Sharks have been named 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Sbu Nkosi, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Louis Schreuder (captain), 8 Daniel du Preez, 7 Tyler Paul, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Hyron Andrews, 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Tendai Mtawarira Reserves: 16 Kerron van Vuuren, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Gideon Koegelenberg, 20 Phepsi Buthelezi, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Jeremy Ward, 23 Curwin Bosch

@KiwiMurph said in Blues vs Crusaders: @rotated I think Faiane stands out as the obvious option from next year onwards if the Patty T/Blake Gibson combo does not work. With SBW and Nonu both likely off he would be favourite to start at 12 and did a terrific job as captain of Auckland. I would be hard pressed to go with Faiane next season, which will be his make or break year in terms of making ABs after the exodus. Tough to saddle him with the captaincy for such an important individual season. Wouldn't surprise me if he captains the Blues at some point shortly after though.

@pakman said in Hurricanes v Blues: @crucial said in Hurricanes v Blues: @snowy said in Hurricanes v Blues: @bones There will have been a shit load more to that. Annoying for you but you got there alive didn't you. There is reason air travel is safe. Yep, it is as annoying as fuck but aircraft repairs are way more complicated than chucking on a replacement part and crossing your fingers. Any fault has to be logged with full tracing of the faulty part in case it is potentially from a faulty batch. Any replacement must also have that same traceability and be checked for potential compatibility issues with other parts on that plane. The level of checking and caution is very high. Admittedly, I believe that like many airlines AirNZ have pulled back on their engineering spend to find a better cost balance although compared to some other large airlines they are still very good. Talk to an airline engineer about what airlines they won't fly on and you will get some surprises. Can't remember who told me this, about 20 years ago, but some engineering fellow said to stick to airlines with 'British' trained engineers. Back then I recall that as including BA, Virgin, ANZ, Qantas, Cathay, Singapore and SAA. Avoid American if possible. Three grades of fault, 1,2 & 3. Grade 1 immediate fix, 2 something like that week. Grade 3 was not vital but needed to be done at some point. Trouble was to save on costs American Airlines only did 3s every six months, as against promptly by 'Brits'. Cumulative impact of many 3s can become as risky as a 2, and in exceptional circumstances a 1. May be out of date by now. I occasionally have this discussion with an ex AirNZ engineer and this is what I picked up BA are awful now, massive interference in engineering by the accountants. Cathy and Singapore have always been very good and maintained high standards The UK/US thing is a bit true but doesn't always hold water. One of the key things is the investment in parts on hand. As I described earlier every nut and bolt on a commercial aircraft is computer logged with identifiers and makes it possible to trace faults, compatibility and batch issues If you need to order a part (as opposed to having it in store) this safety aspect can mean that it takes a little longer. In passenger impact this can mean that an expected small repair becomes a bigger issue when the part you expect to use is not usable on that particular aircraft. So you get those situations where they sit you on the tarmac saying short delay, which then becomes a long delay.

@mimic said in Blues vs. Reds: @pukunui said in Blues vs. Reds: What a cripple fight. Ref'd by a retard. Probably the most consistently bad ref performance i have ever seen. How long until he is fucking up international rugby? Blues are fucked if the Ioanes leave. It might be a good time to strip them of their ABs and create a second division of not so super rugby. AB's coaches have rocks in their heads if they can't see that Akira is the second best 8 in NZ. Duffie looks like he has given up. Maybe he has realised his AB career is toast. Didn't Duffie dedicate this season to Tana or something? It certainly looks like he did. He’s playing as well as Tana’s coaching....

Blues should give it to Schmidt in 2020 if he’s interested.

@act-crusader said in Blues vs Crusaders: @majorrage said in Blues vs Crusaders: Talk about retarded. I'm sorry I smashed you in the face, can I have a lighter sentence now. Apologising was irrelevant to anything in 2005, it still is in 2018. What is relevant is if Franks is a good Christian. Depends on the judiciary's point of view I suppose ... he's either Retarded for believing in a fairy in the sky Retarded for being an infidel Worth of sentence reduction and going into credit. Not the best odds.

@kirwan said in Blues v Hurricanes: Doesn’t have a two game AB break due? I hope so, Tana is grinding him into dust because he’s so reliant on the Ioanes saving his blushes. I'm not sure he does as he's not an AB, only those that played full ABs tests last year are included, I think. Even if they're on the radar. Hard enough to take those guys out of two games, let alone possibles and fringe players.

@nta said in Waratahs v Blues: That was a fucking dud play from Beale when you're 5 metres out, and it doesn't matter how good Folau is in the air: if you don't back your forwards to crack the Blues' defence from that distance, then all of them can go and get fucked. Well, that was unequivocal, unambiguous - quite clear and direct really. Love it! I used get as angry back when the best the Waratahs could offer was the likes of Manny Edmonds, while Chris Malone and Matt Nilan cruised around for Sydney University and the Mighty Eastwood offering master classes in craft and composure, but weren't given a look in. I realised then that the rubbish we saw in those last few minutes this weekend is a feature, not a bug. You can bet the rent money it wasn't under instructions from Daryl Gibson.

@Tim Bumped into a mate at the bottleshop who is the team manager for the Brumbies and he said in the second half when the young guys come on for the Brumbies Runners it changed the game.

Good job we're not operating a no assholes selection policy - or else Blues would be very light at lock. Also think the team is comparatively weak in midfield and at halfback

@nzzp Rieko in particular seems to be struggling, Blues are playing him out of form (and position)

@bovidae said in Blues v Highlanders: @steven-harris Sloane didn't select Mealamu in the 2002 Blues squad so he spent a season at the Chiefs. He made the ABs that year too. It isn't just recent Blues coaches who have made selection mistakes. I don't think that was a mistake. He deserved to be dropped and has basically said that himself. Mealamu has spoken about how he was happy just picking up the salary as a squad member. Getting dropped made him realise that his career was fragile and he took everything more seriously after that moment. The Blues benefited long term from that decision. If they kept picking him it's likely he would have faded away without making an impact on NZ rugby

@kiwimurph there's an add on for Adidas, put a little headgear loop on the shorts so people dont ahve to wear headgear to pressers

@chester-draws said in Chiefs v Blues: @pakman said in Chiefs v Blues: @crucial Fairly old now, but disappointing that he doesn't APPEAR to be providing much leadership either. Possibly his little domestic troubles may have lowered his mana somewhat. I know that is off-field, but I doubt he wanted to put his head up for a long while. Or maybe he overdid it at his 35th birthday celebrations on Thursday?!

@nepia said in Blues v Sharks: @chester-draws said in Blues v Sharks: @kiwimurph said in Blues v Sharks: @chester-draws They lost Gareth Anscombe, apparently not good enough for the high standard the Blues expect (but OK for a championship with the Chiefs). Anscombe doesn't fit your narrative, he was a fullback at the Chiefs and the 10 running the show was closer to Carlos than the examples your giving here. He was a 10 who was only good when he stood flat and took on the line. Standing deep and shovelling it on works in the NH, but not at Super level. Also, he was a bit of a midget from memory. That said, he basically won a game for us in SA, but that was one fo the few times he ran the ball occasionally

Nock definitely has the talent to be a top halfback but he's way off where he should be. I don't think he's been helped by being fast tracked from high school by inept coaches. First year out of school straight away starting for Northland when some Jackass school teacher was coaching us. Probably would've benefited from a year or 2 of club rugby after school and understudy to an experienced halfback at NPC level. No surprise he had his best season so far last year for Northland under a good coach in Derren Witcombe - was finally heading to where he should be.

@tim said in Lions v Blues: Nick Mallett on the game: http://www.sarugbymag.co.za/blog/details/lions-loss-is-worrying Full credit to the Blues. They made 938m against 547 for the Lions. The Lions had to make 177 tackles and 86 for the Blues. The Lions missed 32 tackles against 12 for the Blues. The Blues made 208 passes to 110 for the Lions, so nearly twice as many, and they enjoyed 63% territory as opposed to 37%. Those are really dominant statistics in terms of metres made, forcing the opposition to tackle more and, in the end, it was the better team that won. We were meant to end this game with no legs, but it was the Lions who ended up gassing because of how many tackles they had to make. Although our bench did well, I'm wary of expecting them to repeat that feat, as they were given a pretty favourable situation to come into.

@rotated said in Is Umaga doing a good job?: Deans made no demands and did not recruit his own assistants in 2008 with the Wallabies - famously he solely requested Lam himself as an assistant if he were the AB coach. Both had all the leverage to appoint brighter minds, but didn't see it as important. Many coaches don't when their ego gets in the way. I've always thought that was a bit of bollocks, really. Henry had an obvious advantage in that he could easily say he'd stick with Smith and Hansen. Unless Robbie had sounded out potential assistants - and that wouldn't necessarily be an obvious thing to have done, since he wasn't yet appointed - he wasn't really in a position to say "these are the guys I'm going to conscript".

@number9 said in Blues v Chiefs: Our problems are in our midfield, Moala needs to be replaced you have the #1v Winger in the world and he gets no ball because Moala does not pass. Teams know that all they need to do is rush him because he aint passing the pill. This is where Tana needs to make a big call and replace Moala or move Rieko to the Centres and play Nanai on the Wing, drop Collins to full back have Moala coming off the bench. Your problems are way more than your midfield. If that is all the problem is and it is so bad then the rest of the team did pretty well to overcome it and get within a score of winning. When SBW is back then Moala becomes reserve. Your suggestion may well be the way they go as a stopgap though.