You will never convince me that the current obsession with handing out red cards is a good thing.
They have shifted their interpretation of dangerous play, and how it should be dealt with, a long way from where it used to be. But they haven’t changed the card system. It is no longer fit for purpose.
Add in the inconsistency they are applying it with and it is a complete fucking mess.

Straight red cards should be reserved for the worst of the worst. ie. biting, kicking, eye gouging, punching, stomping on a head and deliberate or extremely dangerous foul play eg. A stiff arm to the head.

Tackles that are part of the game but have just been poorly executed in the heat of the game should be dealt with differently. There is absolutely no reason another tier of card allowing for a replacement player after 10min and harsher suspensions wouldn’t work.
Or hey you could even start by not reducing every single ban by 50% because someone dressed nicely for the hearing.

I would be very interested in seeing the stats for how often a team has gone on to win after copping a red card before 60 mins. It is so often a death sentence for the contest.

By the way, im not commenting on the red card in this game. Im not watching it because i refused to pay money to watch a RWC which was so clearly going to be tainted by bullshit cards and inconsistent application of the laws.

For fucks sake.
Im pretty fucking over rugby at the moment to be honest. To put 54 on the Wallabies in sydney and get the win but be pissed off afterward is just a weird feeling.
The reffing of the game at the moment is absolutely killing the game. That Wallabies try was one of the most obvious non tries i have seen in ages. The pass was 1m forward and then a clear offside the angle they made the call on was totally wrong.
Then the non try for BB. The front angle clearly showed BBs hand on the ball first yet they look at some far off angle from behind and the consistency of clear and obvious being required to disallow the try is out the window.

Fuck Barnes.

ABs bench sucked arse.
We need to find a new 3rd hooker and a replacement for Ofa.
TJP was shit again. Has reverted to the old TJ. WTF was that quick lineout? Stupid.

DMac mixed really good with the shit. That is the problem with him.

Ioane, ASmith, Squire and Rettalick really good.
BB's goal kicking very good.

Oh and a big fuck you to the Clown. What sort of professional sits in the coaches box swearing his head off at every ref call, even when it goes his way.
When is he going to get called on his pathetic record as wallabies coach?

@MN5 said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:

On the piss in town last night and I have to say that every single Lions fan is an absolute GGC. Great folk to talk shit with. Such a decent bunch. My Mum is a fan too after getting her car stuck on the ledge of a drive she was using to turn around in. A group of about 6 of them lifted her car ( Suzuki swift ) back onto the roadside. Legends.

Town is just pumping. 2005 all over again, only difference is my fucken head aches way more than it did at 28.

Concussion? Would explain some of your comments around Scottish players.

@Machpants said in Blues 2020:

Quality No 10s are like buses....

You wait for years for one to come, then two turn up at the same time?

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

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

@booboo the French centre reckons it was partly BBs fault....

Doumayrou conceded it was "the straight application of the regulation" but felt the match officials should have taken into account that there had been "a fault of the All Blacks" with Fall "unbalanced" while challenging for the ball.

Was going to wait until tomorrow, but had a few so what the hell.

ALB certainly helped Fall to his final destination quicker than he expected.

Not a legal person but I think that's what the Americans call an 'Accesory After The Fact'

Nothing Fall could have done to avoid the collision with BB

Fall was focussed on the ball the whole time, as was BB

Many have commented that Fall would never have made the catch.

It could be argued that BB knew the only way he could make the catch was to leap above the oncoming player and put himself at the mercy of the collision.

So he couldn't have turned his eyes in the general direction he was running and realised he was going to be beaten to the ball and pulled out? How did all the other players in the match manage to properly judge aerial contests then?

Its a pretty simple situation. Time your run right and get in the air to properly contest or pull out and wait for the guy to safely land. Blindly running to where the ball is going to land and being surprised you take out a jumper is not an option.

@Machpants said in Aussie Rugby:

@mariner4life said in Aussie Rugby:

@Bovidae said in Aussie Rugby:

There is enough blame to go around but even if some of what O'Connor says is true it did sound like a dysfunctional squad.

when was the last time the Wallabies weren't dysfunctional?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stuff.co.nz%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Finternational%2F106241168%2Felvis-a-hit-warriors-top-dogs--what-was-it-like-when-australia-last-won-bledisloe-cup&psig=AOvVaw2JSXG1fWB3jRRYHUVq0hcO&ust=1592435126553000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCNDWkaK5h-oCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

or even

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smh.com.au%2Fsport%2Frugby-union%2Fbring-back-bill-the-untold-stories-of-the-1999-rugby-world-cup-20190916-p52rn0.html&psig=AOvVaw070LMBt5E9rgL2scXYujq0&ust=1592435232534000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCODm4NS5h-oCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

It’s amazing what they can do to colourise old historic black and white photos these days.

Much better performance tonight. Especially with all the new guys in the team.
Scott Barrett my MOTM. Don't see why people are saying he is too slow to cover 6. Not like Kaino was fast. Would much rather a strong tackler/strong carrier and lineout option with good ball skills over a flaah open field runner like Fifita.

Dmac was also good. Still had some poor moments but for the most part he was playing like a 10.
Hopefully he and Richie can both develop so we have some good depth at 10.

SBW was looking really good. Unfortunate that he got hurt. Think our backline balance with a strong runner at 12 to bend the line.

Thought Goodhue was decent on debut. Especially second half. Hemopo good on debut and i thought Frizzell wasn't as bad as has been said on here but still not seeing what he has over Akira.

Hopefully this is the last time we see Todd miss a squad. Time to have him on the bench in the top team.

Rieko was bloody good again. So much gas. Looked good at centre too.

Think people are jumping the gun on calling Ben Smith past it. He is still a fucking good rugby player.
And while Naholo wasn't great on D tonight he is still a bloody good winger to have in the squad.

One and only thing i will say about the ref/tmo: The Frizzell no try was bullshit. Sure if the ref goes upstairs and says can you see a grounding? And the tmo can't see it you don't give the try. But when the ref said he saw it you don't interrupt then overturn the call because you aren't sure if he got it or not. There was no clear held up just like there was no grounding. So go with the refs call ffs.

Also the NZ anthem was awful. I hate the slow warbling opera types.

Well it appears my first reaction to that squad was the same as everyone elses. Fifita? WTF?

They have lost the plot over the last few years when trying to plan for Kaino’s departure.
Elliot Dixon in and out, Luatua in and out, Squire all the chances in the world despite being shit, fifita all the chances in the world despite being shit, Frizzell in from nowhere then out, Barrett maybe we will use him but not given many chances, Hemopo selected as a 6 but now listed as a lock also given bugger all chances despite showing promise, Papalii in then out, Akira never given a chance despite good form, Jacobson in then......

What is the bet they now try Cane, Read or Ardie there? That is the only reason i can see them picking Todd.

Will be interesting to see what they do at 14 too. Some of those guys need to be tested.

@Hooroo said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@pukunui said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@Canerbry said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

@pukunui said in All Blacks vs Tonga:

Im definitely not sold on the Bridge/Reece combo.

Why is that?

To clarify that probably should have been followed by “as our first choice combo”

I just don’t think it is the best one we can put on the park. Ioane/Smith still #1 for me if BB is at 15.

If Smith is at 15 i would have Bridge in the conversation for 14 but they don’t seem to want to play him there.

With Reece i just don’t rate him that highly yet. He hasn’t done anything in an AB wingers jersey that someone like Jordie hasn’t and he was about as good in Super rugby as Ben Lam was a season or two back. For now i put him firmly in the “flashy new toy” category.

The great thing about flashy new toys is that you only need them for Christmas/New Year period. We only need Reece to perform at the RWC and then let’s see where it goes.

I'd prefer we rely on Ioane (who's performed for a couple of years now and his drop in form has been blown way out of proportion) and Bridge who looks to be the next long term Ben Smith/Cory Jane style player.

I'd prefer we rely on the form winger rather than the grossly out of form winger.

The way Bridge hunted out the ball during the last Bled was enough for me to want to see a lot more of that

Where does this grossly out of form thing come from? He has only played two games for the ABs this season. He wasn’t great against the Boks when he kept dropping the ball but lets not forget Bridge came on and shat the bed letting the boks score at the end. Then he played against Aus in perth where he wasn’t bad despite to forwards getting embarrassed.

It’s not fair to translate his up and down super season into his test “form” because he was playing in a joke of a Blues team and still scored 9 tries.

@KiwiMurph said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:

Enjoyable game.

Jordan was terrific.

Can't say I was impressed by Bridge. Was not threatening at all.

Jordan would good with the AB 14 jersey on his back.
Could be a very good Ben Smith style winger.

George Bridge is Caleb Ralph mkII. There are so many better options than him.

@Chris-B said in ABs 2020: Who didn't get a fair crack?:

I'm not really a fan of the thread title, because it's the All Blacks and not the Under-10s. If you're not established as the best player in your position then any time you get is a privilege.

Plus - we only had six tests, we struggled, and when Fozzie pushed the rotation button a bit, we lost (though players not on the park had a fair bit to do with that).

That first bit sounds a bit sanctimonious - but, what I mean is a complete newbie like Cullen Grace - any time he got was a bonus.

A slightly different tack - people who I'd want to see in the first test next year (based on what we've seen).

Nepo Laulala, Scott Barrett, Akira Ioane, Will Jordan.

Just on that first paragraph (I can’t work out how to bold it from my phone)
If you look at the team for the first game of the season im not sure you could seriously argue that all those players were established as the best players in their positions.
In the backs it was only A Smith who was clearly the first choice in the position he was picked in.

The fact is you need to rotate players to build experience and depth. Year one of a RWC cycle is probably the most important time to do that. Especially in a shortened calendar against an inexperienced wallabies and Argies who are ranked 10th and haven’t played for a year.

I think this is one of the worst failures of the coaches this year. The initial team selection was filled with out of position and out of form players and explained away as an “experienced” selection to lock up the Bledisloe.
That only changed through injuries.

After the Bledisloe was locked up they fucked up by making wholesale changes. Then panicked and reverted to the “top” team full of flawed selections after the loss to the Wallabies. Then the worst case scenario happened and we lost to the Argies.

What this all meant was that we didn’t get to see some of these newer guys come in and play along side the top players. It was either in a team with wholesale changes or getting 2 min off the bench.

Clarke should have been at 11 ahead of Bridge from the start.
Frizzel should have been rotated out after the first two games to try one of the other options at 6.
Jordan should have started early on.
Papalii and Grace should have been given more than a handful of minutes.

Unfortunately it means we are now a full season into the RWC cycle and some of the lessons that should have been had and some of the experience that should have been built, wasn’t.

So, some big questions remain. Some have been partially answered but lots of the answers were “no this doesn’t work” with no clues about what does.

Who is the best 6? Probably not Frizzel. Akira went well but we only got to see a short sample. Grace didn’t get a real shot. What is Papalii’s role?

What is the most balanced back row? Akira and Sotutu both looked good, so did Cane and Ardie. But how do they all fit together? We didn’t try many options that didn’t have Cane and Ardie at 7 and 8.

Are our back up 9’s up to it?

Is Laumape up to it?

Is Aumua up to it?

Is RIoane really best used in midfield or should he still be a winger?

Does RM+BB actually work or should we pick one of them at 10 and a real 15 at 15 eg. Jordie?

Is it a good idea to play Jordie at 14 ? (The answer to this should be obvious) or are there better options?

Is Pat T up to starting or is he only a bench option?

Are JG and ALB being used the right way around?

@sparky said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:

Akira Ioane. What a player!

Will Jordan. What a player!

Who’d have thought the guys tearing it up in Super rugby over multiple seasons might have been worth selecting for the ABs?
Pity we only got to see them properly in the last game of the season. But hey, we got to see lots of Jordie and Frizzel!
Coaching genius!

Sooooo, when is the team named?

@Stargazer said in 2020 Māori All Blacks:

Hmmm , I hope the last paragraph is nothing more than rumours ...

What a whinging bunch of shunts!
WTF does this game have to do with those unions?

This whole pasifika team in super rugby thing is going to be a non stop whingefest about the team not getting enough resources, not getting the respect they deserve, not getting enough home games, not getting enough top players from other sides blah blah blah. That tweet and the lawsuit are the tip of the iceberg.

Funny how you never hear these people being grateful for the NZ rugby system turning hundreds of pacific islanders into highly paid athletes playing all over the world. The alternative earning capacity of the vast majority of them would have been significantly less had they not gone through that system.

@DMX said in When should Foster go?:

@nostrildamus said in When should Foster go?:

@DMX said in When should Foster go?:

what kind of message are you sending to the next coaches.

That they need to win matches? That being selected to be head coach should be based on merit, and retained based on performance?

2 losses and your fired? I think any new coach will say first year I need to build , even Henry had that.

I don’t think you get any grace period when you are the “continuity” pick do you? Isn’t that the point?

If he wants credit from the last 8 years then there should be no need for a transition period of shit performances.

If instead there were problems he had identified over the last few years and is now trying to fix them, then what the fuck has he been doing the last few years as an assistant? I don’t buy that he would have been trying to fix things but was getting overruled by Hansen. Hansen endorsed him ages ago.

@Bovidae said in Pasifika SR team:

@Rapido said in Pasifika SR team:

Gee, is this an organisation you'd want to go into a partnership with?

It doesn't appear NZR have been professional and transparent either.

Hardly a surprise given everything else they have done lately is a mess.

@chimoaus said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:

@MN5 said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:

@Machpants said in Bledisloe Four: Brisbane, 7 November:

Akira has the skills and physique to be our next Kaino, and it appears that he's had an attidtude adjustment - I really hope it all clicks

What sort of shape is he in nowadays ?

With both Ioanes starting the potential for dickheadishness is huge

It is clear to me both Ioane boys used lockdown and this season to get into shape, they both look as fit as they did in the Sevens days. There was a shot of Akira with top off in changing rooms and he looked very fit.

Shot of Akira in Gym

Holy shit! I never realised how tall Akira was. Towering over Ardie in that pic.

WTF was that defensive bomb Inside the 22 with 1 min left from Gatland ?
Then the rushed drop goal attempt from 40m out by Hickey! Both 10’s trying to lose it for their teams.

@Unite said in 2020 Rugby Championship in Oz:

Flying into Brisbane on game day will be a bit of a pain in the ass and a disadvantage.

Going to be fairly warm for that match as well. Already hitting 30 and high 20s most days now.

I would assume the Wallabies will be flying in on game day too. Sort of defeats the purpose otherwise.