The Silver Fern

Sitting in a pub in Dubrovnik surrounded by South Africans, they’re reactions have been brilliant

@DurryMexted said in All Blacks vs Wallabies Bledisloe I:

Roigard has the true all black mentality and self belief that’s been missing. So fucking refreshing.
Leroy Carter too, actually sitting sualii and ikitau down, which should be proctors job.

I saw on another platform someone suggesting that Love had given Hansen some honest feedback around game plan and they’ve had a falling out. Similarly, there’s a crusaders vs the rest divide within camp with only a handful of players attending Cody Taylor’s 100th test drinks. All hearsay but sounds kinda believable

Not attending the drinks for a player who has played 100 tests for the ABs is absolutely pathetic, whether you agree with the game plan or not

Interesting that Harry Plummer has been named 10 in the Top14 XV team of the month!

LOL Fuck off.

Lakai has literally no body of work deserving of an All Blacks jersey. At least Finau has been busy doing the hard work in his limited opportunities. His cleans are excellent and his carries in close make ground. He's worth persisting with IMO.

Are you Finau’s mother?

@gt12 said in All Blacks 2025:

Ant Strachan one of the few calling for Barrett to be moved aside. He called for Scott to be removed as captain and Ardie be made captain, Jordie be moved to 15, and a big movement on defense and aerially. Could have gone further as he clearly has some thoughts on change there, but wouldn't elucidate.

In response to questions about the background (i.e., coaches) he questioned the attitude towards defense and how that is coming out as a lack of defensive integrity.

He also questioned the clarity for players of their understanding of the jersey, their role, and commitment to it over the entire course of the game. He was still not prepared to say anything negative about specific coaches or players though.

Interviewer straight out asked him if Razor should go, and he avoided it. He talked about Razor's focus on culture and said that he should get more time in comparison to Foster. He is the second person to respond by saying that Foster got more shit because there was a 'ready to go' replacement in the wings (Jamie Wall was saying the same on another pod).

Putting Savea as captain is literally ignoring the elephant in the room. He is part of the problem.

Fun fact, Wales scored more points against the ABs then they managed against Japan

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2025:

@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:

@Frank said in All Blacks 2025:

Who are the hardest running loose forwards in NZ?
As in full steam ahead in a straight line, no jinking.
Do we have any?

Sounds like someone is searching for some Grace. No thanks

If he's the only one you can think of NZ is in trouble.

Can we get Kieran Read to come in and mentor someone on how to run it hard and straight ? ( and even at his absolute biggest he never clocked in more than 110kg or so )

Read wasn’t all power too, he had such a silky skill set. We miss having that combination

Scott Barrett has stood up this game. Has been incredibly physical

@booboo said in All Blacks vs Springboks II:

@Canes4life any changes will be just covering for injury so not delving too deep into speculative selecting.

I think Dmac starting at 15 would be stronger. But agree with giving Love some game time.

I do prefer Jacobsen on bench to Kirifi. But would prefer another big body there, which by default is Finau.

(FYI it's McAlister.)

How does Rassie react?

Etzebeth and Snyman in. Does he have any other options? The bench last night was uninspiring by Saffa standards.

Surely after Finau’s dogshite performances in the NPC and ABs this year puts him firmly out of contention

Savea absolutely bombed that advantage. What a dick

I really hope they absolutely thrash Scotland and put these home nations in their place. The wank that comes out when they think they can win is unbearable.

@Darren said in Wales v All Blacks:

Kirifi is just ok, but shouldn't be selected again. Another stupid decision by Razor.
Parker is worse though.

A lot of people, and rightly so, said Kirifi should get a look in after his super rugby season. He was pretty good. He (rather predictably in hindsight) didn't have the skills to make an impact in the international game.

Parker was the form 6 in super rugby (amongst pretty slim picking).

Neither were terrible decisions, they've just been disappointing

Hi everyone, just got put onto this forum by a work colleague here in Dunedin. Great to see people actually talk about this stuff, been a long time sufferer relying on the Roar for rugby chat.

Seems like it might be another season of hurt unless everyone can stay 100% fit. 10 and lock remain massive issues, particularly if Holland is out on All Black duty. Shoe horning Haig in seems like a waste. Will be interesting to see who the captain is

We look so so so much better when we play direct and in and around the ruck

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2025:

Moving past all the posts deliberately misreading my earlier post attempting to clearly explain why Blues player may be feeling a bit of the miff, can someone please convince me the current loose forward policy is more subtle than:
1 Play Ardie where he likes and flog him as much as possible.
2 Choose an 8 that is most like Ardie if Ardie plays 7 or a small scrapper if Ardie plays at 8.*
3 Find someone as big as possible at 6.
4. Wait for Shannon.

*(Maybe steps 2 and 3 are in the wrong order of importance.)

I must be missing some of their longterm strategies and objectives. I just don't see the loose forward balance, teamwork, and collective impact improving at the moment. I must be missing something.

I personally don’t think the loose forward trio can ever be balanced with Ardie in it. It’s like having half a forward and half a back.

The 2014 2nd Bledisloe test match was on the ABs YouTube the other day and I watched it. What stood out the most was how dynamic and hard working our loose forward trio was. McCaw, Kaino, and Read were throwing themselves into everything and they complemented each other so well. There wasn’t a weak link.

There are options at 6 and 7. 8 is still a bit of a question mark

Well they won with three yellow cards and only conceded 17 points against one of the better attacking back lines in the world. So that’s a positive.

Negatives is they can’t catch a fucking highball

The issues with this team were obvious in the semi final loss against England in 2019 and they’re almost identical to what they are now. Absolutely nothing has changed. Literally nothing

They bite in so easily. It’s such shocking and stupid defence

This AUSNZXV centre pairing has got to go down as one of the worst defensive centre combos ever

Fucking amazing! Currently in a NY hotel bar jumping around hysterically. It’s going to be a big weekend