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

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.

Another missed cut on the PGA Tour for Ryan Fox. His game not in great shape heading into the Masters next week...

@Catogrande said in Crystal Glass XV:

@Victor-Meldrew

And yet, here you still are 😉

I felt it my duty to increase the gene pool.

was going to guess Tavatavanawai (as there wasn;t many left)...but it made me sad

@Bovidae ideally as the tech irons out wrinkles they need them to be cheap enough that club players can afford them, and maybe each club has their players linked so they can monitor them as well, given they wont be able to do in game analysis, at least they can look post game and set some protocols around this.

Greatest call out in the history of call outs

NERD ALERT

Because of Whitelock's longevity you can draw a line through almost the entirety of AB history going x played with y in his debut game y played with z in his debut game etc and only 22 names takes you back to AB#28 from 1893 - Mac McKenzie McKenzie played in the second game the AB's ever contested.

I cheated twice. McKenzie played with a Humphries who wasn't in the team when Dave Gallagher debuted but was back in it two games later.

Similarly the Baby Blacks screws things but if you go with any number who debuted against France in 86 then in the third game they played with Whetton who played with Haden on debut.

There is a break in the chain due to WWII but one guy James Tilyard did play either side of WWI.

You can actually make the chain much shorter by just going played with rather than on debut but the point is as above Whitelock has played in a phenomenally high % of our tests.

We didn't play our 153rd match until 1921 and our 153rd test was against Australia at Eden Park on the 16th September 1972 !!!

We won 38-3 six tries to none. An absolute hiding for those days. I was there.

Suck shit Melbourne

Aha! Did not compute. That's a good thing then.

Looks like MAC,Hastings and Taradale had easy wins and the other 2 games were closer.Havelock beating OldBoys Marist would be a bit of an upset wouldn't it??

Some of the obscure ones were random guesses

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@taniwharugby said in Moana Pasifika 2024:

@Bovidae sorry, I meant he was called in full time prior to the season being kicked off (was called up FT back in Jan)

You could be right, but he would still have replaced someone injured from the original squad above. Maybe Ofa Tauatevalu?

@MN5 said in 6N 2024:

@Catogrande said in 6N 2024:

@MN5 said in 6N 2024:

@MiketheSnow said in 6N 2024:

Although we had a disappointing season - aspects of which were to be expected based on the personnel available for selection - I'm still glad I'm not Scotland or Italy

6N.jpg

That’s the reigning five nations champions you’re talking about there

And I was going to accuse @MiketheSnow of clutching straws

It’s just how Scots Rugby fans roll.

Between that and the Black Caps being inaugural World Test Champions I have both sports covered.

Well, you always have this to keep you warm...

news Scotland accused of 'arrogance' as Sam Warburton calls out post-match behaviour Scotland accused of 'arrogance' as Sam Warburton calls out post-match behaviour

The Wales legend made the claims but refused to name the players involved in the celebrations.