Everything is live in the usual place.

Wellington with the narrow win over Northland to stay at the top, Wairarapa Bush beat the winless Harbour-Auckland to stay 2nd and Hawke's Bay thrash 4 man BOP to stay 3rd - these 3 are all assured of a semi-final place. South Island, Northland and Counties-Waikato can all take the final place.

Canes4life picked 7 from 7 but was only 7th best for the weekend with only 1 margin and no category pick. Number 10 was the best with 57 but is still only 16th overall. Winger leads again but the top 5 are separated by only 6 points so all to play for.

Justin77 and Higgins will play the TSF Cup final over the next 2 weekends.

The only absentee this week is @trooa which explains BOP's appalling total. Canes4life is the only one to pick 5/5 so far but Stargazer leads for the week with 4 margins from 4 picks. The overall TSF individual title race is very tight with only 6 points separating the top 6.

Donsteppa and Justin77 have identical picks so far so their Cup replay is ongoing. They differ on the Tasman margin of victory so 17+ wins it for Donsteppa, any other result and it is J77 going through.

Counties-Waikato 28 - 27 South Island
BOP 22 - 34 Hawke's Bay
Wairarapa Bush 31 - 28 Harbour-Auckland
Wellington 28 - 26 Northland

Donsteppa or Justin77 29 v 17 Waynes World
Higgins 37 v 26 Propsicle

Stargazer 40
Higgins 37
Number 10 37
Plastered Peni 37
Canes4life 36
Joan and Mary 34
Phooey 34
Triple T 34

Canes4life 273
Winger 273
Propsicle 270
Bay Imports 269
Victor 268
Stargazer 267
Buck 258
Higgins 256
Donsteppa 255
Justin77 255

@Number-10 said in Taranaki vs BOP:

Sept 30, 1995 - BOP won 41-27

Wow that's pretty momentous then - must be one of the longer streaks broken then.

Anyone remember the last time we won a game in New Plymouth? We usually get humped there.

Also thank me for consistently picking us to lose .....

If the answer was Mitchell Marsh, I wonder what the question was.

Faced with a choice between the 2, I'd shout "Give me Head" every time ....

It's that time again

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

Only 20 in so far so get busy

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

@NTA said in Ashes 2019:

@KiwiPie said in Ashes 2019:

On Roy, all the English pundits were convinced that he should be given a go for the Ashes despite being a notable flat track bully who looks all at sea against the moving ball.

He could make the simplest adjustment to his technique and avoid that issue tho - the fucking gate he leaves for the seaming in-ducker is criminal.

He seems to have concrete in his boots. From that firm base, he jabs hard at the ball to defend it. Very strange.

The next 3 weeks see the 2 Bays and Taranaki play each other and HB have the hardest run-in of the 3 teams as their other 3 games are Waikato, Counties and Tasman. The Steamers have the 3 cellar dwellers in the Championship and the Naki have Southland, Waikato and Auckland. Otago have 4 premier teams and then finish with Northland.

If we can win the Battle of the Bays and beat Manawatu, Northland and Southland, we can probably afford a loss to the Naki and still finish in the top 2.

@ACT-Crusader said in Bay of Plenty v Wellington:

Frustrating game for BOP. Really should’ve won that. Loose forwards played well for BOP.

Blake and Karpik have been great these past 2-3 seasons, with a rotating big bugger at 8 it is a strength of ours.

Not quite sure why we kept going for the scrum in their 22 when the ref didn't show any signs of going to the pocket - the spurned 3 points was critical at the end.