I feel like the free world is at stake. A battle of good vs evil. Will we wake on Sunday morning to a scorched earth where 10-man rugby overlords have mercilessly crushed all opposition or will the larks be singing and the crickets chirping as running rugby once again spreads its verdant wings and rays of golden sunshine bathe a benevolent populace? These are troubling times my friends but let the blackness bring light.
TB said he would never coach Australia.
That’s AB credentials right there, jumps to the head of the queue.
I have a fundamental and philosophical problem with all this: why does being the child of a rugby star who earned and spent a lot of money entitle you to charity to pay for your later education?
Did Jonah have life insurance? Can Nadene work and provide for her kids? Etc.
I really liked Jonah but the aftermath of his passing and this saga is fairly unpalatable.
Saw this on the guardian
My mate has been given two tickets for the England vs Sweden game. He’s getting married today and can’t go. If you’re interested and want to go instead of him, it’s at 3 pm at St Mary’s in Bromley and her name’s Sarah.
I’m happy for Todd too.
Whether you support his selection or not always happy for a guy who didn’t throw a sook and head overseas at the first obstacle
@Mokey said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
If being an island and 5m population made beating the virus so super duper easy, how come Ireland has 25k cases and over 1600 deaths?
2 different political systems on the one island with no desire to put up a physical border again
Lots of contact with the UK one of the major epicentres of the virus
Ski holidays in Italy and France at the moment the virus took off
3 hours flight gets you to multiple destinations in Europe. 3 hours flight from NZ barely gets you to Australia
Cheltenham horse races at the time the virus was taking off
Not only flights but also ferries into Ireland/NI
Population density higher in Ireland than NZ
Socialising in pubs is what the Irish do, much more so than in NZ
And so on. It's a great achievement, but don't be turning into a smug self-satisfied Kiwi now please!
@Centreman said in Bledisloe 2:
Anyone here believe in Ofa Tu'ungafasi potential or talent as much as Shag and his fellow selectors as I am struggling to see his worth off the bench or even in the AB environment.
Would welcome some enlightenment here.
It seems to be flavour of the month to lay into Ofa. He's had limited opportunities, and he's been OK, without either being totally rubbish nor dazzling.
I think the jury is out, and personally I'm happy for him to be given some more time. Props invariably improve with age, and he's still only relatively young (25).
Bit surprised. Based on what I’ve been reading on the forum I expected lockdown level 4 to be extended till 2050.
@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
@Godder the price of vege's is truly a disgrace
NZ Business pre-election survey had something like 68% of companies in favour of paying the Living Wage so a rise to the minimum wage doesn't seem out of step with business sentiment
@Billy-Tell agree about Switzerland - unless you want to wash your car on a Sunday of course or disagree with the mandatory irony by-pass
Ha ha. You enjoy your cliches, I’ll enjoy my high standard of living. TBH Switzerland is made up of cantons which are each as different as the other. The Switzerland you think of is found in some of the German cantons.
Driving under the influence.
Smoked cannabis is no different than smoked tobacco when it comes to health.
If these issues are addressed I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to some sort of legalisation.
@Godder said in NZ Politics:
The 10 days sick leave is an E Tu policy remit I believe. The $20 minimum wage by April 2021 is current policy agreed with NZ First, so not much of an announcement.
How useful is a minimum wage? Is it just inflationary or does it actually help prevent exploitation? I live in Switzerland, where everyone is well paid, and interestingly there is no legal minimum wage. I’ve now lived in NZ, Australia, France, Ireland and Switzerland, and the latter is by far and away the best run country.
@junior said in US Politics:
@Kiwiwomble said in US Politics:
@kiwiinmelb said in US Politics:
I think this is the stuff that makes me think WTF is going on and I dont have a particular side ,
Fair call he gets called out for being a dick ,
When Obama was in office the middle east was a mess , their answer was to bomb the shit out the place ,isis was out of control as a result , north korea was looking scary ,
Trump seems to have brought calm to all of those issues , but mainstream media hardly touch it , they would rather make a story over a stupid tweet he made
the only thing to keep in mind is im sure its easier to bring piece AFTER isis has more or less been beaten, at very least on the retreat
and secondly, i'd love to know how much any president actually does in these matters, i have a sneaky suspicion that most of the work is done by the actual diplomats "on the ground" as it were, who may have been put in place by him, i dont know
I just get sick of hearing all the good stuff going on is 100% him...but all the bad stuff is 100% the last guys...which also ignores how inefficient he's been to fix things hes been left with
I'm sure thats the exact opposite of how trump fans feel on the media they dont like though, probably doesn't get any credit for the good and blamed for ALL the bad
The UAE and Israel have been working together unofficially for years, mainly sharing intel on the goings on of Iran (a lot of Iranian trade through Dubai). It's no surprise that Bahrain has also formalised relations, as they have a large proportion of Shi'a who get support from Iran (see what happened there during the Arab spring). This is really about the Arab Sunnis forming an alliance against the Shi'a / Iran with the help of (jewish) Israel. Also gives the Arab gulf countries access to Israeli defence systems and technology.
To put this all down to Trump is a bit far-fetched, as it is to describe it as a peace deal - Hamas will still continue to shoot rockets into Israel and will rely on supplies from Egypt (who've had diplomatic relations with Israel for years) and receive funding from Iran.
No no. It’s not far fetched at all. Trump wrote the textbook on deftly-handled diplomacy and this is his piece de resistance.
Would be nice for NZ to have a National Day to be proud to be kiwi. Rather than the acrimonious Waitangi Day “celebrations”. I haven’t a drop of Maori blood, but I’d be a fan of renaming the North & South Islands too. It’s good to see an increase in all things Maori
@Bones said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
@Crucial said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:
Good defensive coaches pour over tapes to find these flaws and neutralise good players.
No.
That’s a pore error.
Hard to get excited about this. I mean you need opposition.
