The Silver Fern

@gt12 said in All Blacks 2024:

They are not here to inform.

Well they are really. They just don't.

@Trig said in Sexton's send off:

@Bones not playing in the Champions Cup final never stopped Jonny from running his mouth to the ref. Playing or not he will find a way to sledge

Indeed. Called Peyper a "fucking disgrace" .

*"Despite not being part of the playing squad in that game, cameras caught Sexton approaching the officials after the match"

They can't ban him for 3 weeks this time though.

A ten year old (ish) in the nineties:

@No-Quarter said in Black Caps v Sri Lanka Test Series:

watching our pop gun attack getting ground into the dust conceding 600/3.

and in 2024:

@Donsteppa said in Black Caps v Sri Lanka Test Series:

The ten year old cricketer in the house is still bemused at one team scoring 602/5

It's taken us a quarter of a century to improve by 2 wickets.

@Donsteppa He must have wondered why his Dad was always hiding behind a sofa whenever the cricket was on though...

TBH raising a child as a caps fan is bordering on abuse, look how we turned out. Years of unsuccessfully seeking emotional support on an internet forum is ahead of him.

@Donsteppa said in Black Caps v Sri Lanka Test Series:

The ten year old cricketer in the house is still bemused at one team scoring 602/5, and the other only 88 in reply.

That thought is not age restricted, it is however indicative of a lack of Black caps supporter experience.

@MN5 said in Sexton's send off:

@Catogrande said in Sexton's send off:

@MN5 said in Sexton's send off:

@Catogrande said in Sexton's send off:

I’m not prepared to read Sexton’s book because I don’t really take to the guy and also it is likely to be a complete whinge-fest. However, unlikely to surpass the amount of whinging on this thread..

I wouldn’t pay to read it but I’d definitely have a flick through if it was at a bookstore or on someone coffee table.

Not even the bargain bucket at the bookstore in month?

Any more than 99 cents and I’d be saying no

You know that you can read what dickheads have to say for free on the internet right?

Well, you must do you're here, so save your 99c.

Be one of the first names on team sheet at the moment.

Not sure if his personality type would be really good, or really dire. He's certainly enthusiastic. Bat, bowl and captain though? Tough ask.

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

Not sure if it’s omen or not but I saw a real wallaby this morning 😀

Was it roadkill?

@antipodean said in Formula 1:

@Snowy said in Formula 1:

@antipodean said in Formula 1:

Outside of rallying, they are all lesser series/ formulas.

I disagree. They are different. Drivers may very well be successful across them, and has been done before, but I'll leave it there.

Agreed they're different. The difference is they're slower and require less talent.

So incorrect that I will comment. Slower does not necessarily require less talent. Being able to maximise what you have to get the best out of the machine you are given is the skill.

It required considerably more talent to rally my Mini many years ago, than it would to do so in my RS4. It was an awful lot slower. Going faster does not require more talent per se, going faster in any given type does. Even then there is tyre management and other considerations that make up a top driver. It isn’t purely reaction time due to speed.

It could be argued that the slower types require more raw talent without all of the flash gear to go fast. Flying a tiger moth requires more talent than a modern trainer, it is a lot slower and a lot more dangerous. Have talent failure and you just crash slower.

None of that in any way implies that F1 is easier than the others! Just as I said, different, and that isn’t purely about speed.

@MajorRage said in Formula 1:

@canefan said in Formula 1:

@Machpants said in Formula 1:

Six races left, I think, to cement his place. Hope he goes well

Nope. He has a contract for next year. These 5 races are just a move to give him reps early, in preparation for 2025

Where did you get this? Not read this anywhere

I think is just his original contact which goes until 2025.

“ Lawson’s current contract with Red Bull contains a clause that he is free to leave, should he not be guaranteed a place on the 2025 grid by a certain date.”

He still isn’t guaranteed a place. Nobody is really!

@antipodean said in Formula 1:

Outside of rallying, they are all lesser series/ formulas.

I disagree. They are different. Drivers may very well be successful across them, and has been done before, but I'll leave it there.

@dogmeat said in All Blacks vs Wallabies 2:

Time for a 1974 style clean-out (15 debutants in a squad of 25)

We need a Cavaliers tour to Russia.

I'm intrigued as to whether we are going to learn anything new from this team. I would suggest not. It is quite possible that we will be shit a the beginning and finish well, as opposed to the other way around though.

@antipodean said in Formula 1:

@Snowy said in Formula 1:

@antipodean said in Formula 1:

How many of them have shown they're competitive in F2?

None. They don't compete in F2.

That's my point. It's stretching the realms of credibility to say because they've got some success in lesser series they'd be good F1 drivers. But there's evidence the opposite is true, like Ericson, Nasr, Palou. None of them won a F2 championship.

But look at the guys who did; Hamilton, Rosberg, Russell, Leclerc...

They aren't in "lesser series", they are different formulas. They don't necessarily get opportunities in F2 even. It's largely a Euro comp with a trip to the middle east and Oz. Most of the guys I mentioned are from other parts of the world. Even Lawson went via Japan (supposedly the formula closest to F1 but that came from the TV).

@antipodean said in Formula 1:

How many of them have shown they're competitive in F2?

None. They don't compete in F2.

@MajorRage said in Formula 1:

Honestly, I think racing is probably like Golf, in that the top top drivers are all much of a much ness, with the mentality being the difference between the elite and the next tier.

I'd agree with that. F1 has "some" of the top drivers around, but some who aren't as well and the disparity shows at times, which is a shame for the sport as a genuine contest across the field would improve it, but as you say we have already discussed it. Seeing two top drivers in the same team is great (with McLaren at the moment for example).

Would love to see some guys from other fields occasionally. Kyle Larson is incredibly talented but we'll never see him in F1. Dixon is behind only Foyt in Indycar titles now, but turned down F1 because he basically didn't trust the politics to get a drive, and wasn't prepared to play the waiting game that Lawson is having to play. Would be interesting to see Palou go as he was being chased I believe. He would be a good "cross code" comparator. With McLaren in Indy now (and getting more competitive) there might be a cross over driver with O'Ward, for example. McLaughlin was almost instantly successful going from a supercar to Indy, hugely different, but he managed it, even on ovals, very quickly. SVG went from supercars to Nascar and won straight away as well. Incredibly talented.

The crux of all that is that we don't get to see these guys get a crack in F1 because they don't get the opportunity, they are more than likely good enough though. Hopefully Andretti get a place at the table so at least another couple of seats.

Impossible to know just how good any of them are even in the same formula really, given that some teams produce superior cars within the formula itself, but I'd love to see some guys fill seats in F1 that were there on raw talent and not funding / nepotism/ politics, etc. Anyway, my dreams don't count for much anywhere, let alone F1.

As an aside, I wasn't aware that some drivers even have to pay for their own super licence, which is cheap enough if you're shit, but Max would be up for euro1.2M (Red Bull pay his). Crazy system based on championship points.

@canefan Hadn’t heard that Ricciardo was headed to Indycar. I had seen this:

“ Teams looking for a sponsorship boost will benefit from signing Ricciardo. The talent on the track may not be as highly tuned as it once was but his marketing capabilities are still up there with the best. That may be a crude way of looking at why Ricciardo isn’t done on the grid yet, but it is an unavoidable part of F1. Even now there are drivers on the grid who are there purely because of the revenue stream they can bring to teams.”

Which is what shits me about F1, it’s not necessarily the best drivers we get to see, as per the comments re Honda. Unfortunately Liam doesn’t bring any real cash with him that I am aware off. Money and sports are closely linked sadly.

@Catogrande said in Formula 1:

@Snowy @Bones

The pressure hes feeling from Norris currently might be getting to him. The whinge factor is increasing and he’s threatening to throw his toys out of the pram.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/c0m0wwk7ejno

My comments re Red Bull were merely because I want Lawson to get a drive, not really related to Max at all, more Riccardo really. If Perez goes too, it opens it all up a bit more (and then there's Max / Jos). Don't know what will happen with Yuki, not much probably.

@mn5 Yes Conway too. I’m a bit more lenient on him in some futile hope that he reads the fern and @Chris ’s technique tips, then has a return to being as good as we know he can be.

Yes, re the batting all round.

@MN5 I completely agree re Santner (in tests), it also worries me that they will never have the balls to get rid of the captain. Carrying one non contributor is hard enough but 2 is impossible, and probably why we lost this test. We did get close and but for a couple of cm run out, might have sneaked it.

@Chris said in All Blacks 2024:

@frugby said in All Blacks 2024:

@brodean said in All Blacks 2024:

Lomax and De Groot have the lowest metres per carry out of all props who have played meaningful minutes in the RC. Newell is pretty hopeless in this facet too.

They're great scrummagers and decent cleaners but they're hopeless with ball in hand. Early on in his career it seemed like this was a strong facet of Lomax but it ain't any more.

Of the starting tight five there isn't a single strong close in runner that can get the tight forwards going up the middle. Taylor makes most of his metres wider.

Metres per carry:

5.5 Tosi
3.6 Taylor
1.9 Darry
1.7 Tuipulotu
1.6 Tu'ungafasi
1.5 Vaa'i
1.3 Williams
1 Barrett
1 Aumua
0.7 Newell
0.5 De Groot
0.4 Lomax

Unsurprisingly the 3 Blues tight forwards are strong in this facet but they are clearly out of favour.

There's a lack of variety in our game which makes us predictable. We went more up the middle against the Puma's at Eden Park and that was probably our best game of the year.

If you think the All Blacks problems lie in the tight five, I can't help you.

Think there is probably something also to be said for the fact that de Groot and Lomax's minutes come in the first half, where in theory the game is less open... and these stats are incredibly volatile, because one 15m run where a player gets put in a hole could affect this by up to a metre.

The tight 5 is the least of our worries, some of the props coming of the bench may also not have had any or very little carries due to what has been happening in the last 20 minutes.

That’s the twenty where we kick away the ball, drop it, or get a player or 2 sent off right?