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.

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.

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.

Interesting game, interesting comments.
Smith was good.
Mo'unga was mediocre, but he's a good player and will come right.
Goodhue played fine albeit not in his best position: defended very well, well positioned and nice hands to link for the try.
Ioane was poor. Very good as always once he caught the ball and ran with it, but unfortunately bad everything else. The bombed grounding was a shocker, and as others have mentioned, no surprise. He didn't pass when he should have to blow an overlap, and also bombed another try with the foot on the line but that didn't get called somehow. And he was the guy who squeezed in on defence instead of trusting the insides to give the Aussies their try. Of those 4 bad mistakes, 2 are wingers jobs, so no excuse. He's a good player, but that was not a game to remember.
Bridge was okay only. Not as good in the air as we'd like, good pass for the try, otherwise not involved enough which is supposed to be one of his strengths.
Jordie was okay out of position, not his fault he was picked there. That 22 reception was a shocker though.
MacKenzie was pretty good actually. More like the North vs South than the Chiefs version.

Moody was good.
Taylor was okay.
Tungafasi was okay, but I had hoped for more.
Tuipolotou was okay, but I had hoped for more.
Whitelock was good-ish, which seems to be about where he sits in his dotage. Lots of work in the ruck and tackle and solid lineouts.
Frizzell was fine, lots of tackling, and linked well for the try in the corner. Seems a bit weird to be copping flak from some of the same guys lauding Cane when Frizz had the more tackles in the first half.
Cane was mighty. Not sure he's a captain, but the performance did say 'follow me'.
Savea was poor I thought. A few good moments, but just nowhere near enough of them.

Coaching wise, well, fucking hopeless. Selecting 3 debutants on the bench alongside Perenara means Foster either was arrogant enough to think it would be in the bag by 60 minutes, or is just stupid and has chucked one of the positives of Hansen's regime in blooding new players one at a time surrounded by experience and established combinations.
Just pick Sotutu. He's good enough, so he's old enough. Savea was playing well enough to demand selection in the WC year, but I don't think he's done that this year, and there's no dropping Cane barring injury.
Barrett and Bridge, no no no. Jordie is a fullback. Bridge is fine, but if he's selected the other wing should be a bruiser like Clarke for a shit day in Wellington.
For those saying drop Goodhue, what the hell? He was fine in this game, he was our best in the WC loss, and let's not forget that ALB has had a shit super season at 12. Certainly his best position is centre, but dropping him would be crazy.
You'd think we would have had a plan for White after what he did to us last time, but apparently not.
Passive defensive line. We're sticking to that shit tactic eh. Nice.
Bugger all possession, another time-honoured tactic. Gotta love that continuity.

The reffing, as others have said, plenty let go both ways. Either side could point at missed decisions in the last few minutes that could have changed the result, but who cares really.

Well done to Dave Rennie, didn't really expect anything less given his history of making teams greater than the sum of the parts. If Faingaa hadn't played so badly I think the Aussies would have got the win they deserved. Also worth noting that they showed a bit of belief - Aussie sides of the recent past might well have crumbled after playing all the rugby for scant reward and then conceding points against the run of play.

@no-quarter said in All Blacks v Ireland, 2021 NH Tour:

If Foster says the backs were poor then that starts with the service they were getting from TJP all game. I said before the match that the last thing we need against an organised rush defense is TJP's loopy inaccurate passing (obviously) yet they not only started him but they kept him on the full 80.

If Smith starts against the French the ABs will be significantly better.

A terrible selection, and in my opinion always has been, but as you say doubly so against the rush. Not because he's a bad player, cause he's in some ways really bloody outstanding, but because our whole game is built around Smith and speed of delivery, and that's what you need against the rush. You can't replace a great easily, but you can at least look to put a similar cog into the team to keep the pattern workable. TJ isn't, and never has been, that guy.
You can see what they were thinking leaving him on when they had already lost experience in the backs to injury, but they were well fucking wrong in that decision, as they were with his initial selection, and so many other things.
I think TJ is (or at least has been) the 2nd best halfback in NZ for years for his defence and support play. But I would still pick Webber, Christie, Fakatava, probably Nock/Drummond/Hall - fuck anyone who can pass quickly and accurately - ahead of him to slot in to replace Smith. The whole 'offers something different' argument is fucked when you're talking about a position that effects the whole team pattern.
Smith makes us a different team. His brilliance shouldn't disguise the failings of many others in this game, but he certainly is the one player I can think of ahead of any other who is going to make those around him look better by giving them time, space, and the ball in the right place.

I'll probably sound like a cock saying this after the fact, but I didn't watch this live because I thought there was a good chance we would crumble. I read the thread anyway, because there were bound to be some quality rants (not disappointed in that at least) and having heard that Ireland were actually good, thought I might give it a watch.
I'm 5 minutes in. ALB has made two bad defensive reads giving Ireland space and momentum. TJ has killed momentum and we've lost the ball by him throwing a pass behind someone. Rieko has lost the ball in contact. Beauden has thrown Savea a hospital pass which he has dropped in contact. Every other time we've had the ball we've kicked it away.
Then a scoring opportunity and ALB throws a terrible pass into Irish hands at the line.
Now TJ has given them space and momentum by being in the Irish backline instead of holding the defensive line.
This is only 12 minutes in, and I think Foster is fucking hopeless, but so far I'm pretty surprised to be with him on blaming the backs (not Jordie or Jordan, and Reece has hardly been involved).
Now some endless replays of a bullshit collision, so I'm assuming this is the yellow card. Yep. FFS. What a joke.

Blackadder and Robinson, two blokes who run themselves into the ground every game they play.

Ennor. Managed to improve so much during his injuries that he was selected for the all blacks on the back of no games at all, which went swimmingly. Following in the footsteps of Colin Slade in that regard. (not a dig at the players, just the stupid selection policy).

Actual improvers: Jordie, Dalton, Samisoni, Blackadder.

@victor-meldrew said in NZ Politics:

@reprobate

Thanks. I wasn't commenting, more interested in how the media in NZ approached this topic and if there were "acceptable" or "unacceptable" religions/religious views which could or would be challenged.

It's pretty much a no-no in the UK to go into a politician's religious beliefs or question if it might impact their political actions and just wanted to see if NZ media were different.

Yeah, some people would shy away from that line of questioning I guess. But then minorities in NZ get minor positions where basically nobody cares too much, and I don't think a muslim back bencher would get much more or less grief than Luxon previously.
Get the top gig and you're going to get all aspects looked at much more closely though, so it is pretty hard to draw comparisons because the minor religions ain't getting close to the top job.
Personally I say grill all of them on their beliefs, because I think it would be pretty absurd to think that people's beliefs don't influence what they are going to say and do - and for an easy example, the oppression of women is one of several religions favourite things, and fuck that shit.

@victor-meldrew National or Labour wouldn't put up a hard-line muslim as leader, for precisely that reason: people's perception that their religious beliefs affect how they vote/think would rule them out of that role, so it would be a bit odd to cry victimisation of the christian in that comparison.
I think devout people are all stupid, so I'm sure as shit not voting for any sort of fundamentalist muslim, nor an evangelical christian - so i figure the free ride for Labour continues.

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks 2021:

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2021:

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks 2021:

@machpants said in All Blacks 2021:

2022 will be different. Ireland 3 times, SA in SA, England, Scotland, Wales, off session France maybe.
Omicron permitting 🥺

I just worry Foster will win all of them as this would trigger multiple posts on how Jesus Chrobertson or another favourite coach would have won with twice the margin and with the AB "B" team....

No it really wouldn't, most everyone would be stoked if we had improved sufficiently for that to happen. The stick Foster is getting is due to his shit results, obtained in a shit manner, and his shit history with the Chiefs which meant that plenty of people couldnt understand his appointment and expected shit results and are frustrated to have been proved correct.

Well, your post might be the first time on the Fern where a poster (in this case me) has predicted something might happen and it does - before the predicted event...

I genuinely don't understand. I don't recall ever having posted in praise of Robertson, and I'd love for Foster's plan to come together and for the ABs to play great running, winning rugby.
Unfortunately what I see is them playing the same shit rugby, making the same mistakes and unable to cope against the same opposition tactics, not looking like they have a plan, or composure, and losing to teams they don't usually lose to.

@victor-meldrew said in All Blacks 2021:

@machpants said in All Blacks 2021:

2022 will be different. Ireland 3 times, SA in SA, England, Scotland, Wales, off session France maybe.
Omicron permitting 🥺

I just worry Foster will win all of them as this would trigger multiple posts on how Jesus Chrobertson or another favourite coach would have won with twice the margin and with the AB "B" team....

No it really wouldn't, most everyone would be stoked if we had improved sufficiently for that to happen. The stick Foster is getting is due to his shit results, obtained in a shit manner, and his shit history with the Chiefs which meant that plenty of people couldnt understand his appointment and expected shit results and are frustrated to have been proved correct.

@crucial yeah all fair enough mate, I couldn't care less about the craftiness of it, and in general them selling out means more good beer in places that previously had no good beer, so that's a big win as far as I'm concerned. But in my anecdotal experience, the quality and consistency dipped, including one genuinely faulty batch. There's plenty of small still crafty breweries whose quality control is far far worse of course, but its not a myth that Panhead had some issues.

What a debacle. It's not healthy for what is effectively a two party system to have one of those parties such a rabble. Every single valid criticism of Labour can effectively be parried with 'yeah, but that fucking mess over there is the alternative'.

@crucial Yeah nah. Definitely had some bad batches after selling.

@stodders we have been too dumb to do this since Dagg was playing. 10s take penalties and clearing kicks despite being worse at it, or we risk hurting their little feelings I assume.