The Silver Fern

@Chris Yeah - I think that's the purpose of swapping Chapman and Drummie.

Ta$man has Christie and Hotham, so whomever is behind them probably won't get much time - that's OK for Mitch at the tailend of his career, but they want Chapman playing.

Louie Chapman can play - if he could find a few more kgs he could go a long way.

@Steven-Harris Yeah - Johnny hasn't gone the way of a few wings - losing all their speed in their late-20s.

There will be a few Wellington forwards who won't enjoy reviewing Grace's try.

They all waited for someone else to chase back - and Cullen was the only guy who chased hard. He came from more than 10 metres behind and outran them.

FAB Johnny still got a bit of pace.

Unfortunately turned out to be Fwm Johnny.

Presumably Fwm rhymes with Cwm?

@delicatessen Yeah - it went over the top of the stopbank.

To be fair - the river was running at record levels - somewhere around 80-times its normal winter flow.

My house got built in 1860 and to the best of my knowledge the first time it's been flooded - then twice in a fortnight!

The bottom graph is the second major rain event - I think it went over the stopbank at about 350m3/sec.

Most recent rain event was starting to accelerate - another 50mms of rain would have sent it close to that level, because everything was running off.

https://www.tasman.govt.nz/my-region/environment/environmental-data/river-flow/waiiti-livingston

@taniwharugby It has really been the cumulative at my place. We've had 500+mm in the past two months.

I still thought the river would have to come up another metre to get my house (and if it managed to do that there would be large parts of Richmond washing up in Wellington).

But, unfortunately, it broke its banks a km upstream - flowed across the plain until it reached the elevated SH6, which it couldn't cross - so it just took the path of least resistance down the side of the road and took out the houses in its path. Looked quite a lot like the footage of the Asian tsunami as it came across the paddock - and a very nasty WTF is that and where's it come from moment.

Aha - I've been living in a motel for the past few weeks due to flooding. Thought their network must have wisely blocked the fern, so I wasn't looking for a new address.

Got some work done!

@taniwharugby Luckily it wasn't as bad as predicted.We could cope with 3 inches of rain - five inches would have been messy and tested the fortifications around the house.

Good to see you lads reading the fine print.

A pretty "B" looking starting XV.

If we were playing a RWC knock out match tomorrow and everyone was fit and in form, I think we'd field the below - with a caveat that I'm not entirely sure about how they'd deploy the locks/loosies. "A team" members in this current team bolded.

Williams, Taylor, Lomax, Barrett, Vai'i, Finau(??), Savea, Sititi, Roigard, Mo'unga, Clarke, JBarrett, Ioane, Reece, Jordan.

@KiwiPie said in Other Cricket:

@bayimports said in Other Cricket:

@Daffy-Jaffy said in Other Cricket:

Windies all out for 27. Starc 6 for 9, Boland 3 for 2.

How can anyone be happy about this? So close and yet we still own that record, feels like Starc let them get a couple of extra runs to ensure the wound never heals lol

It was all bloody Konstas - 2 dropped catches and let one through his legs for the single to get to 27.

To paraphrase Warnie - "Can't bat, can't field!"

I found him pretty annoying vs India and more annoying now!

When he first made the All Blacks, Fletch looked a bit lost in general play - but, he's come on in leaps and bounds.

I think someone posted a photo of some of the AB props a few weeks ago where it was notable how much smaller he is than some of the others - this article by Hinton makes the point - he's giving away a good 10kgs to most and closer to 20kgs to Tamaiti.

Cut from the mould of Owen Franks and Steve McDowall - very strong, but must also be technically excellent in the scrum.

The Post

We're in a pretty good place for props, I think.

@No-Quarter - House has been flooded a couple of times, unfortunately. First time in 160 years, I'm pretty sure (it's a very old house).

We're coping fine. Lots of help - professional and otherwise.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Enjoying the footy in alternative accommodation!

@1kiwi said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

My concern lies with Beauden at 10. We should be blooding a new 10 with the world cup only 2 years away. I don't believe we can win a world cup with either Beauden or Damien as our 10.

To paraphrase Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones, "Anyone who thinks Richie won't be wearing the 10 jersey at RWC2027 hasn't been paying attention".

Barring injury of course.

Don't shoot the messenger!

@taniwharugby said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

What was pleasing was to see the step up of Vaa’i last year when there were concerns post 2023 with Whitelock and Retallick gone.

Have to wonder how much the opposition has been factored in, like, if we were facing SA this weekend, would we see the same line-up?

Quite a bit is injury enforced.

I expect they would've wanted to play their strongest team in test 1 - so the forwards potentially would've been:

Williams, Taylor, Lomax, Barrett, Holland, Vaa'i, Ardie, Sititi
de Groot, Big Sami, Newell, Finau, Kirifi/Jacobson

Backs selections are pretty unsurprising - the only real question was who played centre and how that played out on the wings.

@antipodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@No-Quarter said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

I think a big part of the reason they are talking about locks playing 6 is they see Holland as a starter in the medium term given his attributes, so would love it if Barrett or Vai'i could make a good fist of 6 as I believe they want all three of those players on the pitch. It would also solve our height issues in the lineout and allow us to play two of the smaller dynamic loosies at 7 and 8.

Big question is whether Barrett or Vai'i can make it work at 6 - they haven't been able to in the past.

IMO it would be a big mistake to move Barrett to a position he wasn't fast enough to play years ago.

Here's Scott famously running down Jonny May in that RWC semi.

1.1K views · 410 reactions | Scott Barrett with incredible work rate...

Scott Barrett with incredible work rate to cut off Jonny May. What a start to this match. #ENGvNZL #RWC2019 #WebbEllisCup Find out where you can watch at rugbyworldcup.com/broadcasters.

I watched that game not so long ago - Scott actually went pretty well - aside from that we were supposed to dominate the lineout and that plan blew up in our face.

But, 6 years later, I'm not convinced having him play 6 is a fabulous plan.

@ACT-Crusader But, you're then asking both your locks to play 80 minutes and subbing two loose forwards who I'd expect to have more endurance?

@ACT-Crusader So you'd plan to end the game with:

Savea, Kirifi, Lio-Willie, Holland, Barrett?

@reprobate It's not obvious!

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

Jacobson, Lio Willie, and Papali'i cover six.

Well, you can put them in the jersey and they'll play alright.

Which of them will replicate Jerome? Which of them is going to win lineouts jumping against Big Pieter-Steph?