The Silver Fern

@MN5 said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:

@sparky said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:

Possible Lions Test team

Porter
Kelleher
Fagerson
Itoje (c)
Beirne
Conan
Pollock
Earl
Gibson-Park
Russell
Van Der Merwe
Tuipolutu
H. Jones
Freeman
Kinghorn

Cowan-Dickie
Genge
Furlong
Ryan
T. Curry
A.Mitchelle Scotland team
F. Smith
Daly

Only six Scots starting ?

Yes difficult to take that seriously. You don’t get that many Scots starting in the Scotland team.

@Siam said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:

World rugby's biggest game advertisement in the fallow years between world cups and is influenced by an insecure refereeing system but the gin swillers will be reminding themselves "controversy lasts far longer in the advertiser's eye than a pure spectacle, and think of the clicks we'll get!"

Even the perpetrator knew he was offside playing at the ball!

Still our beloved team only really have themselves to blame

Taking nothing away from the Lions who will take more pride than us over the drawn series.

It was a great series and none of us predicted it thus.

one question though:

Did it feel lucky to draw that?

honest question from an unquestionably biased kiwi

edit: The question was aimed at Lions supporters (lest I lose my arrogance)

Honest answer? Yeah we were lucky in the end. Lucky on a couple of counts, firstly in that for much of the match we were outplayed and only some uncharacteristic balls ups from NZ kept us in the game. Later on we got nearer to parity and if you're there or thereabouts with 10 minutes to go you have to feel that you have a chance of nicking the game. So lucky but dissatisfied. Secondly the non penalty. I did think is was sort of accidental at least instinctive rather than deliberate, but to me it was definitely a penalty. Whether or not Barret would have slotted the kick is another matter and if he hadn't then you lot would just have had something else to make you spew

We rode our luck over two tests and overall the better team did not win, but that's the beauty of sport. Winning great but you watch because of the uncertainty.

Gatland's legacy will go down as a two-time undefeated Lions head coach (a fact he has reminded us of a couple of times already) but in truth this time round he was very lucky. There was no cunning master plan to out-coach NZ. Fair play to him in Australia four years ago, he got that last game spot on though.

I have to say, I find the piling on to Sam Cane a bit distasteful. He’s been a great servant to NZ rugby and has bided his time behind McCaw for many years, maybe his best years. He’s in a shithouse place now and not in great form but also part at a dysfunctional back row.

May not be justifying his captaincy or place atm but does not warrant some of the shit you guys are piling on himself .

Well. Shit. In one way I'm happy that we played positively and were (very) competitive but of course pissed off that we ultimately lost two tests that we could have won.

Hats off to Borthwick and the coaching team to have changed the dynamic so much from the non-rugby we were playing up until match 3 of the 6N. A real chalk and cheese turnaround.

As I feared, the lack of real quality and any depth really in the front row came back to haunt us. If we'd been more competitive in the scrums, particularly in the first match, then maybe we draw the series. In today's match it was our discipline as much as our scrum weakness that cost us. Oh and Barret coming on and being the freak that he is.

Well done NZ a good series win from a standing start. Roll on the Autumn series and the 6N. I am actually looking forward to both with some anticipation.

Nice quote from David Warner following Faf Du Plessis ball tampering of a couple of years back.

"We hold our heads high and I'd be very disappointed if one of our team members did that.

"The rules are in place for a reason. If you're not going to use them why bother having them?

"If you're going to overstep the mark, be prepared to get fined and miss Test matches."

Well, I watched the game at home and was amazed at the England performance. I thought we had a chance but... Even though we were pretty dominant more or less throughout the game and it was ours to lose almost, there was always in the back of my mind that you just cannot trust a Kiwi to know when to say enough is enough. Having said that I felt reasonably comfortable with four minutes to go and two scores needed but even then... hmmm.

I didn't watch it at the pub as a 9.00 am kick off would have meant ruining the rest of the day but at around 11.40 I got a call from a mate. "I'm down at the Royal Oak and I need someone to talk rugby to. I can't go home and talk to her". So the rest of the day has been washout really. No complaints though.

Thanks to all who have posted congratulations and compliments on our performance. That takes a bit of doing, especially after the success you've had.

No where's that bottle of red?

@ARHS said in The recent troll account:

Can someone please clarify?

If you haven’t been told, then it’s probably you

@DMX Interesting your view on the Barret v Mo'unga discussion. I've never felt that Barrett was a fantastic fly half - and I realise that this may lead to me being virtual lynched on here, but to me he does not seem to fit too well for some of the key duties of a 10. His kicking game is a bit off, his game management is not up there with the likes of say Carter, BUT he is without doubt a fantastic, almost freakish, rugby player and has to play. I can see the argument for having him at 10 as he is so good that you want to get the ball to him as often and as quickly as possible, but I think I agree with you that the extra space he gets at 15 is perhaps more suited and allied to that, you have a bloody good 10 in Mo'unga to bring a little more control to the game.

A very nice problem to have.

Off to dig a trench and search for my tin hat...

@Hooroo said in The Time Has Come To Log In:

@erps You're not an ex-St Pauls lad are you?

If so, I think it was you that told me to check out the fern when discussing rugby at a party in London!

We're not in a blame culture here you know. Own your own mistakes.

This result was the worst possible outcome. Obviously a win would have been the best, but this narrow loss will likely vindicate Borthwick idea of non-rugby and we'll be on this same fucking journey for another couple of years.

We’ll done NZ, enjoy the moment my Kiwi virtual mates but go on and finish the thing.

@taniwharugby

Every now and then, one of the Seppos comes out with the “we should be paid” thing. Two issues here; firstly you don’t HAVE to play, just decline. Secondly, just how much fucking money do you want?

You know what, just fuck off.

@Disgusted-of-TW said in RWC: England v Australia (QF 1):

Sometimes no punchlines are necessary

Reminds me of the Rodney Marsh quote from his England debut:-

Alf Ramsey "Rodney, I'm going to have to pull you off at half time"

Marsh "Thanks boss, we only get an orange at QPR".

All the talk seems to be about more rugby when everything but money seems to point to less rugby being the better option.

Hmm an argument on NZ opensides. This could go on for some time. An embarrassment of riches is the term I feel.

In earlier times we in the NH didn’t get to see much of the unlucky/overlooked/out of favour/second choice guys so can really only comment on the more established guys and there are three I can think of that really made you sit up and take notice when you first saw them and McCaw wasn’t one of them for me. Sacrilege I hear screamed by all and sundry but hear me out. Mourie, Jones (in particular) and Kronfeld, just stood out as being so different and so good. Re-defining the art of being a 7. Of those three Jones was just so far ahead of not just the rest of his contemporaries but of his time too. Plus such a freakish athlete, he may even have been looked at as the GOAT but for his injury.

But here I am talking about the initial impact these guys had as much as anything else, this does not necessarily make any one of them the best. So now we come to McCaw. Not as flashy perhaps as the others (maybe because he was invisible for a portion of his career) but his all round skill set, incredible work ethic, ability to continue to improve through a very long career and sheer doggedness makes it very hard to look further than him.

So, Jones or McCaw for the number 1 spot and hard to decide. For me, if I had to pay to watch one of them in his prime, I’d pay to see Jones. If I had to pick one to play for me in a RWC final, I’d pick McCaw.

As far as shithouse tricks go, this is up there with Pearl harbour.

Was playing No8 in a B team game and we’re on the make shift pitch. We have a scrum five and get the shove on. I can see the line and I pick up and dot the ball down. No whistle . Then I see another line less than a metre further on I pick up, dot down, again no whistle. Unbeknownst to me the rugby pitch doubles as the primary school running track in the summer. The ref gave me three goes before he awarded the put in to the opposition.

Always do your research when playing in shitty little Devon towns.

@mooshld said in Ireland II:

I am not surprised by this reaction at all. You never beat the Irish wives, they are always the victims of some injustice it seems. But if they beat you, oh you better be a good loser take it in your stride and accept it or you will never hear the end of it.

Source: Wife is Irish.

Fixed

Odd that no-one has mentioned dear old Danny Grewcock. He could punch, kick, stamp and very handy with the elbow too. Helps being 6'7" and a karate black belt.

Oh and add being pretty dumb with it.

Danny, if you're on this board, I don't really mean the dumb bit. if you're not though I do mean it.