@gibbonrib nah, penalty on only - just a bump to remind the halfback that you are there.

But... That clear out on Mapimpi is a shocker. VDM comes in from completely the wrong side, lifts the legs almost vertically. I am tempted to say he could have doid.

@stockcar86 He stepped nicely off his left foot a couple of times in the first half to easily get past his opponent and there was a very nice flick on of the ball when under pressure to create space for the player outside him later on. I agree with you, he shows promise but you have to take into consideration the amateur level of the opposition, particularly their ability to fall off tackles when tiredness set in. In addition our guys would probably have had at least 80% of possession. A clear case of professionals v amateurs in this case.

I would have expected the Shield Defenders to utterly slaughter the challengers given the difference in personnel available to each team but that did not really happen. I know that might not make sense when 93 points were raked up but I got the impression that the Magpies were holding an awful lot back that they might not have wanted video analysists of upcoming opponents to see. For example I would have expected the scrum to shunt the Coast backwards big time every scrum (they did not) and to swing the ball wide showing off Harlem Globetrotter like plays way more than they did. We must also consider that it was nowhere near the complete Bunnings Cup team on the field at the same time at any stage so Messrs Ozich and Syms were keeping things under their hats to a certain degree.

@stargazer said in Wallabies v France 3:

@gibbonrib said in Wallabies v France 3:

@steven-harris where did you find that?

Sadly that statement doesn't clarify the decision at all. I'd like to watch that video to see if that helps (fully expecting that it won't though).

@stargazer said in Wallabies v France 3:

@gibbonrib It's only the media release. Not the decision.

Oh, shit, I forgot that if a red card is dismissed, there won't be a written decision. Just the media release.
So the media release is all we get. It has been published on the WR website now, btw.

Forget getting a further clarification of the decision.

For those nerdy enough to care, WR have released a written decision:

https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2021/07/21/231213a5-9cec-4fe5-9fbd-82ec2b9f40f9/HRM000.1.996-Decision-M-Koroibete.pdf

It's a bit wordy, but I've read it so that you don't have to. Key points it makes are:

There was no contact to the head Initial contact was to the shoulder There was contact to the neck This means it is technically foul play The degree of danger was not high, so it should not have been a red

Things it doesn't clarify are:

Whether the degree of danger was low (starting sanction: penalty) or medium (yellow card) Whether there was significant mitigation (it mentions both players dipping into the tackle, but doesn't rule on whether that was relevant to the decision) Whether the correct decision would have been a yellow, or just a penalty

Things it doesn't say, but strongly implies:

Jelonch is a cheating git

@bovidae said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

@rapido said in All Blacks vs Fiji 2:

O8s there something wrong with old stand at Waikato Stadium? Why was it not used?

@WillieTheWaiter may be able to tell us.

oh yep maybe - does need some earthquake strengthening work done to bring it up to code - didn't think about that.. just assumed they didn't think it would get that big of a crowd.

WTF. Where am I?

Had to check the web address. This thread has multiple compliments about the ref. Bloody stop it with that shit.

LCD and Watson are class acts. Have to start in the tests

The worst of the weather was during this game but it was a decent watch for a neutral.

After the game a lot of players walked around the field posing for photos with fans and signing autographs. The most popular player was definitely Tameifuna.

The Georgia Head Coach, Levan Maisashvili, is in hospital in South Africa with Covid on a ventilator after suffering severe lung damage.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/57874642

Wishing him all the best for a full recovery.

Just watched that last 20 minutes of the Boks A and Bulls, well done to the Bulls for scrapping out a win. Boks A looked rattled.

@booboo said in Wallabies v France 2:

@mariner4life said in Wallabies v France 2:

Until last night the only rugby i had watched all year was the first 50-odd minutes of the Super Rugby TT final (and taht was on a small screen with no volume, through a boozed up haze, while simultaneously punting on harness racing and asian gallops), but that test reminded me why i love this game.

I know it's not great for the purists, or if you actually are supporting one of the teams, but errors make good rugby. Errors offer up opportunity, and when both teams are willing to have a crack at that opportunity, it makes for a spectacle.

What i saw was a young Aussie team with deficiencies in key areas having a real fucking go. You can't fault their endeavor, just their execution let them down at precisely the wrong time. Veletini was bloody good i thought, made repeated dents in the defense and never stopped throwing himself at the French. With the ball the Aussie forwards had a heap of vigour, problem was they couldn't muscle up on defense. And their ruck work was very ordinary. That little 2nd pop pass really is more miss than hit. They played most of the rugby, but could never make it count on the scoreboard. They were still full of running at the end too.

The French were pretty good too. Not much on attack outside of some eye catching counter. it was route 1 football and it was often brutally effective. The hooker had approximately 58 pick-and-goes, the 7 was in to everything, and i was impressed with the work of the skipper at #8. The fullback looked fucking classy as well.

Short turn around to the final test will be interesting. World Cup pool-of-death sort of stuff.

Front paged

Great. Cements the evidence that a certain poster doesn't even watch rugby but has lots to say about it 😉

@mn5 said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@mn5 said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@crazy-horse said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

@bones said in All Blacks vs Fiji:

Oh ok yeah you're spot on. GCT and Boshier going overseas are the nails in Foster's coffin,

Wow. That''s not what I said, man. On the smelling salts again?

Are you jailbreak?

nope but you replied to me.

Because you weirdly replied to my reply to him, and I stand by my reply to him.

I thought this was a forum.

Happy for you to fill me in on how GCT and Boshier would have saved us from our catastrophic year this year though.

My point was it is not a fair comparision because there isn't the depth there this year (and actually Josh Blackie, if that is who you mean, was a gold medalist and Junior AB so could play a bit. GCT I'd argue, has been a solid player for the blues even if currently ineligible, I don't think that was a crazy suggestion, it is not as if Patty T suddenly became lethargic in tests when he started).
My second point is if you move the goalposts there won't be a fair discussion. I'm guessing @Jailbreak7 was saying other players should have been tried, and those going overseas were probably let down a tad early.
But you appear to be conflating and extrapolating wildly, focusing on just two of the points @Jailbreak7 made, not the entire post (application, muscle, inventiveness, succession plan, strategically unprepared for NH coaching/experience)...
Yup, you boiled all that down to GCT and Boshier. He/she said that but a helluva lot more.
Since you only want a personal to and fro with a "weird" fragment of @Jailbreak7 posts I'll leave you to your strawman solipsism.
My point, I see, was made by @MN5 but with more subtlety. Kudos.

I am not sure I have ever read the word 'solipsism' on the Fern before.

I’m even more surprised a point I made was described as “subtle”

I've got you on ignore so must have missed what that point was. Even more subtle.

Got me on ignore and then quotes me.

Yeah that’s real choice internetting there bro.

Sorry missed that, got you on ignore.

@cgrant said in England v Canada:

@sparky said in England v Canada:

@bones Favourites for 2023 RWC iMHO.

Not if Eddie Jones is their coach.

I think he is trying to unfurl a very long joke/setup about how unbeatable England would be if they played the ABs again.
At the moment I think that is a rather dangerous ploy.

@mikethesnow said in Wales v Argentina:

@chris said in Wales v Argentina:

@mikethesnow said in Wales v Argentina:

@chris said in Wales v Argentina:

What absolute BS red card the welsh player hasn’t even gone for a HIA

Ha ha ha

What a ludicrous statement

Unlucky / poor technique doesn’t matter

Head on head = red

Shit weak card Ref had to help Wales some how .

Stop, you’re embarrassing yourself

Hahaha the only one embarrassing himself was the biased Referee in that watch.

More questions than answers for mine.
The Sharks were pretty pants in that first match, wait then suddenly(in the first half anyway) they managed to turn it around and gain relative parity in just 3 days?
Just how good are the Lions??
On evidence of the Sigma Lions and the Sharks matches - has SA rugby gone backwards??
And the biggest question of all - will we see any meaningful test rugby in 2021??

The Cook Islands might fancy their chances against Tonga.

Taulani needs to start next Sat.

@nostrildamus said in All Blacks v Tonga:

@crazy-horse said in All Blacks v Tonga:

I think J Barrett and Jordan are now in a shoot out for the 14 jumper, unless JB shows he can play the second playmaker role as well as McKenzie or BB (unless of course they decide BB is the best bet at 10 which wouldn't surprise me).

So the coaches have narrowed down 15 to 3 people (and another 2 fullbacks could be playing out of position). Brilliant stuff. If DM moved to 9 that would have most of the backline as converted fullbacks.
You are right I think re: Bridge. The coaches like him and the role he plays.

Except at centre at least

@cgrant said in Wallabies vs France 1:

@act-crusader
Couilloud is ranked Nr.3 in France, behind Dupont and Serin.
Irribaren, who replaced him during the later stages, is not even the fourth best halfback in the country. Machenaud and Lucu (and Kockott and Parra, but these two are not in contention for Les Bleus) are rated higher than him.

I watched all the French 6Ns matches and what impressed me was the speed of the ball from the ruck from DuPont and Serin.

Speaking of the 6Ns, like last night the French had some last minute heroics and last minute heartbreak - the Wales match and the 80th minute try to win, Scotland scoring in the last minute to win, England snatching a win from them in the final couple of minutes.

@machpants we didn't draw results with Oz last year. 2 wins 1 draw 1 loss.

@arhs said in NZ Maori v Manu Samoa II:

Falealii and the Samoan loosies were also impressive in my view. Fomai superb throughout

The Samoan loosies were good. I think they were helped a bit by the Maori selection though. Four locks in the 23 and no specialist loose forward cover. The player they could least afford to get injured was Harmon.. so of course that's what happened

It's strange to think back 2-3 years ago when the Maori were struggling to find any locks. Now they don't know who to leave out

@bones said in Wales v Canada:

Canada look fucken good!

Aged well.

@stargazer With 85 points scored the highlights package would probably be almost the length of the entire game.

@stargazer said in NZ Maori v Manu Samoa:

Thanks Gazer

@bones said in SR T-T FINAL: Blues v Highlanders:

@nzzp you're gonna ruffle people's hair if they say anything about it eh

is there another way?

@nostrildamus hopefully downstairs wasn't a Queen of the Desert style bar.

@bones said in Waratahs v Chiefs:

@nostrildamus already plenty of turnover "specialists" in the squad weren't there, what else did he offer? It's not like others (including Kirifi) weren't also doing brilliantly at turnovers, as well as excelling in other areas.

He has a fantastic surname, ripe for puns.

@antipodean said in Brumbies v Highlanders:

@stargazer said in Brumbies v Highlanders:

@antipodean 2020 Kirifi was quite a lot better than the 2021 version. The early 2020 version of L Boshier was better

That's the problem.

In 2021 both are a long way off Dalton and Billy.

Given the quality of 6s and 8s around, I'd say that Boshier is miles away, with Paps and Ardie and Cane, plus they like Kirifi (he's playing like shit, but they like him), and that's not even talking about Christie, Harmon, or even the use of Blackadder as a 7.

Yeah, living outside of NZ and enthusiastically support any NZ side against "the others". Couldn't imagine doing otherwise even if it suits the teams I support more.

@gt12 said in Hurricanes v Reds:

I didn’t comment on the penalty try, I commented on whether he should be given a YC.

In that position i.e. in-goal, you can't really have one without the other under the current framework.

@stargazer haha that's great.

@bovidae. Yep I would like to see Brodie back... But I noted the others playing club as is Finn Hoeata.

@kiwiwomble I like the idea of being unbeaten. That'll do me. But I gave up on respecting the TT trophy as anything highly treasured a few weeks ago, sadly.

@nzzp said in Reds vs Blues 2021:

@pakman looks more like an 8 to me 😃

Well, he did pass to Akira!

@nevorian Good recruiting by the Force thanks to Forrester's 💰 ; several of them older players, which shows the importance of experience. Unfortunately to them, they're also going to lose some of their players after this season. For example, IIRC both Cubelli and Miotti have signed in France. But maybe they'll manage to sign some of this year's returnees to take their place.

@higgins said in Waratahs v Crusaders:

@kiwimurph A indictment on the Australia education system perhaps? Obviously cultural/sexual sensitivities take just as much presendence over traditional education learning skills over there as they do here.

Indeed
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9493309/Calls-teacher-sacked-black-lives-matter-posters.html

@taniwharugby they call the knock on dont they?

3 on 3 with a 3rd of the pitch i would often back the attacking team, but at least on of our three was Johnston (prop) so then you start thinking, is he going to try and barge over himself, does he have the quick hand to get it wide...really wish there was a wider angle

@stargazer said in Reds v Chiefs:

@booboo said in Reds v Chiefs:

And further, at the risk of ridicule, I still think the red was harsh.

It was understandable in terms of the protocol, but I still have reservations. To my mind he wasn't attempting a tackle, he ran into the line that the halfback was running, and there was resultant contact, made to look worse by slomo.

Fire away.

Okay, I'll bite. The red was fully deserved and very similar to that of Alex Hodgman, who got a 3-week suspension. If it was just an unfortunate collision while running into the same line as the Reds' halfback, he wouldn't have jumped and directed his left shoulder towards the halfback's upper body (I assume he intended to hit him in the chest or shoulder). If he was just running, he would have kept both his feet on the ground and ran straight. He would probably have braced for impact with his right arm; instead, he used his left shoulder.

I haven't read the entire thread, but I just would like to add that Weber deserves a Razzie for the worst actor. Faking to be shocked by the decision. 👎🏼

The other thing about that play with DMac going in like that, it also exposed a hole. Poor play all round.

That loop de loop try is one of the more embarrassing things I have seen on a football field