Our forwards were awesome this year - scrum time, lineout when Moulds was throwing, winning the contact. Ran out of gas ⛽️ in the last game with injuries etc. I loved what Heenan did for the team. Accurate, a leader, a real professional - we only have a few guys fit that fit that category - Moulds, Cory Evans leads the backs….but signs this year that players are learning to stay in games.

Is that the Fern record for a thread necro?

Clean sweep for the Aces.

Phoenix lucky to be there in the first place. The Aces v Fever the pick of the series.

Oh that Peter Russell.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/sport/the-coach-who-reignited-hawke-s-bay-rugby-peter-russell-rip/

@DurryMexted I've responded to you in the 2026 thread. Let's kill this thread team and discuss anything for next year here - https://forum.silverfern.rugby/topic/7391/hurricanes-2026/163

Not AB's, but back in the day this was very much a part of the game in SA.

557735080_1654911785529502_4413189783591561465_n.jpg

@pakman said in The importance of the little men?:

@Smuts said in The importance of the little men?:

Hang on a second - Reinach was the disaster artist who failed to manage the back end of the Ellis Park test. He also had over 30 minutes at Eden Park to rescue a game that only needed the boks to scratch up 11 points.

Williams was far from perfect in both those games but given the armchair ride they got behind the bok pack neither of them can really say they delivered.

Sub either of them for White, Roigard or, the inexplicably unselected tourist, Faf, and the Boks win those games easily.

I think Reinach suits the current Boks game of heavy set piece focus, keeping ball close for a few phases and then launching shortish half field bombs, and ONLY THEN playing attacking rugby. Williams much more suited to having to chase the game.

Ellis Park ended wrong way, but I suspect Rassie has refined his tactics since the .

To be honest, Ellis Park match was lost due to.Boks being careless.with the ball and Wallabies punishing those turnovers and the crap cover defence. Libbok was main culprit, plus the lineout was dysfunctional, Marx and Bongi both poor throwing in. Match was over before Reinach got off the bench.

Your point stands, Reinach was a point of difference for the Boks in the back end of the championship (same as Roigard was for abs) and I think it's because he brought a combative, no nonsense mentality to the game and he is just a generally tidy and accurate player. He doesn't overcomplicate things, just hard nosed rugby and good option taking. Some of the younger Boks are more spectacular but they are also erratic and error prone.

@Frank said in The Rugby Championship 2025:

I think they're 10 points better than us.
Superior scrum.
Much better 10.
More depth.
More powerful loose forwards
Better coach.
More savvy players.
We were bloody lucky it was raining at Eden Park.

If they have a superior scrum, much better 10, better coach, more savvy players and more powerful loose forwards they should still do better in the rain!

@No-Quarter said in Black Caps v Australia T20 Series:

Mitchell Marsh is our fucking nemesis in this form. He took the T20WC away from us as well after Kane played a blinder.

I think he came on the fern and read all of the things that @NTA told him he needed to work on and came back and dominated.

Guys who are bits and pieces at test level can absolutely dominate in this form of the game.

@NTA said in Who You Got, Where You At?:

Australia, and fuck I wonder why a lot -living in Sydney

FIFM

Just remembered to sort my team....

@Bovidae said in SR U18 Development Squads 2025:

Here are the squads/teams. They have a similar amount of players missing with the NZS. Some players who were involved with the Barbarian U18s and Māori U18s.

559011715_18531127900059557_3657845862485532275_n.jpg

557293940_18534875311040386_8053031120361557139_n.jpg

Crazy to think Fletcher Stirling Cooper is playing Under 18s and he still has two more years left of school.

@nzzp said in RWC 2027 in Australia:

@Kruse said in RWC 2027 in Australia:

Does that balance out? Somebody's always going to whinge, and point at somebody else having an "armchair ride".

I want the 2007 RWC draw the SA got. Fiji then Argentina to get to the Final. Take that any day of the week.

Yeah - I started tracking out the potential best/worst cases (based on Pool-results matching existing rankings)
As already said - you could win your pool, then play Australia in Round-of-16 - never make a QF.
Or - win pool, then play Samoa, Argentina, and into Semis... hoping there's been an upset elsewhere.

@Bones said in 2025 UNDER 85KG NATIONAL CLUB CUP:

@mikedogz poneke the only team in Welly?

Certainly not, in fact they did not even field a team in the Wellington 85kg Grade Competition last season. Perhaps this sort of result made the decision easy for them! https://clubrugby.co.nz/wellington/games-results.php?competition=27&season=21&Submit=Go
Only (in finishing order) Tawa, J/ville, Wellington, OBU, Avalon, Eastbourne, Pare-Plim, Hutt Old Boys-Marist and MSP fielded teams in 2025.

@brodean said in Rugby on Stan:

Is Apple TV a device?

Yep.

@scribe said in Road Cycling:

And Niamh Fisher-Black second in the elite women’s race; an outstanding effort!

She sounded a bit pissed that she couldn't get over the line. She admitted that the other girl rode away from her on the cobbles, but was clearly on a very good day and had her chance and probably feels that she missed it.

I actually missed this race completely and for whatever reason Lantern Rouge didn't have the footage so no highlights from them, sadly.

I assume Mitchell gets a knighthood now too. The Brits like handing out titles to sports teams.

@mikedogz said in Olympics Thread:

He could be a future Olympian

https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/other-sport/ho-13-youngest-history-claim-nz-open-title

Love it. He'll be our Ho

Down the local park again today.
Force v Reds
Steady breeze almost directly downfield.
Very typical on this ground.

First the U19s; Reds 59, Force 50!
Crazy game, the Reds did not kick the ball out of defence when they ran into the breeze in the 2nd half.
Just pounded it up, that won them the game.
The Force did kick into the wind in the first half, and concede 40+. Very silly.

In the main game Force conceded 3 long range tries in the first 20 mins of the first half, while they had the wind.
That decided that game.
The Reds looked very good.

Now the interesting part of the arvo.
Down the local park, I just barged my way into a nice spot, right on the touchline.
Standing there a couple of minutes; this little guy steps in front of me.
Now, I haven't seen this guy for 40 years, but straight away I know who it is.
I'm thinking; fuuuuck that's LES KISS.
I'm right next to the Reds bench.
So, for the rest of the game I'm checking out his style, probably more than the game.
Very understated, he wasn't actually coach of the day, but I could hear him chatting quietly to the guy who was.
If he wanted a change, they made the change.
He was up and down, but never demonstrative, calling several players over for a few quick, quiet words.
Never raised his voice.
UNLIKE HIS ASSISTANTS, who were all Nick White types FFS, and were trying to ref the game.
At one point the Reds were marched ten for back chat. But it was right next to the bench, and dont think it was the players, I think the ref got the shits with the Reds bench. Fuck I did.
Very imprssed with Kiss' style, can see why he got the gig.