@foobaNZ said in Fijian Drua vs Hurricanes:
@Canes4life big locks? What a novel idea!
Thankfully in the past now. And hopefully Razor can keep Holland in check with any strange ideas he might have
@foobaNZ said in Fijian Drua vs Hurricanes:
@Canes4life big locks? What a novel idea!
Thankfully in the past now. And hopefully Razor can keep Holland in check with any strange ideas he might have
@Mr-Fish said in Fijian Drua vs Hurricanes:
Ben Grant and Siale Lauaki both have to be All Blacks options for the mid-year Tests too, naturally. Don't care if Grant's technically not eligible yet.
I'll wait to see how they perform in this game first
But what are the details on Grants eligibility? And if he was good enough maybe Aust is the better option for him. Esp with the Lions getting close
@Canes4life said in Fijian Drua vs Hurricanes:
@Duluth interesting no Godfrey or Higgins named at all. Plenty of changes, hope it doesn’t bite us.
Godfrey isn't it seems seen as the backup FB to Love. Moorby seems to be.
Higgins seems to be on the outer a bit now. Also surprised to not see PRS in the 23. Iose might not be available this week
Rayasi gets another start, He looks ordinary now
Im keen to see how Lauaki goes. And Grant
@Higgins said in Hurricanes 2024:
@Winger He is playing for Hanazono Kintetsu Liners in Japan's Division 1. At least there he will be one of the taller locks running round and has helped his team hold a solid 12th spot on the table. It must be noted that there are just the 12 teams competing!
OK It's strange that 2 Canes coaches (Plumtree/ Gibbes) rated him so highly. Obviously, few other coaches do. But Blackwell always gave his best so it's not him to blame
I see Caleb DELANY is showing as 1.97 / (1.98 on Wikipedia)
Bio
Caleb DELANY is a 24-year-old New Zealander rugby player standing at 1.97 m tall (6 ft 6 in) and weighing in at 115 kg (18 st 1.53 lb; 253.53 lb) , who currently plays for Hurricanes in New Zealand as back row.
Ben GRANT (Benjamin William GRANT) is a 25-year-old Australian rugby player standing at 2.05 m tall (6 ft 9 in) and weighing in at 118 kg (18 st 8.15 lb; 260.15 lb) , who currently plays for Hurricanes in New Zealand as lock.
@ruggabee said in Hurricanes 2024:
@Canes4life said in Hurricanes 2024:
@ruggabee Holland should never have been the head coach. He only got the gig because Plumtree pulled out right before the season kicked off so they didn’t have time to go through the correct recruitment process. So glad he’s gone, the Canes can now reach their potential without a coach hamstringing them with stupid selections.
And Avan Lee was going to give Holland another 2 year contract extension if Razor hadn't taken him off your hands last year, Hurricanes fans must be feeling so thankful towards Razor at the moment.
I was very happy as soon as Razor wanted Holland. Then I almost exploded with happiness when Gibbes announced he was leaving too.
then Blackwell left ...
edit Blackwell's leaving is weird. Pleased he's gone but he just disappeared.
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@Winger said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@Winger said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@Winger said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
Add to that Iran's drone and missile strike has helped stem the loss of support for Israel's actions,
Surely most see for this for what it was. Retaliation but no more than a face-saving exercise and aslo a warning
How do you save face or send a warning if it's so easily defeated?
Faster, more advanced drones
Well I grant you it's four dimensional chess to try to project power by looking incompetent and ineffective.
It's a VG move by Iran. They have now won the PR battle.
According to whom?
Winger Media Corporation
Add in the cost factor.
The whole show had the budget of a mega blockbuster. For Israel – without even counting the price of US, UK, and Israeli jets – just the multi-layered interception system set it back at least $1.35 billion, according to an Israeli official. Iranian military sources tally the cost of their drone and missile salvos at only $35 million – 2.5 percent of Tel Aviv’s expenditure – made with full indigenous technology.
A new West Asian chessboard
It took only a few hours for Iran to finally metastasize strategic patience into serious deterrence, sending an extremely powerful and multi-layered message to its adversaries and masterfully changing the game across the whole West Asian chessboard.
Were the biblical psychopaths to engage in a real Hot War against Iran, there’s no chance in hell Tel Aviv can intercept hundreds of Iranian missiles – the state-of-the-art ones excluded from the current show – without an early warning mechanism spread over several days. Without the Pentagon’s umbrella of weaponry and funds, Israeli defense is unsustainable.
@Canes4life said in Exodus:
@canefan not sure why he didn’t wait one more year. His stocks would have risen more and he probably would have demanded more money.
The way he’s playing atm I’d have him in the AB picture.
Agree. He wasn't a great FB but he's been superb on the wing. AB quality
@Kruse said in Climate Change:
@dogmeat said in Stupid shit you see on the internet:
some 120 million inhabitants — had around 1.3 million cars on the road in 2022 according to its transport ministry. That translates to ... about 2 cars to 1,000 people
Huh?
New, new, maths.
Nutcases are running Air NZ
Maybe it's best to fly on another airline if possible
"It's about 1 percent of the total global aviation fuel. So it is hard to source and it's also incredibly expensive - anywhere between three and five times the price of normal jet fuel. So we're very pleased to have got it, but we've got to find a lot more of it as we work incredibly hard to decarbonise."
"It's about 1 percent of the total global aviation fuel. So it is hard to source and it's also incredibly expensive - anywhere between three and five times the price of normal jet fuel. So we're very pleased to have got it, but we've got to find a lot more of it as we work incredibly hard to decarbonise."
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@Winger said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@Winger said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
Add to that Iran's drone and missile strike has helped stem the loss of support for Israel's actions,
Surely most see for this for what it was. Retaliation but no more than a face-saving exercise and aslo a warning
How do you save face or send a warning if it's so easily defeated?
Faster, more advanced drones
Well I grant you it's four dimensional chess to try to project power by looking incompetent and ineffective.
It's a VG move by Iran. They have now won the PR battle.
And are they bluffing or not? Are these slow drones the best they have? Or not.
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@Winger said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
Add to that Iran's drone and missile strike has helped stem the loss of support for Israel's actions,
Surely most see for this for what it was. Retaliation but no more than a face-saving exercise and aslo a warning
How do you save face or send a warning if it's so easily defeated?
Faster, more advanced drones
@Windows97 said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
I doubt the "PR war" is going to build back all their tunnels, rebild the infrastructure, replace all the soldiers lost or captured or miracilously bring anyone back to life...
Depends if you just look at the short term or long term
Palestinians are currently living in an open-air prison. With few rights or remedies. They might be fighting for a decent future existence and are willing to suffer in the short term
To achieve this, they must win the PR battle
The report finds that since 1967, over 800,000 Palestinians, including children as young as 12, have been arrested and detained under authoritarian rules enacted, enforced and adjudicated by the Israeli military. Palestinians are subject to long detention for expressing opinions, gathering, pronouncing unauthorised political speeches, or even merely attempting to do so, and ultimately deprived of their status of protected civilians. They are often presumed guilty without evidence, arrested without warrants, detained without charge or trial and brutalised in Israeli custody.
@antipodean said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
Add to that Iran's drone and missile strike has helped stem the loss of support for Israel's actions,
Surely most see for this for what it was. Retaliation but no more than a face-saving exercise and aslo a warning
@foobaNZ said in Fijian Drua vs Hurricanes:
As good as our depth in most positions Judd and Morgan doesn't inspire much confidence in me against the Drua away.
At least play TJ as his minutes have been limited behind Roigard most of the season anyway.
Drua and Brumbies both warrant playing close to our top 15 IMO.
I was anti Morgan. But he was VG in his one and only start so far. But he needs a tougher challenge to see how he goes. In case Cameron is not available at some point
Judd has looked good so far. But he also needs more game time against tougher opposition. And Penenara is not the youngest anymore and needs to be looked after. And there's always Viljoen (who looks a future star) in the reserves
AS Ive said on the other thread I would rest a number of top (and older) players this week
Maybe a team like
Love
Moorby Sinkinson
PUJ (or Sullivan)
Higgins
Morgan
Judd
Lakai Kirifi Flanders
Delany Sangster
PRS or Mafileo
Tosi
O'Reilly
Lomax or maybe Lauaki
Devery if available
PRS or Mafileo
Next best lock but not IWL (rested)
Iose or Shields
Viljeon
Godfrey or Barrett
PUJ or Sullivan
@Windows97 said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
To suggest Hamas is winning is so objectionably laughable compared to the facts on the ground it's little more than gas lighting propaganda.
Countries want to be perceived as being on the side of good. Even when they clearly aren't. Totally lose the good guys (or victim) image and it's hard to recover from it. This is the position Israel and the West are now in.
@Windows97 said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:
And like I said, they don't care, nor should they care about the PR war...
They don't seem to care but they should. As this last 6 months has been a total disaster for Israel (and the West) on the PR front. I believe Israel got far too cocky. They thought the corrupt Western media and politicians could protect them. It hasn't worked. The reverse. It simply exposed the media and politicians for what they are. I think these groups are finally waking up to this. But it's too late.
And surely you realise how important image and PR are. Russia, China and Iran etc, seem to as they have sat back and watched the West shot themselves time and time again in the foot. All they need to do is to not react. As they have done so far.
Edit. Except for Iran sending slow drones (as a warning and to save face) and allowing Israel etc to shot them all down.