2018 Rugby Championship
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@tim I'm not sure. What I know is that Bruni & Fortuny have made the step up from Argentina V, so my guess is that they haven't played for the Jaguares yet. Apart from that, I'm not aware of the new coach departing from the policy not to select players from Europe.
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Just heard that NMS won't travel to Sydney with the squad because they want him to get some game time in the Mitre 10 Cup. Is that new? Hadn't heard/read that before.
So that narrows the options down; it will either be Naholo or BFA on the right wing.
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@tim said in 2018 Rugby Championship:
Rugby Championship: Don't forget Damian McKenzie - Grant Fox
Deserves a thread all on its own, about him “being in the conversation” that is
Slow news day....
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The thing I hate the most about this time of the year is that all the crap click-bait writing so-called journos in the NH start polluting the media again with their garbage opinions about the All Blacks and the haka, and our own stupid attention & clicks craving "journos" start writing about or copy those rubbish opinions in our own shit media.
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@stargazer said in 2018 Rugby Championship:
@tim I'm not sure. What I know is that Bruni & Fortuny have made the step up from Argentina V, so my guess is that they haven't played for the Jaguares yet. Apart from that, I'm not aware of the new coach departing from the policy not to select players from Europe.
They've def picked up some Euro players, the SR only rules is out.
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do the NH teams need a bit of exposure and talking up?
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Although he is just shit stirring like normal, he is right. ABS have lost 2? games in the RC. World ranking,not a perfect measure but an idea, has ABs picking on crappy little 6th or lower ranked teams. It's been fun to see the ABs so dominant, I hope they never lose, but we can't claim it's the toughest/best international comp as things stand.
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@taniwharugby said in 2018 Rugby Championship:
I think Stephen preferred the Rugby Championship when they used the knockout format... and hosted it in England... in the autumn of 2015.
Hopefully he can enjoy it again next year.
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@machpants said in 2018 Rugby Championship:
Although he is just shit stirring like normal, he is right. ABS have lost 2? games in the RC. World ranking,not a perfect measure but an idea, has ABs picking on crappy little 6th or lower ranked teams. It's been fun to see the ABs so dominant, I hope they never lose, but we can't claim it's the toughest/best international comp as things stand.
How do we know the results wouldn't be the same if we played in the 6 Nations every year? It's not like the 6 Nations teams continually run roughshod over Aus and SA. I reckon we'd easily walk the 6 Nations nearly every year if we played it - especially as we'd be playing those teams (in this alternate universe) in the middle of our season.
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@taniwharugby said in 2018 Rugby Championship:
do the NH teams need a bit of exposure and talking up?
Difficult to take umbrage when he's pointing out facts. You could near guarantee that New Zealand will come first, Argentina last and the other two to fight for respect.
Perhaps this iteration of the Wallabies and Springboks may shake things up a little?
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@antipodean think its more his 'softie' comments and the fact he reckons the Crusaders would struggle against NH teams.
Sure some of what he says rings true, but doesnt make him any less of a twat.
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@taniwharugby said in 2018 Rugby Championship:
Sure some of what he says rings true, but doesnt make him any less of a twat.
Quoted for truth, but his click bait still gets heaps of 'air' time - tho not so much since The Times is behind a paywall now.
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@antipodean said in 2018 Rugby Championship:
@taniwharugby said in 2018 Rugby Championship:
do the NH teams need a bit of exposure and talking up?
Difficult to take umbrage when he's pointing out facts. You could near guarantee that New Zealand will come first, Argentina last and the other two to fight for respect.
Perhaps this iteration of the Wallabies and Springboks may shake things up a little?
The "point" he is making is that The Rugby Championship is a return round robin tournament. One of the weaknesses of that structure is it generally churns out a pretty accurate set of results at end of the tournament as every team as played the other home and away. The same complaints that are made (and dismissed fairly quickly) about the Premier League which is proportionally the same (1/4 fight for the title, 1/2 fight for respect, 1/4 fight to avoid coming last).
TRC is better because it solves the question of who is the better team.
Six Nations is better because the individual results are more unpredictable - although that unpredictability and single round robin format too often lead to results like 2015 where awarding a title seems unnecessary (ditto 3N/TRC in an RWC year)