The Silver Fern

@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.

The Chiefs Brumbies showdown shapes as a beauty. The Chiefs will be tested and will need to be on their game for this one, any hiccups like against the Reds and they get bumfucked.

@nostrildamus The game against the Blues will be interesting for sure. He is still playing his way back into form, would be really happy to see Macca Springer emerge to be of a similar caliber. When looking at a highlights reel of Will Jordan some of his tries are quite freakish.

Watched bits of this. Very puzzled by refereeing at the tackle. Reds had immunity to take out anyone and come in from any angle. I know many refs are now tolerant and rarely pull up attackers but I thought this was extreme. Commentary was a bit ott so I fast forwarded a lot. Interesting to see how Reds go v NZ teams with this tactic.

@Bones said in Force v Highlanders:

@SBW1 said in Force v Highlanders:

Surely something can be done to help them out.

It's rugby. A couple of years ago it was the chiefs, for close to a decade it was the blues.

We're all getting a bit too dramatic when a team has an off season, even though it's regular as clockwork.

No helping out needed, the pendulum will swing, right?

i get what your saying but i dont think its that simple, some teams definitely have longer or higher highs, even when it was the blues you could see the potential, it was more of a "why aren't they better" kind of deal, huge population, major city more attractive to live in even had several all blacks that just weren't firing at super level.....dunedin cant claim those things when trying to attract new players

@KiwiMurph Not for the first time, either. He has a bit of a history.

Just want to whinge about Nisbo taking about Boothe

His name is Booth

I know ...I know....first world problem...

But Booth ...

That Ferris Wheel! 🫨

more seriously...how good were the jerseys, hoops looked great and we stuck with wearing maroon in southland, the only time i was happy for both teams to be wearing change strips

WTF?
That puts them above the Saders in the table.

@Tim said in Force v Rebels:

@KiwiMurph how did Ekuasi go?

Didn't do much. Got on second half but couldn't make much of an impact.

This is pretty cool from the Canes sending Thrushy off.

They all struggle. Lindenmuth hasn't kicked on from his age-group days and gets dominated at NPC level.

@Crucial

Given that Stevenson is probably part of our best back three (leaving, I assume, which is why he is unsighted), I'd say our best back three should be (11) ENS, (14) Lowe, (15) Stevenson.

However, McMillan will have to select his BOP baby, so the best we can hope for is ENS, Lowe, and Trask.

@Machpants thanks for explaining a bit more than "he's not a normal 1st 5"

that makes sense, my feeling was he was running a lot but trying to feed and distribute, not just going to ground like a crash ball, so to a dumb front rower it just looks like another form of play making, just the opposite end of the scale to a first 5 whole kicks everything away

Some of that Crusaders defence in the second half was very impressive.

Series of dominant tackles driving the Force ballcarriers backwards.

A great deal more enthusiasm and intent than the previous week.

@Chris-B said in Force v Blues:

@African-Monkey He's only 20 so far from the finished article.

According to his stats a centimetre shorter than Read, which looks about right.

He doesn't look fast enough to be a 7 to me, so pack a bit of weight on him and play him as a 6/8.

I think he'll end up an Ethan Blackadder/Luke Jacobson type loosie ie, can cover all 3 backrow positions. Agree with you even at 108KG he doesn't seem quick enough to be a 7. Also looks like he'll put on 5KG without sacrificing mobility.

Can not believe that the Force elected to kick the penalty, and then keep kicking the ball away when they're behind on the scoreboard.

@crucial it was a very odd one, it didnt look like he was trying to do anything, almost like he froze with indecision about what he was going to do at all, in the end he simply stood in the way and 2 heads clashed.

I have no doubt it was simply a complete mis-read of the situation, zero intent for anything at all, but 2 heads clashed, hard. So red card was always the answer, but this is where the 20-min red works.

@crucial my bins are outside your house, you could just place it in there.

@old-samurai-jack said in Force v Reds:

Yeah, how good was O'Connor! Impressive performance.

O'Connor and Paisami were impressive. I was surprised how well Paisami stepped into first receiver. He has always been able to distribute but organising off 2nd/3rd phase ball was impressive. The shot he put on Mataele outside of the legality was Sam Tuitupou like.

@nta said in Rebels v Force:

@kiwimurph said in Rebels v Force:

Why the hell is Carter Gordon benched?

The problem is they have a rubbish 9 (Powell).

Yo-yo-ing isn't going to help young Carter Gordon

And To'omua isn't a 10. Kills whatever attacking opportunity is left after Powell fucks around at the base

I not convinced Toomua is all that good at 10 either NTA, I really like him, (probably because I knew him as young player at my club) but have always thought he was better at 12.

@nostrildamus hopefully downstairs wasn't a Queen of the Desert style bar.

@nevorian Good recruiting by the Force thanks to Forrester's 💰 ; several of them older players, which shows the importance of experience. Unfortunately to them, they're also going to lose some of their players after this season. For example, IIRC both Cubelli and Miotti have signed in France. But maybe they'll manage to sign some of this year's returnees to take their place.

That loop de loop try is one of the more embarrassing things I have seen on a football field

@stargazer I knew he had spent time in Northland, was looking up something a few weeks ago and his wiki page said he was born in Perth, if you cant trust Wiki, what can you trust!!

The way Tiatia was playing it was more likely to be a try for the Force at the other end of the field.

@bovidae said in Force v Reds:

I think they have changed the rules to avoid club games counting for a suspension.

This was one of the changes made ahead of the 2017 SR season:

In the determination of an incident and the handing down of any sanctions, the committee will now have the ability to exclude any regular season Super Rugby byes as part of a meaningful sanction. This is a significant change and will ensure all sanctions issued during Super Rugby are treated consistently across all teams.

News News

It seems the Judiciary in the recent cases in SR AU considers missing club rugby games as part of a "meaningful sanction", or the Juriciary Process introduced in 2017 is no longer applied.

Identical situation to Chiefs last night with a defensive penalty with under a minute to play. But unbelievably bad throw to ultimately cost match. Ironic.

@duluth said in Rebels v Force:

@gunner

They won against the Tahs in Sydney.

🤭 😏

Oh that's right, I remember now.

@arhs Jordan Smiler is another Waikato player who ended up at the Brumbies. Speight for the backs.