@kiwiinmelb "Nice guns, Sonny".

"Thanks, Jack - I like your hair".

@Siam said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

Wags out. Baby coming.

But don't worry Henry called up

Don't know why Mrs. Wags can't do this on her own - the delivery is bound to be short, or very short!

@mn5 said in All Blacks v Argentina - Nelson:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Argentina - Nelson:

Shit team in a shit location. lucky the Warriors are on

DO NOT diss Nelson you Queensland Bogan fluffybunny.

Ignore him, MN5.

What would a fucker who lives in Cairns know about locations? He's choosing to live in a swamp, inhabited by nasty, poisonous biting creatures - and that's just the people, don't get me started on the wildlife.

In fact, do. Go to the beach - get eaten by a crocodile. Go for a run - get bitten by a snake. Go for a shit - get bitten by a spider. Go anywhere and get bitten by dengue-ridden mosquitos or some other fucking insect largely unknown to science.

Go to the pub and be entertained by Tex Morton and his pet bantam, Stu - singing "Blue Bayou" - a song about living in a swamp.

In summary, he wouldn't know a good location if it bit him on the arse - and in Cairns it probably will!

How have I never seen Pinky the Loving Cat before?

@sparky said in Savea goooone Skudder in:

@Crucial Selling Comics.

Worst Wing Ever!

Well, that was pretty exciting and given that I hate losing far more than I like winning, I'm remarkably sanguine about the result.

I think some of you guys are being pretty harsh on the execution. The Lions defence was extremely good - no weak links - and I think the ABs decided they needed some pieces of magic to score. Maybe a lack of patience at times, but the two tries we scored both had a fair degree of magic to them - especially the second one. Taking pop passes into a close defensive line and getting smashed isn't the best way of retaining the ball - but, it's also a good way of breaking the line. On another night we could have scored four or five tries - we certainly created opportunities - especially in the first half.

I haven't really seen a massive decline in Hansen's coaching - we just came up against a team chock full of talented players and with the depth to match and possibly better the advantage we usually get from the subs bench - particularly once we lost a few players.

On the final penalty, I guess Poite will give a Gallic shrug and say something like "Il n’est pas la bonne décision, mais c’est la belle décision."

Which means, "It is not the right decision, but it is the beautiful decision." At least that's what I typed into Babelfish to get that result!

Right now, the Crusaders have won the same number of games as the Australian teams combined.

@mariner4life

Firstly, good effort Wallabies. Turns out last week's first half effort was more of a fluke than the second half.

I was wondering about that - but, we were at home this week and struggled to win.

Secondly - fail on behalf of the AB coaches not to identify that. We spent quite a lot of this game playing like the result was a foregone conclusion and buried ourselves in a ditch for a while by not playing proper test rugby.

Thirdly - Man of the match - Nepo Laulala. If our scrum had been less dominant in that game, we would have been well beaten. Coles and Moody can take residual credit. No more of this Ofa bullshit, Hansen!!!

Fourthly - second man of the match, Rieko Ioane. Looked like an AB back out there, when several others didn't.

Fifthly - show some class Chieka. It's not fucking soccer!!!

@Billy-Webb said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

@Crazy-Horse said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

@Billy-Webb said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

@cgrant said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

If the ABs lose this game, it shouldtn't be a disaster as the Boks would then face England in the semi final.

@Billy-Tell said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

But we would have to face the number 1 side in the world in the quarter final !!!

It's a squeaky tight RWC this time around.
I don't think either the Bok or AB camp see an easier side of the draw developing.
So while each team would desperately want to win the opening pool encounter, I don't think either will be devastated by a loss.

The NZ public and media will go into meltdown if the ABs lose. The Fern will implode...

Let me be so presumptuous as to speak on behalf of New Zealanders and the Fern: Nah, I think you're wrong.

There won't be dancing in the streets, but there won't be wailing and gnashing of teeth either.

Hmmm, I think there will be a bit of wailing and gnashing.

Look at what happened after the loss to Oz.

Hansen's innumerable selection errors will be highlighted.

Whoever played on the wing will be culpable. The midfield selections will be wrong - and the lack of combination developed an appalling oversight. The two pivots theory a disaster - need out best first five playing first five and our best fullback playing fullback. Playing two opensides will be ridiculous. Either Barrett or Tuipolotou should have started, but both of them are sacks of shit and we are fucked without Brodie. Crazy leaving Owen Franks at home and Joe Moody cannot catch a cold. Taylor should have started with Coles on the bench (or vice-versa). Read is too old. Crotty and SBW too injury prone. About 12 of the squad are known mental defectives and most of the others have tits for hands.

What's happened to Rueben O'Neill? He went in that big squad to Japan.

@mariner4life said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:

@Chris-B said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:

@Snowy said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:

I'd still have the midfield swapped around but it went O.K. last week and they seem to be flexible about it on the field i.e the numbers don't matter too much.

Fozzie obviously has a plan though - it's not a trivial move to swap these guys around.

So does Jack offer a bit more size to run hard at the line - i.e. for Aaron Smith's try on Sunday? Or does ALB (and Rieko) offer a bit more speed at centre?

Or is it more defensive?

A and B i reckon. JG fair smacked in to the line a few times on the weekend, and created quick recycle. He's also solid defensively

And with Beaudy and Jordie in the team it doesn't matter that he's an inside centre rather than a second five (providing kicking and playmaking options).

@Snowy I'd say zero chance that these two don't start together if everyone is available.

Slightly more chance that they swap numbers!

@Snowy said in Bledisloe Three: Sydney, 31 October:

I'd still have the midfield swapped around but it went O.K. last week and they seem to be flexible about it on the field i.e the numbers don't matter too much.

Fozzie obviously has a plan though - it's not a trivial move to swap these guys around.

So does Jack offer a bit more size to run hard at the line - i.e. for Aaron Smith's try on Sunday? Or does ALB (and Rieko) offer a bit more speed at centre?

Or is it more defensive?

@Kirwan Maybe - but, I really like him as a tall blindside rather than a smallish lock.

He could be our answer to Pieter-Steph du Toit.

@reprobate said in The Cane vs Savea Debate:

Sotutu has been the best 8 in NZ all year, and he's just a kid. Pick him.
Savea is a really good player, but quite an unusual one. A smallish guy pumping the legs and never giving up is awesome, but it isn't going to get you much traction in the early stages of a tight test with an organised defence, and we've seen that a few times now. You need a little momentum, or a little gap, or a tired defender who thinks you're already tackled to get the benefit of that - and that benefit is only going to increase when he is fresh against tiring defenders - which is part of why he's a great bench option. Same goes for his tackling. Certainly skilled enough to cover all 3 spots, and a great asset to the team.
I'd be picking a big guy - Frizz deserves his spot, and Ioane is an option too - and subbing them for Savea once they're poked.

Plenty of time for Sotutu, I think.

We've got a couple of games against Argentina and - if we can beat the Aussies next time - we'll have a Bled dead-rubber game against them as well - I think those are the games we'll see people like Hoskins starting and a mix including Will Jordan, Akira, Aumua, Lomax, Papali'i and Grace (though not all at once).

Interesting times ahead.

Seems like we've got quite a queue in the loose forwards awaiting a shot - which might mean we have to wait till next year now to see Big Red Robinson get his chance. That's a pity, because he might be the best of all of them.

@MN5 I see Wisden also has made up a historic list of the Leading Player in the World for each year since 1900.

Only Sir Paddles and Little Kane make it.

Edit: No - Marty Crowe does too!

@MN5 I guess one quite timeless measure of doing well on the World Stage is to be selected as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the year.

Donnelly, Dempster, Sutcliffe and Reid all achieved this.

Some of our more recent guys being considered for our NZ XI haven't.

You'll be pleased to know that Cairnsie did, though!

The Giro grinds on - a time trial in which Almeida extended his lead slightly over Wilco Kelderman and a bit more signficantly over most of the other contenders (picking up a minute on people like Nibali, Pozzovivo, Majka).

And last night - a mountain stage where Kelderman clawed back almost all of Almeida's advantage. Covid permitting, it looks like Kelderman's to lose to me.

Almeida is still in the jersey, but WK is just 15 seconds back. Australia's Jai Hindley is up to 3rd, but 2.56 behind - with Geoghegan-Hart, Bilbao, Majka, Nibali and Pozzovivo all within a minute of third place.

Since I'm doubtful that Almeida will manage to hang on with three mountain stages to come, it will only take Kelderman to have a bad day and any of these guys and a few others, could still grab victory.

But, it's all a bit supporting cast....

Meanwhile Van der Poel and Van Aaert went Head to Head in the Tour of Flanders - with VdP a bit surprisingly getting the better of Van Aert in a sprint. Julian Alaphilippe was contending with these two, but hit a motorbike, flipped and has broken his arm/wrist/hand (?) something like that.

The Vuelta starts in the next couple of days and Jumbo Visma are rolling out most of their TdF team - Roglic and Dumoulin as leaders, Sepp Kuss, George and Robert Gesink - along with Paul Martens, Lennard Hofstede and Jonas Vingegard. They look easily the strongest team, presumably making Roglic the favourite - depending on how he bounces back from the Tour.

Ineos has Froome and Carapaz. Movistar has Valverde, Mas and Soler.

WtW's Flying Mullet is riding for DQS and Dion Smith for Michelton-Scott.

@dogmeat said in NZ cricket 2020:

@Victor-Meldrew said in R.I.P. 2020:

Its's a measure of how good our current team has been that while a few years ago I would have been putting in real oldies based on what I've read (Dempster, Donnelly, Cowie ) now I think eight players pick themselves then there's a bit of debate about an opener, wicketkeeper and whether to go for another all-rounder or specialist bowler.

That's really a problem with picking All-time teams - Sutcliffe, Dempster, Donnelly, Reid, Cowie - who can really say these days whether they make the team.

I'd probably pick all of them if the first test was to be played on uncovered wickets, with no helmets, bamboo pads, and no limits on the numbers of fielders allowed backward of square!