The Silver Fern

Been a great 24hrs. Labour smashed in the election, ABs win a knockout game in legendary fashion, and I’m sitting here waiting for Kylie Minogue to call because I’m clearly getting everything I want.

Closest I’ve been to banning someone for years.

@george33 said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@Canes4life many times just putting out what I've been told

Keep doing it.

Kind of the point of a forum, telling us what he's been told doesn't mean it's accurate guys.

@Snowy said in Im leaving:

@sparky said in Im leaving:

This thread is absolutely peak Fern. It will never, ever be superseded.

Test ignore.

People were genuinely upset when I deleted that. From memory it was half the size of the forum Database in one thread.

Since Duluth took over running the site such transgressions are in the past.

As for @Winger, I've been off an on running this forum for 22 years (fucks sake). Over that time, people have come and gone and come back again many times. Hopefully, you'll be one of them. I disagree with you about many things, but the good thing about that is it makes you examine what your opinion is.

Wish we didn't have to moderate you so much though, that's a bit tiresome.

The best advice I can give you is it's just people talking on the internet. We don't change anything here, we won't win elections or even really change people's minds. It's a good place to keep up to date on sport and let off some steam, it's not that serious.

If you think you are spending too much time on here (that's happened to a few people), just post less.

With some of the new features coming from Duluth, the Fern will be the best place to follow Rugby in NZ. He's really outdone himself.

Anyway back to the popcorn.

@Chris-B said in All Blacks Vs France, Test One, Dunedin:

@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!

Not if I have anything to do with it;

Man, that's an impressive post, very interesting write up.

Worth pointing out that sometimes you can measure the worth of a player when he's not there. Blues have an Akira shaped hole in their forward pack this year.

Foster had his own thread for this (here), seems only fair to have one for the messiah.

Heaviest defeat in All Blacks history
Lost 43–10 to South Africa in Wellington (33-point margin). This is the largest margin of defeat ever for New Zealand in, surpassing previous highs like the 35-point loss to South Africa in 1921 or the 28-point loss to Australia in 2003.

First-ever loss to Argentina on Argentine soil
Lost 29–23 to Argentina in Buenos Aires. Prior to this, the All Blacks were unbeaten in 18 Tests in Argentina (dating back to 1985), with all previous losses to the Pumas occurring on New Zealand soil (e.g., 2022 and 2024 in Christchurch and Wellington).

First back-to-back losses to Argentina in All Blacks history
Following the 38–30 home loss to Argentina on August 10, 2024 (in Wellington), the 29–23 defeat in Buenos Aires on August 23, 2025, marked the first time New Zealand lost consecutive Tests to the Pumas.

Lowest win percentage after first 14 Tests for any All Blacks coach in the professional era
At the end of 2024 (14 Tests: 10 wins, 4 losses), Robertson's 71.4% win rate was the weakest start since 1996—worse than predecessors like Ian Foster (78.6%), Steve Hansen (92.9%), and Graham Henry (85.7%).

Most losses in the first 19 Tests for any All Blacks coach since the 1970s
As of mid-September 2025 (after the South Africa loss), Robertson had 6 losses—tied for the most in a coach's opening 19 games since Laurie Mains (1992–1995). This climbed to 7 after the England defeat, exceeding any coach's tally in that span during the professional era.

And just some Rugby Championship highlights;

First consecutive non-winning finishes in the Rugby Championship for the All Blacks
2024 (2nd) and 2025 (2nd), marking the first time New Zealand has failed to win the title in back-to-back years since the tournament began in 2012. All prior non-1st finishes (2015: 2nd; 2019: 3rd) were isolated

Lowest points tally in a single Rugby Championship campaign for the All Blacks
2024: 16 points, the worst ever. This undercuts the previous lows of 20 points (2015 and 2019).

Most losses in a single Rugby Championship campaign for the All Blacks
2024: 3 losses (to Argentina at home, and South Africa twice away), the highest ever in the tournament's history (since 2012). Previous highs were 2 losses (e.g., 2015, 2019).

@chchfanatic said in It’s Razor. Robertson New All Blacks coach.:

I reckon Razor might go out of the box and get someone like Wayne Smith into the coaching setup somewhere.

That’s so in the box it’s almost cliche at this point.

Let’s get the best analytical coach of the past 30 years on the team, masterstroke!

Apologies for the site being down, was out of our hands.

A crucial part of the infrastructure got locked, and we are having trouble getting back into it. To get us back up and running we have a backup URL;

www.silverfern.rugby

and the direct to the forum url is;

forum.silverfern.rugby

Probably going to have a few things broken over the next week, just let us know in here and we'll keep cleaning up.

@Stargazer said in Bledisloe #1:

Ah, another TSF meltdown. Everyone completely overreacting as usual.

If you don’t meltdown after nearly conceding 50 in a Bledisloe game something is wrong with you

Just to add to Duluth's post, I think the Politics threads were the most useful during the Covid lockdowns to allow people to let off steam. It was a pain in the arse to moderate (the rest of the site barely needs any).

IMO it was time to move the focus back to sport.

I've had a busy start to the year with work, and have been taking a break from the Fern. Thankfully, that's returning to normal and I can get back to updating you all about Akira Ioane.

Coming back, it's been great to see the quality of the information in sports threads. Highlights to me that forums still have a place on the interwebs, especially as hubs around shared interests.

We have some interesting stuff planned, as we start rolling things out we'll get your feedback to keep improving it.

@KiwiMurph said in Argentina One: Parramatta, 14 November:

@akan004 said in Argentina One: Parramatta, 14 November:

Akira must be feeling great right now. Poor guy.

this has pre-meditated change written all over it - Frizell was always coming back

Conservative selection group, perfect game to test Akira out in with the top team. Frizzell's had three goes and been adequate at best.

Akira had 29 mins against a fired up Aussie side and had an excellent performance. Would make more sense to see if he could sustain it.

At six , is absolutely clear that Akira is now ahead of Frizzel.

Lol, something to piss off everyone. Several hilarious selections.

So who would have though James Fucking O’Conner would have completely outplayed an All Black ten?

Have to be impressed with these selectors making us miss Foster. Unless you are from a certain province of course.

Some truely terrible calls in that squad.

What a great way for Smith and Henry to retire.

@pakman said in All Blacks 2025:

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/scott-robertson-discusses-his-future-leading-the-all-blacks/

Worst head coach since John Mitchell.

This is as good as it's going to get. He'll continue to "Super-Rugby-ifying" the team will small, ineffective loosies. Get an over the hill RM back at ten, the very average/error prone LF at centre, Jordan at fullback instead of the wing and we'll all have tight schincters worrying about losing the Bledisloe or the Eden Park record with a wildly inconsistent AB team. Slow march towards becoming the Wales of the South Pacific.

Any team that fronts up with a tough forward pack will destory us.

Helps with disappointment that a quality bloke is lifting the trophy

@crucial said in All Blacks Squad for France:

@kiwiinmelb said in All Blacks Squad for France:

This thread is starting to resemble the good old days around AB selection time ,

All we need is Toeava to make himself available .

DMac is the new Toeava

Toeava could play ten.