The Silver Fern

@MN5 said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:

@sparky said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:

Zander Fagerson out of the Lions squad due to injury. Replaced by an Aussie who plays for Ireland.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c9q09ry8y21o

Shit, one of the few true blue Scots in the team gone. That's it, I'm off the bandwagon.

Go Australia!

Still not clear whether you are backing the Lions or the Wallabies....

@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:

I think mostly, there's an overarching fear of losing test matches - that's been exacerbated by our extraordinary success of especially 2011-2015. It's a professional game, we've shared our IP with the world, what exactly is our competitive advantage at the highest level? Not any of us posting on the Fern, I suspect.

The issue is - the fear of losing test matches is getting in the way of winning test matches.

Ironically last year was probably the year to try things - first year of a 4 year deal, the two Bok games were away (which we lost anyway) and Razor had 12 months between finishing Crusaders and starting the ABs.

Razor will be building his whole 2025 TRC around keeping Bledisloe and beating Boks at Eden Park - given 2024 I see very few risks being taken in the 23 for those games - which in and of itself could see us get Ws for those games but in the background we still have the same underlying issues that never get addressed (i.e. loose forward balance, midfield, impact from bench loose forward and bench utility etc etc) which could bite us down the track

@Chris-B said in All Blacks 2025:

@No-Quarter He'd signed in Japan!

After getting the quiet word he wasn't in the AB plans.....

In my view it's going to come down to tight 5 and discipline. If Blues can avoid penalties (including scrum penalties) and get set piece parity then they have a shot. Otherwise Crusaders will kick to the corner and maul Blues into the ground.

https://www.theroar.com.au/2025/06/09/selection-shock-schmidt-favourite-emerges-as-wallabies-captaincy-front-runner-ahead-of-lions-series/

Jake Gordon has emerged as the frontrunner to lead the Wallabies against the touring British and Irish Lions in what looms as the biggest captaincy selection shock since the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

AAP understands that, unless Joe Schmidt has a late rethink, Gordon will be unveiled as Australia’s 91st Test captain for the showpiece three-match series starting in Brisbane on July 19.

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks 2025:

@No-Quarter said in All Blacks 2025:

My prediction for AB selection is that after Super form meant absolutely nothing last year, if the Crusaders manage to win the thing this year it will suddenly mean a lot, with comments like "red and black player X really stood up in the finals which is akin to test footy" from our completely unbiased coaching group.

Apparently it did mean a lot last season, how did Tuipoluto make the ABs otherwise…….

By being the second most experienced lock in the country with over 40 test caps following the departure of both Whitelock and Retallick....

Very cool that the All Whites were there in support

I don't think David Kirk was a very big fan so the writing was on the wall when he became NZR Chair

I have some sympathy having to deal with some very difficult situations (Covid etc) but I think this is for the best.

@African-Monkey said in Blues 2025:

I tell you what, if you mixed Sam Nock's skillet with Funaki's aggression and fight, we'd have a hell of a halfback on our hands.

Fixed.

@reprobate said in QF Chiefs v Blues:

@KiwiMurph said in QF Chiefs v Blues:

I thought it was interesting when Beauden was interviewed post game the first person he mentioned when asked about his kick strategy was Vern Cotter - really crediting him

Was there something particularly good or new about Beauden's kicking strategy that I missed? Obviously 2 x great chips for himself, but an overall strategy? Kicking the ball away under advantage is a strategy of sorts I guess, but not a good one. I didn't see anything new, (though the chips were much better placed than usual).

I thought the mix of kicks by Beauden were good. He found grass a lot, he mixed things up - there were chips, bombs, cross kicks, long kicks.

I didn't mind the tactic last night to kick a lot - trying to play too much in your own half away from home in playoff rugby can be fraught with danger

I thought it was interesting when Beauden was interviewed post game the first person he mentioned when asked about his kick strategy was Vern Cotter - really crediting him

@Wapiti said in All Blacks 2025:

@canefan Short memories. This time last year the same people were bitching and moaning about Sititi being picked over Sotutu, how did that turn out? I think i will back the AB coaches over silverfern couch selectors...

What you are not addressing is that it doesn't have to be Sotutu vs Sititi.

You can pick both in the squad.

Instead we end up with these versatile/hybrid loosies that leave you wanting more.

At loosie we have Sititi, Savea and then a whole bunch of just dudes.

@Tim said in QF Brumbies vs Hurricanes:

@KiwiMurph said in QF Brumbies vs Hurricanes:

If I was making an argument for Kirifi in the ABs it would be as a specialist bench loosie to attack the breakdown.

Agreed. Do you think that Super Rugby jacklers would be able to be effective enough over the ball at test level? Would be very interesting to see, and worth trying.

Same goes for Wallabies by the way. That Luke Reimer is a real asset who should be used for them.

If I was making an argument for Kirifi in the ABs it would be as a specialist bench loosie to attack the breakdown.

Reckon their could be real value there and could be an option if you ran a 6-2 bench

I don't think the AB coaches have the balls to do something like that though

Kirifi always speaks well - he's a class act.

2nd year in a row some big names in the Canes couldn't transfer their regular season form to playoffs

@Steven-Harris said in QF Brumbies vs Hurricanes:

Biggest disappointment was not to see 3 full stadiums over the weekend still plenty of work for organisers to be done in that space

Well not much you can do when 2 of the 3 are the worst stadiums in the comp playing night winter games

Thankfully one of them is getting replaced

Yeah I wouldn't write the Brumbies off

@Canes4life said in QF Brumbies vs Hurricanes:

And our season ends in Canberra once again. I’m not fucking surprised. Fucking shit hole of a place, burn it to the ground so we don’t play them there again. Fuck off Brumbies and your dickhead fans.

Taking it well then

Hard luck Canes

For the comp it's good to have a non Kiwi team in the semis