@r-l you know us 'rabs, I was busy with a cousin

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@r-l said in Coronavirus - UK:

@victor-meldrew sorry to hear that, there are always failings unfortunately and there are good and bad hospitals, GP centres, even whole ccgs that are overall worse than others . And I am biased having worked in the NHS my adult life, my experiences have been positive, a few disappointments but overall positive as a patient.

Thanks, but not an isolated incident, sadly. As a patient, have you had treatment in other countries/systems?

My optimistic little self always sees room for improvement and I know I've seen huge positive changes in our area with regards to ways of working, I hope more lessons are learned!

The vaccine rollout has been a huge success and poss. shows the way forward - imaginative thinking, great leadership (Kate Bingham deserves several damehoods, IMHO) combining the strengths of the private sector and the NHS and above all, focussing on the end result and not worrying about who delivers what to patients. Just hope it's used as a model for other stuff.

For me, watling is the best all around of the 6 I have watched a fair bit of: Wadsworth, Lees, Smith, Parore, BMac and BJ. (Forget germon, Jock Edwards or young, all break glass situation or in Germon's case, regional parochialism run riot - the reuben thorne of NZ cricket

Of the 6, I actually rate Parore as the most technically proficient and smoothest of them all.

Wadsworth, Lees and Smith are pretty much all in a group - they had different strengths depending on the attack and conditions.

But in terms of all around contribution and glue, I'll take Watling everytime.

Lees, Parore and Smithy to some extent with his decision making while batting were loud personalities and could be a distraction. Wadsworth could be untidy although that may be more a case that he looked like he was perpetually just arisen from a 5 day bender. Bmac, a very good keeper but once he gave up the gloves he became a much much better player.

@steven-harris said in NPC - news, injuries etc:

@number-10 I think he was nicknamed the Kaikoura express , was very quick ..should have played far more than 4 tests , in fact I still can’t work out why he never toured South Africa in 1976…the All Black wingers were Bryan Williams ,Grant Batty ,Terry Mitchell and Neil Purvis ..none with what you would say had top end pace ..Ford was quicker than any of these 4 , would have been superb on the hard grounds

I think Ford wouldn’t tour SA in 76 due to his stand against Apartheid if my memory serves me well.

Good news.

Hurricanes first five-eighth Ruben Love will miss Friday’s match against the Rebels in Wellington, but has avoided serious injury after frightening scenes at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Coach Jason Holland said the 20-year-old rising star would be sidelined for a week after suffering concussion when taking a heavy knock in the second minute of Friday’s remarkable 64-48 victory over the Waratahs in Super Rugby Trans-Tasman.

Fears of a spinal injury were allayed, after the match was held up for 10 minutes while Love was attended to on the turf.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/125146755/super-rugby-hurricanes-playmaker-ruben-love-out-of-rebels-match-avoids-serious-injury

@bovidae said in TV Serieseseses:

Whoa. Ep 5 of Mare of Easttown.

spoiler

Fucking mahvellous episode.

@bovidae defenders on the posts seem to have gone out of style. I don't really understand why.

For who can read French, here is the FFR's media release: https://www.ffr.fr/actualites/federation/la-ffr-sengage-pour-linclusion-des-trans-identitaires-dans-le-rugby

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@r-l said in Nomination - No love lost award:

@bones I'm a woman, I sense these things. Now wind your neck in or I'll nominate us. 😘

maybe the vaccine affected your senses then

@bones said in Super Rugby Trans Tasman:

@booboo I'll take back my like now, the previous edition was a thing of beauty.

I'm sober... promise

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@bovidae Yeah, I know. Our third choice Magpies hooker is playing no. 8 these days.

@donsteppa said in Your favourite conspiracy theories:

alt text

From: https://www.facebook.com/Scrooge-Mcshillbucks-278435345683756/?ref=page_internal

Astronots is quite good

@african-monkey probably close to Goodhue’s most complete game , there’s a superb moment where he drops a subtle offload to Gerard Crowley Tuioti gets slightly checked but is still the first player to clean out 30 metres down field when GCT is tackled , if that clean out does not happen , it’s probably a penalty and Akira Ioane does not score down the left flank ..I watched Ofa Tuangafasi who was jogging along like he’s was out strolling on a Sunday afternoon and yet was in the best position to be the first to clean out ..

@stargazer what else is a forum for? We discuss everything else. But sure, I'll leave it.

me, I am partial to a negroni or three.

Prohibition gin is good, enjoy 4 pillars spices negroni gin as well and if a i have to have one with tonic then like @shark preferbably fever tree

@machpants said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:

@kev said in Silver Lake buying a stake in the ABs?:

They have always presented this as the only option, done deal.

They have had their financial guys explore all the other options, and have mentioned them often. One would imagine the stakeholders got far more info about those discarded options than we have. Which sucks really, they need to engage the public as well as those that vote.

I haven’t seen any mention of the other options? Please provide.

I still remember Northland and Tasman being nominated to be permanently kicked out of top flight rugby by the management of NZRU. Same words used then. Forgive me if I doubt they have looked at all the options - just not possible. There are always more options - just depends on your mindset. Once we have sold 15% of our revenue to an overseas company who don’t care about Rugby we will never get it back.

I wonder if we have too many Businessmen on the board and we are just being told to drink the cool-aid. Most businesses are run on short term profitability objectives with high growth models, where selling assets to fund growth or for short term profit is part of business. I want a sustainable long term plan with NZ ownership all the way - non negotiable. Don’t care if the money is less in the short term.

@snowy said in Electric Vehicles:

@nta said in Electric Vehicles:

@snowy additionally, nobody talks fuel efficiency of ICEV towing. The range of a petrol or diesel vehicle is drastically affected by load in the same way as EV.

For sure. If I tow my digger around on the trailer fuel consumption goes up considerably behind the diesel hilux. If I tow the same trailer over a longer distance with the V8 car it isn't so noticeable.

Range anxiety isn't a thing when people can just pull over and fill up though.
E.G. If I was to tow my boat down to the bach with an EV I think that I would need 3 half hour stops to recharge and add 30% to the time traveling. So it is an issue depending on what you are doing.

A digger, a V8, a boat and a batch. Can I be your friend?

@rapido where did you get your numbers from? Is that from the PI unions? I see an improved picture for PI's that Moana and Drua will make even better. By my count the 10 super teams include these capped PI players: J Lay R Niuia Z Kapeli K Leaupepe M Alaalatoa F Paea H Stowers S Ili F Lomani H Taefu T Pulu S Funaki N Fomai. Surely more than 3 grew up in the Islands? There are other capped players around like Motuga Alosio and the other Lay. Beyond that are the likes of Macilai Bower Taulani Vunivalu Sorovi Tokolahi Finau Taukeiaho Kaituu Faamausili Tomkinson Kata Mataele Vahaakolo V Aso Cowley-Tuioti etc Perhaps some of them may commit to the Islands this winter to be in line for World Cup. Hopefully the two new super teams will give them confidence to do so knowing their country of origin is lifting out of the doldrums. I do hope my optimism is not entirely misplaced. And maybe the prospect of playing the All Blacks might influence some as an alternative to the remote prospect of playing for them...

@canefan It's good that the Breakers are taking the show on the road so hopefully the locals turn up in numbers.

@mn5 said in Rugby Commentators:

Maybe it just seems that way compared to Nisbo

Maybe. Or I was comparing him to the Oz commentators. My gold standard is the BBC's Andrew Cotter and I think Rikki Swannell gets the closest to that level.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/300309712/super-rugby-blistering-blues-challenged-to-show-some-transtasman-consistency

@machpants Haha, yeah, I saw some comments about that thumbnail and didn't understand why, because on my PC he looks quite normal.

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@higgins not much help when most of Second Grade didn't show up 😞

@toddy said in Waratahs v Hurricanes:

@machpants Like TJ vs Namibia?

Haha! When I saw MPs comment I immediately facepalmed thinking of that. Way to read the room...

The emblem looks very similar to the one used by the Waratahs one but from memory of my time in Samoa fifteen or so years back it bears a very strong resemblance to the beautiful Teuila (pronounced tay o wheeler if my memory can be relied upon) flower. I really wanted to bring one back to NZ with me but obviously couldn't due to MAF restrictions.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-Samoan-national-flower-What-is-its-significance

Woke up listening to this in my head

Dunno how tunes randomly appear in you subconscious. Yesterday it was

which I fucking hate

@higgins said in Chiefs 2021:

@dan54 said in Chiefs 2021:

@gt12 said in Chiefs 2021:

@bovidae

If he can become a reliable thrower, he’ll likely become an All Black.

If we had a trustworthy line out, we’d also likely shoot straight back to being the second or third best team in NZ (I know we finaled in SRA, but we got there through a bunch of lucky wins and Dmac’s boot).

With BBBR back we will automatically go from having lock be a position of weakness, to one of strength, but I’d like it if we had another younger player to bring through who is more clearly a lock, rather than a lock/6 or 6/lock.

However, with BBBR, Vaii, and Lord, I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Mate I don't see locks as being weak, I think Va'ai is as good a lock as any running around, and Ah Khuoi is not bad. Actually think when BBBR comes back him and Va'ai will be best locking set up in country.

He is not even a starter for the Wellington Lions. Whether that is because he is not rated by the Wgtn management or their love affair with their captain, J. Blackwell, is yet to be determined.

I think it's a given. Ah Kuoi has played really well at Super level. Lions are missing a trick if they don't use him.
Chiefs number 3 lock when BBBR is back.

@snowy don't worry Fozzie is untouchable for rugby vision and coaching skill
secure as coach

@chainsaw said in 2021 Hawke's Bay club rugby:

@stargazer said in 2021 Hawke's Bay club rugby:

@higgins Found it. Rakete-Stones is on the Norths team list for their game against Petone.

Pirate could have used him. They've been terrible, this year.

Yes sorry, he's playing for my club!
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Story goes that he insisted he would play for Norths, even though he was told he would play for some other club!

Let me guess. The other clubs he was told he had to play for would have been (in descending order) OBU, MSP, Petone followed by everyone else a huge distance behind those three..........................................

@mariner4life yeah, was another promising sign, our early win this season were all out in front, good to see that can shake off a bad start

@gt12 The caveat being relative poverty

George got in the break last night - and showed a bit more form than previously, though still not looking hugely impressive.

A group of 17 including George and Bouwman from TJV. Quite a few other strong riders - Mollema, LL Sanchez, Storer, Bouchard and a few others.

Seemed to me that George actually did more work on the front than Bouwman, which might explain what unfolded.

George made the first selection - four of them got away and then were joined by several others. That was his best bit and he looked pretty competitive - maybe 25kms from home.

Carr and Bouchard then got away late on that penultimate hill and they had 7-8 other guys chasing them across a big flat with a tail wind. That group split - with Mollema, Storer and Bouwman getting away and that was the end of George.

In the end Bouchard got clear for a long solo ride on the final hill. Bouwman broke away from his group and caught him on the final gravel section - but, it all came to a heart-breaking nothing - because Bernal led a withering burst from the GC riders who swamped them 500 metres from home.

Horrendous crash for Mohoric - don't watch if you're squeamish. It's a good thing he was wearing a helmet and not one of those little caps they wore in the 1970s.

https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/giro-d-italia/2021/matej-mohoric-taken-to-hospital-after-bike-snaps-in-two-in-awful-crash-at-giro-ditalia-on-stage-9_vid1475871/video.shtml

@victor-meldrew said in British Politics:

Just what the fuck is wrong with these people?

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https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/boris-johnson-london-robert-jenrick-st-john-s-wood-keir-starmer-b935445.html

The benefits of multiculturalism.

@stargazer Imagine the crowd down at Central Park if he turns out for CHB. They would have a pretty decent locking combination with BBBR and Tom Parsons.

Has Winger ever been knocked out in the first round of the Cup before?