@chester-draws said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@booboo said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@chester-draws said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@akan004 cherry pick to make the sky fall?

how about looking at it like this. in 21 tests we are 17-1-3. In 13 of those tests we have hosed them.

We lost a game where we had 14 blokes for 3/4s of the game
We lost a dead rubber Bledisloe away.
We lost one of the best tests in years.

You know, now i think about it, we are 0-3 where we have scored less points than the opposition. That's not what you expect from a team with this much talent.

Try looking at it this way. We never, ever lose big. if it's a loss, it's by a bee's dick. We are balls deep in every game we play. That's a pretty sweet position to be in.

What you say is true, except the implication that somehow winning big a lot is good.

Say what? It's bad? Since when?

Winning isn't bad. Just that winning big isn't necessarily better than winning small.

Our recent massive victories over the Boks was not good preparation for the last game.

We have a game plan that I think tends to magnify our strengths and our weaknesses. When we play well we win by lots. But we equally come unstuck when it doesn't work.

I'd prefer a game plan that moved away from this emphasis on counter-attack, and assuming we wear our opposition down. I'd like to see us able to work on penetrating solid defences.

Because when we hit the 2019 RWC you can bet no-one, crazy Australians aside, will attempt to beat us playing open rugby.

But history has shown us that teams step up at the World Cup and a well organised, determined defence can be really hard to break down without taking a few risks. The All Blacks showed they could score 6 tries against such a defence without the defence every really crumbling.

Hansen's message to J Barrett and A Smith (for it was they who took the bad decisions that led to tries) is not don't take quick throw-ins or don't take tap penalties . It will be don't take quick throw-ins from a kick that left the whole Bok defensive line in your face and don't take tap penalties when there is no huge gap to exploit. The whole mantra of the ABs since Henry took over is to make decisions based on what you see - the mantra is not "put away the razzle-dazzle until you're desperate". There will be mistakes playing like that but by forcing the opposition defence to make tough decisions under pressure eventually the gap will appear and the tries will come.

One of the reasons the ABs never got much continuity (and zero tries) was the ridiculous number of infringements by the Lions. It felt like every time the ABs had possession in the Lions half, then there would be a penalty. And a man down and in those conditions, you have to take your penalties. And they were all kickable yet BB missed a couple of sitters. 10 kickable penalties in all - when you see a number like that, you wonder how the Lions were never on a team warning for repeated offences - especially as the offside line seemed to disappear completely at times.

Just got home from the game after not being online. Interesting to read the thread start to finish and just so many premature calls made ....

Looks like NZ are half an excellent side and half a poor one. It's basically Tauranga keeping things together. What a maestro Kane is as usual walking to the wicket after just one ball.

Great atmosphere at the game. English fans supporting the Windies and NZ fans mostly in their early 20s and mostly pissed.

I've enjoyed this thread as a small place of sanity where rational rugby fans gather to discuss the game. Please stop any references to wars and cowardice etc as we really don't need it here.

So far I haven't seen any complaints by Joe Schmidt about the game - that is good for Ireland. He's a canny chap, he'll be learning the lessons and planning for the next time.

If Kane's stats were to exactly match those of the last 4 years (looking back from today) - in 8 years time he would be 34 and have

137 tests
45 hundreds
61 fifties
12742 runs
57.92 average

What T20 has done is produce a current generation of batsmen who have very poor defensive technique. Even some of players who appear to have good/respectable records in test cricket. They plant their feet, have a good eye and hit through the line. If the ball comes on and is not deviating, they marmalise it. They can, and have, scored big in test cricket but also get a lot of low scores when conditions are tricky.

Which is why England's dangerous middle to lower order appear to be a strength in test cricket when it is Bairstow, Stokes, Moeen etc but all of them don't really have the technique to survive the moving ball - hence why there collapses. Same with Australia, Mitchell Marsh is a flat track bully.

It really stands out when you watch the likes of Root, Smith, Kane and Kohli. While Smith is unorthodox, he does know how to stay in for long periods.

Rant over.

Do old viewers remember Lee Grant on here and his spouting about a young kid called Beale who was going to be a great and single-handedly save Australian rugby? I think he's finally arrived, hell of a game he played last night.

From what I have seen of Kane he is very much in form - but India have been very good at frustrating him with a nagging line and length and he has uncharacteristically thrown his wicket away 3 times. It doesn't help when the openers are out so early as he knows they need 300 to compete and with Taylor being a slow starter, one of them has to force it a little.

Now if the Indians would just pitch a couple short outside off, a couple on the pads and throw in some half volleys then things would be very different. They could learn a lot from watching NZ bowling ....

Can anyone show me an example of a classy boozy team celebration?

@machpants said in NZ vs. Aust - Japanese yawn edition:

You see mad eye hooper bursting a gut to limit beaudy getting towards the goal posts, the winger just leave him to it. He maybe a knob but he puts in a hundred every time

After he has retired, that will be my abiding memory of him. Sprinting to chase a back he has no hope of catching but never giving up.

@Donsteppa I spotted you walking around the running track at one point. We had a crisis of fries not arriving at the pub and missed the first few minutes.

Seemed to be one of those golden days where the bounce of the ball seemed to favour us and the Cantabs were never far from a mistake. But we deserved the win for a very efficient performance and I'm starting to like the Black/Trask combo with some excellent positional kicking and Trask looks dangerous these past couple of weeks with space to run. Very, very enjoyable day

Get your tips in everyone, just a few hours before the first game.

https://www.thesilverfern.com/tipping/

Here's one of my favourite football stats.

The season when the champions of Sweden were the lowest scorers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Allsvenskan

@Hooroo said in EPL 2020/2021:

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2020/2021:

@Hooroo said in EPL 2020/2021:

I wonder what is the worst start to the Championship? I see Wycombe have had six starts for six losses and have score one goal

Wycombe are a real lower league club that sneaked into the championship with the abrupt ending to last season and they don't have any money to strengthen.

I can't seem to find any stats on starts to a season outside the premier league but the record for most consecutive defeats is 18 in the late 1890s by Darwen (my grandparents lived in Darwen) and most without a win is 38 by Derby County - good targets for Wycombe.

I did that post knowing that you would be the one to come in with the best knowledge/research for which I am grateful! Cheers

You know me so well! Strangely Wycombe have lost every game but aren't bottom of the table.

The not winning run for Derby is relatively recently - imagine supporting a team home and away and not seeing a single league victory for a whole year. (Northland and Southland fans can relate)

@Hooroo said in EPL 2020/2021:

I wonder what is the worst start to the Championship? I see Wycombe have had six starts for six losses and have score one goal

Wycombe are a real lower league club that sneaked into the championship with the abrupt ending to last season and they don't have any money to strengthen.

I can't seem to find any stats on starts to a season outside the premier league but the record for most consecutive defeats is 18 in the late 1890s by Darwen (my grandparents lived in Darwen) and most without a win is 38 by Derby County - good targets for Wycombe.

I think much of the John Reid legend was built in the 61-62 series in South Africa when NZ won their 1st and 2nd tests overseas. He scored over 500 runs at 60, 11 wickets at 20 and was the captain as well. He also broke the record for most runs scored on a tour of South Africa with almost 2000.

That's all from memory of course .... mostly!

@MN5 said in NZ cricket 2020:

@dogmeat said in NZ cricket 2020:

@MN5 Bond - Shane Bond.

Turner

Then the Reid / Cairns / A.N. Other scenario

Also that (really) fat guy that does the rugby sideline has to be in the wk conversation

Hmmmm I’d rule out Smithy purely for his vastly inferior batting stats.

I’d pick Bond but then again he has the brief career issue.....Boult has done his stuff for longer, but not as well overall.

Amazingly both Bond and Boult have 8 year test cricket careers.

@Chris-B said in Bledisloe Two: Auckland, October 18:

@DMX said in Bledisloe Two: Auckland, October 18:

I do have to wonder what Jordie is adding on the wing, didn’t see much chasing and a couple of times we seemed to be craving pace on his wing.

Couldn't help but think - when we kicked ahead into the in goal and Jordie was beaten in the chase - Will Jordan missed out on his first test try!

Think Will (and a couple of others) will be waiting for a game vs Argentina.

Both Jordie and Koroibete seemed to be wading through treacle chasing that ball.

Overall, that was a great game of rugby with harem-scarem passing, a referee who let most infringements go and both teams really going for it. A 20 point deficit was harsh on the Wallabies as the game slipped away from them fast. The wind that helped their kicking in Wellington wasn't there to make it a lottery and made too many of their kicks aimless - including the awful one by JOC that deserved to be punished and effectively ended the game coming so soon in the second half.

Results are all in https://www.thesilverfern.com/tipping/

@Hooroo and @Crucial have joined the ranks of the absentee tippers which is bad news for Counties-Waikato who were already propping up the table.

Top score this week for Tim who had the highest score of the season (57) so far and rose 11 places to 3rd overall. Stargazer had 54 to retain the lead by 6 from Dice who scored 51. Nobody scored 7/7 but Fiamacho managed 6/7 despite missing the first game, one of only 4 to pick the Waikato victory. Phooey nailed the season's lowest score, missing the first game and picking 0/6 of the remainder for a miserable 4 points.

Northland had another draw to remain unbeaten but lose their overall lead to Harbour-Auckland who pipped Wairarapa Bush 47-45 in the game of the weekend. Hawke's Bay are up to 3rd with BOP holding the other play-off spot. South Island can still make the top 4 but Wellington and the Bush will need other results to go their way.

In the TSF Cup, Higgins will play Caprice in one semi-final and Kruse will play Langakali in the other.

This game shows the level we're at this season. Would be competing for the 2nd div title but not quite good enough for Div 1 especially with so many out injured. Black played well today and showed his class as did Trask. But still way too much sloppy play.