The Silver Fern

@Bones said in England v ABs July 2024 - Series related:

@Machpants and it blames the young rookie for the lineout issues. Also lists DMac and Perofeta amongst the losers... which despite the reasoning doesn't fit.

I thought the DMac/Perofeta “loser” choice was more about their dual playmaker thing and that Barret has maybe overtaken one of them? But certainly on an individual basis neither warranted that tag. Other than that though it seemed a rational article to me.

@Tim 🤣

@kiwiinmelb

Big brother Ken was the hardman. Any winger who stepped inside him knew what was coming―coathanger...their choice.

A better version of Sam's final post match speech -

@SBW1 said in Opinions on possible back-up All Blacks 10s:

newbies will come through and fill the void. Aidan Morgan being a good example.

alt text

From the Rugby Awards:

All Blacks Player of the Year
Wallace Sititi

Tom French Memorial Māori Player of the Year
Tyrel Lomax

@MajorRage said in Barnes autobiography:

I'm certainly one for thinking rules shouldn't be set for the lowest common denominator (Which they are), but you also can't keep your head in the sand when your changes are blatantly not working. We saw 3 yellow cards and a red in the world cup final for fucks sakes. How can it possibly be explained that the changes are having an effect, when 4 people got sent from the field in the biggest game of their lives for indiscretions? The only thing you can do is actually change the rules and/or the way it's refereed to try and reduce controversy.

💯

WR do themselves no favours by not acknowledging their preferred course of action is clearly not having the desired effect and worse, is ruining the game.

That being said, it would help if the TMO wasn't a 🤡

@nostrildamus I'm hopeful JB can given how physically gifted he is. It just feels like a curse they carry around due to being so damn competitive 😁

To me, it's like they feel they HAVE to be the one to make the big play out of nothing (hence BB's "golden balls" moniker courtesy of Shag) but the team would be better served if they let the ball go earlier or played in the moment vs trying to get too many steps ahead.

The movements at 00:55s (JB hesitation) and 01.59s (BB hesitation) of this clip are perfect examples...

https://x.com/SardieqWP/status/1718624828184289663?s=20

@Rapido that sounds about right...knew there was some change and figures bandied about...memory ain't what it used to be....

@MajorRage said in RWC Final: All Blacks v Springboks:

And they say kiwis are one eyed about their rugby ….

What sort of a bubble do you live in to think this what EVERYBODY wanted???

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/68166214

To be fair the worst supporters of any country are guilty of this kind of wank speak.

It is a bit surprising it is a player saying it though.

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks MOTM v Argentina (SF):

@mariner4life the touchdown he looked undecided on...

Yeah seems a switch was flicked in him and he has become a very good player this year.

Way he is playing has restored a better balance to our loose trio allowing both Cane and Ardie to play thier games as well.

Although he looked spent in the final quarter.

Which is perfect right, given our current bench make-up. He can spend himself for 60mins knowing that Whitelock is chomping at the bit to come off the bench and SB can go 80 (cards aside 😬)

@Joans-Town-Jones @nzzp

Oh come on, you've both been watching this RWC where I'm yet to see a penalty in a situation where the ball carrier has deliberately led with his head, to the point where we've even heard the ref state exactly that on the fly.

Stop getting your knickers in a twist about make believe.

Weird but accurate poll

Everyone was fucking good today but the three standouts really did shine

@mariner4life said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:

Aki v jordie is a toss up

No it isn’t.

Put a genuine truck it up the guts/“no one comes down our channels eh pretty boy” 2nd 5 outside any of your flyhalves and you become a seriously scary team.

Make it Aki or Esterhuizen or that Scottish bloke who’ve also got good hands and you’re Freddie Krueger as your proctologist terrifying.

Jordie should be on the bench. He covers basically the whole backline at a high standard so you can go 6-2, which instantly improves your forward pack.

DMac
Jordan
Roigard

Haha cheers fellas my bad, missed that completely.

@mariner4life said in All Blacks MOTM v Italy:

Perfect game for Ardie to show why the world loves him (also his angle for the breakout try was as good as I've seen an AB forward run in years)

But he doesn’t watch other games…

Mo’unga, Retallick, Savea

HM: Frizell, Taylor

@pakman said in RWC Week 4: All Blacks v Italy:

@Steven-Harris said in RWC Week 4: All Blacks v Italy:

Some of this post match stuff on Sky is utter trash

Bumped into SJK, Goldie and Grant N on bar crawl back to base. Pretty satisfied with ABs but JK was very disappointed ‘with how shit Italy were’. Pretty fair call.