The Silver Fern

Some absolute shocking decisions in that game from ref and players but the biggest stupid decision is player of the match to Demant.

Stacey Fluhler deserved that, even blind Freddy would have picked Stacey!

It was Stacey and daylight second.

@NTA said in Pumas v All Blacks:

Yeah. The whole dance thing is lovely when your daughter is the age of mine (nearly 9) and you can appreciate the effort and talent for those who have it (she does).

But once they start hitting 16+ and its a troupe of gyrating young women in the latter stages of physical development that it gets uncomfortable. One year the dance school concert started with the Open Girls (various ages from about 16-22) dancing in French Maid outfits.

Lot of VERY uncomfortable Dads in the audience that day...

And a lot of very uncomfortable Mum's later that night.

@MiketheSnow said in All Black backline:

@BartMan said in All Black backline:

Never before have I seen an AB backline so lacking in ideas on attack. Not just this test, but the last 18 months. Havilli is not the answer at 12, Ioane at 13, maybe. But who to come in. We've had nothing world class since Nonu and Smith.

ALB and Goodhue would fix things overnight if you could get both of them on the pitch at the same time

As someone who played in the centres and on the wing most of my playing career, I'm going to disagree here. ALB yes, Goodhue, no.

In my opinion, I think Goodhue was part of the problem before he got injured as he just doesn't have the pace needed and frankly I don't think he distrubutes well and he makes few metres with the ball in hand. Yes, he is a good but not great 13 but a poor 12.

Havili is even worse at 12 and is not the answer to any question with respect to the ABs, 12 or otherwise.

I find it absolutely mind numbingly bonkers that for the past couple/few games, Foster takes off Ioane and leaves on Havili and we end up with QT and Havili in the centres.
It just leaves me going WTF and wanting to throw things at the TV.

QT and RTS need to get more time at 12 and leave RI at 13 to partner with them.

I also agree with those who suggest either of the Umaga-Jensen brothers, if and it's a big if... they can just stay fit and healthy, could be a long term answer. PUJ looked at home in the Black jersey in that one match.

@Bovidae said in Springboks v All Blacks 2:

@Tim Twice now that Ioane has been subbed and Havili stayed on. I've got no fuckin' idea what Foster is thinking.

I haven't read the match thread, or this thread yet, but I am assuming with the injuries we may see Jordan at fullback and Mo'unga at 1st 5. Old man Coles was worse than Taylor so time to put him out to pasture. No reason not to select Newell either in the 23.

I couldn't agree more, watching the game live here in Sydney, alone in the wee hours of the morning, when I saw this I just couldn't believe it and turned to myself and commented...

Subbing off R. Ioane and leaving on Havili just made ZERO sense and that is why Foster, this useless sack of shit, yoghurt arsed, piston wristed gibbon should never have been the AB head coach and why he deserves to never coach a team again!

That shit move started and failed with the massive cut out pass from Mounga.

Just needed to go thru hands to Jordie first.

Keep it fucking simple please!

@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks vs England 2:

@Frank said in All Blacks vs England 2:

Perofeta actually should not have thrown to Telea in that movement when he was cut down before the line.
He had Christie and Jordie inside me and unmarked.

Telea should have done better though. Look at the space he has.

It may look like space but as someone who played at wing and in the centres, the defender clearly has the angle on Telea as well as pace (as we saw all game).

The fullback in that screen capture has the dream defence scenario as a back 3 player, you have the angle, you have the sideline and because Perofeta passed early, sole focus on Telea.

He was always going to make that tackle and when he did, Telea had no choice but to either be taken over the sideline or throw the miracle ball back inside which, as we know, was picked off by Smith.

Watching the replay of this again, that was all on Perofeta as he had two un-marked men on his inside but never even looked in that direction, only at Telea which made it even easier for the English 15 coming across in cover.

Plus, Perofeta didn't even attempt to draw and pass the 15 or delay him enough to give Telea a chance.

100% that was all on Perofeta.

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks 2024:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2024 - selection:

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks 2024 - selection:

Oh, get a grip. So Sotutu is now the finest player not to get selected and everyone else is a journeyman. I find it funny how by attacking another player from a rival team who doesn't even get selected as a No.8 is the main focus of the argument. Just so friggen stupid.

you are talking about EB?
Where would you rank him on his 2024 season against the other 6s and 7s?

One of the most effective loose forwards in the comp in a dysfunctional team when playing. Hence pretty much every pundit outside this echo chamber putting his name in the mix.
Being made of glass and a lack of a body of work is a reasonable argument though...

LOL, I call BS on this statement.

One of the busiest, sure, but effective, NFW!

He's there because he's the coaches pet and son of a mate and because the fan boys fawn over the few minutes he plays each season.

Should never have walked into the squad let alone starting given how few minutes he's played and how actually ineffective he is when he plays. Busy doesn't mean efffective.

@Stargazer said in Bledisloe 1:

@RoninWC said in Bledisloe 1:

That shit move started and failed with the massive cut out pass from Mounga.

Just needed to go thru hands to Jordie first.

Keep it fucking simple please!

It failed because RI threw a hospital pass to BB. That's all.

Bullshit. It failed because of a massive cut out pass that was not needed.

All that was needed was putting the ball thru hands... Mounga, Jordie, RI and Beauden or RI just holds it and scores.

That cutout pass was just stupid as it allows the defence to slide.

Just fuck off and die Foster you useless sack of shit, yoghurt arsed cocksucker!

Substitutions are made like a blind man playing darts.

You take off Rieko Ioane and leave on David Havili who isn't an international 12's arsehole so we play two 12s for the last 20 minutes.

The most special ed kids of all international coaches takes off Samisoni for the so out of form Cody (can't throw straight but give away plenty of penalties) Taylor an arbitrary 5 minutes into the second half.

Sorry fanbois but Richie Mounga isn't any better than Beauden and Beauden has more X factor.

Fuck that was the most pathetic home game I've seen in many a year!

Want them to lose now more to get rid of the single worst coach I've ever seen he's so fucking clueless!!!

@Jet said in Springboks vs All Blacks 2:

Story of the season is surely Blackadder casting off his niggles moniker by being an 80 minute week in week out tyro.

WPOTY incoming.

Seriously, WTF do people see in Blackadder.

INMHO, he's softer in defence than the complaints about Ardie, haven't seen a good solid driving tackle or big hit from him yet.

He's useless with ball in hand and makes little real yards and then clearly his decision making is farking shite given the ball hungus screwing the pooch on a certain try!

Sure, he has an engine and runs all game and is involved but his involvment lacks much impact on both sides of the ball.

Fark me, I honestly watch his game scratching my head and think, "WTF are the coaches seeing in this guy?"!

In terms of changes, I think we clearly need more height in the engine room, start Darry and move Vai'i to starting 6. More height, more grunt!

Well, didn't that just suck!

Hadn't watched a Blues game live for a while, for obvious reasons, but given this year they are looking better, I decided to catch up with a mate who lives just outside of Canberra and go and watch the game.

Cold and windy, so whichever commentator said it wasn't windy must have been sitting in a booth or studio somewhere.

Had dinner and a few warm up beverages at Bentspoke brewery first then off to the game so we were about 5 minutes late but oh well.

Observations from watching from the ground:
Ref was clearly being influenced by the crowd who I have to say, begrudgingly, are a little more knowledgeable than the Warratah fans.
Of the loose trio, Gibson went well, but the other two, not so much.
I watched Akira as much as I could and boy, was I disappointed. As some have pointed out, he's played a lot of rugby this year and he did look tired. He was walking behind the play a lot and seemed disinterested at times. In the scrums, he looks more like he is leaning rather than pushing and lifts his head quickly when it's the oppositions feed. Based on this performance, he wouldn't make my RWC squad.
Based on my first time watching Robinson live, anyone saying he could be an AB bolter this year better think again. Headless chook is what I saw. He constantly moves but seemed frequently out of position for a blindside. Then would go hang on the wing a bit with Duffie or Clarke. Oh and his scrum work didn't look good either. Looked more interested in getting out of the scrum as quick as he could rather than pushing.
Black, OMG, Black. Looks like a kid playing men. He's small, like very small compared to the other players. Not necessarily his height but rather his frame just looks very slight and not particularly robust. He plays quite deep and looks to shovel the ball on. Doesn't seem to have that ability to look and play what's in front of him and see what the next play or two should be.
Ma'a, well damn, that man is a beast and was the best back on the day. You can see that old head just reads the game so well. And his speed wasn't all that bad but he looks slow to accelerate but not slow once he get's going. My mate at one point said, wow, he's fast.
Duffie, looked shit. Positionally, got caught out a few times. Also rarely looked for extra work and instead waited for the ball to come his way.
Clarke looks much better on the wing.

A very disappointing result and always looked that way once the refereeing favoured the Brumbies and they just couldn't adjust but rather, kept making some stupid decisions and mistakes.

Game management overall looked absolutely shite to be honest.

Great effort Virgil and thank you, I can feel the love you are sending my way.

I'd also like to thank the FB Groups I scoured for memes.

One for the road...

Cheers

Absolutely criminal that Stacey Fluhler was not included in these awards.

In my view, she was the most important and influential player for the Black Ferns through out the World Cup and likely wouldn't have won without her.

Shocked and dumbfounded that Demant was player of the match for the RWC final and again selected here.

Need to stop shaking my head as I'm starting to get dizzy.

Hey all

Been reading most of @Kirwan thread Fatbusting: Kirwan's log and was impressed and also thinking of my own health and weight struggles.

I've just come off a 3 day water only fast and preparing for a 5 day water only fast next week.

Before I get to that, some background about some recent health issues and other shite over the past couple of years.

To start with, my stats: I'm 52, 179/180 cm and as of a couple of weeks ago, approximately 105 kgs.

From the age of 40 up until 2018, I would play a lot of touch footy, still play Golden Oldies Rugby and kept more than moderately active for the most part. My weight would yo-yo a bit but would usually be around the mid 90's depending on a big weekend or not. I didn't bother to watch my eating or how much I drank, but to be honest, it was probably a lot more than I should, especially drinking.

However, If I put in some effort, in a month or so of watching what I ate and decreasing the alcohol intake, I would get down to the low 90's or so kgs.

But I always got my yearly blood tests and everything was good, cholesterol, blood sugars, liver enzymes, PSA, etc.

Then in early 2018, I visited NZ for my cousin's wedding and was here for about 10 days before my wife came across from Sydney. In that 10 days I pretty much did nothing but eat and drink with my family there in Auckland including my cousins bucks night. Then hired a car and drove down the west coast to Wellington. Stopping and eating the whole way. Spent a night in New Plymouth, met some people at a cool pub there and couldn't remember getting back to the hotel that night. And nope, I wasn't rolled or lose any money or wake up next to someone.

Then in Wellington it was more eating and drinking and even more drinking right up to and including the wedding in Taupo. By the time I flew back to Sydney, I was about 100 kgs and feeling every extra kg.

5+ kgs in 14 days and my face was what shocked me the most, puffy and bloated, horrible!

So I worked slowly at losing the weight and things were looking better and in April/May I really put in some effort by walking 10+ kms 5 to 6 days per week. Then I saw an opportunity to do an F15 trail that for 2 weeks for only $15.

Sweet as because by the end of that 2 week trial I was back down to the low 90 kgs and was feeling much better about myself. And it was footy season so off I went and played a few games and because of the extra fitness, I was killing it.

Was the leading try scorer for the team and probably for the Upper North Shore GO's comp. Then we played a gala night at the Mark Taylor Oval in Hornsby for those Sydneysiders. I took the ball into contact and one of my teammates came flying in for the cleanout and unfortunately, his knee made awesome contact with the side of my head very close to the temple. I saw stars and immediately went off. I had trouble focusing for a few days afterwards and had headaches for another week.

Things were just getting better in the melon when a mate of mine from Sydney came up for a weekend. Friday night we went out in the city to recreate our days of old and ended up at the Marble Bar. Having a great time but neither of us can hold our liquor as well as we used to so we decided to call it a night and stumbled out of the night club.

I had to pee so went off looking for a dark corner and my mate was on the phone looking to book an Uber for us to get home and we got seperated. In our drunken state, he went one way and I went the other.

To cut a long story short, we finally got each other on the phone, worked out where each was in relation to the other (not easy in our state) and had an agreed meeting point in the middle. I started heading that way taking the beer bus, that is, just focusing on what's in front of you and getting to a destination.

As I was approaching an intersection, I saw my mate coming towards me but he was halfway up the next block. What I didn't see until the last minute was two young guys walking towards me, one shorter, one taller, both in their late teens. The tall guy abruptly swerves towards and into me. I took it on the shoulder and kept walking. Looking back I could see the guy was gesturing and being a tool but I ignored him and kept walking. Next moment, his shorter mate comes up on my left hand side and starts apologising for his mate.

Well, the spidey senses started going off, and I put it down to the years of contact sport as I felt something coming from behind and to the right and I managed to tuck my chin into my shoulder and sure enough, a attempted big king hit from behind.

It still contacted my cheek and mouth cutting my lower lip. But I was still standing and turned around to see the tall kid with a rather stunned look on his face, he must have expected me to get insta dropped.

Instinctively, I just hit him and hit him hard and he wasn't expecting it and he went down like a sack of bricks. I then turned to his mate who was looking at his mate on the ground and I just hit him too and he went to the ground and I turned and bolted.

I got to the intersection where two other older guys had witnessed the whole thing and asked if I was okay. I just mumbled yeah I'm good or something like that and started to cross but one guy grabs my arm and points to where I had left the other two guys on the ground. From behind a bus stop a third kid had come out and had his phone out and must have been recording the whole thing. He helped his two mates up and off they went.

In the meantime my mate had joined us as he started running when he saw it all go down. He was really concerned but I was all good other than my lip and a bit of a sore cheek.

That was... I was all good until two days later when I woke up Sunday morning with such a sore neck I could barely move. Was in absolute agony. I've experienced back and neck pains before, but nothing as bad as this. The referred pain down the shoulder and arm was almost unbearable. It would alternate between thumping to searing hot daggers and everything in between.

Because it was a Sunday, not much I could do but eat voltaren rapid 25s and panadol like they were M&Ms. Monday went to the GP and he sent me immediately to get an MRI on both head and neck.

BTW, went and reported what happened to the police and they said this is quite common and that they are recording themselves doing things like this to be youtube heros. Little f#cktards!

MRI showed damage/inflammation at C4/5 and C5/6 impinging a lot on the nerves on the right side. He immediately referred me to a Neurosurgeon.

Of course, it took more than a week to get an appointment and that was one of the worst weeks in my life. Finally got to see the brain guy and he was like we have four options normally:

1. Rest and regular icing
2. Rest, ice and drugs
3. Cortisone injections
4. Surgery

His recommendation based on my condition was to book me in for surgery right away. I wasn't keen on neck surgery so I said I would rather try the rest and drugs.

Oh and he thought the injury was a result from both the head knock in rugby and the attempted king hit!

So we agreed, 2 weeks on drugs and resting and if no improvement, then we will reassess but he still thought surgery would be the only way based on his experience with injuries such as mine.

By this time, I'd been home off work for almost two weeks so for another two weeks I was on really strong anti-inflammatories, Lyrica and valium. Man, that lyrica is a horrible drug and will definitely fark you up.

As I had already been home doing nothing and depression was setting in, I started drinking and drinking hard. And of course, for both Lyrica and valium, you shouldn't mix with alcohol but I really didn't care.

So two and a half weeks passed on these crazy drugs and I was back at the neurosurgeon and I had to report no improvement at all. Like before, he wanted to operate but I insisted on trying cortisone next as a last resort.

Also, in this time I had received a second opinion from another neurosurgeon as well as that of my brother in law who is a senior radiologist who took a look at my scans and all agreed that it was likely I would need surgery but give the cortisone a go as there really isn't anything to lose.

So another few days pass and off I went for the CT guided cortisone injections. During prep by the Radiologist and his helpers, they mentioned the procedure will only take about 10 minutes for each injection but there would be 2 injections, one each for C5/6 and C6/7, so about 20 minutes in total.

Sure, they use an injection of local anesthetic but it doesn't go all the way in and down to the bone so you feel every single movement of that bloody needle in your neck.

What seems like an absolute f#cktonne of minutes later, the radiologist finally says "done". What a relief. I was absolutely wringing wet as you have to hold yourself absolutely still the entire time.

Just before he walked away from the table, to let his helpers in to get me off that bloody table, he asked me how I was and I said, not that great and that I was exhausted. He looks at me, puts his hand on his shoulder and said to me that he has literally done hundreds of those injections and that was one of the absolute hardest he's ever done. He said the musculature in my neck kept pushing the needle from where he was trying to place it to get the best result. So he kept having to move and re-adjust before it was positioned just right. 40 minutes that procedure took, twice as bloody long as normal.

Anyway, next day or so that whole region was sore and I looked like I had been bitten by a vampire. But two days after the injections, I was pain free for the first time in more than a month.

I was told to take it easy in terms of exercising and to work slowly back into it. I was recommended to go to a physio and get them to help with strengthening the area.

I did that and by late 2018 I was feeling pretty good and back to normal exercise. But one thing, now that I was 51, the weight was so much harder to move. I was over 100 kgs and getting down to mid 90s was really tough.

I even gave up on exercise because of frustration for some 3 to 4 months in early 2019. But I eventually got back into it using the coming GO season as motivation.

From May to July, I had lost about 4 kgs and was feeling better, seeing results and feeling good. Then my wife and I started reading about Intermittent Fasting (IF) and as I was planning on taking taking a 6 week Long Service Leave (LSL) break from work starting in August, my plan was to use IF plus ramping up my exercise to get down to the low 90's if not under.

And for the first two weeks of my leave, I exercised every day and did the 18/6 and sometimes 20/4 fast.

In two weeks, I dropped more than 3 kgs and was in the low 90's.

And then another game of GO's, this time at Tallion Oval, Lane Cove. Well, what would you know but after another carry, I was in a ruck and had a finger in the eye, really badly and then next moment, an elbow to the head, in almost the exact same spot as a year ago. And again, from my own teammate... F#ck me!

So for about 4 to 5 days I have blurry vision out of the eye and yes, i went to an optometrist and he said there was scratching but no major damage.

Worse though, I had really bad, I mean blinding headaches every day for about 3 weeks. So for the remainder of my 6 weeks of leave, I just sat on the couch depressed and I drank, heavily. And forgot all about IF or even caring about my diet. Yes, I went to the Doctor and had another MRI which showed signs of a bad concussion.

So in 3 to 4 weeks, I put all that weight back on and more and was in the high 90's again.

Also in that time, I started feeling this extreme fatigue like I have never experienced before.

Then, I had this strange feeling under my left armpit. To me it felt swollen and strange. I ignored it for some time and finally went to the Doctor. He sent me off for some scans, CT and Ultrasound. Nothing was found. But, the CT of my chest had gone just past the chest and showed the very top of my abdomen. The radiologist reported that from what he could see of the top of the abdomen, it looked like an autoimmune disease called mesenteric panniculitis (MP).

Now, MP is something that can cause frequent gastro issues as well as fatigue including extreme fatigue. Also, in 2/3 of cases, there is no cause, it is just an autoimmune disease that can't really be explained. However, in 1/3 of cases, there is a cause and that cause will always be some form of cancer.

So of course, the worry sets in. Off I go for more tests including a CT of the abdomen and blood tests.

At this stage, the GP who has never seen this before, wants to wash his hands of everything and send me straight to a specialist, a gastroenterologist. SoI get the referral and make a booking, 4 weeks down the track on December 18, just days before the holiday break begins.

In the meantime, I'm feeling like shit, depressed, not exercising, watching what I'm eating and some IF but drinking like a fish.

Finally get to see the specialist and he was good, very good but one of the first things he says is, so you got the results from your last blood test right?

And I'm like, ah no, I haven't seen the GP since making the appointment to see you.

Did that get him rather annoyed, he expected the GP would have made more effort instead of leaving it to him so the next words out of his mouth were...

"From the blood tests, one of the cancer markers has come back positive".

Well talk about dying inside! Your whole world suddenly shrinks to nothing but what the Docs next words are.

Fortunately, this guy is really really good and said to not worry so much, this particular marker is more of a generic marker and can come from a number of types of cancer.

And then he sent me off for a full body PET scan, more blood tests and scheduled me in for a colonoscopy/gastroscopy.

I did the PET scan first, then the blood tests, two rounds of them and after the PET scan I looked like an IV drug user, every arm had multiple needle tracks.

What was awesome was that when the results from the PET and blood tests came back, he called me that night at 7 pm and said he knew I would be worried so he called as soon as he could.

And the great news was that everything was negative!!!

What a massive freakin relief!!!

OMG I was packing it, absolutely packing it for several weeks because I didn't tell another soul about the positive cancer marker, not my wife, not my family, no one. I didn't want to burden or put a damper over Xmas and the holidays.

My wife still doesn't understand why I was so happy with the results as I haven't told her the other stuff.

So that was as of the 14th of this month, post colonoscopy/gastroscopy and all the other tests. Everything excellent except showing some early signs of fatty liver disease and quite frankly, I'm not surprised given how much I have drunk over the past two years.

I quite seriously think I've drunk more the last two years of that decade that I did the first 8 years combined. Certainly my bank account tells me that is true!

Anyway, now that I have regaled you with the story of two challenging years, I've now started on the road back to fitness.

The fatigue is better and now that cancer has been ruled out, I can start taking medication for the symptoms of the MP auto-immune disease.

In the meantime, I've been back on Intermittent and longer fasting since the 14th and I'll detail that in my next post as this has gone way way longer than intended.

If you stuck through to the end of this post, then I thank you for your patience and perseverance.

Cheers,
Warren

@NTA said in All Blacks vs Boks:

@mimic well I'm not going back now - the commentary from Marshall made me nauseous enough.

Excellent analysis Nick. I echo your thoughts about the broadcast.

As a former pretty boy back with good hair, I was never interested in the set pieces and only used that opportunity to fix my hair, straighten my socks, make sure the jersey is immaculately tucked in, etc.
Also to make eye contact with the closest pretty girl.

However, as I've matured and watched a whole shedload more of rugby, I have really enjoyed watching the set pieces as they really are the litmus test for how a team is going in any match... and that is difficult for a pretty boy back to admit.

Watching TV broadcasts out of NZ were always head and shoulders above others in terms of showing the game in detail, camera angles, focusing on the game itself.

But in recent years, the NZ broadcasts have fallen away somewhat. They have fallen into the trap of showing too much crowd or focusing on close ups on particular players and as you said, focusing on the backline when the real interest is what's happening with that scrum or lineout.

I think that Meg's commentary has had a lot to do with this as he is often talking over a scrum about how the backline is set or what the next backline move will be off the set piece and then the director/camera guys change the picture to show more what the backs are doing rather than focusing on the scrum.

It really pisses me off when we get a picture of SBW shaking or blowing into his hands rather than watch a scrum set. It seems the camera crews/directors really have a thing for SBW in particular as he get's more individual closeups than any other AB.

Now I have to go and wash my mouth out with soap... and then check my hair in the mirror as well while I'm at it

@mariner4life said in Discussion of AB 9s. Best ever All Blacks Half Back?:

Smith is not only the best 9 i've seen play for the ABs, he's the best 9 i have ever seen (and i thought Joost would take that mantle forever)

His speed to the ruck, his ability to maintain that speed for a whole game, his support lines, his ruck organisation, his organisation of his forward pods (when allowed) is absolutely top shelf. He also has a pretty handy kicking game, and a good run game if the opposition opens up.

But that pass... the speed and width allows us to attack of 2-ball at the lineout FFS. He's creating space for his first receiver no one else gets. And that's 2 tries in 2 games that occur as a direct result of him delivering a wide flat ball putting a guy on an outside shoulder right on the line.

People always seem tob e looking for reasons not to call him the best (oooh, Connor Murray can box kick, ooooh) but Smith is the fucking man. By far and away our most important player right now.

Great post, agree with all but one thing I want to add is Azza's vision.

He has the ability to see the open man where a good player would only see bodies.

And then he unleashes the bullet pass straight to the player he intended after it whizzes past 2 or 3 players who have the sense to let it go past them.

Amazing!

@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs England 2:

Lol sucking off BB for being put in an enormous hole. Never change lads

Pettiest comment of the year.

Massive positive influence on this match!

@Billy-Tell said in The most talented rugby player Shag has ever seen:

Man there’s some revisionism here.

Possum in a headlights early on and never ever seemed to go through an AB match without some sort of handling error, dropped ball etc.

He probably would have been better with age but he wasn’t a major loss like losing a player at the peak of his powers.

Talk about revisionism. What an absolute crock of shite. He spilt the ball a few times early on and you want to put that bullshit on him for the rest of his career in NZ.

He performed well many times including MoTM performances including coming on against SA at 12 replacing Nonu and completely turning the game around for the ABs.

Yes, his time was cut too short by injury (from memory, a really nasty hip injury which required very specialist care) and yes it was certainly impacted by his ability to play in almost any position.

I do agree with those who say he was a bit overawed in his first outings in Black but he settled in and played well in most outings. And sure, the GoaT aside, most players have off matches, just look at the first half of the Namibia match.

For the Cantab Goodhue fanbois, how many dropped balls from him since returning from injury?

And here's another article from the Herald about Ice from his own point of view focusing on his injuries.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12238517

Richie who?
Beaudy having an excellent game, thank you Brad Webber for the much better passing.