I'm upset and pissed off that we lost, but nothing like 95 99 03 07. I think this feels different because

• Back to back means we sleep well, no matter what, the monkey is well and truly off our back

• that was a hell of an English performance. We could have got up, but would have been something special. In the past, we've bene beaten by teams that are really not on the same level, dodgy reffing, food poisoning, or choking.

• We knew this wasn't a vintage side. Losing 6 all time greats after 2015, a lot of people thought we'd be lucky to be a 50/50 chance going into the tourney. A year ago we got showed where we were - last week aside, that's pretty much where we were This wasn't a great side, it was a decent outfit with some very good players in it. Perth, Chicago, Dublin, Lions 2+3 --> we're ahead, but only just

• England really put out something special. They arced up, and we just couldn't lift to match them. Getting owned all over the park does happen sometimes, and if it does you have to cop it.

Still frustrated, but not as angry or upset as I have been. Here's to the future, thanks to Shag for the good times, and roll on the rest of the knockouts

Edit: this is also the cycle where we have seen how badly the player drain has hurt us. Piutau, Luatua, Faumauina, Vito - just a few who would have made a difference

Well, damn that is great. A reasonably full Eden Park, no rain, a victory, happy days. Relaxing quietly at home now after a big afternoon out. Really stoked for teh team, and particularly the coaches - turning around a dysfunctional organisation is a big deal.

Highlanders are exceptional at covering their weaknesses. Their scrum was getting pasted, but only conceded one scrum penalty -a nd managed to win one back. Blues couldn't ram that advantage home.

Blues ruck work was outstanding, protecting the ball except for a 20 minute period where we tried to give the game to the 'landers. Really, though, the Highlanders didnt' show much on attack except where they were winning back to back penalties from the ref.

I'm delighted for Plummer, who really stepped up and kicked the clutch kicks. The first (from near the sideline) was a terrible choice - we had the highlanders out on their feet, they were passive, just standing and watching the Blues run at them ... so naturally we kicked the penalty :| No words.

Blues should have won by a thowsand, but a win is a win. Monkey off back, can't wait for next year. Beaudy at 10 will make a difference, and an extended offseason for Leon to work on the 9s will be important.

Delighted to win, such a big releif. I've been a season ticket holder for 13 seasons ,and there's been a lot of shawshank before the redemption. So stoked right now.

quick morning after match report.

Decent crowd. Was officially 20k, but those figures often feel a few thousand overstaed. Still solid though, and noisy.

Blues are consistently making good decisions in attack and defence. Not perfect by any means, but if you put 50 on one o fthe top Aussie sides and still have plenty to work on, that's a good result.

The Reds werne't bad at all. Strong set piece, tough, and asked some big questions on attack. Classic Brad Thorne - big hard runs, time after time. Tate is a bloody good 9 who knows how to play the ref. Aussies wlil be in the contest this year I feel.

Blues D was superb, and championship level. They keep stopping runners on the advantage line, good double tackles, and it takes something special to break them down. Team working hard for each other -- such a change from a few years ago. Plenty to work on, particularly with the lineout.

I won't say much about the ref, but by god it was a hard watch. Interpretation is one thing, but the most egregious moment was the Reds collapsing a maul that was a metre out from the tryline and going forward, and Fraser missed it. Honestly, had Penalty Try written all over it ... but to get whistled off the park and still put up the offense they did is impressive.

@Tim Robinson was noticeably light at lock. I don't think the scrum gets power with him there, was a really noticeable step up when Romano came on the field.

Clarke was mixed; equal parts sensational, breaking tackles at will, and then getting bumped off twice by Vunivalu. Still offers so much out there, but some work-ons.

RTS goes from strength to strength. Considering this is his first few rugby games, he's on a noticeable upward curve. Good defence, and you can see the quality of his stepping and attacking.

Telea is a bit like Clarke - some great things (ripping, getting over the ball in rucks), but also some rocks in your head moments.

Christie is an underrated component in this team. He took some poor options/executions at times, but his work on D is massive - flying around to shut down the opposition. It's a good feeling struggling to pick a MOTM from the team, but Heem takes the cake for me, coming off the bench to play centre, Christie for his D, and Akira for his work and physicality. Whole forward pack should get it thouhg their work is enabling the backs to look good out there.

So, 2 more comp points and we're minor champs. That's bloody impressive - particularly when you realise we had no preseason and most of the players had no NPC last year. Will we win it? Who knows - but we're certainly giving ourselves a damn good shot at it. It'll take something special to come to EP and beat us; can see Crusaders or a top performance from another Kiwi side doing it. But, frankly, we've won already. From where we were, to being a dominant force - winning the thing is important, but not as important as building the strucutre, talent pipeline and team culture that's being built. Papali'i needs to take some credit for that, stepping up and leading from the front.

Players I think they will pick in the AB squad
Hodgeman
Eklund
Ofa
Nepo

Dalton
Hoskins
Akira
maybe: Robinson for Lock/6 cover

Christie
Barrett
Perofeta

RTS
Rieko
Caleb

Huge game next week. Lock up the top spot, and get hte luxury of resting some players going into the finals.

Well, so we coughed one up at home. I know there is a lot of wailing and gnashign of teeth - mainly to be fair in the media - but this wasn't anything to get too upset about I reckon.

The Bokke brought a good physical game, and were fully committed. That said, we ripped them apart, scored 6 tries, and made the game look easy at times. It was our farking defence and decision making that really cost us that win; goalkicking could have burgled it, but fark me, 6 tries and you lose?

BBBR is our critical player. What a sensation - you only really see quite how dominant he is in every part of the game when he's gone. Don't forget the much vaunted Canterbury talent identification system passed him over, so he wombled off to the North.

Anyhoo, I really enjoyed the test. A great contest, and nothing in it right to the end. And, as I said, you'd say the ABs played pretty poorly at times, well below their standards, and the Boks played pretty well as well as they can. Result: we lose.

Things I liked

• Dyanti running around people. What an offensive weapon
• Physical commitment around the paddock
• Beaudy's wee pass up to his brother for the early try. What hands - that's worth 5 of the points he left out there
• Refs who let the game go -- while there's an argument for pedantic whistling, it's a much better watch with open running rugby
• Josh Goodhue's impact coming on. That guy is doing all he can to push for a long career in black. Remember - he's the same age as ALB; shows the real youth kicking around the team
• Ben Smith. At 32. Fark me, just made so many metres, so many good decisions. Awesome.
• Teams that don't act like muppets to each other, and will have a beer afterwards. It's what Rugby's about - I'm biased, but you don't have to be a bunch of wazzers to win at the top level (looking at you, Australia)

Things I didn't like so much

• Goalkicking (obvs)
• JB's fast throw to bounce somewhere near some Bokke. Reminded me of Billy Slater's biff back into the field of play in the League RWC Final. You only do that if you don't respect your opponents deeply, and think you'll win no matter what. I don't think he'll do that again soon
• Some of the offside calls (from teh couch anyway) -- very relaxed
• Looooooong advantage. I'm old school for this, but with modern defences that just don't fall apart, I reckon it's 2-3 phases and then back for the penalty. Otherwise you just burn time and don't actually advance the game
• Losing
• Not having good 6 cover on the bench for when Liam gets injured.

Thoroughly good game, disappointing result, but I wasn't gutted - just a bit flat. Still slept like a baby, and I really think we're on the right track with this side.

@canefan said in All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour:

@mofitzy_ said in All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour:

Sickens me all the cowards who accept Foster as inevitable till after 2023. He can be gone by tomorrow if not for them.

Which cowards are these? I don't see anyone here happy with Foster. But our opinion doesn't matter anyway. The NZRFU don't care what we think, or they would have chosen Razor

Disagree with the Foster comment, that's a separate discussion. He's not flawless - a damn good coach, but not the messiah.

The bigger issue is that Foster got reappointed for 2 more years before this tour. We traversed it at the time in some detail; it was a weak decision. Bet NZR aren't so stoked now.

Deeper than Foster though is the insularity of NZ rugby. Feels very monocultural, innovation becoming frowned on, and we seem to want all the same style of players in all our professional teams. Big wins don't disguise the fact that good, physical sides (SA, Lions, Ireland, England and even Argentina) have had our number for some time, and we haven't stepped up.

Also, NH rugby has really lifted since 2015. They had to get better and they did. Players are now coming back from NH with enhanced skills, fitness and physicality. Super and RC are no longer the dominant premier competitions. IT's a real worry for me - that's the long term success right there; not just the current situation.

Blues just emailed and the tickets to teh final are free for members. Well played.

I'm going to assemble a posse anyway - 18 long years, we'll take a group, preload and exert our white middle class influence on the place

well, shit I'm still steaming.

I'm pissed, and the reason is that all of this was called in advance. Players picked out of position, poor game plan and dumb rugby - everything we feared about Foster's All Blacks. We had better players than Australia, but they were clearly better coached and it showed. Up for it? Not sure we were in the same way.

Positives
Cane was outstanding. If you wanted a leader look at that bastard. Worked his guts out.
Defence was really solid. Some freakish tries (following interesting ref calls) to get there.
Um, I'm struggling after that

Negatives
Players out of position killed us. Jordie, Ardie, Goodhue in particular
Forwards were good without being dominant
Mo'unga chose a bad time to shit the bed.
Gameplan was terrible (what gameplan), and the lack of rugby nous in fielding kicks had me yelling at the TV. Seriously, with the wind behind them, how the hell do you let a farking dropout from the 22 go over your head, and basically gift Aus 40 m and possession. My. Head. Exploded.
Lack of a dropgoal at the end. Have we learned nothing from SA a few years ago? Seriously? FFS people, get better

We did well living on scraps, offense looked great in the first 40. Rieko needs to learn how to put the ball down.
Unlike @tim I'm OK with Frizzel; he just smashed into people all night.

Argh, I'm really annoyed. Win here was important. God knows we need to get up next week

Bloody hell that was a good night out.

After four early errors that cost 14, the Blues just stayed on task and worked.

Very high accuracy.
Some great decisions out there.
Try of the season for me was the second to last in the first half, just shooting back to the left and running draw and pass in 10m, then pace.

Blues look like they are having fun and playing for each other. Great to see, well done the whole organisation.

Rebels were poor, but made to look amateur by a very good performance.

Statement performance. Wonderful fun, vocal crowd, and a good game to watch. Roll on the reds next week, and come on the Chiefs

@Bovidae said in Refuge for the positive.....:

@Chris said in Refuge for the positive.....:

The coaches are my concern I think the players are in confusion in what we are trying to achieve.
You think with Hansens experience he will strip the game plan back and give the players positive direction to get some confidence in them.
If that happens we spank the wallabies and win the WC.

To put a positive spin on the current situation, that was the talk in the leadup to the 2015 RWC where the ABs weren't impressive in the pool games. We later found out what was happening behind the scenes with inter-squad games etc.

KEEPING OUR POWDER DRY!

@taniwharugby said in Rebels vs Highlanders:

The rebs Hooker should be off for HIA

HIA are all good, but damn I hate seeing refs teapotting watching the big screen

obligatory: I hate the goal line dropout law

@taniwharugby said in Rebels vs Highlanders:

Smith shoulda been pinged...but Rebs score anyway.

that's classic TMO bollocks

Good call.

I think the ball got down slightly before the foot - but by a fraction. Blow trying to ref that in realtime

@Stargazer said in Rebels vs Highlanders:

@Nepia Southland player Rory van Vugt. Made his debut last week.

looked slow!

@taniwharugby said in Waratahs v Blues:

@Kirwan both looked pretty soft to me, the Choat one the attackers knee was almost on the ground, the Akira one looked like a scrag of the collar (although highlights didnt replay his one)

Just watching replay now. I thought the Akira one was super marginal head high - Choat a clear arm to the forehead, but Akira's was tough

just went full GAGR without the arrows. You can see him reach across and grab Blue 18 jersey. He rides him to the ground. It's high, but I don't think it was a head high. Marginal penalty for me

you can see him mid turn here

Still, it's in the books now. Remarkable effort by Lay to win a penalty at the scrum - shows the relative power of Romano and Godohue, compared to Darry I reckon

@Damo said in Moana Pasifika v Brumbies:

The upshot of this is that probably we will have

Brumbies v Canes
Chiefs v Waratahs
Crusaders v Reds
Blues v Highlanders.

A Tahs win and a Canes loss tonight would change their respective positions.

The first is quite likely, the second not so much

@Damo said in Moana Pasifika v Brumbies:

@nzzp said in Moana Pasifika v Brumbies:

@antipodean said in Moana Pasifika v Brumbies:

That's a magnificent kick!

This game may not affect the table, but bloody well played Moana Pacifica

It can affect who comes 3rd v 4th. Brumbies lose this without a BP they are 4th instead of the Chiefs.

Cheers fella

@Stargazer said in Moana Pasifika v Brumbies:

Ah f*ck. I hoped for another MP try.

It's eating clock. Ahead by 8 that's huge

@antipodean said in Moana Pasifika v Brumbies:

That's a magnificent kick!

This game may not affect the table, but bloody well played Moana Pacifica