The Silver Fern

@frugby Oli Mathis is in the Waikato Academy, so will be committed to the Chiefs.

@nostrildamus said in Final: Chiefs v Crusaders:

pakman is supposed to be a Blues fan? Should be all out of tears!

He’s getting in practice for next year

@cgrant Hell I reckon Vai'i has been bloody good all year, mind you I a real Lord fan too.

Impressive from McReight -

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@Dan54 said in Force v Chiefs:

@Crucial Mind you, I don't recall commentators hardly ever calling tghe tackler's name anyway, or someone who has done grunt work, ie climbing of ground repeatedly. They do on odd occasion, and to be fair to them you can't name everyone involved while play is in motion.

True but this bloke made 20 tackles and you hardly heard his name.

This was a nice game to watch today, hearing the least educated rugby crowd again making the most noise whinging.

I agree but I wouldn’t mind Moorby on the right wing when Love returns. He kind of reminds me of Jane, has speed, a good fend and is strong for his size, pretty sound under the high ball aswell.

I think the Chiefs game was a little out of the norm. The Canes are not normally left short in the kicking department but with Love and Cameron injured, Barrett unavailable and Godfrey with the Under 20s we kind of ran out of options.

@ploughboy said in Chiefs v Reds:

interesting moli only got time when ryan had hia

I thought that maybe because they needed to hold someone back on bench, there were getting to be a lot of injuries in their forwards.

@Stargazer said in Highlanders v Chiefs:

@Frank I can write my opinion when I want to. Deal with it! It being a minority opinion doesn't make it more fluffing than when you read most other threads where posters say something positive about a player. I'm passionate about my team and players. I also rather look at the positives than the negatives (if present). You should try it sometimes. Much better than the constant moaning on the Fern by a bunch of GOM.

Nah, being a GOM is way more fun.

@ploughboy said in Chiefs v Crusaders:

@Crucial said in Chiefs v Crusaders:

Watched Stevenson try a few times to try and work out how DMAc had such a huge hole to run into.
Havili totally misread the play and bit in on a forward runner well after the pass out the back from Gatland was made.
I still have no idea what Christie and Ennor were doing charging up out wide as if DMac was going to pass before running.
Really poor defence and good taking advantage of it.

crusaders took the space outside dmac away in the first half, filled there lines with defenders. which will be why christie and ennor rushed up. dummy runnerin close fotced them to take him and make a different destion . good coaching who ever made the change at half time

Good point on them taking up the space out wide but in this case they failed to stay connected. The reason I rewatched is that they created such a huge hole.
Havili wasn't forced to come in, he misread the play IMO although I think RM had two runners coming at him so given his defensive weaknesses maybe Havili thought he had no option. Not a good sign for the ABs and will have been written down by other coaches with glee.
Would have to watch the phases beforehand to work out why the backline D was so out of order. It appeared to be RM, DH, TC, BE. Neither Saders or Chiefs had any wingers in that direction and Burke was MIA for the Saders.

@Bovidae said in Chiefs v Drua:

@ARHS said in Chiefs v Drua:

If no Nankivell or ALB, Wrampling starts ahead of Rona in my view.

Hopefully Nankivell is back, otherwise I expect Rona to start again. Wrampling is being used as a 2nd 5, like Poihipi, so one of them would have to play out of position as a combination.

I want us to start with Finau over Sowakula also.

Who starts at 6 will be the big call. Watching the replay today, I was interested to see Finau say he is about 1.96 m/118 kg, so taller and heavier than officially listed.

Geez that Finau has the looks of a bloody good blindside, and has for a couple of years! Really excited to see how far he goes.

@Crazy-Horse said in Hurricanes v Chiefs:

@Winger said in Hurricanes v Chiefs:

I would prefer either Barrett or Godfrey at first for this reason alone.

Have you seen Godfrey at 10?

He played at 10 when he came on at Levin in preseason and I commented then how much potnetial he had, good boot and running etc.
In saying that I also commented on how badly Morgan kicked out of hand that day, and if it is a problem and rest of game is good perhaps using someone else off line is the answer?

@number9 said in Chiefs v Blues:

@Tim the coaches are distracted mate we will struggle against the Rebels.

Might be something to that!

I finally had a chance to watch this game. Good to see Wrampling have a strong game until he had to leave the field with cramp. I hadn't realised he was still so young, being eligible for the U20s next year too. Gabe Robinson did his NZ U20 chances no harm either.

@ploughboy said in Waratahs v Chiefs:

i feel we are strugling at tighthead this season. ryan not us good as last season and dyer finding his feet.

Yeah, Ryan is finding the scrummaging is different in SR compared to Europe. The main thing is just to have a solid platform on your own ball.

@Stargazer said in Chiefs v Rebels:

@KiwiMurph said in Chiefs v Rebels:

Late change

DMac in for Ioane on the bench

Not because of an injury. Sad to read on Ioane's instagram that his father passed away (cancer).

The black armbands suggested someone had died.

@Steven-Harris said in Chiefs v Highlanders:

Dawai has been good

His best game for the Highlanders I thought. Not a big sample size so far though. 🙂

@cgrant said in Moana Pasifika v Chiefs:

There is also Finau in contention for a bench spot. I like his physicality.

I'm a fan too, but I was still surprised he made the bench in game 1.

The Chiefs are short on THP

Yes, and the injuries to Ta'avao and Moli haven't helped, which is why there was an SOS to Ryan. Dyer is only 23. The majority of the young props in the Chiefs system that I am familiar with are LHs.

@Crucial Any idea if Alex Harford will feature this year for the Saders?