World rugby have announced that their contingency plan for the Japan Scotland game was to move the game 500 miles north to another stadium.
However Typhoon hagibis is over 600miles in diameter.

Scottish Rugby have just announced that they would walk 500 more....

Instead I picked Ireland to win by more than 5 at 25/1.

€650!

Ok - I've watched the game twice now - without interruption.

All I've got to say is:

What the fuck was Henshaw playing at trying to hit Cane's shoulder/head with his head whilst pirouetting on the spot?
Can Zebo not run fast enough without being caught by some two-bit arm-swinging Kiwi winger?
Sexton's tackle is a penalty try all day, every day, and I'm glad there are some journalists in Ireland who actually agree with me
Tadgh Furlong. Tadgh fucking Furlong! Did you see him move and fend those three players in a row?
Paddy Jackson coming on the pitch is like being handed a Morris Minor in the middle of an F1 duel.
Beauden Barrett. Beauden fucking Barrett! If NZ had 14 other players like him, they'd be a pretty good team.
Why has Dane Coles turned into a hothead? And a snarly one at that?
van der Flier is The Business. Good luck Seanie.
How come NZ didn't play those two lock fellas in the Chicago game, yiz would have been much better?
How the holy, motherfucking fuck of a fuck did Ireland go from scoring 5 tries to 0 tries? To finish such a game with three fucking penalties, and turned down some kicks, is a shitballs return.
It may just be me, but I'm getting sick and tired of every player under the sun rushing in to obscure the view everytime there's an attempted maul over the line. You can't bloody see a thing. Either you're in the maul from the start, or else fuck off out of the way and stop trying to stick a hand into the mess afterwards whilst claiming that you stopped the ball single-handedly and making sure the camera can't see a damn thing.

Tackles? What tackles?

I demand a third test. Cancel the Frogs immediately and get your asses back to Dublin - tell the Wallabies to wait till we've finished.

I'm legitimately celebrating Ireland's win. The rest of yiz can go do one.

Anyone got an aspirin?

Cheers to everyone on here for all the congrats and good wishes.

Yiz are a decent bunch after all.

Well for today anyway.

@pukunui said in Hurricanes v B&I Lions:

@MiketheSnow

Throwing the ball away after penalties, diving off their feet at rucks, living offside, not rolling away from the tackled player, spear tackling defenders at the ruck, pulling back players off the ball.
Plenty of examples.

In fairness, I think the Lions might have been guilty of one or two of those as well.....

Working this morning so missed the match.

It went as I predicted - congrats lads and all the best for the repeat.

@JC said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):

The Walrus's take on it. Not much to argue with in general, but I didn't think Wyn Jones was all that good.

Alun Wyn Jones leads the charge as Lions stutter against Provincial Barbarians
Stephen Jones, Rugby Correspondent
June 3 2017, 12:01pm,
The Times

In short, the Lions forwards were disappointing in Whangarei. Up against a scratch combination, their lack of headway at a succession of five-yard scrums was poor - and they could make no dents in the efficient home line-out. Perhaps oddly, amongst all the new Lions desperate to stand out, it was the three-tour veteran Alun Wyn Jones who was the best Lion up front.

The Osprey lock was powerful at the breakdown. He was deft with his handling and clearly played a strong leadership role during the breaks in play. On the day he outshone his partner Iain Henderson, who faded after a bright start. Wyn Jones was hit by injury in the domestic season, never quite finding his best form, and so missed what was once a fighting chance of leading this tour party. Yesterday, he re-established himself - and without him it could have been really gory.

The Lions probably did not want to go to their bench as early as they did, but there was a little more drive in the loose and power in the scrum when Mako Vunipola and Tadhg Furlong arrived. Both men had appeared in major club finals as recently as last Saturday - one of the many lunacies of the tour set-up and its fixture list.

Who else, on this admittedly scant evidence, advanced their cause? Probably those who did not start or even appear. Certainly, the sight of Maro Itoje starting on Wednesday against the Blues will give everyone a lift, although the display of Wyn Jones this morning means that not even Itoje will walk into the Test team.

No team ever won a Test series without a great pack. The Lions will be praying that true power was masked by tiredness and unfamiliarity, rather than indicating a worrying weakness. The excuses run out rapidly on a tour of New Zealand.

Hmm. Vunipola and Furlong were not in club finals last Saturday. Their teams both exited the previous week in the semifinals. Good to see Jones has his finger on the pulse of European rugby.

Well that went all right.

Wonder how the Dublin game will go?

Commiserations New Zealand. Great game.

@taniwharugby said in NH club rugby:

Rainbow Cup??

I wonder how long it will be before the travel thing gets bought up by the NH teams?

It only took about 15 years to come to possible fruition.

Irish, Scots, Italians and Saffers happy.

Welsh fans not - they want Anglo-Welsh League.

Ireland team to play England. A mere 5 residency players and 3 parental qualifying in the squad. If Farrell had picked McGrath instead of Murray it could have been 9. Still, with about 7 or 8 regular first-teamers out, it was inevitable that this was going to happen as Farrell looks to develop/give game time to some newer names, particularly at 9/10/15/17.

Stockdale and Henderson available but only make it to the bench. Furlong, Scannell, Baird, Leavy, Conan, Sexton, Ringrose, Henshaw, and Larmour not available through injury/recovery.

15-9
Hugo Keenan, Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Bundee Aki, James Lowe, Ross Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park
8-1
Caelan Doris, Peter O'Mahony, CJ Stander, James Ryan, Quinn Roux, Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Cian Healy
Reps
Rob Herring, Ed Byrne, Finlay Bealham, Iain Henderson, Will Connors, Conor Murray, Billy Burns, Jacob Stockdale.

Unlikely to be a cracker, if Ireland can keep it to under 10, they should be lucky.

Ireland team to play Wales:

2 Kiwis starting and a Saffer on the bench.
Ugh

15-9
Jacob Stockdale; Hugo Keenan, Chris Farrell, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Johnny Sexton (capt), Jamison Gibson-Park;
1-8
Cian Healy, Rónan Kelleher, Andrew Porter; Iain Henderson, James Ryan; Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.

Replacements: Rob Heffernan, Ed Byrne, Finlay Bealham, Quinn Roux, Will Connors, Conor Murray, Billy Burns, Keith Earls.

@Yeetyaah said in NH International Rugby:

@mofitzy_ I think Lowe becomes eligible in November so he might not even play.

Time is not on his side. Particularly with Covid messing up international schedules.

Leinster played in the PRO14 Championship Final at the weekend, winning 22-7 and going undefeated all season. Including European games they’re now 25 games on the bounce with their quarterfinal against Saracens this coming weekend.

@MiketheSnow said in NH International Rugby:

@Derm-McCrum said in NH International Rugby:

@MiketheSnow said in NH International Rugby:

@sparky said in NH International Rugby:

@Machpants said in NH International Rugby:
IMHO the Boks against the ABs is the greatest rivalry in any sport.

Wrong thread 😉

I was beginning to think that South Africa had moved northwards....

Was referring to the opinion not the geography

https://www.forum.thesilverfern.com/topic/4071/the-hot-takes-and-unpopular-opinions/508

Ah right.

I was referring to the topic not the opinion.

@MiketheSnow said in NH International Rugby:

@sparky said in NH International Rugby:

@Machpants said in NH International Rugby:
IMHO the Boks against the ABs is the greatest rivalry in any sport.

Wrong thread 😉

I was beginning to think that South Africa had moved northwards....

@sparky said in NH International Rugby:

@Machpants The Tests are still scheduled to happen according to World Rugby. It is amazing that the NZ Government have refused to reinburse NZR for the cancellation of the June internationals which their quasi-dacronian quarantine policy made impossible. The stubborn inflexibility of the NH club sides in refusing to allow the tests to shift to August/September didn't help.

Que? August/September for tests was never on the cards. Players wouldn't have been allowed travel. And seasons had to be completed.

Ireland team to play England on Sunday

15-1
Larmour, Conway, Henshaw, Aki, Stockdale, Sexton, Murray
Stander, vd Flier, O'Mahony, Ryan, Henderson, Furlong, Herring, Healy
16-23
Reps: Kelleher, Kilcoyne, Porter, Toner, Doris, Cooney, Byrne, Earls.

Match odds: England 2/5, Ireland 9/4
Overall Title odds: England 6/4, France 5/2. Ireland 9/4

@Machpants said in NH International Rugby:

@Derm-McCrum Young team, once sour-puss-grumpy face and Murray move on, it will be a good aged squad for RWC23

It'll be more than them. Healy, Toner, POM, Stander, Murray, Sexton, Earls will all be too old - 33/34+ - for RWC 2023 in my view. Transition should be complete by 2021 when their central contracts finish. Cronin, John Ryan and Rob Kearney are already past their use by date it would seem.

Nucifora's 6-year plan to have 3 or 4-deep in every position by 2023 is still running. I reckon a 2023 squad might look like:
Porter, Kelleher, Furlong, Ryan, Baird, O'Donoghue, Leavy, Doris
McGrath, Carbery, Stockdale, Henshaw, Ringrose, Balacounne, Larmour
Heffernan, O'Sullivan, O'Toole, Henderson, Deegan, Casey, Byrne, Addison.

Ulster have another Sexton under their wing - a young fella who has personal bests at 10.43 seconds over 100m and 20.69 over 200 - so he might prove useful. He's on 7s circuit at the moment.