The Silver Fern

@canefan That is the other option, but it doesn't exactly speed up the game i.e. gets the ball back in play quicker, just results in less game-time wasted.

The only way to have 30 second scrums is to start blowing penalites if teams are taking too long...good luck there...

Would love to see Finau, Savea, Sititi as the loose forward combo for this match. It would be an exciting watch.

@No-Quarter Pipe dream there mate, Robinson has his pets in Cane and Savea and everyone else will play around them until they choose to retire or get injured.

Was a good win.

Was much happier with how we played, a lot more control, a lot more composure, the bench actually had impact and we for the first time all year got better as the game went on.

Ref didn't help the AB's by turing the ruck into a dance floor at the disco and slowed the game down horribly.

Still DMac got his goals and our kicking game was vastly improved, we showed much better mental resilence instead of falling apart and managed to force Ireland into making mistakes (instead of us making mistakes and letting the oppostion back into the game).

So yes happy with how we won, hopefully this can be the start of a trun around in the AB's mental fragility that they've dsiplayed all year.

I thought it was the best game DMac has had all year, we wouldn't have won it without his boot keeping us in the game. Played with compsure and control, was the best I'd seen our kick chase in years.

Sititi has become the find of the year already, Amua still makes me nervous everytime he steps up to throw but was great around the park.

I think this topic is more a reflection on the workplace getting increasingly risk-adverse to work related booze-up's than the popularity of the Melbourne Cup itself.

Quite remarkable really, so many world class players and teams have toured India and yet it's this starless team of battlers that is the first to sweep India at home.

I really don't know how it happened, an incredibly historic cricketing moment.

Thank goodness a crippling injury rate has allowed the likes of Lakai and Love to finally get a chance...

@nzzp said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":

@Windows97 said in New Zealand is a top sporting nation for its size":

Well, we can hold this title until someone from Naru, Liechtenstein or the Vatican City wins something, then all our stats are meaningless

Jamaica has us beat all ends up

Dammit!! I knew there was some statistical anomaly that would trip us up!!

Well, we can hold this title until someone from Naru, Liechtenstein or the Vatican City wins something, then all our stats are meaningless

Had to give it to the White Ferns really, lost 10 on the bounce and then win a WC is some sort of Cinderilla story and a WC is a WC, they are notoriously hard to win.

But yes we were certainly spoiled for choice this weekend!!

Pleasently surprised, the BOP has always had the danger out wide but lacked startch/execution up front to really match it with the big boys consistently.

The final presents the neutral fan with a golrious oppertunity to watch two teams famous for losuing things up as soon as they get tagged as favourites desperatly trying to out-do each other on the big stage,

I'll be watching this one from behind the couch...

Good to see our forward pack step up and win us a game, was a very competitive match.

Anytime were favourites it's an immenent loss, so picking a semi-final exit

Well I'm glad to see that Johnny is being the bigger man and not stooping to Reiko's level and instead of keeping his gripes man to man and leaving them on the field has published them in a book so he can whinge and moan to the absolute maximum amount of people he possibly can.

Such class...

TJ and BB starting just makes me weep, I'd prefer Hotham and Plummer as at least then it would show an intent to try and build something for the future. The coaching pharse I believe is "wasting reps" and this is a complete waste.

@Duluth That's a very good point, SA avoid fatigue by basically replacing their entire forward pack in the second half and always end the game fresher than what we do.

I also note we tend to drip feed our subs on, often late in the game where other teams (Arg and SA) make 3-4 subs all at the same time.

It feels like were running our starting XV till they're gassed, then bringing on people too late to work their way into the game and be effective.

Our attack also seems quite heavily dependant on a lot of off the ball activity, backdoor option passing with a lot of double loops etc which expends a lot of energy on attack.

However if the above is true then it would point to a complete blunder in terms of team preperation and tactics on behalf of the coaching group.

If the team only has the gas in the tank to carry out the attcking pattern for 50 minutes then its absolutely essential that your bench can slot into that exact same pattern for the remaining 30 minutes without that pattern breaking down.

But we see our attcking pattern past the 50 minute mark completly going to kak in terms of execution, which is baffling.

Just trying to scratch my head in regards as to why our bench is so ineffective and one possible theory either by bad luck or co-inicedence are all of them (forward reserves esp) just poor at the clean-out?

Amua for instance has been awful at clearing bodies, in Aus1 we had a huge break on in the second half and both him (and I think Tosi) both with fresh legs couldn't shift a singular Aussie defender who then got the turnover.

However this is just a singular instance I remember and cartainly not a concise video analysis.

It's just baffling because theyre all "impact" players - at least when it comes to carrying the ball, but if they come on and can't clear the ruck effectively and we continually concede turnovers then no wonder we can't build anything on attack?

Robertson appears to be rapidly descending into the rugby version of Jacinda Arden.

Fluffed by the media as "the person that's going to put everything right" and defended by a staunch fan-base and overly docile media with cries of "it's not that bad" and "it will all get better" all whilst a raging dumpster fire gets increasingly brighter in the background....

I just can't help but think Wellington + Mentally weak AB team = Defeat.

I hope they play the first half but for the full 80 minutes this time.