The Silver Fern

Anyway, I’m going to get drunk with my wife. Fucking fuckety fuck fuck fuck.

Thanks for your company, safe journey home. You massive fucking fluffybunnies

I mean, no one has said it that I’ve seen, but the Boks are fucking roided up to the nuts, their coaches cheat with HIAs, their coaches attack referees, their players are mostly fluffybunnies, there isn’t a single neutral fan who wants them to win.

Phew. That was closer than I thought…

Cheer up you mother fuckers

Gutted, good first XV but our bench is weak and our accuracy is terrible when in good positions at the moment and it’s cost us in both tests. We desperately need to find a tight head from somewhere.

All Blacks did what they do, scrum half change was critical, Barret was class. Opportunity missed but I’m looking forward to the November test.

I’ve spent 20 years on this site hoping for people to beat the Kiwis, but I’d support a fucking Nazi XV over this bunch of Saffa fluffybunnies

You can’t bounce up out of a tackle with the ball still in your hands and go for the line. Second movement, playing the ball on the floor, not releasing, whatever the fuck you want to call it

Really hope the ABs spend the week scrummaging and box kicking the leather off the ball. Play in the right areas of the field and you win this game. Despite my Hitler and Stalin jibe, I can’t stand the thought of Rassie winning another. Ideally I’d love to see him so upset he makes another video

So much better than I expected us to be, they gave me hope and it hurts now but I’m proud of how they muscled up and turned up. Right now feel hard done by but we had plenty of opportunities not to shoot ourselves in the foot.

Congrats to SA, they find a way. They’ll be hard to beat but they didn’t look the monster pack they have done and I think NZ have at least a 50:50 chance

Think the grief being aimed at Ratima and praise at Cam is unfair tbh, forwards were sloppy in the first half, Ireland were all over the breakdown and he was getting shit ball under pressure, second half ABs tightened up and went forward, almost an armchair ride

There should be a big conversation about head shots among other things. The reffing of head shots has been inconsistent all tournament and world rugby got the perfect storm in the final, two head shots reffed differently resulting in losing a player for 60 odd minutes and one for 10.

Before the tournament both would have been red, in the first week, both would have been red, then the interpretation became more desperate to keep players on the field. As far as the latter stages go, I wasn’t surprised by either decision. It’s a really horrible problem to solve, as they have to stop head shots, but unless they fundamentally change the tackle height law these things are going to happen.

On the style of the game itself, someone mentioned in the game thread that we will be turning new spectators off, well, my dad who’s watched rugby for 80 odd years and played a high standard can’t really be fucked with it anymore. So many technical interpretations, so much reward for up and unders, and so much risk in holding onto the ball and being tackled behind the gain line, so many opportunities for teams to maintain a defensive intensity through slowing the game down and swapping out players around the ruck. Need to have a look at the sub laws, there are too many and too much gaming of them. Bongi did not go off for a tactical sub, how on earth could that decision be allowed. Also, too much reward for having a better scrum, you don’t get a penalty awarded against you anywhere else for not being as good at a technical skill, trouble is, if you remove the jeopardy then you encourage an extra three loose forwards on the pitch further reducing the space for attacking play. Again, reducing subs feels like a better option than solely changing the punishment.

The TMO is a weird problem, once you involve tech, then accepting bad decisions becomes harder and harder, as a result you have TMOs going back to intervene in phases leading up to tries etc - if you don’t though, you have huge complaints afterwards that the wrong decision was made in the build up.

I don’t know how to solve most of these, but rugby is risking eating itself and losing fans left right and centre.

I haven’t been on this site for a while until the last week or so, I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve found the wrong Silver Fern. NZ will batter Italy, it will not be close.

@Nepia said in RWC SF: All Blacks v Argentina:

@Machpants said in RWC SF: All Blacks v Argentina:

If not ABs, then England. I know they are a completely boring team with a right bunch of tossers who go on all the time. But if SA win, then they are the undisputed greatest rwc team ever. More wins than us, done the double, and in a few less games. And I'll take boring both over Rassie the cheating twat anyday

I don't care about any of that shit, we have the winning record over them, they're better at lottery comps. I'd rather you piss on my leg than England win.

I'm happy to help you kill two birds with one stone, i'll buy you a pint and try and convince you not all England fans are dicks, then i'll piss on your leg.

As for this weekend, you're going to walk it.

@sparky said in RWC SF: All Blacks v Argentina:

All Blacks World Cup Semi Final day. That will always make me think of this.

“Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity.”

Rest well, Jonah, and thank you.

One of the most humbling days as an England rugby fan. We actually played quite well, but he destroyed us, it’s a weird feeling watching your team get taken apart and falling in love with one of the opposition players at the same time. Comfortably my favourite ever rugby player, from any nation.

Amazing. What a game, well deserved. Feel for Ireland but congrats to NZ. Smarter, worked their bollocks off, played knock out rugby.

Wanted Ireland to win but watching Sexton Chuck his dummy hours after watching Bigger do the same was not a chore

have basically spent the last 5 years tearing my hair out watching england, no obvious future talent, no obvious tactics, no obvious commitment to the grunt, let alone any ambition to put people through gaps.

Bloody Borthwick has given me a sniff of optimism in the last 3 games, we have some genuine prospective talent around, Martin and Itoje in the second row, our back row looks class with Earl in form, our halfback is starting to look like he can play rugby, we have a centre combination, our wingers are quick, our full back has changed from a lumbering chap who's good under the high ball to a guy who two years ago i wouldn't have picked for a local club side but has put on some weight and has improved out of sight.

Playing in NZ will be a fascinating test for them, i hope they enjoy it, i hope they turn up. I have no real knowledge of the new ABs in the squad and don't know how much of a reset this really is, but playing in NZ is always bloody hard.

As they say, its the hope that kills you

Well fuck you lot, I put £20 on NZ after the France game because you were all so bloody miserable. Now I don’t even know if I can bring myself to watch the final between Hitler and Stalin

@Bones said in RWC QF: Wales v Argentina:

@Damo said in RWC QF: Wales v Argentina:

I'm OK with that. It looked bad at first but the player dipped suddenly. Not consistently refereed like that.

That's a sloppy as fuck clean out, reckless and dangerous

I’ve literally no idea what the ref is going to give anymore. That could have been red, in the end not even a penalty. Weird

Saw two or three beautiful stats about the latest England team vs India:

1. Two of the bowlers selected were born after James Anderson made his England test debut
2. Andrew Strauss retired >10 years ago, having played >100 tests and he made his debut for England after James Anderson...

Anderson is a freak.

@voodoo said in RWC Final: All Blacks v Springboks:

@Dodge said in RWC Final: All Blacks v Springboks:

I’ve spent 20 years on this site hoping for people to beat the Kiwis, but I’d support a fucking Nazi XV over this bunch of Saffa fluffybunnies

Friday Night Drunk Dodge is far and away my favourite Dodge

Fuck you. It’s Friday morning