Freedom of speech in its purest form. He was free to say it but not free of the consequences of saying it.
If he didn't share the same values of the ARU then he had every opportunity to not sign that contract but he signed it so tough shit. Now hes hiding from his boss like a little bitch. If I were his agent, I would be sooo pissed right now.
My 9 year old just got up and said fuck England and fuck this ref. In front of his grandmother. Then stormed up stairs saying yeah yeah I know time out but seriously fuck both of them. Hard to punish him when that's pretty accurate.
@ARHS said in RWC Week 1: Wales v Fiji:
Just watched this. Absolutely disgusted by the inconsistent and error-ridden display by the officials that ruined this match.
Fair play to Wales for playing the ref and bitching at everything. It clearly makes a huge difference. Amazing that a clear tackle headshot by Biggar was waved past given the scrutiny of Fiji.The only upside is that it wasn't the AB's on the receiving end this time around.
He is scheduled to handle the NZ Italy game.
I hate it when people bitch about the Ref, because so rarely are they the difference. But he was the difference.
Wales will probably cop some shit with their very clever game management and cynical penalties. But they don't deserve it they are under the pump at home too and they did what they needed to win. Carley letting them do it is total and utter incompetency and shows he doesn't command the necessary authority to ref a game at this level.
I am sorry but when you have warned a team to restart and they slow walk back to the half way. Stopping the clock is not acceptable. That behaviour needs dealing with. Then when they do it a second time to say nothing you are letting the teams walk all over you.
Hi performance was so bad it made me post after 6 years of lurking on this site. Unreal!
We did it. Sunday dinner with the in-laws tomorrow should be tasty. Hopefully by then I can hear all about how they were cheated!
Sam Cane take a bow you. Nobody would have begrudged you talking some shit after that to the totally anonymous Irish back row. But you just shake their hands and wish then well.
You're a better man than any of us here on the fern that's for sure!
[edit - split from another topic]
Whatever happens in this game I would like to see this 2 Haka thing put to bed. I have never been okay with it. It smacks of us picking and choosing who is worthy of the special one and who is going to get the contractually obligated one.
Will they do Kapo Pango this week because they are hurt from their loss and have departing players. Or will they do Ka Mate because who honestly cares about a 3rd place play off and Wales are losers as well.
We look like total cocks pulling out our special haka, and then getting spanked.
Choose one or the other. Or one for home and on for away.
But this special haka thing just gets on my nerves.
Having had the weekend to absorb the loss I thought I would throw in my 2 cents.
Firstly well done the Lions you got there in the end. Plenty of teams would not have gotten over the line but you found a way to win ugly.
For the ABs I have to say even down to 14 I thought we would still win it. Mostly due to what I thought was tactical brilliance from Hanson. Subbing a forward was clearly something they had planned for as it happened almost immediately. It sucks for Kaino but our 7 man pack was more then competitive against the Lions 8 and that is purely down to conditioning. Every one of those blokes put in a shift and they got so close. I suspect if Cruden had passed that balls to the forwards and asked them to hold it for 5 minutes they would have.
But thats not us we play to win not to draw, was still a shitty option.
I can understand people are frustrated with SBW for what happened but I think people need a little perspective. He is not even close to being a serial offender wasn't his last card in 2011 that was 6 years ago. If you balance it up against the good stuff hes done I think hes still the kind of player you want around. So this talk of him never wearing Black again or people booing him needs to be put to bed. Its over no one will regret it more then him.
Vunipola on the other hand should count himself very lucky, in my view that was a straight up targeted shot. He saw it was Barrett and he went hard in on him. It was cheap as well as Barrett was rolling out of the ruck, and there was no other defender so he had no need to even enter the ruck, the ball was available. I think if the contact was any heavier we could have been down a fly half. I would be surprised if he was selected for the 3rd test, he didn't really bend the line and his discipline sucked.
For the SOB incident, it makes me really wonder if the way the Refs are implementing the head high rules needs some adjustment. One thing in common with a lot of the rulings that have been very inconsistent is that its not normally the tackler that is at fault, but more often the tackler assist. We see it here with Sean, with Sonny and even the Cane incident in Ireland. He was coming in as the assist but Henshaws spin caught him. I think as the assister there is a much greater risk of these sorts of accidents. For one you have a player who is in the process of being tackled that will normally be lowering there head as they move toward the ground. This puts it right in the tackle zone for anyone attempting the assist. Then you have huge amounts of force in the collision and the way that acts on the players is not easy to predict, making any assisted tackles a lot messier. The inverse is also true in a one on one tackle with two players colliding both have a good idea of where their bodies should be, to effect a safe tackle at impact.
I really don't know how to deal with that. I would like to see slow motion replays used less as I think reducing the time gives the impression that the players have a choice in their actions and for a lot of cases in the assist I don't think they have much of one. What they committed to 2 steps away is what they have to go through with.
I was happy with Laumape, thought he was good considering the circumstances. Reiko needed to be busier. He can't afford to run hot cold like that and needs to go looking for the ball a bit more rather then wait for it.
One final thing all of the international French Refs are totally fluent in English, please don't give them this excuse as a crutch for a poor performance. They don't need it if they are not communicating with their team properly its not down to language skills.
Scott Barrett massive unsung hero tonight. The work he got through unreal. Nothing flashy but he just tackled and hit rucks all night. Some motor!
@Salacious-Crumb said in Aussie Rugby in general:
Folau targetted eight groups, including atheists and adulterers, as going to Hell. I haven’t repented yet. I guess that means I should be twice as outraged and incensed and offended as LGBTQers.
It's not a competition. He tweeted his views on a subject his employer contractually forbid him from tweeting on. He got fired. Stupid is as stupid does
I am not surprised by this reaction at all. You never beat the Irish they are always the victims of some injustice it seems. But if they beat you, oh you better be a good loser take it in your stride and accept it or you will never hear the end of it.
Source: Wife is Irish.
So what's been going on.
Well after years of being in a pretty good place with my health and my weight. I have had a rough few years and things have started to slip. While COVID is the catalyst for my issues the reality is that I have probably lost focus slowly over time.
So the stats I am now 10Kg heavier than where I want to be. 88Kg at last weigh in, and I have been there for nearly a year. While in the past I was able to just hit a hard calorie deficit for a few months. Something has changed, maybe its getting older, maybe its working from home 100% now but the self control is gone and I haven't been able to get it back. I can put in a few weeks then one bad day and its a shit show. I just go nuts.
The level of activity is good I am still running a lot, and I even put in a home gym and get out to it a couple of times a week.
That's the physical side on the mental side it has absolutely wrecked me. Its bought up a lot of stuff from my past even going back to being a kid. Self confidence is gone, self worth the works.
So what's the plan.
Friday I will do a week recap on here to say what I have done and what goals were hit. But at the moment the plan is simple 4 Strength workouts, 3 Runs, log all my food and keep it around 1800, journal daily, with an emphasis on trying to be a bit kinder to myself.
An I the only one who thinks we will pump them?
We did in the first test, and then if not for a dodgy penalty, and a try with more obstruction then an Enron lawyer we nearly beat them with 14.
I feel more confident for this match then most others it seems.
So Porter has been cleared.
I don't understand this game any more.
Just been told my wife is away and its on at the rugby club so I don't have to watch it surrounded by my Irish inlaws.
So week off to a good start.
Game day here in France. Sadly not much atmosphere since France got knocked out. But also not many neutrals either. Everyone I've spoken to wants a New Zealand win.
Feeling pretty laid back about it. If you asked me before the France game I would have happily taken a final but now that we are here I hope the boys put together a performance like the Ireland match. That way win or lose we put it all out there.
12 hours till kick off going to be a long day.
Rain won't bother us. Will make Barnes sympathetic to slips at scrum time. We need that fast start though want to see the spirit of athletic park 96 out there! Can't watch and comment on this one. See you on the other side boys!
We got this!
Thought I would join the other long time lurkers and re-enter the fray.
World rugby has created a no win scenario with the way they want dangerous contact officiated.
Refs can't win if they give a red they ruin the match. Which costs a small fortune to go and watch. They don't they're not being consistent and as we have seen over a 3 match series they can cost a team the series.
Ireland would most likely not have held on with 14 men in the 3rd. The All Black's had almost no chance in the second with 14. Those are just the realities of top flight rugby at this level. Now it looks like whoops we got it wrong oh well you're good sports take it on the chin and move on.
If Foster goes because a ref made the wrong call that seems pretty shitty for him. I say that as someone who was never for his taking the top job.
I think where we went wrong was when we adopted the card system. Hear me out as I roll back the years.
Back in the day rugby was a bit like ice hockey, there was a code and if you deliberately tried to hurt someone there were consequences. You would get filled in sooner or later. Normally sooner. Dirty play existed but was dealt with outside the framework of the match. Kind of like fighting in hockey. You can cross check someone to the face. But the Piper is going to come calling and you're going to pay for it
Then TV got good, and this stuff was being spotted and it needed to be stopped. So we looked around and thought Football (soccer for those so inclined) has discipline all figured out, let's adopt their card system. So yellows and reds. But yellows are kind of bullshit. They can be for anything from smashing a guys cheekbone accidentally, not being good enough to hold up your side of the scrum, fucking up an intercept, doing the same dumb shit over and over again despite being told not to. With reds held back for real foul play, punching, biting eye gouging sort of thing. Because we didn't want players dealing out discipline to each other. But in football a red card is not a death knell. If you're leading or drawing park the bus. If losing you can still score most games are decided by 1 or 2 goals. You don't score in multiples.
Then head injuries became a focus point and reds started being applied for all sorts of things, jumping in the air to catch a ball but not getting it, not jumping and having someone who is land on you head clashes of any sort. Stuff that may have had no ill intent at all.
So now games and even test series are frequently spoiled by red cards.
Okay so history lesson over. What's the solution?
How about we look at the other big money sports? If we don't want to go the ice hockey route fine I get that.
But the NBA and the NFL don't fuck over the Superbowl because some one has a brain explosion and tries to decapitate someone. They give the team offended against a decent penalty then they kick the offender's sorry arse out, continue the match and fine them into oblivion. The team gets fined as well. Normally a lot more then the player. Money fucking matters, so that stops teams sending out hitmen to take out players.
So my proposal keep yellows for repeat offending or cynical play. It's within the construct of the game. But for filth, 7 points and the player is ejected. If you get it wrong the player is cleared at judiciary and a 7 point advantage isn't enough that the game is out of reach. Players will stop that shit we saw in England Aussie real quick when they are writing 5 figure cheques.
Final thoughts, Barrett in the first test and Aki in the 3rd were far better candidates for trips to the judiciary then Ta'avao and Porter. Their actions had intent they lined up players unable to defend themselves and smashed shoulders into them. Yet both not even looked at it. That makes literally no sense. Oh WalesOnline I am still waiting for your write up about Akis "sickening" challenge. Just kidding what you do can hardly be considered writing.
That series could have gone either way. Honestly we were robbed from ever knowing the real outcome by officiating, that's not acceptable.
@taniwharugby said in RWC Week 2: All Blacks v Namibia:
@Kirwan right or wrong, I don't think that is the real issue with it, it's the lack of consistency applied to other head contacts that is a problem.
Hit the nail on the head. I have no issue with that being red. But why isn't Kriels or Taufafenuas also red. Just make your minds up.
And for the love of christ don't do what you did in 2019 where it was like a game of black jack in the pools, with cards flying everywhere. Then in the knockout it was like my dad remembering my birthday, with not a card in sight!
@Margin_Walker said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
@taniwharugby
I just think Kaino had time to avoid that contact though (and he seems to admit as much).
So Kaino should have tried to avoid an offside player pushing him as he is attempting to put pressure on the kicker.
Should he have polished his boots on the way through as well and thanked him kindly for returning to an onside position?
And the call us precious. I will give a fuck what these people think when they point out the high shot on Crotty that wasn't called either. Pains me to say it but Woodward is right here. The Lions didn't lose because Murray got a bit of heat on his box kicks they got beat because after all this time together the still can't score with a 2 man over lap.
I have said it in the other thread but will say it again. If the outcome of a rugby match is being decided by a super slow motion capture of the weight balance of a 130KG man 1/10th of a second before impact. Then the game is fucked, we will never get consistency.
World Rugby need to give up on red cards and handle rugby related discipline issues with yellows and injury and foul play with the judiciary. At least then we will have fewer matches that are total write offs after an accident 15 minutes into the game.
Ireland were better then us in this series but lets not forget we stuffed them in the first test by playing 15 minutes of rugby. The northern hemisphere want to talk up what a great Irish team this is fine. But they seem to have forgotten that first test. We are not a million miles away here we need to look at that period of play and find a way to bottle that. If we can even play like that for 30 minutes no one will be able to touch us.
Talk about rolling the dice with that bench. Two backs have a head clash with each other and you are in serious shit! Especially if the 9 or 10 are involved. They've gotten away with it in the past but kind of reminds me of a gambling addict playing roulette. Thinks they have it all worked out then before you know it they are giving handies in the car park to try and pay for breakfast.