The Silver Fern

@siam said in Waratahs v Highlanders - QF:

@shadowtrooper said in Waratahs v Highlanders - QF:

Reckon Naholo may have put paid to his AB chances - at least as far as WC chances go. Bridge is starting to look very very good, and makes the right decisions.

Steady on, Naholo being a buffoon doesn't elevate Bridge from being a Jonny McNichol wannabee sucking on the teat of the best forward pack in the comp

The thought of Bridge in the ABs sends a chill down the spine. I guess we've had Tim Perry though FFS. Not every muppet from the Crusaders needs to be in the ABs. If you want a kick-chaser type on the right wing, put B. Smith there.
A. Smith certainly puts the no dick heads policy at risk, but then you'd have no half backs at all if you couldn't have at least 2 or 3 in the squad.

@nepia Would you have less of a hard on for Frizell if Akira were picked for the ABs?

@pakman I don't think Squire's the answer at 6. He'd be better at no.8 galloping down the tram lines and offloading to wingers or his insides.

Mounga's going well and it's great to have him competing with DMac for no.2 first five.

On A. Savea, even as a Hurricanes supporter I don't rate him. I'd have Todd in the ABs ahead of him and tell Taufua to get ready to play 6, 7, and 8 off the bench if needed. I can't help the feeling Savea's a bit of a glory hunter.

The Highlanders' game plan of kicking away possessing works if you make your tackles, but the last two games it's gone horribly wrong.

@marty Ha! Thing is with Koreans is they're only interested when the national side is going well or the odd player excelling in overseas comps. No bugger there watches the K-League.

Just looking at the graphics of the game, you can see the Koreans ripped into it with the cards etc. and the Germans must have been quite passive and sitting back.

I'd prefer Mounga to start, even just to see how he goes.

I reckon they need to make some calls around some players. Squire's been unlucky with injuries, but I don't think he or Fifita are the answer at 6. I don't know who is though. There doesn't seem to be a genuine enforcer type running around at blindside. Squire may be a better bet as a no.8 galloping down the tramlines. They can't all be stars, but Luke Whitelock is pretty limited at test level. They need to take a punt on Akira now. He's played plenty of Super Rugby against the players in the RC and should be thrown in the deep end to see what he can do.

I'm not that convinced about Jordie (yet). A better balanced back three would be Naholo, Ioane, and B. Smith.

@pakman said in All Blacks v France Test #1:

Classic case of complaint based on outcome rather than actual action.
To me Cane's swinging arm was borderline yellow. I don't think one can validly say Ofa made a tackle which he should have known would make head contact. It was the deflection off the Cane tackle which caused this.
As an aside, double tackles are especially prone to this owing to the ricochet effect.

I watched Saracens playing someone a while ago and the scenario was almost identical. Brad Barritt belted someone (tackle was slightly worse than Cane's) and then a prop pretty much did what Ofa did. I'm pretty sure Barritt escaped any card or sanction and the prop was red carded (think it was his 50th too).

The yellow card was poor refereeing but also poor captaincy from Bastareaud. He could have asked the ref to look at the replay. I think the ABs would've won anyway.
Cane should've got a yellow, but unsure about Tuungafasi.
It was interesting to see more attacking kicks. One pretty obvious tactic to negate the rush defence. It'll be really interesting to see what else they come up with. Maybe more pick and goes to keep the defensive line on its heals?

@crucial said in Springboks v England - Test #1:

@nta said in Springboks v England - Test #1:

@rapido Itoje has that rare combination of being a fantastic player trapped in the body of someone who believes it a bit too much.

He's a bit of a fluffybunny.

But every time you think you want to smack him one Mike Brown comes into view and your target changes.

Yes, England has quite a list of this type. Itoje, Brown, Sinckler, Marler and Farrell are fairly difficult to like.
I actually reckon Itoje is overrated and will not be happy to be proved wrong.

@paekakboyz Faf and Duane were very good, especially Faf. I think they may have struggled to come back from that deficit without him. England exposed the Bok's wingers' defence early on.

@taniwharugby WTF is she on about? Is she the Minister of white farmers' land reallocation?

@mariner4life Get used to it. It'll be Foster and Cooper as assistant. Talk about the bland leading the bland. You have to wonder whether Cooper's endorsement of the AB camps was his true opinion or just an opportunity for some pre-interview arse licking.

@kiwimurph That last one for the try wasn't great. He was really casual.
Not a great game, but both teams had a cobbled together appearance about them. 3 in a row for Wales vs the Boks now.

Wales may have scored the winning try near full time!

It's hard to know what NZR thinks about the Blues, but it looks from the outside they're a bit complacent. I would tell the Blues board etc. that either you fix this or we will. NZ doesn't need the Blues to be strong for NZ rugby to be strong, but it's certainly not helping that they're so woeful.
Seems like they need a complete clean out and then get a hardened coach in there that's actually earned his stripes.

@rancid-schnitzel Just have to take any comments from these people with a grain of salt to go with the chip on the shoulder. Remember these are the type of people that started to support the Wallabies when Deans missed out on the ABs coaching job.
Mounga would probably be the no.2 10 right now, especially as Dmac hasn't really performed at test level yet. Neither has Mounga as he hasn't had a chance, but Hansen is loyal to players that do, so there's no reason Mounga couldn't jump ahead in the pecking order. The Crusaders are actually pretty impressive right now and that's also with some front liners out.

@taniwharugby Eating Maccas in someone else's lounge at 5am and not drunk. Sounds like a Tui billboard. But, as long as they apologise to the girls in the flat, I can't see a problem. I remember doing the Undy 500 back in the day and doing worse, although I obviously wasn't an All Black.

@crucial said in Chiefs v Crusaders:

Who is the brainless fuck that decided to have TJ and Meg commentating this game?

Painful, isn't it? TJ keeps talking about which Chiefs players used to play in red and black. FFS, none are from Canterbury.
He was quite upset about the try from a forward pass.
Crusaders are looking good though. The Chiefs need to make those first up tackles. The defence is good too, so putting the ball in behind them is a good option - with a good chase.

@toddy Julian Savea should either reinvent himself as a midfielder or go overseas.

That was a really disappointing loss on the back of losing to nobody's second favourite team last week. The pack's not that bad on paper, so not sure what's going on there.

@billy-tell said in 2018 June Internationals:

Ireland or Australia?
England or SA?
Wales or Argentina?

Who are people supporting?

Please note if you select England, your account will cease to function.

Australia - ever since the arm flapping days of Peter Stringer and BOD's near death experience, I've completely gone of the Irish. I'd also like Aussie rugby to improve and I'd say they're underdogs.

Got to be SA. England rugby is the spoiled kid with all the gear and no idea

Wales every time. They're are my second team. The Argies were Nazi sympathisers and bring football bullshit to rugby.

I'm really looking forward to these series and hope they're all on Sky