@dogmeat said in Cricket: NZ vs England:

We have 6 guys averaging 40+ with the bat and 3 less than 30 with the ball.

Quite often a batsman will start off well and their average slowly declines but even CdG has played 28 innings - next lowest is Nicholls with 42.

The three bowlers have 693 wickets between them!!!

Our two "passengers" are Santner and Raval - hardly surprising as openers and spinners are our biggest traditional weaknesses but look at the match Santner had and Raval has the 7th best average of any Kiwi who has opened in 20+ innings and is our 11th highest scorer as an opener He also almost invariably succeeds in the main job of an opener - he sees off the new ball and thus makes it easier for the classy batsmen who follow.

We have won 32 tests this decade. It took us until March 1994 to record our 32nd test victory in our history!!!!!

Two CWC Finals as well. I never imagined we could have it so good. Hadlee's 17 year career only encompassed 22 victories - Fleming had 31 in 14 years

Raval is the kind of opener that would be singled out and dropped in past black cap team for 'not scoring fast enough' or 'creating pressure' while we ignore the fact that our middle order might look great but are wildly inconsistent.

In this team Kane and Ross protect Raval by being consistent enough to take advantage of the hard graft Raval does. He's the kind of role player that does the dirty work most don't really notice but is key to our wider success. I'm sure both Ross and Kane will average more with Raval and Latham opening.

He remains the tempting candidate to drop for the up and comers (Will Young), but I hope we resist the temptation to slot a promising middle order bat in as a makeshift opener. If an opener is bashing down the door by all means try him out, but we need to recognise that being a test opener requires a specific set of skills that not all batsmen will posses.

At the risk of the jinx, Latham is a bloody special player. He's almost certain to be our best ever test opener by the end of his career (excluding Dempster) , and is possibly there already.

But what really stands out to me is that about two or three years ago when the South Africans were here, he was in a real deep trough form wise, and I can remember watching him gradually pulling back, filing off his edges and getting back into form, particularly around reducing the balls he was flashing at outside off stump.

It was a fantastic display of self awareness and discipline and convinced me that he had what it would take to excel as a test cricketer.

@nzzp said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

@canefan said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

@No-Quarter said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

@canefan said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

@No-Quarter said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

What an absolute shellacking. Great stuff.

Puts the aussie fiasco into context. We've totally dominated India

It makes me even angrier about the Aus fiasco. We're so much better than the shitshow we put together for that tour. We just had our tactics all wrong, which I've talked about already on here

Forget the rankings. Aussie in Aussie is the hardest challenge in cricket. But I agree we didn't help ourselves on a host of levels

India in India would be right up there now. Those two, then daylight.

New Zealand in New Zealand looks like a handful too.

The more that result settles, the more satisfying it becomes.

To get an innings victory after a team has scored over 350 batting first feels like a significant win.

There were at most two periods inthe game where the English were ahead (just before Stokes got out and when Kane got out) and in the first case when we got an opening we were pretty ruthless and in the second we kept calm and pretty much the entire middle order stepped up.

Finally, Watling's innings was a truly special one and belongs in the pantheon of the all time great NZ innings. He looked like he could have batted another day if the match situation hadn't asked him to hit out. It was particularly special since it contributed to a win. Too many of our great innings are rear guards that delay the inevitable or force a draw.

@mn5 said in Cricket - NZ vs Sri Lanka:

@cyclops said in Cricket - NZ vs Sri Lanka:

That was such an incredible innings. The Sri Lankans were unsure about celebrating and the commentators so lost for words when he out. To score so fast, with so much control and without chances is unreal.

I shouldn't be pissed off.....but I am.

The little legend has set the bar so fucken high on himself that he's a victim of his own brilliance in one sense.

I'm not angry, just disappointed.

Hurricanes were the better team by some distance for about 41 minutes minus two plays. And although their game plan didn't look quite right for the first 39 they were equal to everything the crusaders could through at them.

Amazing grit from the crusaders to cling on for the win. Robertson has a gift for building never say die mentalities in squads. I'm a bitwworried about Read and Goodhue. Both are still solid, but well down on their peaks.

Feel for the canes, did everything except win in the second half.

@mariner4life said in New Zealand V Bangladesh Test III:

good, been resting on his laurels, what's he done for us lately?

Apart from the runs, the leadership, the holding together of our batting order in tough conditions, and the occasional spin bowling, what's Williamson ever done for us!

We should be making the RWC bigger not smaller. I'm not saying that should be right now, but I think world rugby should have a 20-30 year plan to expand RWCs to 24 teams (4 pools of 6) and then 32 (8 pools of 4).

Segregation won't make the '2nd tier' nations better. To be fair, neither does the RWC alone. World Rugby need to enable regular international competitions at all levels on a regular basis. The first step for that would be expanding RWC qualification. Let's toughen up auto qualifications; following the football example and only allow 2 auto qualies - the defenders and the hosts. Everyone else has to qualify. Having qualification pools stimulate international competition giving teams more regular game time. Have tiers in the qualification pools based on RWC finishes to avoid absolute mismatches but only to a point. Put seedings on the line too. So you might get an Italy-Georgia qualification match where both teams are going to qualify but it means the difference between a softer seeding and a tougher seeding. Getting the teams at the bottom of tier 1 playing the teams at the top of tier 2 more regularly will make the biggest difference to overall quality.

The biggest applause a batsmen being dismissed for 7 will ever get!

This has a little bit of a 2007 feel about it. We're about the best team in the world with fantastic depth in most positions. But we've had some signs of cracks and in our a few key positions we don't actually know who our best option is with lots of guys looking good but not consistent enough to lock down the position.

@hydro11 said in NFL Season 2020/21 - Bubble NZ:

@shark said in NFL Season 2020/21 - Bubble NZ:

Watching how the MLB season has started. Games already postponed due to players testing positive for Covid. US media questioning how long it can go on for whilst also praising the NBA bubble. Podcast hosts mentioning New Zealand as a safe place to host major league sports. And thinking NFL is only six weeks away and wondering more and more often why we shouldn't as a country make a push to host the entire season here. At the highest level.

The Labour-lead Govt should be all over it. We're a relatively safe haven, we have numerous stadiums capable of hosting games, the season is only 4 and a half months long so it's not as extreme as hosting an NBA season would be, and the financial injection would be enormous. The NFL gets it's TV content to fulfill it's obligations - albeit with some odd kick off and viewing times - and New Zealand gets to host the National Fucking Football League.

Check out

. NFL logistics are insane. Some examples of why it wouldn't work:

• Each team takes 56 players and over 100 support staff to every away game. They will need to take more for a full season. That's at least 5000 people who need to be quarantined.
• It can cost up to a million dollars to fly a team to London for one game.
• Wellington's airport cannot accommodate the size of the aircraft required.
• Air NZ do not have the planes to fly people over.
• It would not be economic for American air carriers to fly people over.

It would presumably be at least one and at most 3 flights per team (that's the number of planes that the US president needs for travel and security). Assuming that they were based in NZ for the full season. That's about 72 flights in total. Given that the pandemic is massively reducing the number of international travellers it wouldn't be too hard to get 72 charter flights.

The bigger issue would be nz grounds - are our facilities big enough to hold both teams and all their support staff?

But actually, it's not logistics that's stopping this (the nfl is rich enough to do anything that money can pay for). It's politics. Fans would be outraged by their teams moving, and covid in the US is so deeply politicised at the moment, it would be seen as a massive statement of opposition to Trump, which goes against the natural inclinations of the nfl owners (who are the real decision makers) and the desire of the nfl to avoid political controversy.

The only way that I could see it is if the nfl starts, has massive covid issues and is forced to stop and then has an abbreviated 10 week or so mini competition.

@shark said in NFL Season 2020/21 - Bubble NZ:

Jets players opting out. Now two good players. Moseley and Adams. These are compelling reasons to relocate the comp.

Just Moseley, Adams was traded to the seahawks.

@rotated said in Stead - Williamson:

The NZ coach position should be 99% man management no? The KPI isn't really that hard - keep the best players engaged with the NZ program for as long as possible and motivated as much as possible. With the odd exception most international players will have their preferred guru(s) and manage their own development. They may need to play match maker at times and bring in the right assistants but the story in there of Stead to be telling Kane how to hold a bat is laughable.

Looking forward strictly at the test side managing the workloads and egos of our surplus of quicks and keeping Taylor and Williamson world class and available seems like the top two priorities.

He should have been fired after Australia. Not necessarily because he deserved it (although that article sheds light on a few management blunders), but because a much better candidate in Mickey Arthur was avialable and probably would have taken the job.

I disagree with the man management only thing. I don't think it's a coincidence that McCullum and Hesson had so much success together despite having differing approaches. I think Stead and Williamson challenging each other and not thinking the same way is a good thing, and should be an expectation for any coach.

Stead's competence is another question. I agree there have been worrying signs about whether he has what it takes to be successful at this level. That could mean that healthy challenge and questioning turns into a dysfunctional relationship. We'll never know that from the outside so it's up to NZC to make the right call on that.

@Winger said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:

@shark said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:

@Winger said in 'Super Rugby' 2021:

@shark

It would need some thought. But at present its creating the opposite effect. Where its encouraging the best players to move to the best team. And that teams stays as the best team.

NZR need to come up with a (financial?) system to ensure the best players are evenly distributed between the 5 teams

You can't 'ensure' distribution. Market forces can dictate it, but the moment NZR tries to 'ensure' it, guys will get fucked off, and fuck off.

A true salary cap based on NZR money given to the franchise plus the amount the weakest franchise is able to secure themselves as a total, would be the best way, but that's full of holes as pointed out in several posts.

The current system is idiotic. If NZR keep it super rugby will continue its decline. Regardless of what else is done.

How many abs change franchises? Apart from Hammertime at the canes and Senio to the crusaders I can't think of that many. Presumably you're all on board for Barretts move to the blues?

The current system rewards the franchises that are the best at recruiting pre super rugby and the best at developing that talent. That works well for the abs and for the franchises.

Your suggestion would reward the teams that are the best at judging value and the most ruthless at cutting wasted cap space. The older squad guys (say Luke Romano) would be cut to save cap and replaced with someone younger and cheaper. It means more guys going overseas, less of a loyalty discount for nz and less focus on development.

It also leadsto stuff like the weaker teams paying too much for marginal talent (because they need to improve and some squad ab guy is available) while the stronger teams hold onto the real match winners and get guys to take a championship discount.

Salary cap leagues can only work when they're the top dog, and there's no other competition (eg nfl, nrl). But even then, they still don't make the competition more even.

@booboo said in Possible All Blacks 2020:

@Machpants said in Possible All Blacks 2020:

@booboo said in Possible All Blacks 2020:

@Canes4life said in Possible All Blacks 2020:

@Bones lol Savea starts before any of those three. Especially on last year's form, he was arguably the best player in the world.

Before Cane?

If necessary, yes. On last year. But really they both start and we find third to compliment

Kind of my point.

Savea doesn't Starr in front of Cane for me.

Savea starts at 7 ahead of Cane for me. Cane is our best 6 at the moment so he's a locked in starter too. But if we had (say) peak Kaino and Read then Cane sits on the pine.

@Crucial said in Possible All Blacks 2020:

Back to the same old arguments about DMac eh?
The guy may not be perfect but to succeed in tests against Tier 1 countries these days you have to have something 'unusual'. Some piece of vision that unlocks a defence. It may only happen once in a game, but that can be enough. You can train how to mitigate mistakes (as long as they aren't horrendous).

That try DMac setup (then was handed) against the Sumwolves is a good case. Most will have seen the try highlight here at 2:08

But if you watch from another angle (sadly can't find on youtube) he comes on that line from a long way back. His vision was that the Wolves were leaving enough of a gap between channels 1 and 2 that he could squeeze through if he timed his run and collected the pass. That could have easily ended up in a knock on and everyone would have bagged him for fucking up an attacking position but as it came off it was one of the best line runs of the season.

That kind of thing is why being end on at a live game can be so great. You can see those gaps so clearly and tell the guys who are trying to set up lines to get into them.

I love the idea of a replacement mitre 10 esque comp to fill the gap, but it's also going to get scuppered if/when we start to get community transmission. If one player is positive it would be almost impossible for every other player not to get it too.

Maybe super touch rugby?

Liverpool stranded 3 wins short of the title. Even if the season gets going again its like a whole new season and anything could happen.

19/20 champions Liverpool*

I've watched a couple of european football games with no crowds and it gives off a weird, weird vibe.