The Silver Fern

@sparky said in Nations Championship:

Something had to give after France brought a severely weakened team to New Zealand for three tests earlier this year. And the idea of the finals weekend at Twickenham next year is an exciting one.

But this tournament might create problems. I can't imagine that the NH teams are going to be wild about doing so much flying in July. Scotland, for example, are going from South Africa to Argentina to Fiji on consecutive weekends.

I can see NH team splitting their squads up to limit the fatigue factor. Or might some games be played in neutral venues to reduce travel?

Aren’t Fiji basing themselves in South Africa?

@KiwiMurph said in Blues vs Waratahs 2025:

@Jet said in Blues vs Waratahs 2025:

No sleight of hand. No swerve, no nous. He didnt construct any of them himself.

Did you actually watch the full tries or simply the final outcome?

The first try came from a huge break which was the result of a perfectly timed pass by Rieko in midfield to put Beauden in space.

Yeah haha he started and finished off the play.

@Grooter said in Auckland Rugby 2025:

@nonpartizan yeah Lam looks out of sorts. you expect your experienced players to lead the way however I do think back to what Shaun Stevenson opened up to media about, If you get in around the national set up (AJ was last November) and following that you don't know where you actually stand in pecking order it can play on a guys mind

I can see what you are saying. Ambiguity is not good for a players confidence. I definitely hope that he's going to be involved in the NZ XV matches in England later this year, at the least.

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks 2025:

@junior said in All Blacks 2025:

@Kiwiwomble said in All Blacks 2025:

is our set piece particularly bad?....i think almost everything could do with improvement but didn;t think set piece had stood out, especially since holland came in

Lineout generally good and can be a genuine threat - although that threat seems too often to be inconsistent within games (see England a couple of weeks ago where we picked off copious England ball in the first half but barely bothered to put up a contest in the second half). Scrum, generally good but not at all a threat to opposition ball and prone to late capitulations in big matches (see Boks at Eden Park and England a couple of weeks ago).

In short, definitely room to improve the set pieces and, given the tight 5 stocks at the moment, we should really be aiming to turn the set piece into a genuine weapon rather than simply a re-start.

From your post it sounds like we have the players but not the strategy (or perhaps the brains).

We definitely don't have the strategy - which is probably good indicator that we don't have the brains either. As for the players, I think we have raw material that is not being properly harnessed (as to which, see the previous points about strategy and brains).

@reprobate said in "LIV Rugby"?:

@booboo said in "LIV Rugby"?:

@taniwharugby said in "LIV Rugby"?:

@sparky not to mention who's gonna buy the kit?

Or watch the games?

and @sparky if they made a few rule changes that I thought could improve the game... that's about the only thing which would mean I'd watch a few games.
I actually think that is the existing game's biggest weakness to a competitor - the constant box kicking, the rules, the impossibility of error-free reffing, the cards and TMO bullshit. If it's better, more entertaining, running rugby - but retains the 'for all shapes' aspect and needing a few brain cells to play (i.e. not league), then things might start to get interesting.

You just described Tindall

@NTA said in England vs. Australia (2024):

I’ve never seen anyone shadow off loading before

😂😂😂

@DaGrubster There's a lot of guys in that side that do play for Moana Pasifika and others that played a bit at NPC level, but they weren't even regulars down at NPC level and a fair few of those Moana players aren't regulars for them either. So there are a fair few familiar faces to NZ viewers, but yeah, a lot if them ain't test level. It's a fairly weak Samoan line up, so this result is huge, and as for the heat factor, Italy were the ones camped on the Samoan try line for a lot of the 2nd half, and a lot of these Samoan players play in NZ anyway, unlike the Drua who are a proper Fiji based side made out of locals mostly.

I must say, Samoa's results against 6 nations opposition in the last 9 months or so has shown massive improvement. They could easily have won against Ireland and England and competed well against Argentina at the world cup as well to go with a big upset against Italy today.

It shows the benefits of having Moana Pasifika playing in a professional comp.

@MajorRage said in Euro 2024:

@Bovidae said in Euro 2024:

I think part of the hype is related to the English fans, especially, and media putting the EPL on such a pedestal. This means that the abilities of the English players are often inflated relative to players from other leagues/nationalities. How many would have heard of Fabián Ruiz or Mikel Oyarzabal before the Euros?

What? The EPL on a pedestal? The most watched annual league of the biggest sport, by a mile, on the planet?

I’m not sure of your on this thread to wind up or just generally have no clue.

I work with and socialize with season ticket holders to Arsenal, spurs, Chelsea, United, palace and qpr. None of them rave about the English players, and all of them you could name a top league player anywhere snd they’ll know.

The hype, the mania, is a country getting behind a team. And it’s fantastic. I know not one person who thought it was coming home. There was hope, yes, but deep down not much confidence.

But anything can, and will, happen in football. So all jump on the bandwagon. And it’s a fucking fun
One to be on. Lots of hope without fear and expectation.

MajorPom has entered the chat for 2024...

@ploughboy Haha, was just reading up on it, there's some angry people out there towards what he's done to them. I completely missed it at the time.

He's like the former All Whites soccer goalkeeper Michael Utting.

I assume he did the same shit to the poor naive Ashburton folk?

Looks like Akira is not playing, with Segner at 8

@Bovidae ideally as the tech irons out wrinkles they need them to be cheap enough that club players can afford them, and maybe each club has their players linked so they can monitor them as well, given they wont be able to do in game analysis, at least they can look post game and set some protocols around this.

@Tim said in Super Rugby Predictions - 2024:

Chiefs to beat Blues in the final (tight five depth is a big issue for Blues). Crusaders 9 and 10 not good enough, despite a great tight five. Havili to spend some time at 10.

Closest to the pin, I think. You got the finalists right before competition but the result the wrong round.

Cotter's done a great job developing the Blues Tight five this season.

@Windows97 Corey Evans

@Machpants said in Auckland stadiums - Eden Park, Western Springs etc:

@Duluth said in Auckland stadiums - Eden Park, Western Springs etc:

I see Eden Park released a video about the 3 stages. After a minute of fluff there is some details on distances in the different configurations

Looks good. Soooooooooooooo, where's the money coming from?

https://media1.tenor.com/m/Rp7cT2IGAbUAAAAC/money-tree.gif

As ever with stadium builds and procrastination.

People moan about the money but if you dont do it at the time and kick thw can down the road, it only becomes more and more expensive

@Bovidae not entirely sure but he was wanted by Ta$man

Auckland FC had some big salary cap advantages this year as a new team which they won't have next year.

From the Rugby Awards:

All Blacks Player of the Year
Wallace Sititi

Tom French Memorial Māori Player of the Year
Tyrel Lomax