Trump's behaviour over the election perfectly encapsulates why he is so reviled. It has nothing to do with whether he is conservative or liberal, or left or right or anything like that. This is the bullshit line trotted out by his supprters - it's all because the media is left wing. It's not really, it's that he is a piece of shit who thinks he is above the institutions.
He's acted like that from the outset, and done his utmost to remove independence from the other branches of government, and basically wants to behave like he is a king. Now he's tweeting that he wants people's votes to not be counted, so even democracy itself isn't above his own self-interest.
Shame on the Republicans who have not had the strength of character to denounce him. If he loses, watch the backlash from these cowards.
Shame on the Democrats who have been so fucking useless that they may not be able to defeat someone both immensely unlikeable and abjectly incompetent, who with 4 years to prepare for it have managed to come up with 77 (?) year old Joe Biden.

@Dan54 It's a pretty harmless rant on the fern sort of rage mate, i wouldn't bother getting too concerned.

this WAS the big game. this WAS the game you keep your powder dry for.
the reality is that we aren't doing that, it's just wishful thinking from fans to excuse us playing like shit, which frankly we've been doing for quite a while now - our servings of shit have regularly been papered over by bits of individual brilliance getting us out of jail when we've been dominated all day, and a shit-hot lineout. the lineout saved us last week against the poms, but wasn't quite enough this week. we dropped the miracle balls that would have won the game this week. but both weeks, and against the saffas, we have been pretty thoroughly dominated this year.

we kick way too much ball away, and badly. the opposition give us scraps, we finally get the damn ball, and these primadonna fuckwits immediately put boot to ball in low percentage plays. then they laugh about it at half-time.

we get a penalty advantage and BB takes a fucking drop kick. the potatoes get a penalty advantage and they - jonny fucking sexton - try to score a try. we are fucking dumb. we kick a penalty to give us a chance of a draw. a fucking draw. the all blacks. playing for a draw and kicking drop goals under penalty advantage. fuck my days what a fucking disgrace.

all it takes is an off-day for a couple of guys when our tactics are mud and we are so reliant on individual brilliance. sam whitelock, a great player - giving away dumb penalties. BBR, a great player - dumb penalties, terrible handling - his worst game i can remember. it's not time to throw the baby out with the bath water, but when guys like that don't perform, it does show the glaring deficiencies in other areas.

we are dumb. we still can't cope with a good rush defence. we haven't really been able to since the 90s when france used it to beat us. our defensive line speed was utter shit - so the potatoes made ground all day and had momentum. their line speed was really good, and there seems not to be a single fucker out there who has the wits to think, 'oh you know, with all this fanning out and quick line speed, we could either pick and go a few times or throw it behind the line to get around the rush'. barely a pick and go all game, and it was only in desperation when chasing the game that we threw in some depth to get around the rush - which promptly worked - except then when we made breaks, we were so totally lacking in composure that we forced dumb shit low percentage passes, or kicked the damn fucking ball away yet again. pack of fucking morons.

barnes is still a shit ref, inconsistent and doesn't seem to understand when a ruck forms. he had nothing to do with the loss however.

to the players:
karl T got a bit of a rough ride, but not as bad as some are making out. 2 scrums went badly, and 1 barnes should have reset. why barnes didn't blow their scrum when we were dominant i don't know. franks was solid, as was taylor, and all the replacements were good too. poor old ofa showed great hands to hold that piece of shit perenara pass - but when you have to catch that slop you're always going to get barrelled and struggle to win the ruck.
BBR his worst, and whitelock pretty poor too by his standards. scott barrett played well, was our best lock, but was playing out of position which fucks our forward balance.
squire was okay before injury, ardie at least tried hard, and read was rank. dropped everything, hasn't run hard into contact in about 3 years, and is a shitty captain. the way the irish were playing, and the way barnes was reffing, the player in our 23 most suited to that game was matt todd. bit disappointed he didn't manage to win it for us in his 3 FUCKING MINUTES YOU MORONS.
aaron smith's kicking is nowhere near as accurate as it was against the lions. he is still so much better than perenara -because he can actually pass - but if we don't have the brains to use smith's speed to get around the rush then he's wasted, and why not use a bigger running halfback.
BB. well it's pretty fucking limiting when your 10's weakest skill is his passing. also dumb. also doesn't appear to care a great deal. also thinks wasting try-scoring opportunities with drop-goals is a good idea, and funny. can run, can catch a high ball.
crotty and goodhue were both really pretty good given the shit they were served up. 20-something touches vs 40-something for the irish midfield wasn't it?
ben smith no ball. can run.
rieko no ball. no composure. can run.
mckenzie, not bad, but we are wasting ben smith on the wing.

to ireland: well bloody played, a good plan, well executed. you knew exactly what we were going to do, because we do it all the time (keeping our powder dry hahaha fuck me) . we box kick and put up high balls. you dealt with that easily. you know that if you rush, we will chip. you covered that easily then kept the ball. you knew that we throw our ruck ball to forwards one or two off the ruck - you got up quick on them and we never made the gain line.
great fire and commitment from all on the park, and an inspirational and thoroughly deserved victory, which i could really have done without watching.

rant over. as you were everyone.

@gt12 said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@Hooroo said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@canefan said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@Hooroo said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@Salacious-Crumb said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@booboo said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

#1. Brad Thorn securing lineout ball 80th min Final 2011.

Up to that “moment” my asshole had never been tighter my entire life.

For me it is when a shattered Stephen Donald was tackled on one side of the park and got turned over at the ruck, France spun it to the other side of the field and the first tackle made since the turnover was Donald on the other side of the field.

The guy was running on pure Columbian grade uncut adrenalin.

That's how legends are born. I don't think he probably has to buy himself beers when he's out on the town in NZ

Deadset, I will always buy him a beer if he is in the same pub!

This may sound a bit strange, but it’s something I’m looking forward to being able to do - I’m sure at some stage in my life I’ll be in the same room as him, and at that point the drinks will be on me. I can’t wait.

That reminds me of my favorite JK story - I met him in Tokyo one evening when I was out on a date with a very good looking girl (sadly hot crazy was in full effect though). I quickly talked to him on the way in (thanks, you’re a legend etc), then he stopped by our table on his way out (he was Japan coach at the time I think) to briefly say hi, making it seem like I kind of knew him (even though he was a complete stranger of course). Then gave me a greeeeat look like ‘get in there!’ and left, and I did, until the crazy fully developed.

great wing man JK.

Pathetic. Lomax outplayed on starting debut, Coles stupid then Taylor shit lineouts. Moody okay I guess, bit flat. Pat a bit flat too. Whitelock tried hard in a well beaten pack. Cane looks a bit knackered. Savea is, again, a lightweight against big teams playing fast defence and makes no impact. He should have been subbed rather than Frizzel, at least then we would have had someone make a few more tackles and hit some rucks. And you'd also be leaving on the guy who just had a rest, and taking off the guy who hasn't. Sotutu tried hard once on, a couple of good runs and had the skip pass execution been on - as it usually is - we'd have been in with a chance. Vaai went okay too.
In the backs, just anonymous, the lot of them. It almost seems like it might be an NZR directive to have Goodhue play 12 at the crusaders, trying to develop a combination with mo'unga, and foster is sticking to that... unfortunately it is wrong. goodhue is a gun at centre, and he's being wasted.
as for refusing to bring webber on for the hopeless TJ last week, then dragging smith early... christ, make up your mind.

i guess this is what you get when you pick a coach who has never won anything. It was good to hear JK, another coach who hasn't won anything, get stuck in a bit. At least when JK couldn't coach for shit what he got was sacked, rather than promoted to the ABs job.

Well done Argentina, thoroughly deserved. Nico Sanchez runs a bit hot and cold, but when he's on, he really is world class. Combine that with 14 blokes tackling their arses off and it's a good recipe - that was a hell of a defensive effort.

How dare someone leave people open to criticism in public eh Steve? Best you criticise them in public for that.

Your closed doors is how we got Foster in the first place. The hiring process was abysmal, ruled out all the good options deliberately so your mate could get the job. And the organisation, having previously wheeled out bullshit like 'coaches must have international experience' when it suited, then pick a guy without any head coach success in NZ, let alone inernationally.
Zero integrity.

It's just bizarre. Every decision ever made puts all of the onus on the defender to get it right. This impact caused a severe injury, but they are mitigating it because the defender didn't supply enough of the momentum? That's effectively saying it is Retallicks fault for running hard.
Despite the defender having plenty of time to go low, and deciding to go high on a 6'8" lock.
I give up.

Jesus, the McKenzie criticism is a bit over the top. As others have said he was involved in most of the tries, one bad error, and some seem to think he's worst on the field?
Meanwhile Rieko makes pretty much the same error, runs Reece out of space then throws a rank pass into touch, and he's best on the park?
The only difference I can see is that Caleb Clarke turned one of the errors into a try, but he seems to be getting a free pass...

Shit super season sure, but a good game last night.

Not really too sure what to make of that game.

They put out a B front row and we hammered their scrum, so what. Their forwards looked a bit tired, and we dominated a bit. Our ruck work was improved. Our ball running was still mediocre, even against tiring defence. We clearly won the forward battle though.

Our backs on the other hand, were nothing short of terrible. Just really, really fucking awful. That much ball, and they couldn't do shit with it. Aimless kicks. Kicks when you have an overlap. Poor finishing. Poor option-taking. The kicks were clearly a tactic drilled into them, because they were doing them even when they weren't on. Worst part is that we didn't even bother to send someone back to cover - that's some pretty basic schoolboy stuff when you're kicking to a 50/50 contest.

The thing about the Argies is that without field position they can't do much. And with Cubelli out, and Sanchez struggling then off the field, our shit kicking was never effectively cleared, likewise our other mistakes/turnovers in their 22. So we basically spent the whole game hot on attack with all the ball, a dominant pack, the world's best halfback, and were pathetically ineffective with it.

Now, despite some odd selections which I think may have been mentioned in passing by others, we have a number of reasonably effective ball runners in our backline. That makes me think that our tactics are dogshit. We aren't finding the space. Honestly it doesn't even seem like we're looking for it.

So we're left with kicking the ball away. A shit tactic, poorly executed, which won us the game pretty comfortably.

Fucken yuck.

Last time I saw this much confidence here was just before the Aussies smashed us to bits.

Ireland are a good side, who lack depth at 10. We seem to think they're shit now because they were beaten by Japan and thumped by England before the WC. But both games no Sexton. You can't play 10 man rugby without a 10.
They whipped Scotland and looked good against Samoa - they're not a spent force and they've beaten us 2 out of last 3. The Dublin game was one which we targeted to get payback for the first loss, and we scored 9 points and were well beaten.
Now I see Coles in the Herald saying 'we haven't talked about what happened last time'. Sounds a bit too much like Cheika not worrying about the opposition to me.

As for us, our best forward is underdone, and our reserve scrummaging has looked a bit shaky. I don't think Cane is back to his best, and we lack the grunt to bend set defensive lines. We have beaten South Africa, and had a couple of pretty meaningless cakewalks vs minnows, that's all. There's obviously a lot of potential in the Mounga Barrett axis, but I don't consider it proven under pressure just yet, and we have inexperienced wings who we know will be targeted in the air. Our centre has been out injured and the 12-13 combo lacks match time together.
Underdogs, clearly.

Glad we have Owens compared to some other options, but he's been below his usual high standards this cup, letting too much go at the breakdown and offside line which will suit the Irish. He is however the least likely to give a panicky dodgy shit red card.

@Dan54 said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@nzzp said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

how much mental damage is being done to the players? It cannot be a happy environment, and players struggle to perform when they are under relentless negative pressure.

Argument for a change, just for the atmosphere to lift.

Obviously they feeling pressure a bit, and guess Mounga's comments yesterday in press may sum up. Basically said he doesn't care what anyone outside the squad thinks, they trying to fix things and what's coming from outside is no help, and he doesn't care about it. Thought it was interesting, and can see where he coming from up to a point.

Mo'unga is a player, and his responsibility is to do his best under the team instructions - so nothing from outside the camp should make any difference to what he's doing. Saying he doesn't care is probably just a poor choice of words.

@stodders said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@Joans-Town-Jones said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@stodders said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@Joans-Town-Jones said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@Joans-Town-Jones said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@stodders said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@Joans-Town-Jones said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@stodders said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@Joans-Town-Jones said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@stodders said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@stodders said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

Springbok team for the weekend

If Vermeulen is fit, then that is an upgrade on Wiese. Marx is on the bench, but will come on fresh in the second half as the lungs are burning at altitude.

Jesse Kriel on the wing, he'll chase well and he is quick, but I'm not sure he offers the same aerial threat. He'll do a decent job and he covers midfield.

Ox at loosehead is an upgrade on Nyakane.

6:2 split on the bench. More of the same at the weekend

Neither should have Arendse and Mapimpi given the height of out back three but they still made a meal of the high ball for us.

Mapimpi is very good under the high ball. Arendse...plenty has been written on him. Let's just say that his technique is questionable

It will be interesting to see how Pearce refs the high ball contest at the weekend after what happened last weekend. Wouldn't surprise me if WR have had a word with the ref team to clamp down early so there's no repeat.

Yes but he shouldn't be outjumping taller blokes.

Will Jordan is 188cm. Mapimpi is 184cm. Mapimpi was moving forward. Jordan wasn't. The player with momentum will generally beat a player doing a standing jump.

That's piss weak excuses for me. But I take your point.

Thanks, I think.

I guess the point I'm making is, how many high kicks we put up and we lost all but one in the air? I mean, these guys aren't Israel Folau. We should be getting at least parity.

I do agree with you. The technique was off. There were a couple of kicks that there just seemed to be no communication on. The one where J Barrett got injured was when he collided with Sam Cane.

The AB shepherds were not very good.

...and we had exactly the same problem with the high ball against Ireland: their kicks were accurate and they chased well and we gave our catchers no protection, while our kicks were inaccurate, chased poorly, and they shepherded extremely well. But still we have done nothing to address it - if anything getting worse. The Irish showed us what to do, but we are not capable of following their example.
That is poor coaching and teamwork. Clarke and Barrett, and to a lesser extent Jordan, are excellent in the air.

@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster:

@Bones said in Foster:

@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster:

@ACT-Crusader said in Foster:

Pressure will be up tenfold in my view and whoever comes in, there will be the shortest of honeymoon periods

Yep, and as almost all the ills have been placed at Foster's doorstep by commentators near and far, people will expect nothing less than rapid improvement.

Nah.

You can stop digging....

Seriously? Because I'd be looking for some serious improvement with game-plan, Defence and player performance with a new Coach by the EOYT, otherwise what's the point?

It's taken a couple of years to gradually totally fuck it, and you want it fixed overnight otherwise "what's the point?" Removing the bloke that fucked it doesn't mean someone else can fix it all immediately. All we want is to see some progress instead of more decline. A bit of cohesion, dealing with the high ball, kicking accurately, and not selecting old men over Samisoni. That'd do me for a few games, win or lose.

@nzzp said in Springboks v All Blacks I:

@His-Bobness said in Springboks v All Blacks I:

It's really not rocket science. New Zealand Rugby made a catastrophic error in appointing Foster. He may be a nice chap, but he is not an innovator and does not have the imagination to take the game forward. As countless others have pointed out, he's like a hack chef who inherited a five-star restaurant and never changed the menu.

Goddamn brilliant analogy.

I'll die in my ditch alone on this, but I can understand the initial Foster appointment because of the historic success. It's the reappointment last year that I was absolutely dirty on.

I strongly disagreed with the initial Foster choice, because he hadn't been the head coach of a successful side, and pretty clearly that ought to be a requirement. Also we had seen Rennie take over his long-term Chiefs team and basically fix it overnight. At that time it was still possible to think 'well, maybe those inside the camp have seen enough from him to know that he is actually some sort of genius despite the lack of qualification - but they better be fucking right'.
Turns out they weren't, which makes the whole thing just an astonishing hiring debacle from the NZRU.

@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:

@broughie said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:

But feel free to call anyone who questions the absolutist belief that Robertson is 100% guaranteed to solve all the problems, with zero risk of failure, insane if it make you feel better.

I don’t think anyone would expect Robertson to solve all the problems right away. Heck if he had the job right now he might lose a couple. But I’m confident there would be a change in direction and environment. Of course Rennie would have been good too and perhaps others. Foster was more of the same with Hansen but with less pedigree.

I agree, and I've argued that Foster should be replaced. At the same time I've argued that the ABs problems might run a wee bit deeper than just one man and NZR set a clear timescale for any new coach to do better than Foster. Also, NZR should have a contingency plan in place to manage the risk if the new bloke - say Robertson with zero Test experience - doesn't improve things

Some people think the idea that there might be a risk from appointing a bloke with zero Test experience and managing that risk is insanity for some reason.

I don't think anybody thinks that. What everybody thinks is that those risks are moot due to the status quo being a steaming pile.

I'm not as down on Frizzell as others. When first selected he was a joke, not even starting for the Highlanders - just a silly coach looking to pull a rabbit out of the hat when we could have had Luatua - hardly Frizzell's fault being selected though.
The last two years his super form has justified AB selection, he's been a real standout in a poor side. Maybe another year of ABs and he starts to stand out at the higher level too. Maybe not too of course, but I think his form is equal or better to others mentioned.

@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:

@Frank said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:

Foster is a problem and Razor would be a better coach. I am not sure why you are doubting this.

I admire your absolute certainty, I really do. He's a great coach at SR level, but think about where we'd be if Robertson repeats his U20 record with the AB's. In an ideal world he'd have taken an Assistant role so he could ease himself in but he turned that down saying it was head-honcho or nothing. You can say he didn't want to work under a clown, but the optics are poor.

Fair enough. But ceteris paribus, we gotta go with the best coach we can find first to see if that has a major influence. As for testing that coach, we would want to see an improvement in coherency, playing style, and yes results.

I don't see the ABs as a "suck it and see", experimental test-tube environment - we have to do better than that.

Robertson has had success as a head coach. Foster has not. Rather than think about where we'd be if Robertson replicates U20, think about where we are with Foster replicating the Chiefs.
There are two approaches for filling jobs: one is promoting from within, and one is recruiting from without - why do you think only promoting from within is valid? Appointing an un-proven as a head coach guy to a head coach role is just as much suck it and see: we've seen it, and it sucks.

@Victor-Meldrew said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:

@reprobate said in Foster must go / Assistant Coach changes:

How dare someone leave people open to criticism in public eh Steve? Best you criticise them in public for that.

Your closed doors is how we got Foster in the first place. The hiring process was abysmal, ruled out all the good options deliberately so your mate could get the job. And the organisation, having previously wheeled out bullshit like 'coaches must have international experience' when it suited, then pick a guy without any head coach success in NZ, let alone inernationally.
Zero integrity.

Yeah, it's ridiculous for Hansen say Foster's a good coach and call out some of the online abuse when everyone knows Foster's rubbish and deserves everything he gets, isn't it? Hansen's obviously clueless and it's not as if he's had any decent experience or success at international level so he's best ignored.

And as for Mo'unga praising Foster, what would he know about coaching quality? Has he ever been coached by anyone decent?

An alternate view is these guys might actually have more insight into the current problems than most other people - including rugby hacks - and the current problems in NZ Rugby might run a wee bit deeper than the coaching skills of one bloke. Bit bloody inconvenient, if that is the case, eh?

Didn't say any of that, but keep up your efforts for the broken record award mate.

How dare someone leave people open to criticism in public eh Steve? Best you criticise them in public for that.

Your closed doors is how we got Foster in the first place. The hiring process was abysmal, ruled out all the good options deliberately so your mate could get the job. And the organisation, having previously wheeled out bullshit like 'coaches must have international experience' when it suited, then pick a guy without any head coach success in NZ, let alone inernationally.
Zero integrity.

@Stargazer If I were Jordie Barrett and looked at Will Jordan as my competition at 15 and David Havili at 12, I know which fight I'd pick.