@chris-b said in Has Hansen gone stale?:

@mokey said in Has Hansen gone stale?:

@mariner4life Can you imagine trying to explain those years to kids nowadays.
Well, poppets, we had some rough times. The Wallabies were on top of the world. Locks kicked. Richie cried. Anton couldn't count. The French routed us. John was on a journey...

Has someone still got that Gorgeous Grogan post as he rode into the sunset...?

Ladies, Gentlemen and Adults of Indeterminate and/or Transitional Gender

May I present to you Peak Fern, the most awesome post ever.  Shared by long lost and departed @Gorgeous_Grogan (I added the @ just in case he’s still lingering …) the day after 23 October 2011 …

Enjoy.

(Sorry cloud image didn't work ... imagine it )

---

Ding dong the Witch is dead

Today, without a hint of overstatement, I can now die a happy man. Before I indulge you as to why first look at this picture of lovely little clouds...

(Cloud image)

They are as light and as fluffy as my soul today.

Now look outside your window gentlemen. Does the sun not shine a little brighter today? Does the grass not appear a little greener? Does the World not appear as though it has returned to a blissful harmonious state after seeming strangely off-kilter for the last 2 and a half decades or so? As you listen to birds warbling "The Hallelujah Chorus" in glorious symphonic unison, contemplate this simple truth...

Our team, yes OUR team.....are Champions of the World.

In the last World Cup of our lifetimes to be played on home soil, the annointed spiritual guardians of our great game have faced their demons, and stared them down. With an irresistible fusion of pure, concentrated mana, Aaron Crudens' lefty, and the terrifying power of an all-consuming Blackness, they have inscribed their indelible legacy into the pages of history forevermore. And if that act wasn't sufficiently "Brad Thorn" enough, we did it.....

...Without Dan Carter
...Without Dan Carters replacement
...We even did it without our cancer surviving, mono-bollocked, rough-headed Carter-replacement-replacement for fucks sake, it reads like a hollywood script. (Come on Peter Jackson, get off your arse and do something for New Zealand, prove you're still street. "Invictus II - The Redemption", it's as good as written)
...We did it with half a McCaw
...Against the Wallabies in a sudden death semi-final
...Twice against France
...In the style and spirit of the '87 pioneers (We even did it with cute little white collars on)
...With so many others gleefully, even desperately willing us to choke

Furthermore, for once our unparalleled player depth actually DID count for something at the pointy end. The Cartel redeemed themselves. The Duck redeemed himself. After falling twice Richie McCaw (The greatest living New Zealander bar none, now surely the undisputed greatest All Black, possibly player, of all time and general all round good fluffybunny) finally gets his reward (and probably an instant knighthood, a minted coin, maybe a postage stamp and at the very least an undie commercial).

Yes, for today my friends, we finally lay to rest the ghosts of failed campaigns, heartbreaking memories of drop goals in overtime, intercepts, forward passes, and explosive diaherrea. Tears of grief, humiliation and ridicule, missed opportunities, disastrous selection policy, fate, merciless sledging, raw disbelief and referees. Of fallen warriors such as Cullen, Jonah, Zinzan and Tana who deserved more for the blood they spilt in black and who fought and fell on foreign soil, with the Silver Fern on their chest.

Today is a rebirth.

Today I can watch rugby and actually enjoy it again (rather than through my fingers, with a burning, twisting knot of anxiety and nausea in my stomach)

Today I will no longer have to wonder if we will EVER win another world cup.

Today we no longer have to hear the "Choker" tag burning in our ears (usually from supporters who jump on the French because their own teams have been knocked out long before us, might I add)

Today I no longer have to hear the (annoyingly inaccurate and lazy) cliche about the All Blacks peaking between World Cups or about "losing their aura"

Today that evil little goblins' "Four more years" sledge suddenly hurts no more.

Today I will no longer have to watch our team flog themselves to exhaustion season after season trying to live up to impossible expectations under intense public scrutiny, conquering all before them, winning test after test yet always having one eye on an looming World Cup which will apparently invalidate it all (but we've still got our 85% winning record right guys?.....Guys?)

Today I no longer have to endure losing a World Cup and then listening to pasty, bandwagon-jumping, fair-weather twats with shit ginger Tarquin haircuts who know less than nothing about rugby, regurgitating the latest bullshit trendy newsfeed narrative that's been fed to them as though they have aaaaaaany fucking idea what they're talking about.

Today I became genuinely impervious to any bitter trolling that Welsh "journalists" may scrawl about the All Blacks. Negative articles will now simply slide right off like so much dust off a gumboot (as opposed to previously, when it was more like say, irritating dog turd nuggets mashed right into the sole, requiring a stick or some other implement to extricate from the tread, and even though you're sure you got it all there always still seems to be a vague lingering turdy smell following you around all day, even after you've given them a couple of good goings over with the hose, (maybe you got a bit on your sleeve).......Anyway, what I was getting at is that the petty squealing of "the Irrelevant" matters not when you're the World Champions. Yep you heard that right, WORLD CHAMPIONS...(And yes, even now when they'll probably just put out articles claiming we can only win the thing at home)

Today brothers and sisters, "The Curse" has lifted.

As pathetic as it may sound, after the continual gut-wrenching failure and heartache I have endured for my entire adult life, over a quarter of a century, today IS that important. Indeed we may never lift another world cup in my lifetime. But to me at least, it simply no longer matters. Say it with me now.....It No. Longer. Matters. We knocked the bastard off. The searing agony of 4.5 million Kiwis has been extinguished, and now we all get to ride off merrily into the sunset to our pre-planned victory parade in our big-arsed jumbo with our front row repainted all over the front. See kids? Dreams do come true.

All Blacks.................Fuck yeah!

13 from 14 after missing 800+ caps.

Chuck Bledisloe retained.

Perfect Rugby Championship.

A few noobs introduced.

Continue to fuck with the minds of the northern tinfoil brigade.

The only black spot(s) being the result in Chi town, and perhaps the performances at Eden Park and Dublin (and to a lesser extent Paris) where we won on defence (which is a good thing).

Generally a solid B+ for me.

On review we didn't mess too much with the First XV throughout with the exception of Italy. However injury allowed us some pseudo rotation.

I think we need to confirm a 3rd hooker.

Our top 4 props are good. Next in line needs some looking at. Ofa cops a bit of slack but he held up OK. Laulala and Moli bear looking at next year.

Locks. Top 2 are top 2. Romero has some work to do to stay in front of Barrett. Pat T was a bit of a disappointment on tour. Wanted him to meast it up. Think he suffered from lack of game time. Think he's one of those guys who gets better the more they play. So won't write him off. Bird in the background is worth remembering too.

Loosies: apologies from me to Matt Todd. I didn't think he was Test class. He is. He's not Sam Cane but he's not bad. Ardie at this stage has his niche in the pine.

We missed JK at 6 in Chicago. And I don't think either Squire or Dixon are his replacement. As I have said elsewhere I think Luatua is a more like-for-like replacement. Ioane may be a bench option.

Read was quiet, but hardly a passenger. A long term replacement 8 is needed too. Ioane is not that yet IMO.

Halfbacks. We're well served. We all know about Smith's form dip. Disappointing. But a month or two off to get his head right will do him a world of good.

TJ's form has been a huge plus.

Back up from TKB, Weber and Pulu and there's plenty of depth.

When you consider Lima Sopoaga is rated the 3rd 10 we're doing good there.

BB killed it this year. AC still looks really good even if he is not BB.

As always we need to consider who else is around. Need at least 4 10s one of whom can whitebait. DMac must be in the mix I suppose.

Midfield. Well after starting the year with this area as a point of major panic, whilst it's not a weapon currently it's not the weakness it could gave been.

ALB looks the part. Crotty makes whoever he is there with look good. Fekitoa has his moments. Moala runs hard and straight. Reiko (just for @GT12) looked comfortable in his outings. Tamanivalu may be a bit of a work on.

Given SBW will be around, Barrett Jr will have a full SR campaign, and Charlie Ngatai may be over his head knocks (hopefully - for his sake as much as anything else) we're not thin at 12/13.

Wings. We had our moments. Savea was up and down. He suffered a lot from reputation lag though. If he didn't score from 35m out and only beat one tackler he was "useless". Some of the criticism was justified some of it wasn't. Naholo had flashes but I'm sure we hoped for a bit more. Given we were forced to play Dagg at 14 says something about the depth and form of our wings.

Ioane could be additional cover here and if course NMS will hopefully be back. Nanai may be an option too.

BFA was excellent through the year. Dagg excellent deputy.

Considering though that Dagg was the best option at wing we need to look for depth in the back 3. As above NMS covers this and Nanai has been in the mix. Proctor may be on the fringes.

With regard to tactics I think teams have worked out that they can't kick it back to us. So they hold on to the ball more. Hence we've had to defend. And by crikey the defence has been awesome. Teams may have worked out that they need to hold on to the ball, they just need to learn how to hold on to it and do something with it to break that defence.

In a lot of ways we've slowly been dragged back to the pack from where we were at the start of the season .. or at least the chasing pack has caught us a little.

I think Aussie at Eden Park looked dangerous and have backed that up (even allowing for Ireland result).

Not sure of some of our tactics. Plenty of times I'd have liked to work the corners rather than a half pie kick which turned over possession 60m out. We did that too much against Aus at EP, Ireland and France. And they were all good enough to take advantage and mount attacks. Deeper kicks would have put more pressure on.

Anyway. My 2c.

@baron-silas-greenback said in Convicts v Marxist Land Thieves - Crucket:

@baron-silas-greenback And for the record I have spoken to someone who has played with and against Warner about the very topic of sledging and abuse. And he is indeed pretty feral. Off the field he is apparently a bloody nice guy and less arrogant than most of his teamates. But nothing more than a number of other players. He just gets pumped on the field and crosses the line more often than others.
The reaction to him over this is disgusting and more feral than Warner.

Oh good. He's a nice bloke away from cricket. That makes his on field behaviour ok then...

I'm sure we all have aspects of our lives where we act differently in different situations.

I'm sure some people can be really really nice when they're not posting on internet forums.

I'm backing Razor.

Fuck Schmidt.

@mimic said in Aussie Rugby in general:

@Machpants said in Aussie Rugby in general:

@Bones yeah faith is not greater than hate speech

What was it that he said that was hate speech?

**Note: I haven't seen what was posted by Izzy, only that people are hating on him.

Can I please wade in on this?

I'll declare my agnosticism first up, which includes some time toying with Christianity.

So ...

I don't think it is hate speech.

At no point has Folau said homosexuals should go to hell.

He has said they will.

Important distinction.

Especially given it appears his belief is that homosexuality is a sin. And that it is something you have control over.

Again, let me qualify that this is not my belief. But I understand how it could be the belief of a committed Christian.

Let's face it, plenty of people have opinions and beliefs that fly in the face of widely accepted and often scientifically proven fact. Climate science, vaccination, flat earth, gender to name but a few.

Secondly, as a Christian, if he's doing it right, he's praying peeps don't head off to the hot place. If you're a true Christian you don't wish that on anyone. (I find it awfully hypocritical when supposedly Christian people wish someone would rot in hell. Aren't we all meant to be able to be redeemed? John 3:16 (look it up) and all that? I recall the sign in the Sydney church getting some publicity that "God loves Osama bin Laden".)

But I digress...

It is conceivable that he is reaching out to these people he believes are sinning and that, as "Only Jesus saves", he's doing his best to save their mortal souls.

Frankly I don't think he's very bright. I don't agree with him. But I don't think he deserves the level of derision he's getting.

@no-quarter said in England vs All Blacks:

Bloody French refs

Awesome Saffer TMOs.

Always liked them

How does this get to be a Republicans v Democrats debate?

Seriously.

It's a "is it ok to be a maggot because he's got money and influence?" v. "Should people be decent human beings?" debate?

@canerbry said in Are there any All Blacks wildcards left ?:

@crucial A weak reply from a weak position, at the support of the age old notion that Cantab players are written off by the pig island circle jerk due to ugly jealousy.

Watch Bridge.

Look! Someone caught a @Canerbry !

@No-Quarter said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #3:

Excellent work Booboo, great to see Aura coming back strong after the weekends loss. Mystique is a little more of an unknown but in combination with Aura that should be too much for the Lions to handle.

We are so auragant

@chimoaus said in The Folau Factor:

gay people can marry and have as much sex as they like.

So gay people do marriage differently?

ABC reported there were 45 subjects. But none had adverse reactions, most got anti body reactions.

But 45 isn't many

@MiketheSnow said in British Politics:

@Frank said in British Politics:

Fuck Huawei ha ha

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/huawei-uk-ban-boris-johnson-5g-network-oliver-dowden-today-a9617886.html

Watched the BBC 10pm News last night

5 stories
Huawei and 5G
Ghislaine Maxwell Denied Bail
Economic downturn in UK and unepmployment
Blackburn next town to be locked down
Queen talking to members of the armed forces via Zoom

Surely to christ they should have led with

Blackburn
because if you don't sort your shit out the UK economy is going to get even worse

then the other shit

Huawei and 5G a smokescreen

You don't think missing off the world's only Super Power is the big story?

@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:

@rotated Mitchell was the only other contender for leader. Deputy was contested but don't know who else stood.

Labour has a stuffy white guy as Deputy too. I don't think that matters a much as the Chch rebuild taint.

I think National's only hope of winning is t adopt the following strategy

• Immediately rule out working with NZF. Stop any right leaning voter going with them and hope they fail to get 5%

• Hammer the govt on the economy. Have 5 broad attack points and keep to them. Everyone stays on script no more fuck ups.

• Collins goes hard but attacks policy not person. Look authoritative not belligerent and substantial not presidential

• Shore up the Nat vote - these two have been chosen to do that. By all accounts. Collins is quite popular with the party at large. They have had her as leader after English - it was her caucus that stymied her

• Hope the above gives them close to where they poled in 2017 and that ACT can bring in 5 or 6 MP's and its game on.

• A total fuck up at the border - say a community outbreak would help too....

Isn't it Kelvin Davis?

Looks like most things have been covered.

Was last in Kaitaia about two years ago for Mum's 90th, then a few months later for her funeral.

Admittedly it was winter and a little dank and dark but crikey it had regressed. Much of the town centre was government agencies and social organisations and a lot of businesses had followed the Supermarket and The Warehouse out to the edge of town.

What used to be the flash hotel/motel is now social housing so am not sure about accommodation options.

Somebody mentioned Taipa for accommodation. That'd work well.

Other stuff.

May be worth loking into a cruise on the Whangaroa Harbour. Little known gem.

No-one has mentioned the Milk Run or Hole in the Rock or even dolphin cruises out from Paihia.

Treaty House is must do.

Is the original Kelly Tarlton museum on the boat still going? Used to be moored near the bridge over to Waitangi. Not sure of quality if indeed it's still there.

Puketi forest inland from Kerikeri is good, nearly as good as Waipoua just no Tame Mahuta.

Glow worm cave as mentioned South of the BoI isn't bad as mentioned.

Plenty of other historic sites around as well, battlefields, Pas, churches, missions, The Stone Store etc

On the way to the Cape (of course you can bus instead of drive, and I assume they still go up or down (tide dependent) 90 Mile Beach) stop at Ka Uri in Awanui where they make stuff out of the Kauri they dig out of the swamp. And Gumdiggers Park near Waiharara (a locality, not a town ) which is as the label says , an old kauri gum diggers village.

Cape is as Tim said amazing. Was there about 5 years ago. Did pick our day: weather was perfect and pretty calm but felt a real buzz.

Local Kaitaia bus company used to run a trip called The Tutu which was a four wheel drive bus up the hills behind Ahipara at the South end of 90 Mile. Took in the gumfields up there, then back across the big sand dunes (with a bit of tabogganing), possibly the chance to grab some mussels off the rocks , and crawling back round the coast to Ship Wreck Bay. Worth a look if still running.

If you head down the West coast be careful of the Mangamukas if you get car sick kids :). Scenic if you can stand the twisting.

But worth heading that direction to jump the car ferry from Kohukohu to Rawene. Cuts out a lot of travel too.

Gets you to Opononi and Omapere then Waipoua.

That went on a bit.

All of the above is subject to change since I no longer live there, nor visit regularly any more.

@canefan said in NZ Politics:

So who will they pick now? I don't see anyone who harbours serious designs on being leader longterm wanting this. Mitchell? Adams? Crusher? The outlook is bleak

Would love to see Crusher gave a crack. But I reckon she thinks losing the election rules her out going forward. Reckon she's lining up the next one.

My opinion is she'd get a good run at both.

But perhaps she doesn't want to be seen to lose one.