The Silver Fern

@pakman

They're fucked then, aren't they?

@Bovidae said in All Blacks 2025:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2025:

All ABs should be playing NPC this weekend bar anyone carrying an injury. Play you lazy fucks, it's what you are paid to do.

The irony is that their PUs get NZR money when the ABs can't play in the NPC due to AB commitments.

That's clearly a system designed to get the best players out there at all times.

@barbarian said in Wallabies v Lions II:

@gt12 said in Wallabies v Lions II:

I’m still surprised about the Sheehan try being even considered as regulation play - when other teams (international, domestic, school) start trying to run that plan and someone gets hurt, it will come back and bite WR on the ass if they don’t come out and explain that this shouldn’t have been allowed.

What if he was just a fluffybunny hair short? Then it has to be a penalty. Terrible refereeing

I think that decision needs a clarification by World Rugby. I'm fine to chalk the final decision up to a 50/50, 'one of those things' and move on.

But that one to me is a lot more gray when you look at the Laws as they are written. Much like the Boks lineout lift I think it would be good to get an official word on where it sits, because I don't think it helps anyone for that to stay a bit uncertain.

I can’t see how it is in any way ‘safer’ than the ruling on the PGS try from a few years ago, perhaps there has been a new interpretation but this looks cut and dried to me. I’m still surprised it was allowed to stand.

https://passport.world.rugby/laws-of-the-game/law-clarifications/2022/clarification-3-2022/#:~:text=In principle%2C in a try,and should be sanctioned accordingly.

I’m still surprised about the Sheehan try being even considered as regulation play - when other teams (international, domestic, school) start trying to run that plan and someone gets hurt, it will come back and bite WR on the ass if they don’t come out and explain that this shouldn’t have been allowed.

What if he was just a fluffybunny hair short? Then it has to be a penalty. Terrible refereeing

That definitely makes Finau’s effort look impressive. Seems like it allowed Ardie to do his thing too.

I’m not quite convinced about the argument for Kirifi yet but perhaps his speed is a strength there?

@mariner4life

He was absent from the discussion of first / second to the breakdown in the discussion on the rugby pod (no idea if by design or not).

They did mention stat hunters who go to many rucks as the third when they shouldn’t be needed….

@Duluth said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@Mauss said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@Mauss said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

My numbers for the attacking ruck arrivals are very rudimentary: I just look at each breakdown and take note of who the cleaners are. It doesn't take into account the quality of the clean (although I do sometimes write down when the clean was poor) or who arrives first.

Here's the opta numbers for the full match if you're interested:

	Attacking Ruck Arrival	Carries/Carry Metres	Linebreaks/Defenders beaten
Holland	44	14/56m	0/1
Tuipulotu	23	16/61m	0/0
Finau (65mins)	16	15/82m	0/1
Kirifi	39	10/43m	1/2
Savea	23	21/132m	0/6
-	-	-	-
Papali'i (15mins)	11	4/30m	0/1

Carry metres are quite different?

Any other opta numbers you want me to post?

These look like the stats they showed, they also had first or second to the breakdown (if you happen to have it?).

For ruck speed do they connect that with the carrier - that was the secondary argument for Finau’s carrying (theirs, not mine). They said he had 80% gainline and of those 90% were super/ultra fast ball. Is it easy to see if that is provided? This was the core of Gipper’s argument.

The argument (theirs, not mine) is that these loose forwards and locks achieved balance via different guys focusing on different roles.

@NTA

You may as well use it as an opportunity to ride the Shinkansen if you can…

@Mauss

Did you watch / hear the rugbypod?

They provided slightly different data to yours and focused on first or second to the breakdown for Holland and Kirifi. I'm interested in how it stacks up against the stuff you presented.

Holland looks like the find of the series, he has the size, has the tools, and will only get better. As they were explaining on the rugby pod, the best thing is that his play suits a player like Patty T perfectly, so PT could put his focus on ball running a bit more as Holland was doing heaps of cleaning.

The pod were also talking up Kirifi - apparently very very high for cleaning, and they were making a similar argument that his work at the ruck was helping save Finau's legs so that he could also get the most out of his running game. Apparently, he had 80% gainline and of those 90% were 'super' fast ball.

Patreon was a good idea!

I like Antipodean’s plan and I’d strongly consider adding Hiroshima.

Flying into one and out of the other will give you both cities with a Shinkansen trip and (hopefully) a view of Fuji from the train. Consider that when booking seats btw.

People want to murder assholes doing the Mario Kart thing, so consider that (literally, a guy tried to burn down one of those businesses recently).

Kyoto is apparently completely fucked, so be prepared to be up early for some of the sights.

In terms of absolute must dos, Meiji Shrine in Tokyo followed by a walk down through Shibuya gives you two sides of Japan in 2 hours.

Eat excellent sushi - you’ll need to book it nowadays and I can help with that and some introductions to a few other other places (@voodoo can tell whether they are worth it or not, honestly I’m not sure as I recommend places liked by expats here).

@NTA said in TSF Update - Politics forum gone, New server soon:

Did you try reversing polarities?

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v France III:

Thoughts to generate some chat again.

Anyone who watched that and doesn't think Finau belongs in test rugby shouldn't bother logging back in, just go post on reddit rugby. He was our most effective loose forward for the majority of the match while the other two swanned about doing dumb shit.
Anyone who watched DMac calmy pass the ball to dangerous areas, kick with accuracy and depth, and just calmly guide us around, and doesn't think he should own that 10 jersey should also not bother logging back in.
> The fact Jordie Barrett has come back from Europe playing this well is a damning indictment on our domestic coaching. He's night and day better than last year, so thank you Ireland.
If Razor puts Barrett back to starting lock given the form of the other two guys it would be a disgraceful piece of selecting.

Geez the French have some depth. They played bloody well, that #8 was a fucking menace. Their forwards were so strong too, stopping us over and over again. Credit to the big lads who eventually got over the top of them.

Good test and a good win.

I agree with all of that, but this really jumped out. Something's rotten with our coaching here if he can go on holiday contract and come back a significantly better player.

I love ALB (have loved?) but he really has become a penalty magnet and shouldn't hold his place.

Well done @Duluth and @Kirwan, legends.

I think the resolution on the tipping group was that you'd finally decided to ban the lot of us.

TDF fun to watch but no one can get near Pog, and following that no one can challenge Jonas for 2nd (yet at least), so the fun is really seeing who’ll get third.

When Almeida went down I thought it might be interesting to see what would happen to Pog either way less help, but he doesn’t need it. And, when Visma had the numbers they couldn’t use them, especially Yates didn’t have the legs to help Jonas which questions whether they should have set him free to get the stage last week (I think they had already given up tbh). If all were fit and supporting Jonas maybe he wouldn’t be 4 minutes behind. Can’t see him getting closer so it’ll be interesting to see how the fight for the podium shakes out.

Now Dame back to the Blazers. What a rental - gets his bag, the Blazers get him back, and they got how many picks?

A bit strange that they traded for Drue though.

@mariner4life said in NBA Season - now 24/25:

The Suns buy out Beal.

And he reportedly is signing for the Clippers for like $11m over 2. Which means he goes from one of the worst contracts to one of the best.

So the Suns are paying him to play against them for one of the better teams in their division.

I think it's a fantastic idea.

However, they'll need to associate the teams with destinations, so given the likely locations, what would be a good name for the English team? Maybe the Red Roses? For an Australian team, hmm, what fits, maybe Wallabies? In NZ, I dunno, maybe All Blacks.

Then of course, they'll need to figure out how to contract in and out of those, so maybe they'll need domestic competitions to further tie fans to those teams and help bring talent through. Of course, you can just poach players but to reduce that, maybe a five year stand down when switching? Should be easy enough.

Then of course they'll need to figure out what to do to make more money. Probably they'll need a tournament, but it can't be held too often, maybe every four years? And, of course, because it's American they can just dub the winning team the world champions.

@WoodysRFC said in Super Rugby - The Future:

@gt12 said in Super Rugby - The Future:

@WoodysRFC said in Super Rugby - The Future:

@Bones said in Super Rugby - The Future:

@Nepia don't forget Super Rugby doesn't prepare players for international rugby if I conveniently ignore many in form SR players delivering at test time.

Apparently it's a lesser competition to the Top 14, URC, and English Prem too.

Here's the thing.
It probably is.
It's not necessarily the quality, but also the variation we are missing.

Variation meaning?

For starters, we miss the best domestic sides from the current b2b WC.
As they play in their own manner, we miss the variation in strategy and approach from the SA sides.
Altogether, it lessens the competition - we are just a little competition representing two small countries, one of whom hardly matters are the moment.
About 5 years ago Super rugby represented the southern hemisphere, even one Argie side mattered.
That's gone and that's why they should have done more to keep the SA sides.

I see that @Wurzel has got here ahead of me on some of this.