The Silver Fern

@Bones And what combinations they developed have mainly been of the whiskey and coke variety

Couldn’t they came up with a better name for this combined team than AUNZ XV? ‘The Ockerz’ perhaps or ‘The Lamingtons’ or ‘The ‘Tazmans’ or ‘The Far Laps’?

That’s a mortal blow to the Wallabies and you have to feel for them. I’m not sure Donaldson offers much as a replacement.

@Victor-Meldrew Something rotten starts with M and ends with Y.

@Victor-Meldrew It’s a good read. And it’s ghost written by Gregor Paul, who had been one of his biggest critics. I was impressed by his insights. But he was clearly undone off the field by some very political operators at NZ Rugby who were all about maximising value from the Silver Lake private equity funders and on the field by the perennial second guessers at World Rugby

@sparky In which case, as Jet says above, we need to take the gloves off and stop being nice guys. Go the
Razzie route and start punching heads at
World Rugby. Sic the advertisers onto the unaccountable Hooray Henrys and bumbling administrators elevated way above their station who are terrified of lawyers and the club owners. That’s what’s going on here. And if they’re not corrupt, they’re incompetent. Take your pick. Neither is good.

@sparky Which is my point. Foster says in his book that the head of the referees panel at World Rugby told Jaco Peyper that four yellow cards should have been awarded against the ABs during the first test against Ireland at Eden Park in 2022 which they won 42-10.

*“I couldn’t believe World Rugby held that view of the game, and my antennae went up. It was surely a bad sign that the next Test’s match officials were being told by their boss that the All Blacks had got away with murder the week before. And, wouldn’t you know it, after 30 minutes of the Test in Dunedin, we had been shown two yellow cards and a red. It was the red card to prop Angus Ta’avao that threw the game into chaos, and highlighted rugby’s struggle to build a framework of laws that works for the modern game.”

Then, of course in the World Cup final the ABs were undone by a dubious red card decision and then a disallowed try when the TMO went back too many phases, according to the law, to judge a knock-on.

“The final was marred, as an occasion, by the inflexibility and the inadequacies of the current legislative framework around head collisions, and that was compounded by the difficulty officials have in applying the law consistently,” Foster writes. “As a sport, we have to be brave enough to admit we don’t have this area right yet. It is too often negatively impacting big games and putting people off watching rugby.”

I don’t think there is any question that officials, under the influence of senior decision-makers (who are in turn being pressured by the weight of money in northern hemisphere rugby) are policing the All Blacks differently. If happens far too frequently to be coincidental. And when you have an unassuming man like Foster, who to his credit still applauded South Africa, saying something in the administration of the sport is fundamentally broken, I think you need to sit up and pay attention.

There is no way, for instance, that three disallowed tries courtesy of TMO decisions would stand in the NRL without some official being hung from the nearest yard arm.

Rugby Union is corrupt. It still plays at being the gentleman’s game, but the money is talking.

Are the TMOs on commission for spotting errors leading up to All Blacks tries? I can wear the Newell knock-on and Proctor not controlling the ball on the line, but the ruling on the third Jordan try was dodgy. Anyone thinking this is just paranoia needs to read Ian Foster’s biography. World Rugby is corrupt. And it has everything to do with the weight of money in the north.

Rugby is fucked. Too many laws. Too many pedantic piston wristed gibbons making decisions. Just fuck off. This is farcical. It is a broken game. People are not going to watch this shit.

Lucky it’s France C, eh?

As a wing, Rieko makes a great centre

We need a Proctor Doctor

@Canes4life Perhaps a first test starting backline of Roigard, BB, Clarke, JB, Proctor, Reece, Jordan
and a backs bench of Ratima, McKenzie and Ioane

@Donsteppa Oh yes, I meant it literally.

Munster on the phone to McMillan seeking to renegotiate his contract?

Meanwhile, I feel fully updated on the Lions tour schedule and the SBW-Gallen fight. Disgracefully cynical by Stan.

I’m a journalist. If you’re reporting an event, you best actually be there.

@KiwiMurph Because it’s choice between a dickhead at the ground and a bunch of Australians in a studio 1200 miles away spending most of their time marketing the Lions tour. Get a grip

@mariner4life said in Final - Crusaders v Chiefs:

@His-Bobness said in Final - Crusaders v Chiefs:

Big mistake by Stan in Australia to have the game commentary run by people sitting in a studio in Sydney, mumbling on front of the video feed. Why can’t we have people at the ground providing the match call???

Isn't it fucking flat and boring?

You can tell they just don't care

Exactly. It’s not that they’re Australians. It’s because they are not THERE. It is ridiculous.

Big mistake by Stan in Australia to have the game commentary run by people sitting in a studio in Sydney, mumbling on front of the video feed. Why can’t we have people at the ground providing the match call???