The Silver Fern

I thought the Pendergast yellow when playing Fiji was a farce to be honest. I've seen reds given for that.

Also love how he got hit by the invisible sniper after the contact. Very football.

@kev I have seen some things from Fihaki which made me think he could be a prospect, but not in front of Narawa, and not yet. He needs 1 or 2 more super rugby seasons, and good ones at that.

Talea needs to get out onto his wing too, going looking for work is ok sometimes but he's always snooping around rucks being a scab when the try is on. It barely ever works though.

@nostrildamus Thoughts on Narawa to the wing? He looks to be a solid defender and reads the game well for me?

France sending a weaker team might play into our hands, allowing us to try some fresh debutants without getting too embarrassed. Higgins looks alright. I honestly believe that midfield is a huge problem.

Edit: Havilli is an absolute anomaly. Bro infuriates me, spends all his time on the golf course.

@BerniesCorner Does he still have the pace? Cynical me thinks he moved infield to prolong his career - fine, but he hasn't added any other weapons to him game. Opposition know all they need to do is shut him down and make their tackles, there's no through kicks or offloads coming from him.

Jordie needs to adapt too, it's like he read journalist praise about his crash ball all those years ago and thought "Yeah that's all I'll do from now on"

@BerniesCorner Reiko isn't the answer at 13, never has been. We know he offers little variation in attack, and more importantly the opposition know that too.

He's extremely limited.

I don't think I've seen a player as frustrating as BB, maybe ever?

One moment he does something incredibly stupid, the next something brilliant.

He's like a toxic girlfriend.

Anybody know where we can get a couple of rapid, young, defensively reliable and skilled under the high ball wingers?

That should mark the sunset on a few of the players.

Thanks for the service lads, time to pass the baton.

Scott Barrett, and the midfield should be nervous. Havilli shouldn't be in the squad at all. And the wings need pace. And the restarts are terrible. Etc etc etc

BB, retire mate

A lot of players need to be shown the door to be honest.

@ARHS Bro might be following the narrative hes been told to. Would love for his to return A-side and confirm the suspicions.

On this: Ireland clearly have been on the right side of the referee, they deserve credit for this, and quite a few of those yellows might be from the building pressure in the right area of the park. I don't have time to watch and diverge on 2 years worth of highlights.

Those numbers do go towards explaining their dominance over that period though.

First Thread, be gentle lads. Apologies if this topic has been covered.

Caught Steve Divine talking about the Ireland/Argentina game over the weekend on some radio show (who listens to the radio?) He was pretty disappointed on how Ireland are seemingly trying to draw these cards out of TMO's and referees.

I went over the Ireland stats for their unbeaten streak between 22-23. The statistics are damning.

In 2022 Ireland opposition received 6 yellow cards and 2 red cards
Ireland received 2 yellow cards

In 2023 Ireland opposition received 8 Yellow cards and 2 red cards
Ireland received 1 yellow card

In total: Opposition received 18 cards
Ireland received 3

Their winning streak was 17.

You'd have to take into account how many of those yellow cards were upgraded to red, I don't have the time to investigate, so you could potentially say Irish opposition received 14 cards total.

Either way, is this something they are intentionally hunting out? How can we stop it moving forward? The lack of HIA protocol after these head knocks defeats the purpose of the TMO intervention anyway.

Thats what I spent my morning doing. Welcome to the world of a rugby fan with nothing better to do before the gym.

@No-Quarter Its got to be hard to make a decision like that after 75 minutes of running around. I don't envy his role in that respect, brain must be frazzled.

The longer you look at his decision the worse it gets though:

I think it was the 2 previous restarts we fluffed? 1 penalty and I think the other was a knock on? Can't fully remember. I'd prefer to fluff a restart in the lead.

If we had scored, the French would have to score a try to win minimum, surely it would be better to rumble up the field with possession, in the lead by a score, trying to achieve the same thing as if you were 1 point behind.

On that note, not to Barrett bash, I think Savea should be captain. I think Scotts position may be under threat soon. Savea not so much.

@Billy-Tell Apologies, I didn't mean to sound like an Irish casual!

I think Razor desperately needs the international season to be over so he can go away and ponder his next moves. I dearly hope he has used this season to feel out what he's up against and what he was left to work with.

@Mauss He's a wild referee. I remember he officiated the RWC warm up game between England and Wales. 3 yellow cards and 1 red card. I remember thinking some of the cards were an absolute joke then too.

His interpretation of the maul was hilarious, as if he was guessing, and didn't call stopped/use at all, even though the French were retreating. Then pings Taylor for, well nothing.

The last 5 minutes I don't think he made any calls, instead relied of the assistants and TMO, almost as if he choked. He isn't good enough simply. McKenzie went down on a kick, French player jumped on him as he's on the floor and he didn't call it in, he had to be told!

The French knew how to use him too, and although I can't find any online data it wouldn't surprise me if his regular position is a referee in the Top 14. We'll see how France goes next year with hopefully, some Southern Hemisphere referees.

@Bones He'd be playing for Leinster as one of their "project" players if he wasn't capped I'd say. He does remind me of Lowe with that boot.

@antipodean I'm a Cantabrian and this resonates with even me. As I said earlier, what business does Havilli even have being in the squad? He played a handful of super rugby games this year, and in them he was a liability cough Waratahs game. Then he got injured and walks into the All Blacks. Might be one of the worst All Blacks I've seen.

That jersey could and should be filled by Love or Narawa

@antipodean I don't think Jordan is the second coming a lot make him out to be, but he gets a pass mark this tour.

I love the counter attacking initiative against France, but he's not actually that good at it. I bet we would have seen more returns from high balls against France than counter attacking due to the new laws. Mind you, the ref was hopelessly out of depth.

I don't think selection is ruthless enough in the current squad. I remember when J. Savea showed up a little overweight to camp (at least that's what they said, he looked fine to me?) and was dropped, he was 26 and still had an unreal strike rate. We're seeing below par performances week in and week out from some of these blokes and nothing. Is Razor cutthroat enough?

I think it's time for the Barrett brothers gimmick to be put to bed. Scott isn't the answer at captain, Beauden is out of date by a couple of seasons and Jordie barely gets a pass mark.

The 3 points with 5 to go is a pathetic call.

Also, anybody know what Havilli has added to this tour? Instagram shows me he's doing nothing but playing golf? Probably best, if he were playing he'd be throwing intercept passes.