The Silver Fern

@No-Quarter said in Eben Etzebeth:

@Billy-Webb that is absolutely insane

Agreed.
Note that I have no opinion about his guilt or innocence in terms of a criminal charge. If the police find enough evidence for the prosecuting authority to bring charges, then he needs to face up to these like anyone else.

But the HRC and Equality Court is another matter.

@antipodean said in RWC: South Africa v Italy (Pool 😎:

Can't help but feel what's holding Italy back is that the majority of their players play for Italian clubs.

Apparently the forwards on the bench, according to one of the commentators, all came from the one club.

All the best domestic Italian players are from either Bennetton or Zebre as they play in the Pro14 so are playing at a higher standard than the Italian Top12. Looking at their RWC squad there are only 5 players who play outside of Italy (1 in France, 4 in England).

@Rapido said in RWC: South Africa v Namibia (Pool 😎:

The missed forward pass was disgusting refereeing. No excuse, was static ball from base of a ruck, no forward momentum to consider. Pathetic. Get better at your job.

I assume you mean the one from scrumhalf Jantjies that led to another Mapimpi try?

It was defintely backwards out of the hands - if you viewed it from the other side, while standing on your head, with both eyes closed...

Shocker of a missed call. I called it watching live as it happened. Clearly forward. Very surprised that at a minimum the TMO did not call it back.

@Billy-Webb said in RWC: All Blacks v South Africa (Pool 😎:

@booboo your caption?

Laidlaw suffers the combined onslaught of Du Preez and Bates.

@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.

This thread is turning into a "Things that annoy you about rugby" thread (version 2019).

@nzzp yeah I'm stumped, admittedly I was only casual watching, didn't look that flash to me

Edit actually wasn't the voted ratings they normally do, just one guys ratings

@antipodean said in Springboks V All Blacks:

@taniwharugby said in Springboks V All Blacks:

@antipodean I saw another best of team that had Sanchez at 10...

Think it was Karl T, Marx, Franks, Etzebeth, Mostert, du Toit, Pocock, Read, Faf, Sanchez, Crotty, Goodhue, Ioane, Dyanti, Le Roux

I can't complain about much in that team, other than Bono Cockwomble. WTF do people see in him?

Especially when Kolisi was all kinds of awesome in the games I watched.

This game was a nasty shock. Shades of Chicago 2016 in the All Blacks terrible option-taking and of Cardiff 2007 for poor game management. Massive credit to the Boks for making all those tackles and taking their chances in attack. The Old Foe is back.

The All Blacks have been Bledisloe Cup holders for 16 years, the Number One team for 9 years and World Champions for 7. Success can breed success, but it can also breed complacency. Some of the All Blacks were complacent in Wellington.

Hansen, Foster and Fox need to be unsentimental and weed out of Thier squad any players who ain't as hungry for success as their Saffa, Irish, Welsh or English peers. Winning back to back to back World Cups will require the All Blacks to work harder than any other international team in the next 13 and half months.

@pakman said in Springboks v All Blacks:

Interesting analysis: http://www.planetrugby.com/news/372787/

Funny how in all of those clips they didn't pick p the obvious which was that SA targeted running at A Smith. Nugget may eventually make the tackle but invariably he is hanging on the ankles and the ground has been gained.
ABs will need to adjust their system as it isn't even necessary for the halfback to be defending fringes in general play. No reason he can't adapt to defending further out.

@antipodean said in Springboks vs All Blacks - Newlands:

Vaea Fifita, Ngani Laumape, Waisake Naholo, Luke Romano and Ardie Savea.

I'm annoyed Naholo isn't getting another shot, thought he was no worse (and probably) a tad better than NMS. SBW had his best game all season, but I would have also liked Laumape to get some more game time.

Let's be honest, this has nothing to do with giving frontline players a balanced workload to keep them fresh for November, this is just sending the fringe players back home (Savea excepted).

@pakman said in All Blacks vs Boks:

Second half thoughts:
Again, Boks weren't too bad for first 30.
In third quarter ABs scored in pretty much the only time they got into SB 22. At 58 Boks replace TH and hooker. Their scrum under the pump from then on. Three successive penalties, which dissipated any momentum they gained. Lineout not much better.
Lima coming on got the AB backs humming. Some nice touches from BB outside centre.
At 74 Pollard bad miss on ALB and Lima under sticks. Little resistance from there.
To me, Boks can stay with ABs for reasonable periods, but the pace at which we play eventually gets them to 'overheat' mentally (and physically), at which point decision making lets them down. ABs absolutely ruthless in such situations.
I think their Super set up this year, with only Lions playing dynamic rugby and too many dud teams has meant the players simply aren't used to extended periods of making decisions at speed. In contrast ABs have had benefit of many NZ Super derbies, which are probably second tier nation test standard.
Until and unless they can get their Super set up sorted can only see Boks are playing for second.
With their huge talent base we're all the poorer for this.

The new Super format will be a hell of a lot better for SA, and all the more so if Jaguares can reach anything like their potential:http://allblacks.com/News/31458/home-derbies-to-kick-off-super-rugby-2018

i k

@kiwiinmelb said in Springboks v All Blacks:

Going to be interesting to see how selections evolve over the next couple of years ,

I cant recall an era where its just so hard to pin point a weakness in our game ,

Right now , with our run on side I guess you would say goalkicking is possibly it

sure we're so far in front in recent games that it hasn't mattered at all - but goalkicking is a definite weakness, not a possible one. barrett is a great player, but what did he hit off the tee, 5 from 9 or something? that's shithouse, he looked shithouse doing it, some of them were easy kicks, and conditions were not an issue.
at least getting to kick 9 conversions a week is plenty of opportunity to practice so it shouldn't be a weakness for long.

@RaGe_X said in All Pinks vs Boks - Christchurch:

@Damo said in All Pinks vs Boks - Christchurch:

@broughie said in All Pinks vs Boks - Christchurch:

@mariner4life you mean those not picked because of quotas or injury?

I think the quota thing is overdone.

On another forum the question was asked who was picked on race and should not be there and there was only one player identified (reserve hooker Bongi), and even he had been dropped for the game against the AB's. Arguably he wasn't a quota player but a project player they were hoping to get some experience

There really aren't many (if any) players who are disadvantaged due to the quota system.

Does anyone else know of any player in the Boks who is there on race and not on merit?

De Allende has had a terrible season with the Lions Center outplaying him all season. Oupa Mohoje is another quota player.

More importantly however is the fact that implementing quotas means that you will not attract top coaching talent. This is why our Bok attacking coach is this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mzwandile_Stick
CV:

2013 Eastern Province U21(assistant)
2014–2015 Eastern Province Kings (Vodacom Cup head coach) -Vodacom cup is one tier below Currie Cup
2014–2015 Eastern Province U19 (head coach)
2016 Kings (assistant)
2016–present South Africa (assistant)

The problem with selecting quota's (other than the obvious of keeping out more talented players) is that they then clog up the development of up and coming talent ie: Malcolm Marx cannot get a go off the bench because of Bongi keeping up the numbers.

The point I was making earlier in this thread is that the All Blacks are the best team on this planet, and these policies are not helping us compete.

I agree completely. The quotas are killing SA rugby, not just at the top level. Without a doubt it would be ABs/SA 1 and 2 in the world with the talent available in SA. Must be tough work supporting them at the moment.