The Silver Fern

I'd imagine there was a time back in the day when simply being an AB was enough to get you off this kind of thing. Sign a couple of autographs and back on your bike.

Only saw highlights but that Tangitau has some gas! What's the good oil on him? Obviously 7s background but one to watch out for?

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

Despite not being the best boxer in his family he still had a magnificent career.

If he has a serious fight who knows ?

If he has a ‘don’t knock out Jake Paul or you won’t get paid’ fight then he’s no chance

I thought he was at the front lines with a mortar taking on the Ruskies. Or was that his brother?

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks v France:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in All Blacks v France:

Fůck it. That should have been ours. But at least we're trending very well. Just get a test match 10 and a FB who isn't Will Jordan.

We've been "trending" for 2 years....the only top team we seem to be able to beat are Ireland.

Give it a rest Foster lover.

Fůck it. That should have been ours. But at least we're trending very well. Just get a test match 10 and a FB who isn't Will Jordan.

@sparky said in All Blacks v France:

Ratima fluffed it off the lineout.

Tbf he was served an enormous shit sandwich.

Will be bloody disappointed if we lose this but damn there have been some good signs. If they can kick on next year and remove the stoopid stuff then we'll be looking very good.

Who threw that fucking pass?

Stupid pass. Jordan brilliant winger, not a great FB

Boner alert. But Jesus he was centimetres from the the DB line!!! Just put it down man.

@Jet said in All Blacks vs Ireland:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in All Blacks vs Ireland:

@Jet said in All Blacks vs Ireland:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in All Blacks vs Ireland:

Only saw 2nd half but I continue to have serious reservations about Jordan at 15.

Needs to sort out cleaning up a bouncing ball, but he gives us something Beaudy doesn’t from 15.

What is that something? I don't see it. Certainly isn't decision making.

Eh, he scores every week.

Um. Ok.

@Jet said in All Blacks vs Ireland:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in All Blacks vs Ireland:

Only saw 2nd half but I continue to have serious reservations about Jordan at 15.

Needs to sort out cleaning up a bouncing ball, but he gives us something Beaudy doesn’t from 15.

What is that something? I don't see it. Certainly isn't decision making.

Only saw 2nd half but I continue to have serious reservations about Jordan at 15.

Is Tom Taylor still playing🤪? I'd take a guy like him these days. Fark I'd take a poor man's Grant Fox. Just a fella who can kick for field position and can shift the pill. We have plenty of talent out wide.

Will be hilarious if BB plays a blinder though. Plenty of humble 🐦‍⬛ .

If that was directed at any other player we'd say it was an act unworthy of an AllBlack. But I think an exception can be made in this case. Reiko will live rent free in his head forever.

Just hope Reiko is prepared to be treated like the second coming of Hitler by the Irish press during the EOYT.

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks 2024:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in All Blacks 2024:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

@Horatio said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

This is a classic Bledisloe fluffer match for the ABs. An awful, awful Wallabies side to give them confidence they aren't on the wrong trajectory ahead of an EOYT.

A real team would have punished them for some of the silly mistakes they made out there.

It's the same Wallabies side that didn't entirely get humped by the Springboks, and won away against Argentina. For 120 minutes we owned the Springboks. It may have just been the game they needed to answer some questions.

It's the same Wallabies side that's ranked 10th in the world. The one we came close to losing to 2 weeks ago after leading 28-7 when we went to shit in the second half

In a dead rubber with nothing to lose this was the perfect game to try new players. Instead Robertson went safety-first with players past their best, learned little and, as far as questions are concerned, answered little

Some improvement in focus overall in this game (not hard considering the nadir of 2 weeks ago) but still nowhere near as good as we were this time last year.

So a 20 point win is not an improvement? Did we go to shit? Did we score points in the last quarter? Did we blank in the second half?

As I said, there was some improvement in focus, but it's bonkers to think not going to pieces and actually scoring points in the last quarter against the 10th based side is some magical, corner-turning improvement. Less than 12 months ago we came within one point of winning the RWC and - to use your words - we owned the Springboks for 75% of the game a few weeks back. Seriously?

Your memory is really short. Fosters side got humped 35-7 and was only a freak run from CamRoi from being blanked. Also lost for the first time in a pool match and almost lost to Australia twice.

Foster's gone. Live with it and focus on this teams direction.

TBF you're making comparisons with the RWC final 12 months ago. Let's face it, that RWC run was a complete anomaly for the Foster era. Give Razor Smith, Whitelock and RM and I dare say we'd be seeing some better results.

Not buying that. We haven't struggled much at 9 since injury put Christie out of the picture and zero drop-off with Scooter and Vaai and, let's face it, Mo'unga was a pretty average AB 10. The players who've dropped away have been the likes of Telea & Savea.

Ultimately I like what Razor is trying to achieve here, but we don't have the cattle to pull it off just yet.

Moving the goalposts there. Anyone who pointed that out last year was told it wasn't a problem, we had the cattle and it was all down to the coaching team.....

That's obviously on him to plan according to the strengths of what's available, but I feel there are plenty of positive signs

Sure, there are some positive signs. Players picked in the last couple of years have stepped up, forced changes from injuries have allowed Ratima and Sititi to shine, there's a bit more fluidity in attack and the D is good. But the mental side of things has gotten worse, much worse.

Completely disagree. RM wasn't the 2nd coming like many here seemed to argue but I think he'd be executing this game plan much better than McKenzie. As impressive as he's sometimes been, Vaai is not Whitelock. No way that's a straight swap.

I'm not moving any goalposts. At least there is something of a plan here. Foster ball was all over the damn place. And I would definitely argue that, for this year at least, Foster had better cattle to work with.

I'm not seeing how the mental side has gotten vastly worse. Unless I missed the amazing mental fortitude of Foster's AB.

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

@Victor-Meldrew said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

@LatsToTheMax said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

@Horatio said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

This is a classic Bledisloe fluffer match for the ABs. An awful, awful Wallabies side to give them confidence they aren't on the wrong trajectory ahead of an EOYT.

A real team would have punished them for some of the silly mistakes they made out there.

It's the same Wallabies side that didn't entirely get humped by the Springboks, and won away against Argentina. For 120 minutes we owned the Springboks. It may have just been the game they needed to answer some questions.

It's the same Wallabies side that's ranked 10th in the world. The one we came close to losing to 2 weeks ago after leading 28-7 when we went to shit in the second half

In a dead rubber with nothing to lose this was the perfect game to try new players. Instead Robertson went safety-first with players past their best, learned little and, as far as questions are concerned, answered little

Some improvement in focus overall in this game (not hard considering the nadir of 2 weeks ago) but still nowhere near as good as we were this time last year.

So a 20 point win is not an improvement? Did we go to shit? Did we score points in the last quarter? Did we blank in the second half?

As I said, there was some improvement in focus, but it's bonkers to think not going to pieces and actually scoring points in the last quarter against the 10th based side is some magical, corner-turning improvement. Less than 12 months ago we came within one point of winning the RWC and - to use your words - we owned the Springboks for 75% of the game a few weeks back. Seriously?

Your memory is really short. Fosters side got humped 35-7 and was only a freak run from CamRoi from being blanked. Also lost for the first time in a pool match and almost lost to Australia twice.

Foster's gone. Live with it and focus on this teams direction.

TBF you're making comparisons with the RWC final 12 months ago. Let's face it, that RWC run was a complete anomaly for the Foster era. Give Razor Smith, Whitelock and RM and I dare say we'd be seeing some better results.

Ultimately I like what Razor is trying to achieve here, but we don't have the cattle to pull it off just yet. That's obviously on him to plan according to the strengths of what's available, but I feel there are plenty of positive signs

Ha ha BB at 10. Cue the meltdowns

Some mention of players not being in their optimal positions and that is 100% correct. We have a fullback playing flyhalf, a winger playing centre, another winger playing fullback and a flanker playing no. 8.

@NTA said in All Blacks vs Wallabies I:

Have watched the 2nd half.

The ABs were a handful of brain farts from a 30 point win.

Exactly. But coach went surfing or something.