The Silver Fern

@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Ireland:

I normally try to restrict my comments on refs to a single sentence or so, but Berry was not up to standard in this game. The penalty on Jordie with the high kick - he really could have called the same on almost every high kick all game if he is going to set the line there. It would be a good change for us and a bad one for SA in theory (because they've been much better than us at protecting their players) - but fuck it's hard to see how you can ref that consistently without every high kick being a penalty to the kicking team. Jordie didn't even look back, he just ran towards the ball, and if he goes sideways and hits someone then he'll get done for changing his line. So what's he meant to do, run backwards so he can see them, and actively dodge the chasers? Weird shit.

It was subtle but it looked to me like Hansen sought that contact too , and why wouldn't you? Easy penalty.

@sparky said in All Blacks Vs England, Twickenham:

1 Williams
2 Taylor
3 Lomax
4 S. Barrett (c)
5 Vaa'i
6 Sititi
7 Cane
8 A.Savea
9 Ratima
10 B. Barrett
11 Clarke
12. J. Barrett
13 R.Ioane
14 M. Telea
15 Jordan

16 Aumua
17 Tu'ungafasi
18 Tosi
19. Tuipolutu
20 Finau
21 Roigard
22 ALB
23 D. McKenzie

That bench has high impact potential. Let's hope they all read their CV's.

@Bones said in All Blacks 2024:

I really dislike how Finau gets treated. Gets given a random game here and there to "prove" himself. Sure he's looked pretty bad but he's a young guy with fuck all tests and just gets thrown in randomly and turfed when it doesn't work. He's on a hiding to nothing.

Same. The positive spin is that they recognise he's got a tonne of potential but not as ready for tests as they hoped, so investing a lot of time on him at training.

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Argentina II:

When you deliberately leave the best #8 of Super Rugby out of the squad, and only bring in the guy who spent the first half of the year fucking around in Japan, at best you have limited your options, at worst you knew this was coming and you wanted to avoid the hard decision that comes with it.

Yeah, this really boils my balls. I get Hoskins has deficiencies, and I'm guessing they're partly in the top two inches. So for a coaching guru who markets himself as getting the best out of players, you'd think this was a challenge right up Razor's alley. Can only assume he got bullied out of it by Ryan.

@Daffy-Jaffy said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:

Firstly: Pencil neck immediately lost all credibility when he presented three discrete variables, including his own special made up ruck stat, as a line graph

Secondly: You've been really good at rugby for about five minutes Ireland, come back when you have 90 years of rugby excellence behind and then you can start sermonising on the All Blacks captain's deficiencies. Until that time we're quite capable of doing that ourselves.

@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.

@canefan said in All Blacks vs Springboks - Twickenham:

When we play direct and with pace we can beat anyone. I just hope they were trying different things and refused to show their hand. Keeping the powder dry so to speak....

That's the straw I'm grasping now. Fozzies' 4 year epic long con is about to bear fruit ...

@Chris said in All Blacks 2022:

The problem with that is we used to always win that way as we were fitter.
But now teams can cope with that fast game and are finishing over the top of us.
I think we need more than that to our game plan.

Related to the fitness thing, we need to have officials prepared to call teams out on their bullshit injury stoppages at every break in play.

@nzzp said in All Black pack:

@Chris said in All Black pack:

How many more do we use everyone in SR Yet the one consistent in this is Foster and he stays.

I have another read on this, which is that Super is no longer preparing people for Test rugby. It used to - we had a conveyor belt of talent. Now, not so much ... the questions are different, and players that shine in Super just dno't easily transfer the form to Tests. I think part of this is due to the coaching exodus, just not preparing players or lifting quality well enough. Or playing SA sides regularly too (although that's my hill to die on).

Yeah, reckon that's been the case for nearly a decade but it was papered over by an exceptional cohort of players that has gradually retired or hung around too long.

So exceptional selection and coaching skill more critical than ever.

The media circle jerk over Super Rugby Aoteoroa as "the toughest rugby competition in the world" a couple of years was laughable, and a lot of the NZ rugby public still buy into that perception. This morning I've seen people seriously suggesting selecting players from NPC.

@Machpants said in Springboks v All Blacks I:

@Winger said in Springboks v All Blacks I:

@Machpants
jordie didn't set the world on fire at 2nd 5. Prefer him at FB unless he moves in full time for the canes and ABs

Another piece of the foster genius is havili hitting it up at 12, with absolutely no impact. Well the impact being going backwards and possible turn overs

Will be interested to see if that was Moar genius or Foster genius - I'm intrigued (but not overly hopeful) about what we'll see from the backline this match.

@nostrildamus I think your Titanic metaphor has a lot of legs in it

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:

@sparky said in All Blacks squad - The Rugby Championship:

I wish I could get excited about this thread. Without a change in the coaching box, this is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

If only we had the physicality of the Titanic..

Was outmatched by a chunk of frozen water

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

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

Marshall was saying on that Irish podcast that the NZR can’t afford to pay out all the contracts of the coaching staff. I guess the answer to that is can they afford not to??

Is that the actual situation or pure conjecture?

If I was Silverlake watching my prize asset circling the bowl, I'd be ponying up an extraordinary cash payment to cover that cost. If that's true....

@No-Quarter said in Foster must go:

@Duluth said in Foster must go:

The realistic option is Schmidt

He starts his AB contract right now. So no other logistics needed.

Does he want a head coach role though?

My guess is he'd accept an interim role

@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.

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks 2022:

@junior I would argue Sam Whitelock has had a bit to do with the success we’ve had during those winning times.

Don't disagree but after a pretty lackluster NH tour there were plenty on here calling time on his career. At the very least he needs to be managed carefully.

@gt12 said in All Blacks 2022:

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks 2022:

For all the "Foster bashing", it isn't coming from a very passive media who seem quite subdued. The Breakdown was deliberately obtuse and shallow (Access to AB camp on their mind?). It seems the obvious flaws in the ABs are being analyzed by fans, blogs, and overseas media.

100%

The NZRU must have journalists afraid of access with the ridiculous lack of critical rugby journalism in NZ. It's a tragedy and must be contributing to the issue.

Further, we don't seem to have any rugby journalists who actually can (and/or will) analyse the game.

We don't even seem to have any journalists who are prepared to call on those (ex)players or coaches who could do it.

The access issue is real; you can see the likes of Hinton and Knowler itching to tee-off but holding back enough to remain in good favour. There are journalists/opinion writers who challenge NZR, coaches and individual players (Rattue, Reason) but they tend to get rounded on and dismissed as clickbait merchants by the rugby public, and get disbarred by NZR.

In terms of true rugby analysis, I can't help think this is one consequence of what Dylan Cleaver described as the 'hollowing out' of NZ sports journalism, simply because no money.

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

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

@booboo mentioned above taking a tap kick at penalty time that we did last night, was that thought out as a tactic, replicated from what the Irish did last week, or just a team and leader devoid of ideas?

Where is our innovation? We just seem to play the same, decrepit gameplan. There was a time when it felt like we led the world in innovative thinking about Rugby, but now it's just risnse and repeat with braindead tactics.

Not to worry, Winnie the Pooh has announced a new approach called being more "3 dimensional". I'll be at the ground next Sat and look forward to seeing wtf that looks like.

@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.

@Frank said in All Blacks v Ireland - 1st Test:

Fucking "Highlight Reel" does it again.

Mark Hinton's panties hitting the floor about now