The Silver Fern

@booboo Loving this from the French. After decades of eye-gouging, biting, testicle maiming and laughably bad on-field theatrics, it will be approximately 100 years until the ledger can be considered balanced. Woe-is-fucking-me.

@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@antipodean said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@antipodean said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@nzzp said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@nzzp said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@antipodean said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

That's not a YC ffs

I think it probably is from the end on shot - but for the game he should have sent two ABs off as well.

Terrible call -- he was pulling out and put a hand out to soften the impact. Just in no way a yellow.

Referees are going to cost some teams at this cup, and it's going to suck.

He hit him with the shoulder even while pulling out. I don't disagree that refs will cost teams but by the letter of the law it's yellow.

Probably - I'd argue little force and pulling out - but to me shows how refs don't seem to have 'feel' for the game any more. I don't think that's the sort of tackle that was intended to be carded, no matter how the laws are written.

I think Gardner does and this decision just now shows that.

Disagree - if not a card it's a clear penalty.

You've changed your tune - in the Tongan one the Tongan player lead with a shoulder, all his fault, in this one JB tripped over another player.

I haven't changed my tune at all and all you've done is offer a biased description of both incidents.

If you read what I actually wrote I said both are penalties.

What should JB be penalised for?

Looking like he belongs in a 1980s jazzercise class

@98blueandgold said in All Blacks Squad for France:

Ardie can play 8 of the bench which is very important for makeup of team.

This is the bit I don't get. Haven't seen anything to suggest Ardie is effective at the core roles of an 8, just seems convenient because his Super coaches have put him there a few times.

TJ quoted in Stuff "Other teams will look at the way Ireland played, look at how many phases they went through and think, ‘man, if we can take the ball away from the All Blacks we make it harder for them to win football games’"

Jesus, ya think? This has only been the common theme of every defeat suffered by this team for the last five years. Thanks for finally noticing, please be sure to pass your intel on to Fozzie.

@nzzp said in Wallabies v Pumas, Perth:

@taniwharugby said in Wallabies v Pumas, Perth:

Later, Cooper picked up the sixth yellow card of his test career for a no-arms tackle during the match. He is now just one shy of the world record. Hooper has five yellow cards in his career. Wallabies prop Scott Sio was sin-binned in Perth for tackling a player without the ball.

I'll just leave this here.

Rugby Teams, Scores, Stats, News, Fixtures, Results, Tables

ESPN Scrum.com brings you all the latest rugby news and scores from the Rugby World Cup, all 2015 Internationals, Aviva Premiership, European Rugby Champions Cup, RFU Championship, Super Rugby, Six Nations and Top 14.

Of course that list would read a lot differently if New Zealand did not control world rugby to the extent that it does.

@wreck-diver said in All Blacks v France Test #1:

Well if you think this was deliberate you need to go for an HIA yourself because you are concussed. But that wont stop the snow flakes in twitter world screaming

That noise you heard in Wairarapa was the sound of Mark Reason's ball sack exploding in excitement at the prospect of another glorious chapter for his 'All Blacks are Thugs ' series of balanced, evidence-based columns.

@tim Got to wonder why this perpetual sook still thinks his best strategy for defeating the All Blacks is trying to antagonise them via the media. You're 0-10 Warren, try something new.

@pakman said in All Blacks v France Test 3:

Likewise, wasn't Coltman training with the squad to cover Harris's situation? If so, why has Riccatelli leapfrogged him?

Has he leapfrogged him? I assumed he was brought in to fill the third hooker gap. Good on the guy but I'm disturbed to see him there. When he's on it looks like an over-fed toddler has invaded the pitch.

@His-Bobness said in All Blacks 2023:

Apologies if already posted, but former SMH rugby writer (and former Kiwi) Spiro Zavos, writing for the Roar, has this assessment of the dual playmaker experiment:

https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/09/13/spiro-zavos-skelton-a-force-of-nature-all-blacks-strategic-error-that-has-put-their-world-cup-in-peril/

All respect for Spiros' history, but this is really phoning it in. ChatGPT could write the same column based on what's in this thread alone. The only new insight was the rationale for the high kick tactic as a response to the hot conditions, but he doesn't give a source for that info, and it doesn't gel with all the other times they've used the same tactic in the cold.

@rapido said in All Blacks v France Test 3:

@rocky-rockbottom said in All Blacks v France Test 3:

@rapido said in All Blacks v France Test 3:

the other upsides he brings to the commentary.

Seriously. He is by far the best out there describing what plays it looks like teams are attempting to set up, what's going on off screen tactically and positionally, or what has happened. He's very quick to spot this shit.

Me and my 32 inch screen and open plan lounge value his input. Maybe you guys spot shit I totally miss until Sir Justin brings it to my attention.

Andrew Mehrtens can do that. I would much rather listen to Andrew Mehtrens. He has the humour of a slightly dodgy raconteur combined with a razor sharp analysis and, crucially, a knowledge of the actual laws as opposed to the ones in Marshall World. Why can't we have more Andrew Mehrtens?

@mikethesnow Fun for you guys but I have a German and a South Korean in my team and this morning has been tense. Luckily the Mexican is not here today.

@kev said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

@Entertainer15 disagree. We lost it in the forwards an with poor tactical kicking. Their forwards created go forward, won their lineouts and they were tactically miles ahead.

This. Their props, Itoje and Underhill were monumental. Easy to point fingers at outside backs but, as always, small numbers won it.

@antipodean said in The Cane vs Savea Debate:

@Machpants said in The Cane vs Savea Debate:

@antipodean said in The Cane vs Savea Debate:

@Machpants said in The Cane vs Savea Debate:

And Ardie is in no way passive. His hits are more often dominant than cane in SRA

Nonsense.

Whelp, that's what the stats said.

Cane's Super Rugby Aotearoa stats show that he has made the third-most tackles in the competition, behind fellow open sides Dalton Papalii and Dillon Hunt, despite sitting out the opening two rounds.

He is making dominant tackles at a solid rate of 19%, but that sits below other loose forwards Ardie Savea (31%), Mitch Brown (28%), Papalii (25%), Du'Plessis Kirifi (25%), and Tom Christie (25%).

Whose stats are those, Helen fucking Kellers? Not even Ardie's mum thinks he makes dominant tackles a third of the time.

Last time this got discussed, it was mentioned by someone in the AB coaching panel that Cane (and perhaps some of these others) operates really effectively in the close channels - they liked the fact that Cane was making dominant tackles on props and locks. I wonder what those SRA stats would look like if they were stratified on that basis.

@Damo said in All Blacks v Ireland - 2nd Test:

I don't rule out the possibility NZR might ask Foster to go. That was a pretty shambolic performance. A repeat next week and/or in the RC and Robertson might sweep in.

Schmidt is already in the system, might agree to an interim head coach role. NZR could see this a way to save a little face.

@majorrage said in Sport Sense of Humour Failures:

Starting this off in the sports forum as it'd be good to keep it on topic related only to sporting things and I think it's a good idea ...

Anyway, to start it off - Dale Steyn. It seems that resident commentator Simon Doull noted that he'd grown his hair out and called it a mid life crisis hairstyle ... Steyn has responded with the below rant. Doull has not responded (publicly at least).

Is there something I've missed? Is hairlength-ism some sort of bigoted thing in SA that cannot be joked about? Or is this just an epic sense of humour failure?

I'll take this seriously when I see the armbands being rolled out

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

@ACT-Crusader My thoughts too. There doesn’t appear to be any sense they are playing for each other, but alongside each other. They’re passive and tentative. There is no cohesion or sense of a shared mission. It’s poor coaching and leadership

Bang on, was at the match tonight, and that was really obvious. Complete lack of confidence and a sameness about every laboured play. Guys were consistently running onto or with the ball at half or 3/4 pace.

In stark contrast the Irish side knew exactly what they needed to do in every situation. They were fast and precise. Like our team used to be.

I went away disappointed but also feeling the right coaching panel can make a big impact really quickly.

@stargazer It bugs me that Alemanno doesn't have a first name starting with P.

@Bovidae said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:

As has been mentioned in the media over the last few days, I am expecting the ABs to bounce back like they did in Dublin last year after the loss in Chicago. That doesn't mean it will be easy but BBBR's comments yesterday reiterate that the players themselves know what is required to give themselves the best chance to win.

These bounce-back scenarios are pretty fascinating. For me it's about the balance between confidence vs fear of losing and how that changes between matches.

Going into Match1 you sensed the All Blacks were a bit more fearful with a relatively unknown opponent while the Lions were pretty confident on the basis of good wins against Maori and Crusaders, who they wrongly perceived as being pretty close to the All Blacks level.

The Lions then went into Match 2 with the balance heavily towards fear of losing and the All Blacks, although they'll deny it forever, were carrying too much confidence from their previous effort. For Match 3 the All Blacks will be back in the fear zone in a big way and if they can channel that into focus and not jitters, they'll win.

Amateurish pop psychology aside, I hope they select a Fekitoa - Lienert Brown midfield and leave the rest unchanged.

@antipodean said in Scotland v Australia:

@mrdenmore Kearns is making a power play to be the next ARU CEO according to the rumour mill. That should fix everything.

If it gets him off our screens and out of my ears, then all power to him. Someone please promote this career path to Meg Marshall on this side of the Ta$man.

@Tim said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

Worst defense I've seen from an AB team in a decade.

First time they've faced a challenge like this in a decade, I'd venture