Good on you KP and brilliant work Sunjags, appreciate you all carrying me for another season!

@taniwharugby

Absolutely, and Big Deb has height and size too, so has some future to develop. I still think he’ll play for Oz though.

Anyway, I wouldn’t want QC unless we couldn’t find a reasonable 3rd option, but even then I think there are young 10s around we could develop.

@Stargazer said in Super Rugby News:

Apparently, Quade Cooper is off contract. Some NZ franchises could use an experienced 10. Would you want him for your team?

No.

There is enough young talent around, and the Chiefs are probably still years away from actually being in a position to win it (i.e., when Brodie comes back) that we should be really investing in young talent. So, next year, we could chase McClutchie, keep Debreczeni, and either keep MMac or the other foodbill 10 from Hawkes Bay.

I think that Debreczeni could be a good enough 10 for a couple of years while we wait for the next Cruden to steal from somewhere.

Having said that, if Quade came with SBW, then I'd reconsider.

@Yeetyaah said in Super Rugby News:

@nzzp What's the solution to the travel in finals though? A week off in between? Mid week games? Maybe just drop South Africa from the comp? Seems like there's no easy fix.

Earn more competition points than the other teams?

I don't see the problem - the Saders, Brumbies, Jags, and Canes aren't traveling, and if they win they'll only travel to higher ranked teams. The conference system is going anyway, so from now on it will be as fair as it can be.

@Canes4life said in Hurricanes v Blues:

The signing of Nonu, even though he’s been one of the Blues best this season, should never of happened. It’s the perfect example of the Blues failing to develop their own players. I’m talking about the Manu, Faiane combo that worked so well. They should have signed Manu, instead of the temporary Nonu and maybe next year they wouldn’t of had a midfield hole.

Except the spot you are talking about is the one taken by Aumua (from Tasman). They could have easily signed Manu rather than Aumua and had experience and the future there. It's worth remembering that he's been sitting on his ass most of the season too - a good example of the Blues relying on set combos and not using all of their squad. If I had to focus on one thing this year, that's what I'd be bagging the coaching and administration team for - they had a bunch of players who they hardly used and others who they ran into the ground. They could have easily switched up the loose forward, lock, and midfield combos but chose not to...

@Dice

In which case they shouldn’t be hookers?

But, also that’s coaching and practice. For example, it maybe that they throw perfectly at practice, but poor in game situations. That can fixed with some flexible coaching and training.

I’ve only played amateur shit, but here we used to make our hooker throw at the end of practice, after we were all fucking gassed, in contested line outs against our best jumpers, and only the forwards ran for every not straight.

They fucking hammered him for every not straight, and pretty soon he was never not down the middle unless it was a typhoon. He practiced like a _____fudger though. Like, being able to hit a specific point on a pole from 10 meters, 20 times in a row.

We had similar drills for our halfback - then the backs ran. I fucking hated that little c____ until he got accurate.

Edit: I forgot to add that our two hookers didn’t run, just the other forwards. Same for the halfbacks.

@kev

That’s recruiting - still two or three administrators who need replacing - alongside a few players...

@Donsteppa

It’s fucking flabbergasting how the Blues just continued to make shit decision after shit decision - some of those ‘exits’ were more than embarrassing. I’ll admit that they had a few hard calls against them though. Nevertheless, the Canes were very very good - excellent win.

Two past U20s hookers - neither of who can ducking throw. Who is training them? Or are they lazy? There are only really two options...

I cannot believe that the Blues are going to lose this game. Fucking hell.