The Silver Fern

@Smuts No hands allowed at the tackle or in the ruck at all. Easy. Next.

Tackler to immediately release the tackled player (tackle completion) and tackled player to immediately place the ball when they hit the floor (no popping it off the deck). Then let the battle commence when those players who are standing get to the breakdown. First one to flop gets pinged. Teams will have to commit numbers to the breakdown to secure the ball or turn it over. Fanning defence will be a thing of the past, as will jackalers.

@sparky Lakai all but started in 2024 against France, coming on in the 1st minute.

@Bovidae scrum was a gimme penalty for the Boks for most of the game. You can’t win if you can’t maintain pressure and force your opponent to crack.

When NZ did apply sustained pressure the Boks defence was out of this world (that defensive set in the 1st half was huge), but they looked human. They just didn’t do it enough to tire the Boks out.

Pead will be a Springbok in the next 2 years.

@mariner4life French were v strong, but that power and strength bit them the longer the game went on.

As they tired they made mistakes and invited more pressure. Angus deserves a mention for allowing the game to be played at a faster pace. Other refs allow the slowing down of the game which plays into the hands of those teams that pick powerful, but not athletic players.

@mariner4life until Jordie made his cameo

@Bovidae from a couple of articles I’ve read, Bok u20 head coach Kevin Foote said that they had talked quite a bit with Rassie and his team, especially Jerry Flannery who is the Boks defence coach.

“ We’ve had lots of input from the [Boks] defensive coach [Jerry Flannery] and their medical team and have been very well supported, which we are grateful for.”

I believe Galthie has been working similarly with the French u20s over the last few years.

How much interaction does the NZ u20 coaching team have with the All Blacks coaches I wonder? Is NZ rugby missing a trick again?

Well done to the Baby Boks. Deserved winners on the day and Pead the outstanding player of the tournament.

They had to work hard for their win.

Commiserations to the Baby Blacks. They built through the tournament, but came up against a quality outfit in the final.

That’s now 7 wins straight for the Baby Boks over the Baby Blacks in the junior World Cup. Bogey team.

@Bones only way is up then

@MiketheSnow Absolutely Mike. Glad it is back. All is right with the world again!

On the flip side, there was no chance for trolling South Africans to get their gloat in over the u20s WC final win. Maybe the admins foresaw it

Still down to 13 players?

@booboo sanction at a kick off is a scrum to the opposition. Rassie will have done his homework.

It isn’t a penalty or a FK. Look how fast the SA props arrived for the scrum. They knew.

@booboo welcome to professionalism.

Rassie is innovative and seeks any advantage within the laws. It isn’t what I call within the spirit of the game. But that is a throwback to the amateur era.

Winning is all that counts now. Any which way.

@Bones best have a wash too

@Victor-Meldrew why? ABs were doing it 20 years ago with Henry, Smith and Hansen with their rest and rotation strategy. This isn’t new. NZ just haven’t been as good at exposing enough up and coming talent to test match rugby because the team has been struggling and winning has been the focus.

@Victor-Meldrew maybe. But the Boks have 11 reasonably experienced players playing alongside the rookies. And none of the rookies are playing in combos with other rookies.

Whereas the French forward pack today was green and got dealt to (as they should) until the experience rolled off the bench.

@Victor-Meldrew they have a clear way of playing. It helps. Quite a lot of change coming in the next 2-3 years as their squad changes.

They have an insane amount of talent, but SA always has. Rassie is adept at selecting the right players for how he wants to play. They still bleed when you cut them though

@Victor-Meldrew Hardly the Italian A team. Development tour

Ferrari, Lamaro, Capuozzo, Luchessi, Brex, Relo, Allan and Ruzza missing. Lots of new guys getting a look in.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/s/cBbJiggLef

@kiwiinmelb now you do it in the first half to get the job done

@sparky 14-14

@Kirwan AI will have the same disruptive impact on human's cognitive abilities as is now being seen by the evidence of 15 years of social media use. You can mitigate this by promoting greater critical thinking skills, but many teachers don't know what that is anymore.

This isn't a surprise considering the true objective of AI (if you actually listen to the technocrats in Silicon Valley) is to replace human thinking. It is currently being sold as augmentation, but the Greeks built the Trojans a wooden horse and pretended it was a parting gift

I say all the above as someone who is the doing the Devil's work and working very closely with AI and Agentic AI. The genie is out of the bottle and it ain't going back in. See it for what it is and plan accordingly. UBI beckons.