The Silver Fern

@KiwiMurph said in Blues vs Waratahs 2025:

@Jet said in Blues vs Waratahs 2025:

No sleight of hand. No swerve, no nous. He didnt construct any of them himself.

Did you actually watch the full tries or simply the final outcome?

The first try came from a huge break which was the result of a perfectly timed pass by Rieko in midfield to put Beauden in space.

Yeah haha he started and finished off the play.

@African-Monkey said in Auckland Rugby 2025:

Had a good laugh at Rieko being at the Marist game when he and his family are staunch Ponsonby people lol.

Yeah that was funny. Beauden was with Uni and not Marist IIRC.

@Daffy-Jaffy said in All Blacks 2025:

They really dropped the ball (pun intended) with that Bongi call.

They would be better to pump some money into the MLR to get the standard up to at least the Japanese level.

@NTA said in England vs. Australia (2024):

I’ve never seen anyone shadow off loading before

😂😂😂

@DaGrubster There's a lot of guys in that side that do play for Moana Pasifika and others that played a bit at NPC level, but they weren't even regulars down at NPC level and a fair few of those Moana players aren't regulars for them either. So there are a fair few familiar faces to NZ viewers, but yeah, a lot if them ain't test level. It's a fairly weak Samoan line up, so this result is huge, and as for the heat factor, Italy were the ones camped on the Samoan try line for a lot of the 2nd half, and a lot of these Samoan players play in NZ anyway, unlike the Drua who are a proper Fiji based side made out of locals mostly.

I must say, Samoa's results against 6 nations opposition in the last 9 months or so has shown massive improvement. They could easily have won against Ireland and England and competed well against Argentina at the world cup as well to go with a big upset against Italy today.

It shows the benefits of having Moana Pasifika playing in a professional comp.

@MajorRage said in Euro 2024:

@Bovidae said in Euro 2024:

I think part of the hype is related to the English fans, especially, and media putting the EPL on such a pedestal. This means that the abilities of the English players are often inflated relative to players from other leagues/nationalities. How many would have heard of Fabián Ruiz or Mikel Oyarzabal before the Euros?

What? The EPL on a pedestal? The most watched annual league of the biggest sport, by a mile, on the planet?

I’m not sure of your on this thread to wind up or just generally have no clue.

I work with and socialize with season ticket holders to Arsenal, spurs, Chelsea, United, palace and qpr. None of them rave about the English players, and all of them you could name a top league player anywhere snd they’ll know.

The hype, the mania, is a country getting behind a team. And it’s fantastic. I know not one person who thought it was coming home. There was hope, yes, but deep down not much confidence.

But anything can, and will, happen in football. So all jump on the bandwagon. And it’s a fucking fun
One to be on. Lots of hope without fear and expectation.

MajorPom has entered the chat for 2024...

@ploughboy Haha, was just reading up on it, there's some angry people out there towards what he's done to them. I completely missed it at the time.

He's like the former All Whites soccer goalkeeper Michael Utting.

I assume he did the same shit to the poor naive Ashburton folk?

Looks like Akira is not playing, with Segner at 8

@Bovidae ideally as the tech irons out wrinkles they need them to be cheap enough that club players can afford them, and maybe each club has their players linked so they can monitor them as well, given they wont be able to do in game analysis, at least they can look post game and set some protocols around this.

@Tim said in Super Rugby Predictions - 2024:

Chiefs to beat Blues in the final (tight five depth is a big issue for Blues). Crusaders 9 and 10 not good enough, despite a great tight five. Havili to spend some time at 10.

Closest to the pin, I think. You got the finalists right before competition but the result the wrong round.

Cotter's done a great job developing the Blues Tight five this season.

@Windows97 Corey Evans

Aucklanders to weigh in on $300m stadium vs rugby club plan at Western Springs

@Bovidae not entirely sure but he was wanted by Ta$man

The power of this stuff continues to amaze me. For some reason a TV series I saw when I was about 12 came back to me. Thought it was a Francis Durbridge mystery and could only remember a character called Tolley.

A good test for CoPilot I though - found it after I asked 3 questions...

Auckland FC had some big salary cap advantages this year as a new team which they won't have next year.

From the Rugby Awards:

All Blacks Player of the Year
Wallace Sititi

Tom French Memorial Māori Player of the Year
Tyrel Lomax