side, there are some really unique pieces on Antiques Roadshow. I will keep you all informed if there are any high value items.

Fairly even first day.

Australia scored some runs but we knocked off the bulk of their batting.

We could potentially clean up the remaining 7 wickets this morning and be batting after lunch.

The plan from the Black Caps will be to bat big and bat once. Say we bowl out Aussie for 400 this morning then we should look to score 600 or so and then roll them in the second innings with our 2 pronged spin attack on a turning pitch.

Our path to victory seems fairly straightforward.

Taukei’aho was all over the place in that phase. He is fast looking very good.

I have to say I thought there were 2 red cards from Ireland tonight that were more culpable than Ta'avao's last week.

I get that the first one was missed but I cannot understand how the guy who colided with Brodies' face didn't get a Red Card.

To be honest you can't really argue with the call.

Ref had been telling the Aussies and warning them to play quickly all game.

He then told them to play quickly. He blew time off told him to play quickly. Then blew time on again and Foley still continued to waste time.

What else was the ref to do?

Good night all. I might be back in a week or so, but I am pretty angry right now.

What a shit show.

@antipodean said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Still feel they should've picked Plummer. Not impressed by DMac so far.

Really? DMac has been excellent.

This thread has been up for 20 hours.

How is it possible that this video has not yet been posted. I am almost ashamed to be a part of this community.

[

People are asking what Smith should have done. See the clip below for what he should have done*:

Dagg knew early on in the chase that he wasn't a realistic chance to compete for the ball so he pulled back and timed his run so as to tackle the catcher the moment his legs hit the ground. It's what Smith should have done. He played with fire and got burnt.

IMO It was a dreadful challenge and deserved a Red Card. Not because of an "interpretation" or because of some silly rule the refs have to follow - he deserved a Red Card because he recklessly committed an act that could have snapped a guys neck if anything had gone majorly wrong.

*Clip shamelessly stolen from the Rugbyrefs forum.

I am of the view that destabilisation is exactly what this team needs. Something to shock it into life.

Savea has his critics and rightfully so, but he has the best leg drive of any player in the game. His ability to make metres in the tackle is very impressive.

North look much better with Smith on over TJP.

Defence let the Crusaders down today. They really should not have let in 4 tries.