The Silver Fern

Bell looked weary. Team was a bit disjointed in the first half due to changes in combination.

And it's predicted to rain and/or snow.

It'll be tough

I think at this point we've done a good job on the EOYT - 2 wins was probably the benchmark.

I'm wary of the Scots. While they've been chopping and changing, and won't have learned much from Portugal, their top squad will be rested and ready to go next week.

Ireland I'd written off before we started the tour. Now I think we're 35%.

Have watched it now - I'm too old to get up and watch at fuckall o'clock and mutter at the TV.

We started well, because we had all the possession and Wales missed a couple of tackles or dropped the ball.

Wales came back once they hung onto it - and that's the bit that should give Uncle Joe something to chew on this week before Scotland.

• We lost the scrum battle - Bell was getting in a bad position and then his second row was giving him zero grunt to fight a tighter Welsh unit behind Griffin. TBH Bell looked pretty exhausted from the get-go after a big game against England.
• Line Defence was bad in the early stages, which was probably down to personnel changes and match fitness.
• We lost the aerial battle again, which will have Scotland licking their lips.
• Discipline threatened to go back to the Bad Old Days, but then for both sides it was hard as Doleman kept moving the goal posts.
• Kerevi had a perfect chance to cut a bloke in half but goes for the chest tackle. FFS. Go back to Japan.
• White's passing was crap - straight at the ball carrier instead of in front of them

I thought Wales 14 was excellent value. Took the high ball well and defended solidly. Morgan as always is the guy you want to follow. Felt fucking sorry for Lake doing the post-match as he'd tried his heart out.

Our defence in the second half was a lot better as guys worked into their combinations.

Schmidt said his strategy was to get JAS on in the second half for Kerevi, but he fucked that up, eh?

Why was Lolesio left out there for 78 minutes? Surely with a lead like that you give Donaldson a run and let him get some minutes. Might need the former to get some rest and the latter to get some minutes leading into Scotland.

Overall, I'm in about the same headspace as last week - yes the England win was thrilling, and mostly workmanlike, but I thought England were better opposition overall, and it showed.

We inch forward.

@OomPB said in England vs Springboks:

@NTA you don't rate Peyper?

Great super ref.

Average Test ref.

@OomPB said in England vs Springboks:

Much better then your Berry.

For a nation that hasn't produced a Test quality ref since Andre Watson, that's a really interesting position to take.

RSA has so much Rugby playing talent, in such big and well run system, and your peak contribution is Marius Jonker behind a TMO desk.

And he's bad at that.

@OomPB said in England vs Springboks:

@NTA Brace is a very strict ref, not bad.

Brace has no feel for the game or its flow. He and his team got so many easy things wrong on the weekend, relying on the TMO for every tedious issue.

Brace is a poor ref.

Not as poor as England's edge defence.

Also: Porter is still a crap loosehead at Test level

I'm 65 minutes in.

Argie scrum halves are killing them.

Starting guy is step passing.
Replacement throwing loops.

I hope team management withheld asado rights post-match for both of them

Ins: 5 Skelton, 6 Uru, 13 Kerevi, 9 White, 18 Nonngor

Outs: Tupou, Williams, Wilson, Gordon, Pietsch

Promoted: Jorgensen
Demoted: JAS

Interesting Joe. Don't fuck it up.

@MiketheSnow said in Autumn Test 2024 : Wales v Australia:

@NTA said in Autumn Test 2024 : Wales v Australia:

Can you people not just use numerical order? Jesus wept...

You people? As in the ones who invented the game?

And adopted the Arabic numerical system but refuse to use it to this day.

Can you people not just use numerical order? Jesus wept...

Would

(And, of course, should anyone here have made enough money on PolishChicksRUs.com - please consider setting up an annuity for Renegades Rugby. We only need about $20K so that's a lazy $330K starter)

I've often thought that, upon winning the lottery, I could set up an investment account that puts any returns into our club e.g. Win $20M, put $1M into the fund, generate ~6% per annum = $60k to run the club.

Would more than cover our expenses.

Why aren't all the Good Rugby People doing this with their white collar corporate power structures?

Dylan Pietsch heading home:

@nostrildamus said in England vs Springboks:

@NTA said in England vs Springboks:

@OomPB said in England vs Springboks:

@W32
Nick still hurts after losing to our A and B team at home.

Not as painful as listening to Bok fans on Twitter.

I expected the Wallabies to lose.

I didn't expect quite the level of man-child idiocy I got out of some corners of social media, with dark green icons as their avatars. Most Bok fans are just happy to win, and remember it wasn't always this good.

Some are miserable fluffybunnies with a serious victim complex.

The worst of Bok fans today are easily the most ungracious winners since the angry edge crowd of millennial Kiwi fans in the McCaw era, who are in a dead heat with part time England fans under Eddie for second.

Pushing hard behind them all: bandwagon Aussies around the turn of the century.

Hang on, have you managed to insult 4 countries of fans without once mentioning Ireland?!

Do I need to?

@Steven-Harris said in England vs. Australia (2024):

@cgrant always thought Charlie Faumauina off the bench was superb with great footwork before contact and an offload
Bell however is just a big man that just charges into contact like a raging bull , his acceleration off the mark is impressive

"Raging Bell".

He's also got fast feet near the line. A couple of those defenders are last-step changes in direction as well as running over people

From that you could easily pick

1 Bell
2 Porecki (captain?)
3 Tupou
4 Sinclair
5 FLW
6 Leota
7 Gamble
8 Gleeson
9 Gordon
10 Edmed
11 Lancaster
12 Foketi
13 Sua'ali'i
14 Jorgensen
15 Kellaway

16 Heaven
17 Kailea
18 ?? Amituanai I think - reserve THP a little thin...
19 Amatosero
20 Kunavalu
21 Wilson
22 Creighton
23 O'Donnell