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.

@booboo said in Important rugby records - All Blacks and others:

@Nepia said in Important rugby records - All Blacks and others:

@booboo said in Important rugby records - All Blacks and others:

@Nepia said in Important rugby records - All Blacks and others:

@MiketheSnow said in Important rugby records - All Blacks and others:

@African-Monkey said in Important rugby records - All Blacks and others:

@MiketheSnow said in Important rugby records - All Blacks and others:

This is the one that got away

Should have gone for a catch & drive when we were 22-26 down instead of going for the penalty

And Stephen Jones kicking it away at the end was criminal and moronic

I remember the test well, and yeah, was laughing with my dad at the time when Stephen Jones kicked the ball away at the end. It felt like Wales that day were happy to lose by 1 point, as opposed to go out and grab the win against a pretty inexperienced ABs side (something our current coaches would never have the balls to do).

Couldn't find a list of how many caps the NZ players had prior to this match, but personnel wise this is close to an all-time side

New Zealand:
M Muliaina (Blues); D Howlett (Blues), C Laulala (Crusaders), A Mauger (Crusaders), J Rokocoko (Blues); D Carter (Crusaders), P Weepu (Hurricanes)
T Woodcock (Blues), K Mealamu (Blues), G Somerville (Crusaders), C Jack (Crusaders), A Williams (Blues), R So'oialo (Hurricanes), R McCaw (capt, Crusaders), M Tuiali'i (Crusaders)

Replacements:
A Oliver (Otago), C Hayman (Otago), R Thorne (Canterbury), M Holah (Waikato)
B Kelleher (Waikato), M Nonu (Wellington), R Gear (Auckland)

Only three of those players would make an all time side (two if I was coach), and one was on the bench and nowhere near the player he became.

Who is the 3rd?

Ma'a
Edit: Just saw your edit. I've always been an MJ over McCaw on pure rugby ability ....

Yeah, ok, I respect your opinion, no matter how wrong you are ...

I respect that you respect my correct opinion even though you erroneously think it's wrong. 😉

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19X2JsAZRS/

@nostrildamus said in Should this week's test be the ushering-in of a new era for All Blacks?:

@NTA said in Should this week's test be the ushering-in of a new era for All Blacks?:

If the "new era" is "losing at Eden Park" then absolutely.

Call me magnanimous all you like but I don't mind if Joe Schmidt loses at Eden Park this weekend.

😠

@MN5 said in Who should be AB captain?:

@nostrildamus said in Who should be AB captain?:

@MN5 said in Who should be AB captain?:

You want someone massively overrated ?

No, I think it is clear now we don't need any more Scottish players in the ABs....

For once I agree 100% with you. Finlay Christie is hardly a fair swap for Sean Lineen, the Leslies, Metcalfe, Maitland etc.

Maitland was pretty good. Not sure I remember the other ones.

@Nepia said in Stupid ideas to fix rugby:

@booboo said in Stupid ideas to fix rugby:

@Kiwiwomble said in Stupid ideas to fix rugby:

@gt12 said in Stupid ideas to fix rugby:

@Smuts said in Stupid ideas to fix rugby:

Surprisingly ball in play has crept up steadily since the 80s. There’s actually less stoppages now than ever before.

Problem with big changes to player fatigue levels is that even small increases result in far greater risk of injury.

Also there’s a huge tension between the conditioning/physiques needed to scrum safely and effectively and that required to play multiphase running rugby.

So probably the best way to encourage wide attacking rugby, greater defensive commitment to the ruck and fewer stoppages is to:

a) reward committing more players to the ruck with possession NOT penalties;

b) lower the risk of going wide with too little support from a likely penalty to simply losing possession; and

c) make sure that refs see their role at the ruck as a fair fight for possession that should rarely result in a penalty.

Get rid of every ruck rule. Replace with: must enter from your side of the ball (more or less & regardless of angle) & only players on their feet count and may play the ball.

So basically the ELVs - which were awesome to play under and produced great rugby.

Nice post. Simplification with a focus on contest for possession.

Personally, I'd remove penalties for scrum infringements until it's actually them trying to not-scrum. Scrumming for a penalty is a blight on the game.

100% scrum is a competition for the ball...the reward for dominating one should be the ball...not 3 points

Put the ball in straight in the middle.

Woah woah, this is supposed to be stupid ideas, not batshit crazy ones.

imposing the laws we actually have...this place has finally gone too far

Ice hockey is only like 5-a-side isn't it? And on a smaller playing area?

Makes sense for it to be shorter when there's less players (e.g. SVNS). Can't see it having much impact in FFTNS.

Equally as absurd as that trophy was Fitzy clearly getting product placement in by lifting it together with his water bottle 😄

@Duluth said in The dreaded box kick:

@taniwharugby said in The dreaded box kick:

I reckon start by removing the caterpillar ruck, allowing the 9 to roll it back and set for the box kick.

Agree with @MiketheSnow hands on, you are free game, like it used to be as opposed to the roll it back, move it into ideal position, head up looking if the kick is still on, wait, kick

Another way to limit the caterpillar ruck would be to tweak the "use it" law. Call it quicker and have less seconds to play it

That would stop the slo-mo setup and increase the chance of error.

Keep the time the same, and call it earlier when the ball is playable. Less time to set up the abomination.

Thought that was pretty cowardly from Bazeley in all honesty. Had the foot on the throat all game, then went to a back five and conceded all dominance.

@Grooter said in Auckland Rugby 2025:

@nonpartizan yeah Lam looks out of sorts. you expect your experienced players to lead the way however I do think back to what Shaun Stevenson opened up to media about, If you get in around the national set up (AJ was last November) and following that you don't know where you actually stand in pecking order it can play on a guys mind

I can see what you are saying. Ambiguity is not good for a players confidence. I definitely hope that he's going to be involved in the NZ XV matches in England later this year, at the least.

@African-Monkey said in All Video Ref can get in the bin:

Yeah not wrong, that fulham goal disallowed was a disgrace.

Even as a Chelsea fan I was bemused

@pakman said in Wellington 2025:

Extraordinary! But if bones set wrong initially it is very difficult to correct. Hope he gets back to 100.

I remember in the post game he said he just had a dead leg and was confident he would be right but then it was actually worse once the dust settled. Not sure if it was a fracture or a break but he’s been out for a while now and it didn’t sound like he was returning this NPC. A shame because our midfield is mud with Savea at 12.

Awful news!

Shane was an excellent and highly regarded captain of the Mako and afterwards seemed like he was doing a very good job as a defence coach.

Disappeared off the radar and I wondered where he'd gone to.

Very unfortunate he couldn't find the help needed.

Gilbert Enoka is now working with the England Cricket team. https://www.skysports.com/amp/cricket/news/12040/13400086/england-vs-india-ben-stokes-ready-for-fourth-test-battle-as-he-hails-impact-of-new-ex-new-zealand-rugby-coach

@mohikamo said in NZ Sevens 2024-25:

@booboo
i was wondering where she disappeared too a couple of weeks ago, and, i guessed correctly

And presumably out of the sevens season as well as I believe she still intended to go back after NRLW.

The other guy to make a maximum (this tournament) is a Thai player called Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. One of my favourite bits of snooker trivia is that he's missed the final black for a maximum 3 times. His last name seems very fitting! To his credit, he's also the only guy to have a 155 break on camera (albeit in a practice match) so feels like his luck balances out.

@Mr-Fish he’s not playing this week.

@Bovidae said in Americas cup:

So no more cyclors (halving the crew number), and they've sold their souls even more to have wannabe influencers on board.

So the best battery tech wins..?