Dmac , despite his haters , starting to look the goods as an impact weapon

funny interview with Mrs Ioane today with Veitch ,

She met a lions supporter who was sleeping in his van outside ponsonby rugby club ,

Took him home for a feed , made him a bed on a matress on the lounge room floor , told him to make himself at home ,

Sons come home an hour later ( both still live at home and share the same bedroom since they were kids ) introduces her sons Reiko and Akira

Guy had no idea , could not believe it

@Machpants it’s funny listening to the nh analysis,

Listening to Stuart Barnes before the game , Barrett should be playing 10 but they can’t trust his goal kicking, so mounga has been brought into the side. That is a weakness.

They have no idea.

This thread is starting to resemble the good old days around AB selection time ,

All we need is Toeava to make himself available .

Blues are definitely better ,

Listening to them trying to put the daggers into tana today on radio sport was unfair I thought ,

I can see progress even if it isn't reflected in the wins .

After we lost to Australia in 03 ,

Ted and co when taking over , put lots of emphasis back into our forwards , Making them dominant Again,

It’s like we have done the full cycle, and it needs to happen again

@mrdenmore said in All Blacks v France Test #2:

I’m sure there’s a valid reason for the red card, but we know that all it will do is feed the prevailing northern hemisphere media narrative, including its proxies in NZ like Mark Reason, of a conspiracy to nobble the All Blacks’ opposition.

You can never win against those people.

Nh are going to whinge about us no matter what happens providing we are winning ,

Fuck them .

Any other rugby supporters around the world would look at this and say , those kiwis are fucked ,

Cant believe they are complaining about beuadan Barrett

@Nepia said in Blues v Hurricanes:

Canes fans will remember the days of Gopperth v Carter (or Mehrts). That's what it was like for the Blues tonight.

An awesome 10 can make a hell of a lot difference to a team and BB was the man tonight.

I think the Blues are a decent team. They're just the worst of the NZ teams at the moment, in the past the Highlanders and Chiefs held that title for a long time and they've both turned it around to become regular finalists.

I think this blues team is possibly the best worst team we have had

A break dancing all black coach is the stuff dreams are made of ,

Just do what it takes, give him the job

@raznomore said in NRL 2020:

@Nepia said in NRL 2020:

It's always confused me as to why the bro culture in league doesn't really happen in rugby.

I can only speak for my own experiences within the league culture in Wellington through the 90s and early 2000s. But when I played league I played with a lot of social misfits. Not saying that there aren't any types of people like these in Union but I played on one team where most of the forward pack had done time. Lots of gang members etc. I played aged grade reps from 13-19yo. There were a few guys that switched to union and got higher honours, NPC, Super Rugby and Island nation test rugby. But not a whole lot of guys progressed to anything other than Wellington Orcas who stayed in league. The Canterbury and Auckland league scenes are very different again. But from my own experience League was a little counter-culture and always about being less stuffy than union.

I go back further , 70s

grew up playing in league clubs in Auckland ,(Manurewa then pakuranga ) , most of my early rugby was playing for my school teams , then played a bit of club rugby in my teens ( pakuranga )

At one point I played rugby for my school on a Sat morning , then played league in the afternoon under a fake name ( playing league was a crime then in rugby circles , for example if you got caught you were banned for life at senior level )

The two cultures were very different , and i know what you mean about the misfits Without meaning to stereotype, Rugby clubs had more of a private school feel , league clubs had more of a south auckland public school feel ,

Franz Botha ,

Is he that guy that won an IBf title then had it stripped for testing positive to steroids ?

Game every night is good but weird at the same time

@Nepia said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@kiwiinmelb said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@akan004 said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

Well I reckon Ozzies would, sat this moment in time, be fuck loads better then most Nations. They've actually played some rugby, recently

I think the wobs are going to be a very good team in a couple of years. They have a lot of young talented players that Rennie will mould into quality Test players in time.

You may be right , but I remember those words being spoken about Deans

Difference being that Rennie has had to build teams up from nearly every level he's coached, whereas Deans Deans inherited a Ferrari and kept it going fast (not sure why I chose a car metaphor, I don't know anything about them).

Fair enough , out of interest ,

What Car has Rennie inherited ?

@akan004 said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

Well I reckon Ozzies would, sat this moment in time, be fuck loads better then most Nations. They've actually played some rugby, recently

I think the wobs are going to be a very good team in a couple of years. They have a lot of young talented players that Rennie will mould into quality Test players in time.

You may be right , but I remember those words being spoken about Deans

@mariner4life said in AFL 2020:

@kiwiinmelb said in AFL 2020:

@mariner4life said in AFL 2020:

@ACT-Crusader said in AFL 2020:

It’s rare to see two teams have the same scoring shots and one team loses by 40 points!

You can see the foundation is there for the Lions but will need some changes at half forward to capitalise on that transition of very good halfback and midfield play into more consistent forward play and scoreboard pressure.

Tigers looked very good though. Jack looked as comfortable as ever tonight and it’s been hard going for him since the return.

I would keep Cameron, and probably Rayner. Everyone else is on the trade table. Hipwood is no better now than his first year

Tigers were bloody good. Some of the surges by their young quick midfielders were a joy to watch.

I don’t think Brisbane need to panic , experience comes the more you play ,

Most of Richmond’s premiership players were part of a team people made jokes about because they couldn’t win a final .

I think what has been overlooked with last night , Richmond Disrupted their preferred avenue of attack, took away their centre corridor Play and forced them to go wide , and I think that contributed to knocking the stuffing out of their collective confidence

absolutely did. But we still managed a fuck ton of inside 50s. What it did show was without our favourite avenue to goal, we struggle to turn opportunities in to points. Charlie Dixon in our forward line might have reversed the result

Richmond were able to play without fear because, the first 5 minutes aside, they were never under scoreboard pressure.

However please do not take this as trying to diminish t that performance from the Tigers. Lynch did something that doesn't happen often, and worked Harris Andrews over in the first half. Those young, quick mids turned the clearances they did win into scoring opportunities in a flash. Their pressure game was there, and they got good run and carry. I was very impressed, and some of those returning players might be lucky to push the kids out.

what Richmond have set up with their two sides is pretty clever , 2 premiership teams playing under exactly identical game plans , so while they may have 6 or 7 out , it probably hurts them less than most sides

new player comes in , knows the system and slots in effortlessly, I guess fairly similar to the Allblacks in the era Pre 2011 .

@mariner4life said in AFL 2020:

@ACT-Crusader said in AFL 2020:

It’s rare to see two teams have the same scoring shots and one team loses by 40 points!

You can see the foundation is there for the Lions but will need some changes at half forward to capitalise on that transition of very good halfback and midfield play into more consistent forward play and scoreboard pressure.

Tigers looked very good though. Jack looked as comfortable as ever tonight and it’s been hard going for him since the return.

I would keep Cameron, and probably Rayner. Everyone else is on the trade table. Hipwood is no better now than his first year

Tigers were bloody good. Some of the surges by their young quick midfielders were a joy to watch.

I don’t think Brisbane need to panic , experience comes the more you play ,

Most of Richmond’s premiership players were part of a team people made jokes about because they couldn’t win a final .

I think what has been overlooked with last night , Richmond Disrupted their preferred avenue of attack, took away their centre corridor Play and forced them to go wide , and I think that contributed to knocking the stuffing out of their collective confidence

Was a very similar scenario to last years quarterfinal ,

Richmond more efficient, Brisbane left rueing their chances

I think the positives that Akira brings , that raw physicality ,winning collisions , hitting bodies and driving them back ,

Is more valuable at test level than SR level , and something we have lacked

Love to see him get a gig against South Africa to see how he goes

@mariner4life said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

J Barrett has improved massively on last year, and absolutely should be in the frame. Does he have the wheels to play wing?

Clark and 2 Barrets back 3
Reiko at centre, with laumape
Mounga at 10

Rock star backline.

I think Jordie moves quicker than it looks ,

Legs dont pump that quick but has a long stride , its deceptive