In the cold light of the next day, it's perhaps worth a recap of yesterdays events.

There is a patch of carpet in my house, just to the right of coffee table which is now a little more worn. That was my spot. That's where I stood. It's right in front of the corner of our L shaped couch, which is my favourite spot to sit. However, between 4:30 and 7pm yesterday, the All Black forward pack couldn't have pushed me into the seat. If I stand there, we do ok.

It's amazing the superstitious bullshit that comes into one's head during a tense sporting match. Stand in the same spot, don't log off work, don't turn off the coverage, don't drink any water, don't change ANYTHING. We lost both wickets yesterday as I checked the score & Taylor was dropped when my family got home and they sat on the couch. I swear to god, if I'd sat down, Bumrah would have held the catch. Even as of this morning, I can't say I don't truly believe that.

I woke up yesterday with that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Timmy's couple of wickets the night before giving us a sniff. I'm always much better watching us bowl, than bat, but I couldn't do it yesterday. Went out for a 30 min bike ride at 10, which lasted nigh on 2 hours trying to keep my head off the cricket (sorry boss, not an overly effective day for me yesterday). By the time I got back, India were 5 down I still thought we had a sniff .... so I turned it on, put the laptop in front of me & settled in. And they walked off for lunch. Shit. 45 mins later, I settled in again, meeting coming up at 2pm, what could we do in that hour ... not much for a while. Head accepting the draw. BOOM, Wagner! Back in it. 2pm comes and goes, sit down. A few mins in, "so thats setup, Matt could you please ....FUCKING YESS!!!!!!" ... Oops. Supposed to be working. Trent in the wickets! Time for the inevitable slog from the tail enders. Come on guys, these runs are gold to India .... c'mon .....Timmy! Again, Timmy!

Breather. Shit. I promised the wife we'd go and get some clothes for her sisters 50th this weekend. I don't think I can watch it anyway. Resting heart rate is about 256 as it is. Off we go. 45 mins odd later. Gotta check. 19 without. Tea. Phew, negotiated that first session. At the picture framers now picking up the gift. "What do you think of it hon", she says "sorry, what, just checking the sco...FUCKKKKKKKKKK". Latham's out. Here we go. Phone away, pay attention. Drive home ... unpack car. TV on ... 44/1 .. awesome, under 100 to go. Big appeal and .... shit. Conway. Literally first ball of turning the TV on. What do I do?? Hit up the fern, and offer my predicament. Whilst doing this, an over passes with no drama. It's obvious now isn't it. Leave the TV on & we'll be fine. Hang on ... I've been watching the cricket from this spot, and then checking work / TSF in the over breaks. OK, thats what we do from here on in. Commentator is going on and on about run rates / dot balls. And it's working an absolute treat on me. Nervous shit needed. Can't do that, could cause a wicket. So stick with the plan. Getting fidgety. Drinks. What does that mean? Can I have a drink? Can I sit down? Not sure. Decide to change nothing. Wife leaves to get the kids. And suddenly the runs are flowing. Half way there. What the fuck is a mallet on the pitch for??? What does this mean? Can I drink some water now and have it offset by the mallet? Don't come back wife/kids, we are doing great. Oh, you're back. "Edged and ..... dropped". Jesus Christ. Do I need to kick the family out?? Not sure. Dot balls again. Dot ball commentator is back. Need a shit again ..... and we're scoring again. Under 50 to get. Surely our tail can get this now? Under 40 ... Under 30 .... ... Kane Dropped! It's in the stars, it's happening, nothing can stop us. 50 for Kane! only 7 or 8 to go. We're going to win! Can I have a drink now ... NO!!!!! Ross on strike, it's in the air ... it's 4! IT's over! We've won!! We've won!! We've won!!!

There is enough praise for the team above that there is little I can add honestly. It's a colossal moment in time for NZ cricket & it's so fitting that Ross & Kane had the unbroken partnership at the end. What a team. Perfect balance of youth, new players, legends, and team men. Although arguably they are all legends now.

Jamieson was officially MOTM and this arguably should be shared with Kane. Anchor in both of our innings. However, for me, its the players in the moments which really count, those who step up when the heat is on who should get this accolade. Think Carters drop goal / penalty in 2015 RWC, think Wilkinson for England in 03. Think Stokes for England. It's can be only person for me in this match. 3 times in the one test he had those moments. The value of his 30 runs in the the first innings cannot be underestimated. No lead, no psychological edge. India innings 2, both openers out lbw. No wickets, India without loss going into the last day with a handy lead. Different gravy. Remember I mentioned above India into he tail slog. Who cleaned up the last 2? Extra 20-30 runs on 4/5 less overs. Different gravy.

MajorRage MOTM of the WTC Final - Tim Southee.

What a day.

I was top tier in the temporary seats for 2011 final.

When Cruden got injured and tehre was a delay, i nipped down to get some beers ... in my haste to get back, I tripped over entering the stand (beers were ok though), and as I stood up and continued walking in, the cop/security guard standing there, put his hand out to stop me. I was expecting all sorts of shit, and questions as they were being pretty hard on drunken behaviour. Started panicking about kikicked out etc. Instead he slowly turned his head, looked me dead in the eye and said

"Before you go back to your seat, you need to know that Stephen Donald is now on the field"

SA Rugby In Shock After TMO Correctly Rules In Favour Of The Away Team

Shockwaves went through SA rugby today, when a TMO (television muppet official) correctly ruled against the home SA team for the first time ever in a televised game. Late on in the match, with the Lions looking to close out the match it looked for all money that the Lions had scored with time almost up to put the game beyond reach. Despite the ball clearly having not been grounded, expected transmission began with the assistant referee running in to let the referee know that the ball had indeed been grounded correctly, and he'd had a clear view.

However things began to unravel shortly after, when the referee decided that it was worth another look, leaving all viewers confused. After looking at 3 angles, of which the clearest had correctly been blocked by a spectators head, the TMO then sent seismic waves through the community by correctly saying the ball hadn't been grounded. The Blues then went on to score a last minute winner, although replays clearly showed there were at least 5 potential reasons for the referee to completely fuck up and call it back.

Lions coach Johan Ackermann when asked about the incident was inconsolable and somewhat confused. "I didn't really see it and haven't had time to review it, as like all good coaches I wasn't looking at the 42 live screens in front of me all showing the replays. This is however a huge shift change for SA refereeing, and I'm wondering if there is any point in even having home advantage anymore. Fans don't turn up, and if the referees are going to police things correctly and without bias, then we may as well just play away".

Team captain Warren Whitely concurred, simply saying "it's not my job to comment on referees decisions, but if the home teaming isn't getting all the 90/10's, let alone the 50/50's, it's going to be tough from here on in"

Blues coach Tana Umaga was delighted with the result, the first time in his tenure that his team actually did anything decent. "It's great to get a win against a well coached and strong Lions team, although I don't have time to talk right now, as I've got to help Sonny Bill get a flight to Port Elizabeth - he's got an old pal or something there he wants to catch up with".

SA referees were approached for comment, but politely declined as they, quite rightly commented that like all controversial decisions their view is firmly to have their heads up their arse.

And she's finished ... What a labour of love that was. I can't drive it properly yet as it needs to go through the Caterham check, then the government check (IVA), then registered etc. All of this is expected to take around 6-8 weeks, so it should be ready right about when spring is really kicking in. Perfect timing.

I did take it for a quick spin around the block though ... and the front wing fell off! Which I guess is good, as it gives me something else to fiddle around on.

It's been an absolute labour of love, full of swearing, foul language, frustration, irritation and pure anger.

But look at her. Isn't she beautiful. I can't wait to go and hang the arse out.

All this talk of respect - seriously, fuck off.

Year and years of Richie's a cheat, New Zealanders are classless, the constant fucking moaning against everything NZ rugby, the pissing and bitching from Aussies during RWC visit, I'm totally fucking over it.

I really can't be fucked with insults & advice from Australians about respect in sporting circles.

On the whole, I've done my best over the years to provide some reason where I think we are getting ahead of ourselves / shown arrogance / demeaned the opposition. But over this weekend, there has been a clear narrative to do everything in their power for global "neutrals" to demean the fantastic achievement of 18 wins in a row and divert attention away from it. The usual shit of Ab's offside (we were, we got penalised btw), AB's favouritism from refs, and then the final nail if this shower of shitness, the global attention on Chieka's whinge being FAR FAR greater than that of the achievement of this bunch of blokes.

And people want to talk to us about respect, or lack there of.

Regardless of you are a royalist or not, I think this deserves it's own thread.

A thread for passing respects on to the only Queen, I imagine every single one of us, has ever known.

@stargazer said in All Blacks v France Test #2:

@tim Good to know that basically nothing has changed since last weekend. Hope the media (esp those of the NH), which generally either lacks intelligence or pretends it lacks intelligence, understands it, too.

[tin foil hat]

Don't be so naive. The NH media has really ramped things up, and you want to know why? Because Gosper, Pichot and co, LISTEN TO THEM. They write unbelievably one-eyed biased bullshit, and will continuously attack attack attack at points which are not really relevant to the context of what happened in the game, to divert away from anything which could be written as positive. And, "co-incidentally" enough, it's always NZ, or if not NZ, at least the SH, which is in the bad.

It's fucking bullshit and frankly, for all that is written about NZ, rule leniency etc being a "blight in the game", it's the cancerous journo's who really are the blight on the game. Here's a short list I've compiled:

Luke Pearce, the English ref. Apparently in test one, he was "let down by his TMO peers", or "leaned by the pro AB crowd", or "succumbed to the world rugby sponsored view that the AB's play to different rules".

Paul Williams, the NZ ref for Ireland - Aus "a disgrace to the game" - this was tweeted DIRECTLY at Gosper. Wanna know why? Because he didn't give Ireland a yellow card for continual Aussie transgressions. Maybe a point, but a DISGRACE? Especially after a week of continual media hum drum about the "unfair yellow" (where the poor young outstanding english ref was let down by everybody around who wasn't english) ruining the game in NZ.

Gardner - "should have certainly taken ALB's run into account", "a red card for ALB shouldn't have been out of the question given his part in it" ... this isn't from rabid one eyed fans, this is from JOURNALISTS ... who are sending messages to Gosper!! Seriously, here's the fucking video:

ALB did JACK SHIT. His eyes were on the fucking ball too, it doesn't even look like he touched him, let alone ran from 50 yards away to directly push poor skinny Fall into Barrett to milk the red card. The world rugby media release here is COLOSSAL BULLSHIT, written purely to appease the same NH media they infuritated with their COLOSSAL BULLSHIT media release from a week earlier about Ofa.

And you want to hear the ultimate shit in the face ? During the England - Tunisia football match, Harry Kane was tackled in the penalty box, rugby style .. One Walrus wrote ... "Some of the high tackling on Harry Kane in the Tunisian box would have even got an All Black carded. Lord Harry I should say"

Not a big deal really, for the pompous alanis morrisette style irony fellow, but you know who liked it?

His BFF Brett Gosper.

[/tin foil hat]

@antipodean said in Bledisloe I:

we don't have many right wingers running around,

Try the politics forum.

Parents have booked a flight out of NZ on the 14th April.

Fingers crossed.

@majorrage said in Racism in England Cricket:

Comes as zero surprise to me.

My son is a member of a club and it’s got quite a few non whites in it. The kids mix and don’t see anything. But at the prize giving it was like a licorice all sort crowd. White parents here, brown parents there.

I will add tho, that it cut both ways.

This post wasn't really clear.

One thing that always irks me a bit is the idea that we are all the same and must be treated the same. Well, that's just not true. Everybody deserves equal opportunities and the same sense of justice / appreciation, but reality is that a lot of immigrant / immigrant descendant people in this country have fuck all in common with the British when it comes to socialising - which is a huge part of team Sport. Vaughn is really in the firing line, but I wonder if his point was perhaps about trying to talk about integration, and he crossed a line.

I'll try and explain this without coming across like a bigoted arsehole. I have a 7 and a 9 year old and there is a huge community feel to our school. And I won't lie, it's awesome. They made us feel really welcome, we have a large circle of friends because of it and it's very very diverse. We have camps, dinners, balls etc. Standard stuff. I would say in each year, there are 5 Pakistani / Muslim families. I get on well with them, often chatting at pick up, talking about all sorts. But here's the thing.

They never go to the camps. Ever. They never go to the balls. Ever. They never go to the charity events. Ever. Occasionally you'll get 1-2 at the dad meet ups, and they don't drink and usually go home early. None of this changes what I think of them, it's just a fact. I'll probably see a couple of drop off tomorrow and we'll talk about the cricket as well as other things. And it'll be nice.

But some lines are never ever crossed, and others rarely. I'm not sure that sort of spirit really works in a team-sport environment & i can see how that could create tension. It doesn't excuse crossing lines, never. But perhaps when comments such as England cricket is institutionally racist there is a bit more to it. I know the world is supposed to be one big friendly melting pot, especially Britain & the US. But almost all of the social problems of these 2 countries come from the fact that multi ethnicity integration has its drawbacks. This to me, just seems like another in an ever-growing list.

Doesn't make those making the comments right, not at all. But lets face it, cricket is a basically a piss up played by lads. You are either one of them, or you aren't.

Would recommend everybody reads this.

I’ve not fact checked any of it, but it’s a pretty interesting read

@MN5 said in Grumpy Old Man:

@taniwharugby said in Grumpy Old Man:

@MN5 well TBF I assume #2 would take it, cos it got really popular again...
lots of the top 20 way out of where I had them

Yeah I accept that young munters will vote their shit bands and I’m going full GOM.

But how the fuck a song that came out four years before I was born took number one just baffles me.

It’s not a terrible song but it’s pretty ordinary….and simple.

I love it. Great tune.

Not many songs you hear and the first time think, that is a totally awesome song. And still think the same after the 50+ listen many moons later.

@NTA said in Grumpy Old Man:

@antipodean said in Grumpy Old Man:

In all seriousness, I'm sure your daughter is smart enough to acknowledge that not having personal hygiene is disrespectful to everyone else...

I also think she is, however there is a cultural (ethnic) issue at play that might preclude rational intervention

Is she British?

@TeWaio said in British Politics:

Hearing triple pension lock likely to go, HS2 scrapped, Bailey being made the fall guy for the utterly bonkers gilt/sterling volatility and Truss/Kwarteng staying the course. Good all around I reckon.

All irrelevant to British economics until NHS is put under real review.

REality is that GBP / USD rate is not as important as the GBP / EUR rate which has remained much less volatile. The Gilt market is another matter though, of course.

Not sure I agree Bailey is the right scape goat for the last few weeks, but he's certainly played his part over the last year.

Biggest thing for me which seemingly has gone un noticed, is that since Kwarteng met with the head of Investment banks, that GBP has been significantly calmer and has actually strengthened. It's now not far off where it was vs EUR a week ago. (1.13 vs 1.146).

Have the bankers started buying in?

@Frank said in The hot takes and unpopular opinions:

Robin Williams was never that funny. (1 in 10 jokes landed)

Thumbs Up.

Nick Cave is pretentious as fuck.

Thumbs N/A.

Friends was weak American comedy, still is American comedy, and will always be weak American comedy.

Thumbs Down.

John Cleese has not even been mildly funny since A Fish Called Wanda.

Thumbs Up.

British gameshows with comedians on them generally add up to way less than the sum of their parts.

Thumbs Very Much So Down.

So we are neutral. Two up's, two downs and a not bothered.

The level you are wrong though on the last one, means that overall it's a no from me.

@Frank said in Cringy New Zealand TV moments……:

@MN5 said in Cringy New Zealand TV moments……:

@Frank said in Cringy New Zealand TV moments……:

Worst NZ TV I have ever seen was the last few minutes of the Covid fundraiser where they made a train and did the "Thank you very much" dance.
So contrived, so awful.
But, luckily, I can't find it on YouTube,

That sounds absolutely horrific.

Found it. Go to 7hours 58 minutes.

Christ on a bike.

Cringeworthy doesn't even begin to cover it.

@Nepia said in Travel:

@voodoo said in Travel:

@Nepia said in Travel:

@voodoo said in Travel:

Haru

Good to know they're still chugging along.

Always packed when I go back, bookings essential!

For more dodgier but very authentic cuisine , Beijing Hotpot is also awesome

Don't think I ever booked there, when I was living in hell.

I tend to avoid hotpots as there's so many of them in Sydney these days.

I do not understand hot pot / steamboat. My wife absolutely fucking loves it. I think it's basically taking a whole bunch of average Asian ingredients and then boiling it in some random flavoured soup.

Or, getting the chili option, and boiling it in some random flavoured soup with a chili oil slick on top of it.

@chimoaus said in Memes:

@taniwharugby said in Memes:

Brings back memories of the tan satchel bag I had with the word Metallica across the top flap in the 90's. I think I was also rocking out the super tight straight black jeans.

Those bags were awesome. Some great artwork on them too as others have alluded to.

Wonder what happened to the bloke who had a whole bunch of Swastika's on his.

@mariner4life said in Foster:

@number9 said in Foster:

@Kruse your reply tells me you embrace mediocrity.

embrace it? I am constantly striving for it!

We literally have a poster by our desks at work which says Striving for Mediocrity

@Kruse said in Travel:

@Nepia said in Travel:

@Kruse said in Travel:

@dogmeat said in Travel:

Mangonui Fish and Chip shop is massively over-rated.

Yep - definitely living off it's reputation now.
But, from memory (January 2021) - not quite to the point where it's serving paltry portions of shit... it's just... decent fresh fush'n'chups, with high prices and high wait-times.

My main issue with it is that it didn't feel like NZ fush'n'chups, and just felt like we were in an Aussie fesh'n'chep shop aside from the pineapple rings.

As I said earlier in the thread my non NZ friends didn't find it any different than Aussie style - prices were similar too. But thankfully we rectified that down in Hawkes Bay so they didn't think we were lying to them about NZ fish and chips all these years.

Sadly - I think a few of the classic/good NZ-style ones went under during lockdown didn't they? I think a couple of the classic Hawkes <...> ones did?
I think I've just thought of a summer bike mission - riding around the country visiting all the traditional/famous "classic NZ fush'n'chup places" - and see which ones are still up/running, which have been bought out for better/worse, etc.

Sounds like an awesome way to get fat. I'm in.