The Silver Fern

Lyon 1 over, 2 wickets

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks 2026:

the problem will be, even if 2026 isnt good,

Who is going to want to take over the team 1 year out from the WC and be judged on that

A guy like Vern Cotter. He would be almost at retirement age and it would be his last gig

1 Jake Weatherald, 2 Travis Head, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Usman Khawaja, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Josh Inglis, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Scott Boland

It was longer than that

The forum is now locked for guests and embedding is switched off. It seems quick now

I'll open it back up after the upgrades are complete

Looks like the forum crashed. I just restarted it at 9:30am nzt

When did it stop responding? Late last night?

Sometimes you need to hit refresh while on the first post. It's a bit flakey

@Victor-Meldrew

Also it's not just the top job (culture coach), I'm astounded that NZR got into a situation where the 3 selectors are all from the same franchise. In previous appointments there was an effort to have a variety of backgrounds. It's unthinkable that Henry could've had two Blues selectors with him etc

One of the reasons that the cartel succeeded was because they challenged each other and Henry didn't win every argument

@NTA said in Slow speed:

Think it has improved the last few minutes

I made off topic private. Huge number of bots in the last couple of hours

@kidcalder said in Exodus:

Its the come over for 3 years playing pro rugby then play international while you are living here that doesn't sit well.

I've always thought that time under a pro rugby contract should count at 50%. So if the residency is 3 years, if you're only there to play pro rugby it should be 6 years

The current system gives an advantage to nations that have strong domestic leagues (including NZ)

@MN5

Age? He's 28. The players you listed are 28, 26, 26, 26 & 28

28 is young by AB midfield standards

@mohikamo said in All Blacks 2026:

@handa457 said in All Blacks 2026:

can you elaborate on the Papalii turning down a Black Jersey story? First I'm hearing of it.

The rumour is that Papalii was asked to train with the AB squad, while with the ABXV squad in England at the end of the year . . . and said no thanks, I'm staying with the ABXV squad.

Also worth noting that this came from the most accurate rumour poster on TSF and then was backed up another very accurate poster

@kidcalder said in All Blacks 2026:

I hope Evans is sure of what the job description is .... I could see him wanting to make changes and getting push back from the current coaches, may not be a fun time for him much like MacDonald and Holland.
Hopefully not and I'm just being pessimistic

For a single coach to make a change he really needs to be a selector too. I doubt that happens

@gt12 said in Rugby Law Updates:

On kicking, he loves the 50:22

I would like to see a 22/50 as well. With defences having to drop back to cover the kick it opens up a few more exit options

@Rembrandt said in UFC / MMA:

I wonder if you can get a USA account from Oz? Definitely heard of that with Netflix a while back

VPN and a US billing address

There's some workarounds with the billing address.. I'll try to set it up closer to the first event. I'll message you if it works

@Rembrandt said in UFC / MMA:

Did he move up before or after those fights?

Yup he moved up a few times. Rankings are subjective but I disagree with the criticism that Paddy is getting for a few reasons

The idea that moving up without fighting is unusual (people move down). The claim that he's been inactive, he just fought in April. The claim that he 'only' beat Chandler from a bunch of people who picked Chandler to beat Paddy (I also picked Chandler)

The basic reasons for the movement is he had an impressive win while the fighters around him have been mixed

He has a 7-0 record in the UFC (5 performance of the night bonuses). Yes only the two most recent fights are against quality opposition

The fighters below him? What are their win streaks: 0, 0, 3, 1, 0

Personally I would have BSD and Fiziev a little higher than where they are but I don' think they demand a chance to step up before Pimblett

@Tim said in Rugby World Cup 2027 Draw - LIVE:

@mariner4life said in Rugby World Cup 2027 Draw - LIVE:

world wide broadcasting money

Japan would still make it. Probably USA and Canada. What markets are you worried about? Uruguay, Hong Kong, Namibia, Spain? About $10k revenue?

If you're going to have the extra teams, have a plate competition. Adjust the prize money based on how far teams get in the plate too

This was the prize money last time around

Pool stage £250,000
Quarterfinals £600,000
Semifinals £1.2m
Runners-up £2.5m
Final £4.8m

I like the round of 16

Group stage generally sucks. Shorter pool play and getting to knock outs quicker is more interesting