S
@Jaguares4real said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
@Crucial said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
@Bones said in TRC: Pumas v All Blacks:
No Bridge? Dry powder.
It’s only a friendly
Big picture: the game is largely meaningless in a RWC Year
I'm looking for a very good performance
Below graphic is insane
Welcome back fella, but jeez I'm getting tired of your meaningless test monologues
The absolute truth is that all games are meaningless, if one subscribes to your assessment. Sport is what you want it to be. It's a voluntary leisure pursuit. The importance of it is in the minds of every participant differently.
Calling games meaningless or friendlies is just a shit can notion for losers diminishing the achievements of winners. It's a dishonorable critique of national sport, and a deliberate insult to the winners. Let the players decide what is meaningless
You're smart enough to know that and we're smart enough to know vapid trolling.
Enough already
@JC said in No kids, any regrets?:
Well for us kids just weren’t an option sadly. We tried everything but when we first got all the tests done they told us it would be extremely unlikely and they were right. The never ending hormone treatments permanently damaged Mrs JC’s health - one of the fertility experts guilt tripped her into some pretty extreme treatments by saying if she had any second thoughts then she just didn’t want kids enough. So now she’s got anxiety attacks, near constant IBS, blinding headaches about 50% of every month, excruciating period pain, everything except the child she desperately wanted and still misses. The kicker is she is a amazing with kids and would have been the most awesome Mum. Sometimes you just have to laugh because the alternative is you’d never stop crying.
Many thanks JC, I was wondering if my story was applicable to this thread.
We had a very similar experience and while my wife hasn't been affected to quite the same extent as your good wife, she too has had that hormone treatment totally fuck with her innards and still suffers to this day - perhaps 10 years later.
The above also coincidentally describes our situation more succinctly than I ever could, right down to the "jesus she'd be a good mum" bit.
My thoughts on IVF
The day you find out it's not going to happen naturally is a day spent wailing bucket loads of tears and a firm confirmation that nothing could ever hurt you emotionally as this is right now. It's a shitty and memorable day.
So then you embark on the emotional paradox that is IVF.
Its a fluffybunny
You see, the pertinent factor is 30%, well it was when we did it.
You're basically betting on the Black Caps beating Australia in any given game from 2000 to ..., well probably now!
So the whole thing is 28 days of that "hope so but probably not" conundrum every minute of the day but the stakes are the highest in your life.
You've got to be positive but you know how hard you're going to fall when the first painter turns up in 3 weeks...again. That's why it's such a rollercoaster. I remember gazing at the doctor thinking what an extraordinary life he has in that, in the space of a morning he can either painfully ruin or ecstatically complete a woman's entire life. Maybe even in the space of 2 appointments. Freaky places fertility clinics.
Basically they arm you with nifty syringe dispensing gadgets and boxes of vials that you keep in your fridge. Every morning Wifey turns the dial on the gadget and injects it into her tummy. I'm guessing that's the bugger responsible for the after effects.
Then clinic visits, stirrups, looking at magnified eggs on a screen and being told to pick one ? Some wanking. An implant visit and then a couple of weeks (I think, I try to forget) of fretting and the wife lying still.
Then it doesn"t work and you board the merry go round again 
But then there is the masturbatorium 
We used the best cliic in bkk and then a state run one,(state had the clinic doctors but only those good hearted enough to do a couple of mornings a week for free - fine people).
At either, the bloke must supply some pollen. The clinic had a small lounge sized, tastefully furnished mastabatorium with a comfy sofa and a massive tv. Windowless, but there is a sliding hatch for completion. Pre-Programming allows one a myriad of porn choices from all corners of the globe and magazines I didn't even look over.
I was in there about an hour I think the nurses said.
The state was a tiny toilet/janitor closet where my true professionalism came to the fore.
So the IVF at 30% ain't no picnic but please don't let that distract from the joy for those that were there the day McMillan and McCullum went nuts. Really pleased for all doting parents. Bitterness doesn't lie there.
Stepping over trafficked babies being held by non maternal trafficked beggars on the bkk pavements everyday steels the soul though.
A word of advice if you meet a couple who tell you they're on the merry go round, don't talk. Just listen and wish luck. For the love of god don't give the "My sister/cousin/aunt/friend got pregnant by that" anecdote because it comes across like a fait accompli, and really irked, well to me anyway.
Met some women on their 10th go or some such. It's a desperate state to be in with the only certainty being that plain shit luck has led you to walk into this particular clinic or hospital.
Also we learned to avoid mates kids baby birthday partys back in the day.
Absolute full power to those that chose no kids, we did too in the end, we weren't in a fair dinkum position to adopt. Sounds like all of us have benefitted from our choices and circumstances and life always supplies other paddocks to ponder.
Oh and those people that treat animals like kids... there might be a decent reason
Thanks for the therapy, haven't thought about that shit for a while
An awful lot of arrogance and nonsense talk on this thread as far as I can see
Bored with the All Blacks winning? Fuck off
Not entertaining enough for you ? fuck off
Not feeling emotions like you want to? fuck off
You in this thing for the All Blacks and what that organisation achieves and accomplishes or how much entertainment you're entitled too?
Fuck off with your 15 second attention span.
Real rugby supporters will once again welcome the physical and tactical battle with the old foe (and friends), the ABs will be hugely psyched and me behind them supporting all their efforts and appreciating the Boks, regardless of their success.
See that's what the ABs represent - striving for excellence, winning and being humble and respectful in the process
You won't catch them bemoaning the relative ability of the opposition or counting wins before they're earned.
I can't wait for another showdown between us and the Saffas, always a great occasion
and lastly, fuck off
Well played little nerdy looking fella who got pilloried high and low when he took over a poisoned chalice.
He stuck to his guns and contributed to us fans enjoying and being able to be proud of a decent and hard working team.
He's certainly earned some great cricketing jobs that will no doubt come his way in the future.
Well done fella
Can I suggest the wallabies just simply shut the fuck up?
We've played and beaten the Welsh Argues and Saffas with nary a bitter word or exchange yet all year (international and super rugby) from Australian rugby folk and coaches have been whinging about refereeing, whinging about foul play whinging about humility, whinging about the media.
Enough already. Take your thrashings (because that's what they've been) like a fair dinkum Aussie bloke and suck it up. That's what they expect of others.
Conversely win more than 3 games a fucking season and we might concede you've not had a particularly good rub of the green.
Christ on a bike it's been tiresome and repetitive all year.
Chinese might have to add a new horoscope- 2016 the year of the pissing and moaning wallaby.
@junior I've been there mate. Probably a decade ago now - same, the time is blur I can't be arsed to accurately remember.
I ain't got no magic words.
God, your middle paragraphs were almost an exact replica of ours. Being invited to friend's kids birthdays was as appealing as triple root canal performed by Helen keller, sans anaesthetic. They stopped asking.
I'm currently holed up in quarantine in Bangkok. Packed in a job that supported us adequately 2 weeks ago. 14 months ago I sent the wife here ( from oz) so she could bond with our 7 year old and 1 year old nephews. They call her Nana and me Grandad (it feels somewhat fake, but hell they don't seem to mind). At that time the world seemed to be coming right but, well, it didn't.
Now I've got no concrete plans, limited finances and a flittering between excitement of seeing everyone again and a dread of " what the fuck are you doing?".
The point is that I'm finding solace in giving my all to the wife and any leftovers to the young (poor, working class, bless 'em) nephew's family. Then a promise to be there for mum and dad when they need us - like all good Asians do. I'm good with that plan.
Mostly I wanted to tell you to force yourself to talk it all over with your magnificent, strong woman. It'll take many different talks at many different times. It'll cost tears and is fraught with the possibility that you'll both hear the wrong things. It frightened the shit out of me that she might want to shed everything (me) as a means to reset her life. It's a big gulp before you embark on the most honest conversations you'll ever have.
But it has to be done, mate.
I'm giving good odds that you'll wind up closer than ever with a clarity that, as a couple, the world can get fucked as long as you guys are together and nothing, absolutely nothing can wound you more than that thing 6 months ago.
I remember thinking that and it's true. Nothing in life cuts like watching your beloved wife go childless.
So, enough grim stuff from me. Get real tight with Mrs Junior. Pick your times to open up to each other, (many times, but not all times) and traverse life together, hand in hand safe in the knowledge that nothing can breach the armour and scars that life has covered you in.
Do things for yourselves - that's what me and Mrs Siam talked about (remotely) just today in fact. Ours will also start with a holiday in feb!
Treat your wife like you're courting again. Make her laugh, keep her protected and loved and the two of you can make your way again. It'll work mate and surprising and good things will emerge from the fog. You're a good man who has stared at the abyss and come out the other side. You've got choices - choices are the secret to life.
Fuck this thread has been awesome lately - makes me ashamed of lashing out over the last year...nearly
@steven-harris said in Crusaders vs. Chiefs:
The rules are there for safety purposes but I fear every game I am going to be watching this year is going to have problem in and around high tackles which is going to hugely influence results.
Except Steven that the laws aren't there for safety mate, they're primarily there to appease social and mainstream media, lest they lower rugby's appeal to corporate sponsorship.
These administrators and lawmakers have made a pigs breakfast of the game since the last WC and their sole objective has been to placate social justice fuckwits who'd never travel to a game rather than the people who actually "own" and love the game.
If you're fair dinkum about player welfare, then you start by decreasing the games played, not try to micro manage every fucking collision.
That yellow and penalty try make the game barely recognisable, and random as a legitimate contest.
A pox on them all
I watched nearly all of that day, which for an old man in a non favourable time zone, took a bit of doing.
The Taylor Nicholls partnership started from scratch with a new ball introduced and possibly England's best ever new ball bowlers. It was basically our Ross vs those two. The partnership got to 52 off 72 balls. That's fucken good. We were whittling away the deficit at 4 and a bit per over. Taylor took it upon himself to go after England in this first hour. He played big shots against the new ball and ran deft singles throughout. He could have bobbed and weaved and "seen" out the new dukes, but no, he took it too them with body shots, to mangle a boxing metaphor.
It was great! Broad nearly foiled him with an expert bouncer but England's fielding is as shit and pea hearted as everything else they do. Rossco just about got us level, but his innings and strategy was the senior batter directly taking on the opposition. I asked for a leadership innings and rossco delivered, even when out of form. Fucken great. I'll force myself to remember that knock when I get irrationally bitchy at Taylor in the future. Sometimes the stats say less than the body language of a session. This was one of those times. Rossco searched for and exposed all sorts of cracks. He didn't strut but he didn't bow either. He stared them in the face and stood tall, stoic and non plussed throughout.
Contrast that approach with the opposition senior batsman's innings.
Occasionally as a Black Caps fan you're in the right place at the right time to witness a bit of history. A bit of unexpected success. Hobart was one of them when Dougie bowled us to victory. Coney and chats vs Pakistan, hadlees gabba test. It's a time when you message your mate in nz at 3am, knowing he's asleep but hoping you'll wake him with "are you watching this mate?"
Yesterday was that occasion to savour. The long drawn out 90 minutes of bliss watching us roast these fluffybunnies and thinking, " we've got them 7 down for negative 9" is delicious . The face of Joe Root like a startled rabbit for a 50 ball 5 while the batsmen he'd written off at lords fulfilled his expectations of them. The smile on Ajaz's face after he set him up too close to cut and a tad of extra bounce.
So many things to savour during that pom innings. A great day to be a nz cricket fan watching your "B" team set up an overseas series win!
Nobody wins test series'away these days, (except India in Aus) and now we're on the verge of beating an england team that is so scared of failure they've forgotten how to play, let alone win.
A lovely day to ruin sleep patterns and watch the Ilford 2nd XI silence a fancy dress party 
It's all nonsense. Best was trying it on because this bloody wendyball behaviour has crept into the game, yes particularly in the north, and none of the world rugby fuckwit administrators have had the sense or inclination to stamp it out.
So busy are they hand wringing and pandering to fucken sponsors and issuing paper thin edicts about contesting in the air and head high tackles that they've ignored a blight on the a unique feature of the game, namely the refs decision stands and is to be respected.
Never once have we had a clampdown on badgering referees. When was the last march of 10 yards that we all grew up with? When did they arm and publicly encourage the refs with the means to tell moaning captains to piss off?
Rugby was known as a game where what the ref said stood. Now every captain, including Read spend disproportionate time trying to influence a ref. It's fucking irritating. When taken to stupid degrees like Best did it's a blight, and it needn't be.
It gets more like the disgrace that is soccer every year, yet no leaders of the game seem to give a fuck - more interested in wasting resources on incidents which most sane people can see are accidents.
Fucken gives me the shits how much time is wasted needlessly on whining to refs when 2 months of marching 10 yards would eradicate it completely....AGAIN!!
@Victor-Meldrew well I guess you just weren't meant to watch this one mate. They call that fete....
Coat please...
I'm not buying the notion that we can't field a team to win regularly. The rugby talent bit isn't a problem, surely. I've got no issues with the personnel in the playing squad. Good lads.
Now I can't decide if we are arrogant or dumb with the same old tactics we've dished up over about 3 and a bit years.
I've been convincing myself of the "powder dry" theory since 2017 and I've gone mad waiting for it.
There's nothing fucking there!?
Flat backline fucked over numerous times by rush defence.
After 3 back and fro's, put in a chip kick that 50% of the time results in a try saving tackle down the other fucking end!
Tons of one offs and 2 offs that barely reach the advantage- thanks hagrid.
Kicking so much goddamn ball away and not even having a Habana like chasing.
Never going one off from a ruck, (except chasing today when it worked!)
Never any audacious moves like that tana, Cully, jonah, pod , lineout extravaganza that time against yellow.
A single focussed reliance on a Dagg or a Reiko, or a Caleb to break a line and then support play makes it a winning strategy. Gets fucked over if old mate is determined to make his tackle - nevermind, "we'll shovel it along the other way and give Beaudy a chance against a set defence."
A visible lack of any ability to change a tactic and work a specific strategy for 10 minutes at least. Just when you know we must hang onto the ball, someone will " express themselves" and kick it. We'll get ball from a set piece and in two run of the mill phases we'll be back to shovel ball and relying on a missed tackle.
It's fucken turgid, and I'm sick of it.
I'm resigned to speaking like a cock - it's like those fluffybunnies, collectively, have little respect for the game. Trot out the same old shit and hope for the inevitable individual brilliance or, better yet, Laura to make the opposition try too hard.
I hate saying this but we play like we know everything about the game. Like we don't fully respect the game and all it's diversity. The Hanson/Foster way is outdated, too limited, but mostly, doesn't have Richie FUCKING McCaw in it!!!
The players are more than adequate.
We got done by a new coach making his own decisions and reinvigorating his team with a fresh enthusiasm. Our old coach is rehashing a failed strategy and the players are looking completely unenthused by all of it. Fuck we've looked bad over the last 2 weeks.
And the discipline?
Fuck me that must be a sign of a lack of focus and task clarity. That an organisation like the All Blacks can't work out face slaps and ruck supermans leaves me wondering what kind of a slack shit show is going on in these pampered facilities.
Totally schooled by the Argentinians on how to conduct yourself on a test rugby field!
The fucken shame in that!
The real question is how long do we have to pretend before we usher in Scott as a breathe of fresh air and a new direction - with a fond departure to the 2015 win and the first test against the Lions in 2017.
I like you fozzie, and I greatly admired your play for Waikato, but mate somehow, you've used 5 games to fully show me your hand, and mate, you're bust!
Fuck this I'm getting drunk...where were you when the All Blacks looked like Southland...?
Thanks fellas. It's all ok, sort of. Suicide is an increasing reality now. It may even be the last true freedom one has over their lives.
I've found the coping trick is, if you love the person, to not get angry at them for their choice. That just breeds more resentment and will portray your friend in the wrong light.
There are always so many unanswered questions that never get satisfied. Never blame yourself and think "what else could I have done?". There's nothing else (after the fact) you could do and the suicide is purely between the deceased and his little voice in his head.
No point in anger or hoping you could have seen something.
Of my two friends in 3 months, one talked about his depression and suicidal thoughts and sought medical and counselling help (died 24th dec). The other was completely silent that anything was bothering him. ( died oct 15)
A slight revelation for the 24th guy was that we had a good weekly catch up on the 17th. He was in good form and looking back he had too much of a carefree demeanour. This is likely the change of mood the experienced talk about when the deceased resolved to commit suicide and there's a euphoric reaction that all the hurt is about to be over. All the troubles won't have to be dealt with again, everyday.
Looking back Nick had this planned at least a fortnight ago. That change in mood is worth looking out for if you can. But all this stuff is too difficult to spot so the important thing is not to throw a lot of blame around - it just breeds resentment and ill feeling.
I've found you vacillate between " poor poor bugger must have been really hurting inside to have done this" all the way to: "fucken inconsiderate fluffybunny. What a fucking mess you've left for us. Selfish prick". It's basically a choice between the two but overall and over time, the first one is the true representation of the whole thing.
You'll have countless conversations with those left behind from a suicide and You'll ask a million questions trying to get to the root of it all. Really you're trying to wrap it all up in a tidy bow in a bid to understanding the un-understandable and you never are able to wrap it all up tidily. Never.
So always you're left with the following statement as the only finality: "well, he did what he wanted to do. He chose to fix his problems that way and I can only conclude that it all hurt so much more than I could imagine. Some people just don't want to go on"
I'm off to see his mum today. She has had Xmas forever ruined and my message will be clear - "it's not our fault, and he wanted this. No anger just sorrow and reinforcement that a good bloke just couldn't find a way through"
Sorry for the thread hijack, hope my experiences help you in the future. The posts of condolences come from good people. Thank you.
Prepare for more suicides, we've (well some people have) created a very toxic and hope devoid society right now.
Perhaps what this whole saga is really all about:
"We can learn that the game needs to calm down. I wrote in the Wisden Almanack this year that the tone of the game is in need of a serious retuning... Removing the lip, that negative intent, is what we can learn. By all means bowl bouncers with skill and precision, but take out the angst and hate, the sledging and the media barbs, and just go out and express your version of your courage and skill for your team. Show the youth of today the right way to play the game respectfully, hard and fair. The game has turned too lippy, too edgy. Let's chill a bit in general, as a good lesson and reminder, to keep the game authentic."
Martin Crowe, November 29, 2014
@Stargazer said in Bledisloe #1:
Ah, another TSF meltdown. Everyone completely overreacting as usual.
Point of order here young man. If you're not outraged by those fluffybunnies putting 40 plus on us, then you're no use at all to the rank and file of the diehard All Black fan.
It's one thing for an All Black to not score tries.
It's another thing for an All Black to not fucken tackle!
Take your soy and jog on!
This is an humiliating loss.
