@kiwiinmelb "Nice guns, Sonny".

"Thanks, Jack - I like your hair".

@Siam said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

Wags out. Baby coming.

But don't worry Henry called up

Don't know why Mrs. Wags can't do this on her own - the delivery is bound to be short, or very short!

@mn5 said in All Blacks v Argentina - Nelson:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Argentina - Nelson:

Shit team in a shit location. lucky the Warriors are on

DO NOT diss Nelson you Queensland Bogan fluffybunny.

Ignore him, MN5.

What would a fucker who lives in Cairns know about locations? He's choosing to live in a swamp, inhabited by nasty, poisonous biting creatures - and that's just the people, don't get me started on the wildlife.

In fact, do. Go to the beach - get eaten by a crocodile. Go for a run - get bitten by a snake. Go for a shit - get bitten by a spider. Go anywhere and get bitten by dengue-ridden mosquitos or some other fucking insect largely unknown to science.

Go to the pub and be entertained by Tex Morton and his pet bantam, Stu - singing "Blue Bayou" - a song about living in a swamp.

In summary, he wouldn't know a good location if it bit him on the arse - and in Cairns it probably will!

How have I never seen Pinky the Loving Cat before?

@sparky said in Savea goooone Skudder in:

@Crucial Selling Comics.

Worst Wing Ever!

Well, that was pretty exciting and given that I hate losing far more than I like winning, I'm remarkably sanguine about the result.

I think some of you guys are being pretty harsh on the execution. The Lions defence was extremely good - no weak links - and I think the ABs decided they needed some pieces of magic to score. Maybe a lack of patience at times, but the two tries we scored both had a fair degree of magic to them - especially the second one. Taking pop passes into a close defensive line and getting smashed isn't the best way of retaining the ball - but, it's also a good way of breaking the line. On another night we could have scored four or five tries - we certainly created opportunities - especially in the first half.

I haven't really seen a massive decline in Hansen's coaching - we just came up against a team chock full of talented players and with the depth to match and possibly better the advantage we usually get from the subs bench - particularly once we lost a few players.

On the final penalty, I guess Poite will give a Gallic shrug and say something like "Il n’est pas la bonne décision, mais c’est la belle décision."

Which means, "It is not the right decision, but it is the beautiful decision." At least that's what I typed into Babelfish to get that result!

Right now, the Crusaders have won the same number of games as the Australian teams combined.

@mariner4life

Firstly, good effort Wallabies. Turns out last week's first half effort was more of a fluke than the second half.

I was wondering about that - but, we were at home this week and struggled to win.

Secondly - fail on behalf of the AB coaches not to identify that. We spent quite a lot of this game playing like the result was a foregone conclusion and buried ourselves in a ditch for a while by not playing proper test rugby.

Thirdly - Man of the match - Nepo Laulala. If our scrum had been less dominant in that game, we would have been well beaten. Coles and Moody can take residual credit. No more of this Ofa bullshit, Hansen!!!

Fourthly - second man of the match, Rieko Ioane. Looked like an AB back out there, when several others didn't.

Fifthly - show some class Chieka. It's not fucking soccer!!!

@Billy-Webb said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

@Crazy-Horse said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

@Billy-Webb said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

@cgrant said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

If the ABs lose this game, it shouldtn't be a disaster as the Boks would then face England in the semi final.

@Billy-Tell said in RWC All Blacks v South Africa:

But we would have to face the number 1 side in the world in the quarter final !!!

It's a squeaky tight RWC this time around.
I don't think either the Bok or AB camp see an easier side of the draw developing.
So while each team would desperately want to win the opening pool encounter, I don't think either will be devastated by a loss.

The NZ public and media will go into meltdown if the ABs lose. The Fern will implode...

Let me be so presumptuous as to speak on behalf of New Zealanders and the Fern: Nah, I think you're wrong.

There won't be dancing in the streets, but there won't be wailing and gnashing of teeth either.

Hmmm, I think there will be a bit of wailing and gnashing.

Look at what happened after the loss to Oz.

Hansen's innumerable selection errors will be highlighted.

Whoever played on the wing will be culpable. The midfield selections will be wrong - and the lack of combination developed an appalling oversight. The two pivots theory a disaster - need out best first five playing first five and our best fullback playing fullback. Playing two opensides will be ridiculous. Either Barrett or Tuipolotou should have started, but both of them are sacks of shit and we are fucked without Brodie. Crazy leaving Owen Franks at home and Joe Moody cannot catch a cold. Taylor should have started with Coles on the bench (or vice-versa). Read is too old. Crotty and SBW too injury prone. About 12 of the squad are known mental defectives and most of the others have tits for hands.

@snowy said in Michael Jones:

Kronfeld might sneak onto to said mountain but he does have some serious competition from previous decades. One of the Boomers will let us know I'm sure.

Hell yes.

Waka Nathan, John Graham, Kevin Eveleigh, Ken Stewart....

Has to be noted that Nathan and Graham played (I think) much or all of their careers while the ABs still played left and right flankers - we were a bit slow to recognize and adapt to the superior blind and open system.

Doesn't it have to be foul play to be referred for anything other than a try?

That's not foul play!!!

That's fuck all!!!

@kirwan said in Highlanders 2021:

@chris said in Highlanders 2021:

@nepia said in Highlanders 2021:

@snowy said in Highlanders 2021:

@nostrildamus said in Highlanders 2021:

@snowy said in Highlanders 2021:

@billy-tell said in Highlanders 2021:

I remain scarred by Michael jones vs Argentina. Each time there is a knee injury I think « career in jeopardy ». Jones came back but he was never as good.

Didn't he play 6 mostly after that? Had a bit of a different role and wasn't quite as visible? Or has my memory failed me - again...

It is shit news about Fakatava. It looks like most of us thought he was going to be in Black this year. Just have to hope it isn't as bad as we fear.

Yes but Jones speed factor set him apart in that era until the injury. Not a bad tackler though. He also played 8 for Auckland if I recall correctly.

Yeah think I saw him at 8. The move to six was due to the loss of speed you mentioned, and in a very rare Fern occurrence we could both / all be right.
He was better as a seven until his knee was fucked, slowed down a bit, played six. Was still very good. How does that sound?

Best 7 we’ve ever had and then 2nd best 6 of the past 30 years.

In this bloke’s opinion anyway.

Nah McCaw IMO Best 7

It's a good problem to have, arguing between two of the greats. McCaw in the professional era, Jones in the amateur. Sorted.

I think you're pretty much right.

Different eras.

MJ would need to pack on nearly 10kgs to play 7 these days - and 10 cm to play 6.

http://stats.allblacks.com/asp/profile.asp?ABID=443

@snowy said in Dumbing down of cricket:

What next a one ball game, for those that can only count that high?

That's actually got massive marketing potential...I might have a go at promoting it.

I shall call it, "Hitler Cricket"!

@stargazer You'll see that I wrote "really kicked on" and the really has meaning.

I'd imagine that the selectors of that team didn't just pull names out of the hat, but mainly picked guys they thought had genuine promise.

Not really reflecting on the players - but, if I was the selectors I'd be a bit disappointed at the outcomes to date.

However, it's subjective, so I can be disappointed and you not!

@stargazer I probably would have expected a few more ABs - BUT also a few more who are now genuine first choice players in their Super franchises.

Four years later and I'd say only Ross, Goodhue and Reece fall into that category.

@bovidae It's slightly surprising how few of these guys have really kicked on given it should have been sort of a development team.

@booboo said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:

@chris-b said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:

@act-crusader said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:

@crazy-horse Douglas is a good NPC player and that’s it in my opinion.

We are missing Todd’s breakdown work and more importantly his link play. None of our current crop seem to support in attack.

A few years back Dunshea had a storming game for an invitation XV vs the B&I Lions, yet he's barely featured in the loose forwards since as far as I can recall. They're shifting SBarrett to 6.

He's been excellent from the bench the last couple of games has Dunshea.

Sanders should be better for his run.

Dunshea
Loose forwards

Que?

I missed out the crucial point that he was playing No. 8 that day - and he was a stand out.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/rugby-new-zealand-provincial-barbarians-name-side-to-take-on-lions/YU7IDE2UE353JVLU274FZPASJU/

@act-crusader said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:

@crazy-horse Douglas is a good NPC player and that’s it in my opinion.

We are missing Todd’s breakdown work and more importantly his link play. None of our current crop seem to support in attack.

A few years back Dunshea had a storming game for an invitation XV vs the B&I Lions, yet he's barely featured in the loose forwards since as far as I can recall. They're shifting SBarrett to 6.

He's been excellent from the bench the last couple of games has Dunshea.

Sanders should be better for his run.

@act-crusader said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:

@chris-b said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:

@arhs said in Hurricanes v Crusaders:

Campbell was much better than Hall too. Thought Whitelock and Bridge both went well.

For some reason, Hall looked really laboured out there.

Bridge started really well. I noticed him less as the game went on. Will Jordan was the opposite - which makes me wonder if they play the same role a bit much and Big Leicester is a better fit if Jordan is at fullback?

Maybe the converse when Havili is at fullback.

Leicester at centre was a real handful for the Canes defence. He always seems to beat the first tackle (or at the very least stand them up).

Looks like he'll be spending quite a bit of time there in the near future, so it's helpful that he was.

Losing Moody and Goodhue should help even up the competition a fair bit!