@KiwiMurph

Like a couple of other positions, there are options but with little test experience, we can’t be sure of how they will perform at test level.

Of course if Ryan can get the forward pack humming (and no reason why he won’t) then it will make the outside backs look like a million bucks!

@antipodean Utah has recently approved a sales tax increase to contribute up to $900 million for a new arena or a remodeled arena for the NHL team/Utah Jazz. The Owner of the NHL team is the same guy who owns the Utah Jazz.

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Unfortunately I wasnt able to make a game today with most out of town.

But looking at the scores, all went as I thought, with MN, Kamo & M/KK retaining thier unbeaten record (that will change next week with MN & M/KK facing)

MN putting 45 on KK, who TBF had thier usual 9 at 10 and Johnny Cooper at 13, but was a bit of a surprise, as was the margin OBM got in thier first win of the season.

Was interesting to see Allen Craig on the bench for MN after playing last night too.

Kamo took a while to get going v Hika, with Matt Letoga picking up 2 early tries that saw them leading for parts of the game.

Sad part is Waipu defaulting, no one likes to see that, but I hear it is being seen more often around the country too, that is concerning.

That said, the games I have been to, have all been well supported by fans, no less than previous years, the odd game, probably better crowds turning up.

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@Winger Was listening to him doing the comments during the radio commentary of one of the Hurricanes games earlier this year. Very insightful and astute in both his description and reasoning behind what had just happened and why along with predicting, accurately in a lot of cases, what was going to happen from a restart in play. Gave reasons why as well and was well worth listening too. Hopefully he will be in the chair tonight.

Auckland club rugby teams for the weekend: Facebook link

The timing for watching from here is about as brutal as the scorecards will be...

@KiwiMurph financial advisors and banks will be sweating

really feel like NZR are on a different planet, all the fluffy content "work" in other sports on the back of competitive and popular sports with engaged fan bases.... not independent of those things

@Winger and im sure they'll find dunedin or invercargill a bit chilly...home advantage

@Bones said in 2023-2024 World Sevens Series:

Fineangonofo is brilliant, seemingly came from nowhere too.

I'd seen him play at 1st XV/age-group level, but that 2020 NZ Schools team never played a game due to covid. I'm not surprised he has a background in RL. Tito-Harris is another who played both codes.

@NTA side note, a set of jerseys from S-Trend was less than $1200 ($47.50 each) and apparently we got our 1's kit (25 jerseys) for free because we ordered all the other kit through them

i'm quite impressed, grip pattern on the chest, rubber around the hem and they set up an on line store for people to buy supports gear

And because of this:

Andrew Strawbridge will leave his post as Waikato’s Director of Rugby to take up a new position as part of England Rugby’s coaching staff ahead of the England’s tour to Japan and New Zealand in July.

I could understand an annual playoff between the Super and European Champions. I think they'd be interest in that but not really for this longer World Club tournament.

Yeah, you can certainly game the system.

The marquee rule allows NBL teams to give non-restricted players - Australian and Kiwi athletes - large deals but put them on those fixed cap hits, increasing the chance of staying below the salary cap.

I would think Gibbes will select a squad for the RC and then another for the WC. I'll be interested to see if the three NZ sevens players (Vai, Spencer, Tito-Harris) are involved in the latter.

Like the post above I wonder how long it will be before this one turns to custard.

Apr 8  /  Rugby Union TRU announces new coaches for ‘Ikale Tahi TRU announces new coaches for ‘Ikale Tahi

Nuku'alofa, Tonga: Tonga Rugby Union today announced Tevita Tuifua as the new head coach for the ‘Ikale Tahi and Nili Latu as assistant coach for the next four years.

The said the quiet part out loud in that the woman's game is expensive.

The woman's game is great for player numbers and getting new people into the game, but terrible from a revenue perspective.

So you have existing teams with bloated salaries already loosing money and invest heavily in another area of the game that will lose you even more money. The first one itself will get you into enough trouble as it is.