@MN5 said in West Indies tour of NZ:

If I was doing a less than expert ranking of NZ keepers it would be something like.......

Watling
McCullum
Smith
Blundell
Parore

First two should be self explanatory, I remember Smithy being sensational in partnership with Hadlee although being very hit or miss with his batting ( as guys were in his era ) he may have been a better keeper than one and two......

Blundell despite his woes still did a good job overall even if Hay looks a superior replacement and Parore was a classy keeper and lovely looking batsman ( record doesn't really indicate it )

Apparently Wadsworth was very good but I'm too young to have seen him play.

Would any others warrant a mention ?

Only other NZ keeper on the linked list is Warren Lees who was also reasonable (Smith's predecessor). Smith was the best keeper I've seen play on the keeping side, but I also don't think there's enough in it to be worth selecting him in test cricket over Watling or McCullum so I agree with your order of 1-3 as a list of keepers without any thought as to team balance - I would put Parore above Blundell though. It's easy to forget how good a keeper Parore actually was, but he comes up on a lot of the all time stat lists and often near the top. On Parore's batting, he played as a specialist batter for a bit while we experimented with Lee Germon as specialist captain and keeper for anyone who remembers those particularly dark days of the 90s... Had he applied himself better at not getting out, he could well have been our best ever instead of debating whether he's 4th or 5th on our all time list.

Having said that, in an all time side, Hadlee, C Cairns and Vettori would be reasonable all rounders so needing Watling for his batting would be slightly less important unless specifically selecting a grinder at 6 or 7. Smith usually batted 8 or 9 and had a very high SR as he was a dasher rather than a grinder so would probably fit right into modern ODI/T20s in the later middle order or pinch hitter (he still has the world record for highest score at 9).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cricket/comments/4xdsev/stats_looking_at_test_wicketkeepers/ - always dangerous looking at Reddit posts, but on the topic of byes, IDS Smith was the third lowest Byes per Innings on the list (scraped from match cards apparently so no Statsguru link available), which backs up him being the best NZ keeper ever on the keeping side of the ledger. Interestingly, Parore and McCullum were both better than Watling on that measure, but Watling also hadn't finished playing yet so may have improved since the work was done.

I wouldn’t mind seeing a nz team or two joining the big bash, we have a lot of kiwis playing now anyway and great experience on Aussie decks too

I wonder who applied?

https://www.allblacks.com/news/whitney-hansen-announced-as-black-ferns-head-coach

But she has experience in terminating coaches popular with the public ..

@zedsdeadbaby said in School Rugby 2026:

Cheers - makes sense although I am not sure of the justification for it being an 'all boys' comp, when STAC could clearly hold their own.

Yeah from a Southern Schools perspective I see the reasoning for it, greater level of competition, since there is only four schools down there up to it competitively. Not sure of the Crusaders schools justification for excluding STAC though.

Can’t wait

World Cup season has started off really well

@gt12 Advantage needs to be reorganized so that if it is a knock on and turnover with clean possession, that's the advantage.

100% this.

2026 jerseys have just dropped
Home:
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Away:
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@Dan54

I had a look myself and it's only on their PPV channel.

https://epcrugby.tv/epcrtv

Could they not find someone who speaks English better than Rio Ferdinand to present the draw?

The whole thing had the vibe of a bad pilot for a show that never gets aired.

Rankings mean nothing now.
The World Cup draw is basically random

@Canes4life said in Japanese Rugby:

@African-Monkey said in Japanese Rugby:

@Canes4life said in Japanese Rugby:

@Duluth said in Japanese Rugby:

https://www.rugbyjp.com/post/7-newly-qualified-foreign-stars-who-could-debut-for-japan-in-2026

I know it's a small list of players but man some of them left NZ too early in their careers.

A bit of nostalgia with that list. Felt like a who's who of Super Rugby players from 2020/2021

Vince Aso was massively underrated, he was electric at centre and wing.

He was. Was even gonna get a call up at one stage but was injured.

Even without Pascoe and the fedora man, the Tigers are still the most shambolic outfit in the NRL in a league that includes the Titans.

@African-Monkey said in Still talking about Foster:

@nzzp said in Still talking about Foster:

@nzzp said in Still talking about Foster:

Good call. Naive is probably right.

Update: I think a mix of thin skinned and naive.

His talking about the games in 2021 were something like (not a direct quote) we smashed Tonga 102-0, then beat Fiji by 57 and 60- but still some people weren't happy.

I remember those Fiji games. They were coached by Vern and Ryan - and their forward pack scored a try or two against us up the guts. They looked sharp. People were right to critique the performances.

Yeah, that first Fiji test we had Blackadder, Sotutu and Frizzell who were beaten to the punch at breakdown a lot. It was only the last 20 where Fiji faded and Coles scored about 4 tries from rolling mauls where we pulled away but we struggled for large periods of that test.

Beating that Tonga team shouldn't even be mentioned as a test. They had to pull a bunch of guys out of Auckland club rugby to make the numbers as covid rules at the time didn't allow for them to pick most of their overseas players.

That Fiji test essentially made Ryan's name, they were really well drilled. What's stange is that it doesn't seem to have given Cotter much pop. I know that he is planning on retiring but he is one of the names who I think has the philosophy to be very successful at the next level with players of AB talent.

@Chris he almost had to be the last name but thank god it's confirmed

@reprobate said in "LIV Rugby"?:

@booboo said in "LIV Rugby"?:

@taniwharugby said in "LIV Rugby"?:

@sparky not to mention who's gonna buy the kit?

Or watch the games?

and @sparky if they made a few rule changes that I thought could improve the game... that's about the only thing which would mean I'd watch a few games.
I actually think that is the existing game's biggest weakness to a competitor - the constant box kicking, the rules, the impossibility of error-free reffing, the cards and TMO bullshit. If it's better, more entertaining, running rugby - but retains the 'for all shapes' aspect and needing a few brain cells to play (i.e. not league), then things might start to get interesting.

You just described Tindall

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/16EhyiVWfT/

Award for Bunnings Npc player of the year
Tom Christie Canterbury
Dillion Pledger Otago
Lucas Casey Otago

Tom Chistie takes this one out for me