The Silver Fern

That sucks

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2025:

@Frank said in All Blacks 2025:

The admission by Razor that Scott Hansen has effectively been acting as head coach should be a MASSIVE scandal. Further, it turns out , this was also the case at the Saders.

Fuck a duck - what a shambles.

If that is really the case, then surely the success of the Crusaders is down to Hansen. So, if we ditch him but keep Robertson as many are suggesting, what happens then....?

Well Scott Hansen wasnt there with the Crusaders for the first 3 Robertson titles.

@Mr-Fish said in New All Black Coach:

Worth pointing out that most Australian supporters are as frustrated with Joe Schmidt's selections over the past six months as NZ fans are with Razor's selections.

Only two players have started in the 10 jersey under Razor's regime, whereas no player has gotten more than three starts in a row in the 10 jersey for the Wallabies this year (with Lolesio, Lynagh, O'Connor, Edmed and Gordon all getting runs, and Donaldson and Stewart covering off the bench). Injuries have played their part but still a bit of a shit show.

Its mostly injury driven.

Williams and Gordon are the ones that are a bit strange to me but with the injuries the cupboard is pretty bare.

@Jet said in All Blacks 2025:

@DurryMexted said in All Blacks 2025:

@MiketheSnow said in All Blacks 2025:

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2025:

@frugby What, exactly, would Razor be doing to turn it around in your scenario?

Let’s start from the back

Love, Jordan, Clarke

Can Jordan & Clarke defy the 27 club curse and be valid options at Wing for the next 2 years?

As an aside.......People are calling for Nanai Seturo who turns 27 next August.

For fullback. I like Love and JRK but they cant defend for sh1t.

Love should focus on 10.

Ens is a better fullback than Jordan.

@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2025:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks 2025:

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2025:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks 2025:

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2025:

@Dan54 said in Wales v All Blacks:

I don't get the Christie hate we get on here, I think he is ok.

That alone disqualifies you from commenting Dan. He's garbage for all the reasons I've been laying out for years.

And that is a damning indictment on the coaches when Ratima is preferred over him. Just once I'd like to see a journalist ask why Fakatava is below them in the picking order.

Ok, so if I don't follow your thoughts, I not supposed to comment huh?
One way of being right on a forum I suppose, either agree with you or you are disqualified from making a comment.

If you're going to be contrarian about a player almost everyone else agrees is not up to standard and shouldn't be selected, it behoves you to tell us what we're missing. What core skills of his position he's playing to the requisite standard.

Otherwise we're not the wiser and I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

I just of the opinion that Christie is not as bad as many make out. I thought he a step up from Ratima , in speed of distribution etc, and could see difference today, I don't think he ever fist choice if I picking the team, but nor would I discount him completely, and do say after seeing the ABXV lay I would probably have Fakatava ahead of him , now, but wouldn't of earlier in year.
And who is almost everyone else, a few here don't like him, which is their right, but doesn't mean I can't say I not that much against him.
Oh just out of interest , are the almost everyone else his coaches at super level and test among the almost everyone?

I'm not the only person who can't understand why Funaki isn't the Blues #1 halfback. And given the discontent surrounding the current All Black squad, it seems few have any regard for Hansen's ability to select either.

I get that he's a known quantity, experienced, and some might extend themselves to say he's a safe pair of hands, but in a contest you're trying to win rather than not lose, he's a liability.

It puzzles me as to why Cotter preferred Christie and BB over Funaki and Plummer. Are we just not seeing something, or was Cotter slurping the cool aid, and he got lucky when injuries struck and he won with Plummer at the helm the year before? Of course I realise BB was in Japan

@canefan said in All Blacks 2025:

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2025:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks 2025:

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2025:

@Dan54 said in All Blacks 2025:

@antipodean said in All Blacks 2025:

@Dan54 said in Wales v All Blacks:

I don't get the Christie hate we get on here, I think he is ok.

That alone disqualifies you from commenting Dan. He's garbage for all the reasons I've been laying out for years.

And that is a damning indictment on the coaches when Ratima is preferred over him. Just once I'd like to see a journalist ask why Fakatava is below them in the picking order.

Ok, so if I don't follow your thoughts, I not supposed to comment huh?
One way of being right on a forum I suppose, either agree with you or you are disqualified from making a comment.

If you're going to be contrarian about a player almost everyone else agrees is not up to standard and shouldn't be selected, it behoves you to tell us what we're missing. What core skills of his position he's playing to the requisite standard.

Otherwise we're not the wiser and I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

I just of the opinion that Christie is not as bad as many make out. I thought he a step up from Ratima , in speed of distribution etc, and could see difference today, I don't think he ever fist choice if I picking the team, but nor would I discount him completely, and do say after seeing the ABXV lay I would probably have Fakatava ahead of him , now, but wouldn't of earlier in year.
And who is almost everyone else, a few here don't like him, which is their right, but doesn't mean I can't say I not that much against him.
Oh just out of interest , are the almost everyone else his coaches at super level and test among the almost everyone?

I'm not the only person who can't understand why Funaki isn't the Blues #1 halfback. And given the discontent surrounding the current All Black squad, it seems few have any regard for Hansen's ability to select either.

I get that he's a known quantity, experienced, and some might extend themselves to say he's a safe pair of hands, but in a contest you're trying to win rather than not lose, he's a liability.

It puzzles me as to why Cotter preferred Christie and BB over Funaki and Plummer. Are we just not seeing something, or was Cotter slurping the cool aid, and he got lucky when injuries struck and he won with Plummer at the helm the year before? Of course I realise BB was in Japan

Cotter prefers Christies kicking game over Funaki.

As for Plummer he started 4 of the first 5 Blues games this year at 10 so he was preferred. Then through the middle of the season Barrett, Plummer and Perofeta all got a go because we were losing under Plummer before Cotter settled on Barrett to close out the season.

To me Plummer seemed to already have one foot on the plane mentally this year.

Im not a fan of Christie but I agree with Dan that he was clearly better than Ratima in today's game for what thats worth. Christie has always played better off the bench during his AB career.

Ratima is in a funk he cant get out of. He is a shadow of the player he was before he started playing for the ABs. He used to have a dynamic running game which no longer exists.

Next year I'd like to see Roigard, Fakatava and Hotham as the main guys.

@mariner4life said in Wales v All Blacks:

But the scoreline hides some shit aye?

A damning stat. At the 75 minute mark our missed tackle percentage was higher than theirs despite barely having to make any. We gave up 4 tries with only 50 tackles made, and all were system related. Still no linespeed. Still no momentum stopping hits. We're passive and easy to get around.

We had all thr ball, made thousands of metres, and it took two fucking yellow cards to open them up. Heaps of endeavour, but we struggled to do much with it. Lethal in the red zone I'll give them that.

To me thats "process" not personnel.

It'll get glissed, but how hard we found it to put thrm away until the cards despite all the ball, all the penalties and every advantage is a trifle concerning.

Ratimas contestables were poor. You have to wonder about this tactic when we are poor under the highball and poor defensively.

The ball was moving a bit faster when Christie came on but I felt the point of attack wasn't narrow enough even when the first receiver was taking into contact. Very little in the way of pick and goes.

We havent used the maul enough this year considering how dominant our lineout was been most of the time.

Not doing these things are all of course part of their game plan and attack pattern.

@African-Monkey said in Wales v All Blacks:

@pakman said in Wales v All Blacks:

@reprobate said in Wales v All Blacks:

McKenzie such a clear upgrade, not perfect (apart from the goalkicking), but ball moved rapidly to space and all of a sudden our wingers are scoring tries. Contestable kicks were better. Long kicks were better. And most of that with Ratima really struggling with kicking and delivery, and not running once that I recall - vs Barrett having Roigard. As fucking expected for fuck's sake Raygun you dullard.

Samisoni very good, both around the field and 100% in the lineout. More suited to start than come off the bench.
Holland, what a great season.
Sititi very good, while Kirifi and Parker were pretty anonymous - and finally, finally we've seen one of our loosies wind up.
Ioane a couple of uncharacteristic really poor bits of defence in conjunction with Jordan, otherwise good. ALB good too. LF continues to look dangerous and have terrible ball security.
Clarke excellent on attack, got done by the excellent LRZ a couple of times though.
Love rocks and diamonds, which is fine for a young guy who has hardly played. Showed that he deserves more opportunities, and looked genuinely angry after scoring, which you'd have to assume is a reaction to the non-selection. Then gets dragged after 50... probably not match fit I suppose...

Game was always likely to be a bit of a mess, with the lack of combinations, guys who hadn't played much, the tendency to overplay when finally give a chance, and the knowledge that the coach neither trusts you or thinks that this game is any sort of a challenge.

Some excellent cleans by Parker, something that you could seldom say about an AB loosie recently.

I think he's worth perservering with for now tbh. I noticed some of his work around the ruck today. Probably needs to work on his work with ball in hand next season. We've seen in at SR in the wider channels, haven't seen it just yet at Test level.

Hes basically another Reuben Thorne. In the context of the coaches selecting a 7 who likes to carry and pilfer hes they do need someone focused on hitting rucks.

@African-Monkey said in Wales v All Blacks:

@hikastags said in Wales v All Blacks:

Letting this dogshit Welsh side score 4 tries is embarrassing. They wouldn't even beat the Highlanders.

Yeah hard to disagree. They lack on the physical side of the game to be really competitive at present. The game itself felt like a mid table Super Rugby fixture, with the AB defence awful on the outsides. So many players out their, for all their positive play, have so many bad habits in their games.

Yeah it doesnt seem to matter who we put out there the defence is poor.

@kidcalder said in Wales v All Blacks:

@brodean said in Wales v All Blacks:

I would have really liked to have seen Love get a run at 10. What are they afraid of?

Thats RM jersey and BB is keepng it mediocre until he is available= no point anyone being allowed the opportunity to shine and make the changeover more complex

25 minutes to go with the game well won and they could have moved him to 10 but instead they take him off for Reece.

I would have really liked to have seen Love get a run at 10. What are they afraid of?

2nd highest amount of points put on by a Welsh team against the ABs. Arguably the worst Welsh team in history.

@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks 2025:

@tubbyj said in All Blacks 2025:

Why do people always say except Jason Ryan. That fat fucker is the one who wants to exclude Talented players from selection because of personal issues. The forwrds have gone backwards this year as well if you take out Fabien Holland (nothing to do with Ryan) adding some much needed size, power and workrate. Our Scrum and lineout have both been dismantled at various times this year and we constantly lack go forward in contact. Thanks to Ryan the best power runners in NZ rugby are lost to us with one likely to turn up in England colours before the next world cup and the only decent 7 in terms of workrate and the physical size required for test rugby looks to be going the same way. Our best impact lock will probably follow next year. The majority of that appears to be down to Ryans dislike of what he perceives is the 'Blues Culture'. A region that produces one third of our player base.

Serious question, do we have any proof that exclusions are a result of Ryan's personal issues? Or is it something that has been repeated so much it's become the 'truth'?

We saw Akira and Hoskins dropped in 2023 in the first full season of Ryan as forwards coach.

Then the following year we saw Papali'i dropped and ghosted too.

Whether its personality or he just doesn't rate them its still his personal issue with those players.

@Dan54 said in England v All Blacks:

@mariner4life said in England v All Blacks:

Dan, their lineout was dogshit

I know, they just seemed to concentrate n stuffing up our ball, or even stuff we won of theirs. With all our advantage how much ball did we win at back through our loosies? Bugger all only 1 I think. I not suggesting you don't have a good tall loosie, but it not be and end all,, the Poms lineout was shit, but they beat us up everywhere else. Height isn't everything to me, though it helps and need it in middle where you don't tend to get room to be lifted etc as much.

We had 3 short loosies for the last quarter which didn't help us at all.

@Duluth said in All Blacks 2025:

Another quote from the article @tim linked to

But Robertson’s vision was never for him to undertake the tasks that most would agree constitute the role of head coach – setting the overall playing vision for the team and then overseeing the delivery of that plan.

Instead, Robertson pitched himself as a culture coach, responsible for theming campaigns, communicating one-on-one with players to manage their expectations and career progression.

As Robertson confirmed to the Herald this week in Cardiff, it is his assistant, Scott Hansen, who effectively operates in the role most would recognise as the head coach.

So he's basically a grifter?

A million bucks a year or whatever to bring in a culture of giving up at halftime and alienate some of the best players in the country.

@Kiwiwomble said in New All Black Coach:

@brodean said in New All Black Coach:

Tony Brown is kinda unavailable since he is coaching the Boks attack.

i cant imagine he doesnt have some sort of out in his contract

I highly doubt they would have given him an out in the middle of an RWC cycle. He leaves with intimate knowledge of the Boks and their game plan.

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2025:

@brodean said in All Blacks 2025:

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2025:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2025:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2025:

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks 2025:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2025:

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2025:

@ShaquilleOatmeal said in All Blacks 2025:

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2025:

Ardie proving the fern wrong yet again

Beauden unlucky to miss out.

Has Savea even had a good season by his own standards?

I'll check his instagram

Has he still got that stupid pic of him sitting against the goalpost looking into the sky contemplating life after the England test?

I did it and went into the comments section of that pic on instagram ,

Most of it was along the lines of ,

if everyone tried as hard as him we wouldnt lose a game , or - this poor bugger busts his guts out every game, he deserves better

im probably not as anti Ardie as some on here , but I do think there is some serious delusional stuff going on with the general public

He has good parts to his game, but he's really starting to annoy me. He's playing for his own image and is playing like a glory hunter. He knows what he's doing.

i am not willing to go that far. To me he is a victim of a distinct lack of accountability. A hard nose coach in teh video session shows us losing that ruck on the line with him standing at first receiver and tells him if it happens again then someone will be found who will hit that ruck.

In the 2023 RWC Ardie played tight as shit. Hard carries, hit rucks, and we were so much better for it. He was given a job and did it. This coaching panel has decided the best use of him is for Ardie to do what he wants. The great unwashed only watch who has the ball anyway, so to them he's killing it (despite an enormously reduced effectiveness this year).

Hit a ruck you cat!!

Nail on the head there. He's a very talented player, who is being used badly - or is being left to his own devices, and seagulls. Either way it's a coaching/selection fault. If he's doing what is asked then what we're asking him to do is wrong; if he's not then drop him.
@nostrildamus He isn't even our best loosie to be running with the backs if that's the role he has been given - Sititi has better feet, is faster, and is a better offloader - all of which he showed last year when used wide.

On a related note, I'd like to see Finau spend a season at 8. If our 8s role is as per England game smashing it up for 20 carries, then Finau could be much more effective than Lakai, Sititi, CLW. He also gives us a 3rd lineout target, and then you could play Sititi for wide carries and ball skills, with DP or EB to provide ruck workload.
I think Savea really does suit the bench role where he can come on fresh against tired guys and be the hero and beat his chest a bit.

I think Sititi is probably quicker off the mark than Ardie but I think Ardie probably has a higher top speed.

Well it's not high enough for him to be a valid chip kick option if you ask me.

Well I don't want Sititi chipping either.

Tony Brown is kinda unavailable since he is coaching the Boks attack.

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2025:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2025:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2025:

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks 2025:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2025:

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2025:

@ShaquilleOatmeal said in All Blacks 2025:

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2025:

Ardie proving the fern wrong yet again

Beauden unlucky to miss out.

Has Savea even had a good season by his own standards?

I'll check his instagram

Has he still got that stupid pic of him sitting against the goalpost looking into the sky contemplating life after the England test?

I did it and went into the comments section of that pic on instagram ,

Most of it was along the lines of ,

if everyone tried as hard as him we wouldnt lose a game , or - this poor bugger busts his guts out every game, he deserves better

im probably not as anti Ardie as some on here , but I do think there is some serious delusional stuff going on with the general public

He has good parts to his game, but he's really starting to annoy me. He's playing for his own image and is playing like a glory hunter. He knows what he's doing.

i am not willing to go that far. To me he is a victim of a distinct lack of accountability. A hard nose coach in teh video session shows us losing that ruck on the line with him standing at first receiver and tells him if it happens again then someone will be found who will hit that ruck.

In the 2023 RWC Ardie played tight as shit. Hard carries, hit rucks, and we were so much better for it. He was given a job and did it. This coaching panel has decided the best use of him is for Ardie to do what he wants. The great unwashed only watch who has the ball anyway, so to them he's killing it (despite an enormously reduced effectiveness this year).

Hit a ruck you cat!!

Nail on the head there. He's a very talented player, who is being used badly - or is being left to his own devices, and seagulls. Either way it's a coaching/selection fault. If he's doing what is asked then what we're asking him to do is wrong; if he's not then drop him.
@nostrildamus He isn't even our best loosie to be running with the backs if that's the role he has been given - Sititi has better feet, is faster, and is a better offloader - all of which he showed last year when used wide.

On a related note, I'd like to see Finau spend a season at 8. If our 8s role is as per England game smashing it up for 20 carries, then Finau could be much more effective than Lakai, Sititi, CLW. He also gives us a 3rd lineout target, and then you could play Sititi for wide carries and ball skills, with DP or EB to provide ruck workload.
I think Savea really does suit the bench role where he can come on fresh against tired guys and be the hero and beat his chest a bit.

I think Sititi is probably quicker off the mark than Ardie but I think Ardie probably has a higher top speed.

@nzzp said in All Blacks 2025:

@Jet said in All Blacks 2025:

Pilfered from Planet Rugby.

Don't worry, a 30 point win over Wales will fix that stat

?

The combined losing margin can't be better than 53.