at this rate my trip to Cleveland in late September/October 2020 may have to include taking in a Browns game - just hope it's not a Steelers game as I'd fear for my life wearing my Steelers gear.

But purely from a football standpoint, it would be good to have Browns, Steelers and Ravens all being strong - we can say goodbye to the Bungles in perpetuity - nothing ever goes right for them.

@MN5 the allrounder rankings are a sham due to a desperate lack of genuine contenders.

@Cyclops said in NZ v Bangladesh Test #1:

@KiwiPie said in NZ v Bangladesh Test #1:

Top Batting Averages since the start of 2014 for players with over 30 tests

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com

6688585e-5aeb-48b5-9a1f-46c7e5cd8444-image.png

And in Henry Nicholls (who is just above Latham if you drop the qualifier to 20 tests) and the argument for this being our best batting line up ever looks pretty solid.

no argument. I thought the fern settled that around January....even more compelling with Raval getting a ton...

@Duluth said in Nasi Manu starting Chemo.:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/111030875/nasi-manu-feels-a-new-man-after-cancer-battle-now-eyes-rugby-world-cup-dream

He still only 30?? I thought he was much older than that

It seems he should be older, but he did come on to the scene with huge wraps as an age grade player and was playing NPC and super rugby as a teenager.

Good luck to big Nasty on making the WC.

@Nepia said in The 2019 NRL Preview of the Warriors:

@ACT-Crusader said in The 2019 NRL Preview of the Warriors:

Yeah @Sneakdefreak you surely are on the payroll. Well we should be able to afford you now we’ve offloaded SJ.

Heard from a sauce that there might be some controversy coming our way

We've missed on controversy so far so we're due ... it seems weird you saying 'our/we' for a team not from Canterbury. It would likely be impossible to select a Kiwis team of players with the links to Canterbury.

It’s a big year for me. The Warriors are having their 25th anniversary and it happens to coincides with my own 25th anniversary of my first ever throw the remote at the TV moment....

Devastating news. RIP.

TJP at $4 looked good before the season started.

Cane is the best bet at $1.25. He will be picked in the squad regardless (unless there are complications) of how bad or good he looks coming back. Once in the squad I could see him being picked in the first test both as part of a full strength team (if he comes back looking good) or picked to prove himself/work his way back into form (if he comes back gingerly/misses TRC).

The fact he is injured now weirdly helps his chances IMO as any of the other "certain" picks can all fall over during Super Rugby and be ruled out where he can't.

@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in NZ Rugby Journalists:

Hang on. Is Stevenson no longer on Sky??

Dec 13, 2018  /  Sport Rugby: Scotty 'Sumo' Stevenson leaves Sky, joins Spark World Cup coverage | Newshub Rugby: Scotty 'Sumo' Stevenson leaves Sky, joins Spark World Cup coverage | Newshub

The popular rugby commentator will leave Sky to take up the new position.

@Hooroo any memes of him being a sulky dickhead? Maybe one game off then status quo resumes?

@nzzp the High Performance centres I refer to were hockey ones by the by.

Yeh theres been some weird shit coming down the line from NZ Hockey lately...

@MajorRage said in Reason and Tuipulotu:

@Toddy said in Reason and Tuipulotu:

There could also be a bit of truth to the story. Though you'd think that would be worth its own standalone article, rather than being tucked away in a bigger article.

Yes. That’s my original point.

I hope that Reason is lying. I really do.

But what if he’s not? The first complaint said stuff backs him and his research. That should not be ignored.

If he's not he should (would?) be writing a proper report and presenting his facts, not misrepresenting the known facts in an opinion column. If Stuff backs him and his research then they need to publish it.

Until he does (and they do) that there's no reason to believe any of his claims and it should be ignored.

I still reckon we should just play another seamer in NZ conditions. Surely Ferguson will take more wickets than any of those spinners as the 3rd or 4th bowler, probably even enough to make his lower batting average not matter.

@Donsteppa said in The Silver Fern Super Rugby Tipping Comp:

Is there a link to the page of the tips that we've submitted?

This will be the link for the whole season - which means that all the tips will accumulate - including those from last season. So just sort column A (Right click on column, Sort Z-A) and the current week's tips will appear.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13rvFutTFczUwjYSTGzQ8pJlIRRO_3n7KgDyCPDrrPRk/edit

FYI The Blues have offered to give us some tickets to the Blues v Sunwolves game to give away!

@Nepia or 2013 and 2014....

haha, Boudjelly is a dumbarse! His comics must be awesome if he can be that dumb and still make a shit ton of money!

I watched some of that game - mainly to see what Milne was bowling.

He was bowling quick. The commentators said someone had timed the ball from release to the batsman and reckoned he was hitting 151 kmh. Don't know quite how accurate that assessment was, but he certainly was bowling quicker than anyone else I saw.

By the way, Trevor came to Thailand every year for decades to play in the Chiang Mai sixes. You'd be hard pressed to find a nicer guy.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/basketball/110561163/secondary-school-rugby-participation-plummets-while-basketball-surges

@KiwiPie Munro is a really weird one, because if his T20 record was his ODI record, he'd actually be a reasonable ODI batsman.

Average of 33.6; strike rate of 162 - three hundreds and nine fifties from 49 innings.

I'd take that over the untested Henry Nicholls opening.

I couldn't find a better thread to post this, but this might be interesting for people who don't mind making a trip to Hastings on 5. April and would like to hear Joe Schmidt speak.

An Evening with Joe Schmidt

Shield Snorters Rugby are delighted to announce that current Ireland and IRB World Rugby coach of the year Joe Schmidt will be the guest speaker at the HBRU’s “An Evening with Joe Schmidt” event to be held in the Exhibition Hall at the A&P Showgrounds in Hastings on Friday 5th April starting from 6pm. (...)

It's a charity event and it's not cheap.
https://www.sporty.co.nz/Shield Snorters/Membership/An-Evening-With-Joe-Schmidt?em=0&ts=0.40011585321298715