The Silver Fern

Melon-Liqueur scores a superb try under the posts, Some stunning tries so far this WE

Ach. What a pile of dogshit from England but not to take away anything from Ireland, who comprehensively outplayed our boys. Out played, out energised, out coached and whatever else you want to add to that. There's something very wrong with the England set up, whether that be game plan, selection, confusion from differing coaching inputs, whatever. That game, which mirrored the Scotland game to a degree, reminded me of the 2019 RWC final. From the first minute, we were looking like deer in the headlights and everything just unfolded from there. Our defence was woeful and Ireland exploited that magnificently. Our attack was one dimensional and not working. A complete lack of a plan B. This surprises me as Blackett is a clever and innovative coach, is he being reined in? I'd put good money on that. We are playing so far below the sum of our parts and that has to point at the coaching input/game plan. Suffocation is the term I feel. In the last 6N there was a rumour that the senior players had strongly protested to Borthwick that they needed to expand their game plan and actually play some rugby and we finished strongly and took that on into the Summer tour and the AIs. The regression in ambition in the 6N has been sickening.

@Catogrande said in Scotland v England 2026 6N: Oh and it was us Since 2024 NZ have won 75% of the games. Hopefully we can improve that percentage.

was a weird atmosphere in the stadium, lots of people just chatting, almost no sense of jeopardy. England vs Wales has always been my most important single game of the year, it feels weird not to have worried about it before or during the match. Wales seem a very long way away from working out how to get out of this hole, personnel, coaching, playing style, development pathway, structure of the game. It could be a long decade. As for England, not sure what to take from the game, they started well and played with power and pace at the beginning, game was done after 20 minutes, not entirely surprising that they fell off a bit. Never know what to expect from Scotland, but frankly, given the state of the two camps, England should win on Saturday. I don't know how good Ireland are, I'm tempted to think that they've totally tipped over the top of their best team ever and have replacement players that aren't as good therefore England could win at home. I would love to get to the France game still in the running for a Grand Slam, hell of a test of the metal of a team 18 months out from a world cup. Win and people start talking about them as the most likely challengers to South Africa, lose and it will be interesting to see what they take from it and whether they kick on. Not getting ahead of myself though, Murrayfield is huge for this team.

@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.

@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

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

@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.

England have crazy depth in terms of forwards who are battle-hardened from seasons of Premier Rugby. Australian fans are talking about resting blokes after a "hard year" of footy, yet we played 14 rounds of Super Rugby + finals as prep for Test Rugby, with the only fallback being semipro club. Premier Rugby guys are getting 18 rounds + finals + crossover games. You get found out there pretty quickly in terms of your preparation

Elliot Daly added to the wider squad. Cue anther change at full back?

@hikastags said in USA v England - Washington: England 50+ I suspect you're thinking of the average age of the 2003 English team

@Mr-Fish said in Argentina v England II: @Windows97 said in Argentina v England II: How on earth did this happen? A weakend Argentina team beat the Lions at away and then proceed to lose at home to an England side sans-Lions players... Make it make sense lol Argentina rotated out a lot of their squad for this series. They didn't use a full-strength team. More Latin disrespect.

Sorry ment didn't. didn't seem to demaind the lime light

From a mate Deb and me were there for the previous lowest point in Welsh rugby - the Debacle in Nantes in 2007. Yesterday’s nadir was more surreal. Picture the scene. Having left the ground early we are on the train back to Aberdare, with one AirPod each, watching on my phone, as England rack up more points, and all hopes of Welsh British Lions evaporate. The only consolation is that we have a £1 bet at 80-1 for England to score 5 or more tries in each half. But with 78 minutes gone England need to score 2 more tries. Impossible? No. Pollock scores and England hurry the conversion so the game kicks off again with about 20 seconds left. I nudge Deb and say “Deb, England need to score from this kick-off for us to win £80.” A few moments later Double-Barrelingham-Smith scores England’s 10th try and the near empty carriage erupts with me screaming with joy. The guard comes up to us and says “What’s happened? Are Wales back in the game?” An unenthused Deb replies “No.”

England 42 Italy 24. Not a great game but it's beautiful spring afternoon in London.

@Dodge said in 6N 2025 England V Scotland: @MiketheSnow said in 6N 2025 England V Scotland: @Catogrande said in 6N 2025 England V Scotland: @Dodge Sums up my view completely, just a complete hotch-potch of selections and tactics. If the plan is to box kick all bloody day, then pick a 9 that can execute it well but if you pick two running 9s then why play kick the leather off the ball for most of the match? And as you say if you are going to kick then A. Kick well. B. Chase well C. Do not kick to big top class dangerous runners like VDM and Kinghorn with two thirds of your back three being midgets. It's not fucking rocket science, everyone and I do mean EVERYONE can see the issues but not Borthwick and his team. How blind or deluded do you have to be? Croeso i Gymru Welcome to Wales its always irritated me that you change the spelling of the name of your country based on the word before it. Irritates you! The most moronic thing Local town to me Penywaun Pen-y-waun Head or top of the meadow In Penywaun Ym mhenywaun Closer to Chinese than Welsh

@Dodge said in 6N 2025: England v France: They butchered some chances but by the same token, it was nice to see some dogged scramble defence - how Sleightholme got across to force the ball inside from BB is a mystery to me. It was a mystery to Moefana, too [image: 1739215032657-6abd2131-d822-499f-9231-03162dfd74a1-image.jpeg] https://archive.ph/grFP7/26c684feb7008c8b35809985c28afa4f1569751a.jpg

Farrell is English isn't he? Might be a good coach for England. Ireland are apparently so good they don't need one.

@OomPB he’s been there since before RWC2023