The Silver Fern

@Bones said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

@pakman said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

@African-Monkey said in Japan XV v All Blacks XV:

He may have no pace anymore, but man Goodhue still has beautiful hands.

As @Victor-Meldrew observed recently, imagine him with Rieko's pace and you have the prince of centres.

The prince of centres throwing in a nothing grubber after being put into space down the left hand side, instead of looking to link up, would have had me stabbing him to death with the spikey bits on his crown.

The PofC was a superb grubberer!

@Crucial would've liked to see an aerial/zoomed out view - look to be some nice deception with maybe some of the inside backs on the right sweeping left too. Would open up huge space anywhere on the field.

@Billy-Tell said in England v Japan:

Japan tactics are baffling. They are not going to win by taking 3s.

Or running it from everywhere

@nostrildamus think mate Mounga doesn't go that well with an inside centre type player as much as a 2nd 5/8, someone who plays first receiver a bit and allows him to take the ball a little wider. With the Crusaders off set play especially early in game, Havili often takes the ball off set play. Not a criticism of Mounga, but just something I have seen.

@antipodean you still have a problem with this?

@Crucial said in Black Ferns v Japan:

Smith will be getting a lot from this though. Being able to showcase skills means the real skill differences show out.

I think maybe you're misinterpreting or jumping at shadows

@Rapido from the match report

“ Conditions - Weather fine, breezy, ground firm”

According to weather history on that day in Osaka it was lovely 81 degrees.

@nta said in Scotland v Japan:

@mn5 said in Scotland v Japan:

@nta said in Scotland Vs Japan:

Watched this today. Main notes:

Top quality skills on display. Like watching both these teams go around but fuck me Scotland can be cynical.

Scotland should have had a yellow card inside the first 20 minutes. Every time a ruck headed toward their line they invariably infringed. Pickerill bottled that.

Meanwhile, Williams was on one sideline calling out everything against Japan, ignoring anything in blue - both sides were playing merry hell with the last feet.

45th minute, Japan are moving upfield with pace. Ruck forms and Blue #4 is never onside - advantage.

Kick through, regather Japan 14, tackled just short by Blue 11. Ball is popped up for a supporting player but Blue 11, still on his knees, grabs it.

Clear penalty try. Nothing between Japan support runner but paint - as they say if you took out the offending player, would the try have been scored? Probably-to-definitely. Yellow card as well thanks. It was even replayed multiple times on the big screen and the officials still didn't want to know about it.

Call me cynical, but if it had gone the other way there would have been a fucking inquest and a YC/PT the way things have gone this tour.

I’ll just call you a Scotsman instead

My mother was 25% Scot, so I'm 100% not.

If you opt out of buying a round one in every four pub sessions you know why.

@stargazer said in Japan v Wallabies:

Wallabies media release:

https://wallabies.rugby/news/wallabies-side-to-face-japan-team-announcement-hunter-paisami-connal-mcinerney-20211021

When I hear the name Paisami I always think of some sort of Italian charcuterie I really must sample.

@machpants we didn't draw results with Oz last year. 2 wins 1 draw 1 loss.

@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.

@Stargazer said in Can Japan and Sun Wolves survive without home support?: An odd number of nations complicates scheduling etc.

An odd number of teams in TRC could actually work out well to stagger the byes so there is rugby each weekend.

I'd work backwards from the fixtures I want to see. For example, having renamed mysef Brent Impey, my goal for the next 3 years is:

play 2 x RSA, 2 x AUS, 1 x ARG, 1 x other (JPN) per year instead of 2 x RSA, 2 x AUS, 2 x ARG as now.

Take one Aus game and one Bok game out of TRC but still played as Bledisloe and Freedom Cup matches.

TRC is then a round-robin like the 6N (or, with 5 teams, like the old 5 Nations)

Or, if you wanted to drop the Bledisloe to 2 games - or even one - for a particular year, then there is an opportunity for an inbound or outbound test tour with the Boks, Pumas, Fiji, or whoever.

@Bovidae said in RWC: Japan v South Africa (QF 4):

The good sauce is that both Foster and Robertson want Brown as their attack coach.

Party at Tony Brown's?

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@sparky said in RWC: Japan v Samoa (Pool A):

Looks like it will be cancelled too. Horrible way to go out for Scotland.

This fixture has already been played.

@Duluth said in RWC: Japan v Ireland (Pool A):

@jegga

PotHale?

I think it's always been the same account, he just changed names

Absolutely correct, Duluth.

Reports of my demise have been greatly appreciated.

@NTA said in RWC: Japan v Russia (Pool A):

@MiketheSnow yeah good player but slow

The right winger had cement in his boots, however I thought the left winger moved okay. Certainly had a rugby head on his shoulders as well which is always great to see from these non traditional countries.

@Higgins said in Bokke v Blossoms:

Did they do a lap of honour in recognition for finally getting their winning ratio against Japan to at least 50%?

🤣

Maybe!

But the cynic in me suspects it is part of a strategy to endear themselves to Japanese fans in the hope of getting some "home town" support in their games.

@booboo said in Japan vs All Blacks:

It was. Darcy mentioned it. But I thought the conclusion was Thorne actually did some stuff.

Packed down in the right place at the scrum, jersey was on the right way, got all the words to the anthem right (English part anyway)...