It's fair to say the world has a severe problem with radical Islam that isn't going away any time soon. This attack is on a massive scale but there's been a lot of serious attacks on churches recently. Fuck being a Christian if you don't live in the west. I don't know what the answer is, but I do know the reluctance of so many people to even critique Islam is not helping. I don't know how we can effect any meaningful reformation without an open dialogue about the problems with the religion in its current state.

I see so much obfuscation from world leaders when it comes to the attackers motivations, and I don't really understand why. The facts actually help reduce anti-Muslim bigotry as we can narrow in on the branches of Islam (E.G. Wahabbi/Salafi) that produce terrorists like this. It's incredibly frustrating.

Was that Ghost on the wall next to Sam? Been waiting for him to return, thought it would be a more epic appearance during the battle though.

Another "set the scene" episode, building nicely, and the next episode is going to be epic as fuck. Yeah they could have condensed it down to one episode but I don't mind it.

I'll start at 95 as too young before then...

1995: Lomu against England stands out, in particular the try @booboo references. What a player, watching him in that tournament was really the start of my love for the game. I made a scrapbook of all of the newspaper articles about him. Those were the days...

1999: again Lomu bulldozing through a million French players, single handedly trying to win us the game while already battling his health. He's my favourite ever player, just an absolute giant of the game.

2003: two obvious moments that had me screaming at the TV: Mils' disallowed try and the Mortlock intercept. Was gutted as we'd carved the Aussies up that year and I really thought we'd go all the way.

2007: not a moment per say, but just memories of us hammering the French line waiting for the penalty that was never given until time ran out. Was a bloody long day after watching that in the morning.

2011: the final fucking whistle, and the tension and emotion that was released all over NZ. I can hardly remember the game itself TBH, just remember celebrating like crazy with the boys when it was over.

2015: DCs dropped goal against SA. Was awesome on many levels - such a class player standing up and making clutch plays when it counted after missing 2011 to injury. Felt confident with him at the helm and that really brought it home.

Bring on Japan!

@jegga has there really been 470 attacks on Churches in France?

Herald is sinking to new lows. The lead story at the moment isn't about the tragic loss of life, or the motivations of the attackers. It's Katie Hopkins saying something about Jacinda Adern. Because that's what's important right now. Katie fucking Hopkins. Fuck media is just the pits these days.

Death toll up to 290 now. Just unbelievable.

@booboo yeah reading about the Tamil group 'Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam' they didn't follow a religious ideology, it was a political protest group that turned violent in response to anti-Tamil government policies (I'm sure that's over simplifying it).

Odd that churches would be targeted like that if they are behind it. I've seen some names of the people carrying out the attacks but it is unverified at this stage so won't say more on that until we get more details.

I really feel for the people of Sri Lanka, I have some great mates and colleagues that are Sri Lankan and the shit that decent people over there have been through just beggars belief, whether it's violence like this or natural disasters.

Two more explosions with nearly 200 confirmed dead. Jesus H Christ. Think you might be right @jegga, seems way too organised for one of the main Islamic groups.

@jegga thanks. Obviously my comment about Islam stands but may be better suited to another thread. Would hate to see that conflict starting up again.

@jegga said in Sri Lanka bombs:

@No-Quarter said in Sri Lanka bombs:

@booboo and more accurately, Islam is a really fucked up religion/set of ideas. Far far too much senseless violence committed in its name every single week around the world. This is just absolutely sickening.

Has a Muslim group admitted responsibility yet ? My first thought was Tamil arseholes kicking off things again .

Fair enough, just saw churches were targeted by suicide bombers so assumed it was religiously motivated. I don't know a great deal about the Tamil terrorist groups TBH.