Should have finished after the first three paragraphs

https://www.balls.ie/rugby/james-ryan-no-apology-red-card-judgement-645471

@W32 said in November International, England v Argies:

@Catogrande said in November International, England v Argies:

@W32 said in November International, England v Argies:

This is the same player who accused bongi of calling him naughty names. Such a gentleman

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/articles/c93wpwwq7pvo

Well two things there. The Bongi incident was explained by the Saffers and accepted albeit with some slight feeling of "Hmmm. Really?"

Secondly, there is the clash between a current rugby player who has generally behaved extremely well, does not tend to mouth off or whine about injustice, nor become physically aggressive or confrontational outside in the way he plays against a former rugby player that has a history of aggression, some dirty play in the past, constant whining and mouthing off, exaggerating any small thing to get an advantage, perceived or otherwise.

Hmmm. Who to believe?

Fair enough. Hopefully there is some camera footage to clear Curry…..the argies are asking for it.
The bongi thing… ..well I always thought that Curry was a bit precious there. Damn colonials eh.

They certainly say that they're asking for it. I don't know whether they have formally requested it though. If it exists.

On the Bongi thing, I can understand a non Afrikaans speaker thinking Wit Kant. might be an insult, but the translation is white side so no great issue. I am though reminded of the Douglas Bader story of when he was giving a talk about his WW2 experiences to a girls' school.

There were some Fockers in front of me. More Fockers behind me. There were Fockers all over the place. Cue lots of girls giggling. The headmistress then said that Bader should tell the girls that a Focker is a type of German aircraft.

Apparently he said yes that is correct. These particular Fockers were Messerschmidts.

Watched a replay of the game from Sunday morning as i actually only saw the 2nd half
First thoughts was the performance of Holly Davidson i actually thought she was outstanding and her communication was first class

The TMO and the local production on the other hand the less said the better
Ruben Love in the main was very solid and did some very good things , the odd mistake but in the main very good and considering how much rugby hes played since the French series in July , it worked out to around 245 minutes rugby and good number of those minutes were across 3 games for Wellington in the Npc

I personally would like to see Love start in the 10 jersey for the Canes in 2026

I really liked how the loose trio operated as a combination knowing their specific roles , they were all able to operate by keeping to the game plan and shape and that gave Sititi opportunity to operate like a number 8 ,Parker and Du Plessis Kirifi just doing their core roles effectively
finally a game were the ABs discipline was on point
I’m certainly not saying these 3 should be the loose forward trio moving forward but just great to see players completing their roles with accuracy

Set pieces in the main were superb
Ratima is a great competitor but i dont see him in a match day 23 with young Pledger waiting in the wings , although it was great to see him and D Mac match up as a combo
I know theres been a bit of chat about Parker but even the great Jerome Kaino took around 4 years to finally nail down the 6 jersey
We tried Samipeni Finau in the 6 jersey and for me despite his size and supposed physicality we never saw it in the Black jersey
So for me i’m willing to persist with Parker especially given theres not a lot of big options out there , maybe Tupou Vai into 6 ..

Full credit to Wales , they had a few missing and the chaps that came in did very well , however the Boks will be a more ruthless beast

@ACT-Crusader politics, laid over a narrow development pathway, is far more destructive than the Old School Ties realise.

@nzzp said in England v All Blacks:

@MN5 said in England v All Blacks:

@Dan54 said in England v All Blacks:

@MN5 said in England v All Blacks:

@Dan54 said in England v All Blacks:

@reprobate said in England v All Blacks:

@Dan54 said in England v All Blacks:

@reprobate said in England v All Blacks:

@Dan54 said in England v All Blacks:

@reprobate said in England v All Blacks:

Cleaning up after yourself is basically a good thing. Recording it and posting it to social media to get congratulated for it is fucked up.

Geez mate when I played , scoring a try or winning a ruck was a good thing, but needing to celebrate (high fives etc)was f***ed up in our minds, but if players today wish to do it, up to them.
All I saying times change etc.

So he's celebrating cleaning the sheds?
It just comes across as the worst 'look how humble i am, doing this menial job when I'm a superstar'. whether it is him or NZR doing it, just fucking stop it. Doing it is a good thing, deliberately publicising it for praise is cringeworthy and about the least NZ thing I've ever heard of.

What is this least NZ thing you ever heard of.
I think to pretend NZers are all quiet humble farming type people is perhaps a lot more cringeworthy.

Are you serious bro? Well if you're right and there are NZers who aren't farmers, I've never fucken met 'em.

Yep well I met one who claimed he wasn't a farmer, but the bastard sounded awfully like he had an Aussie accent. And the prick didn't even know Colin Meads' home town(or town he had farm near)!

Jonah didn't even know who Colin Meads was before he met him. What a hopeless New Zealander.

Was he though, he was never a farmer!!!!! F***en imposter I think!

Not sure how much Jonah knew about farming but he could certainly plow through defenders better than anyone before or since.

Certainly caused some furrowed brows in opposing players and coaches

He rode roughshod over Mike Catt

Sorry I post the teams on the wrong thread. Must be the age.

@Duluth backline shape looking nice there, still some of that shape with the tag off the back of a pod ball off 9. But there were a couple plays where a midfielder actually steps into that role, as opposed to (De Groot/Scott Barrett).
That try to ENS down the right is a real nice look at a stacked backline which i havent seen much of from ABs, that looked real good for the U20s - though was a bloody good offload from fihaki to actually make the try happen

@MiketheSnow said in Scotland vs Argentina:

Fuck off Will. It was only against Scotland

Ireland looked better for their hit out against the All Blacks. Wallabies looked exhausted, easily exposed in defense as if they no longer had the engine to get to the spaces required or trust in each other had evaporated.

Not the end of the season I expected given their start.

@Steven-Harris said in November Internationals 2025 : Wales v Japan:

Huge ramifications for Welsh rugby ,what is this commentator on ?
Its not as if you have beaten a top 5 team ..

But as others have mentioned we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance at the next RWC

A loss yesterday would have consigned us to where Welsh football was for over 50 years

Unable to make the Euros or World Cup because we were the third ranked team in the group and the other 2 of 3 teams were of our standard

Wales blew so many good chances and didn’t utilise our best strengths - LRZ - but there is already improvement in just two matches

In two years time we will be giving Top 5 sides a fucking good game

Thought Mann had another great match and whilst he’s no Jac Morgan cemented his place in the back row

Tomos is rocks & diamonds

Best game I’ve seen from Dan Edwards

But I still prefer Jarrod Evans

Nails to kick that penalty to win the match

Adams can be put out to pasture now

Dumb, dumb, dumb

We’re going to get well beaten the next two matches

The key is to do what we’re trying to do better, with more accuracy

If we can score 3-4 tries against both NZ and SA by opening them up then the rest of it will fall in to place

@pakman said in Scotland v All Blacks:

@BerniesCorner I want Parker in 23, and think it makes sense for him to start. Wally is brilliant to come off bench at about 50.
Flexibility to end with SSP or SSL depending on how things are panning out.

Flexibility seems a bit optimistic. I think I'm right in saying that in the last game we had 2 loosies who had a 10 minute rest, and we left the guy who hadn't had a rest on, and subbed the guy who had just had his rest?

@Dan54 said in Wales v Argentina:

Thanks Mike, I feeling a bit for all you Welsh supporters etc, but regardless great little write up. I will have a peek at the game today sometime, though maybe just the highlight package.
I keep my fingers and toes crossed that things inprove for Welsh rugby!

Yeah, just watch the highlights

@canefan said in England A v All Blacks XV:

@pakman said in England A v All Blacks XV:

@nostrildamus said in England A v All Blacks XV:

Fakatava still looks like a great AB bench option to me. What is he missing?

Based on the highlights he'd be an asset in the AB squad.

Has to get pass Christie first 🤷

I don't want to bag Christie but he isn't the best option if they want to play fast attacking rugby.

Jeez we looked half asleep. Ball was so slow and F Smith was too deep. Marcus is not a starting full back, really need Furbank IMO.

Hope we pick our best pack to start next week

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in Ireland vs Japan:

Japan have gone backwards. Eddie Jones is a friggen charlatan. I just needed to say that.

I can't believe he keeps getting coaching gigs. No wonder he always has that shit eating smirk on his mug.

@Kruse said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:

@nostrildamus said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:

@Kruse said in Ireland v All Blacks - Chicago2:

And that's definitely a coaching thing... I wouldn't know how to coach that: "play naturally when you're feeling it; but play differently when maybe that's not quite working and just do this structure"

plan A, here, have some free beer
plan B, ok, the wife's here, she's got the keys and she's not happy...

Are we now saying though... Use Plan-A despite the wife arriving?
Coz... metaphor-aside, I'm currently 100% on that train

If not clear - I'm smashed, and just took a toke. And just hit a button which made my screen do something I don't know how to get out of...

if you're on Plan A, Plan B sounds possible but at some point it isn't and you don't really care. So, enjoy your jump into the multiverse...