@chester-draws said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@booboo said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@chester-draws said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks v Springboks:

@akan004 cherry pick to make the sky fall?

how about looking at it like this. in 21 tests we are 17-1-3. In 13 of those tests we have hosed them.

We lost a game where we had 14 blokes for 3/4s of the game
We lost a dead rubber Bledisloe away.
We lost one of the best tests in years.

You know, now i think about it, we are 0-3 where we have scored less points than the opposition. That's not what you expect from a team with this much talent.

Try looking at it this way. We never, ever lose big. if it's a loss, it's by a bee's dick. We are balls deep in every game we play. That's a pretty sweet position to be in.

What you say is true, except the implication that somehow winning big a lot is good.

Say what? It's bad? Since when?

Winning isn't bad. Just that winning big isn't necessarily better than winning small.

Our recent massive victories over the Boks was not good preparation for the last game.

We have a game plan that I think tends to magnify our strengths and our weaknesses. When we play well we win by lots. But we equally come unstuck when it doesn't work.

I'd prefer a game plan that moved away from this emphasis on counter-attack, and assuming we wear our opposition down. I'd like to see us able to work on penetrating solid defences.

Because when we hit the 2019 RWC you can bet no-one, crazy Australians aside, will attempt to beat us playing open rugby.

But history has shown us that teams step up at the World Cup and a well organised, determined defence can be really hard to break down without taking a few risks. The All Blacks showed they could score 6 tries against such a defence without the defence every really crumbling.

Hansen's message to J Barrett and A Smith (for it was they who took the bad decisions that led to tries) is not don't take quick throw-ins or don't take tap penalties . It will be don't take quick throw-ins from a kick that left the whole Bok defensive line in your face and don't take tap penalties when there is no huge gap to exploit. The whole mantra of the ABs since Henry took over is to make decisions based on what you see - the mantra is not "put away the razzle-dazzle until you're desperate". There will be mistakes playing like that but by forcing the opposition defence to make tough decisions under pressure eventually the gap will appear and the tries will come.

This made me chuckle - kid captured at a Sheffield United relegation recreates it after the next relegation.

One of the reasons the ABs never got much continuity (and zero tries) was the ridiculous number of infringements by the Lions. It felt like every time the ABs had possession in the Lions half, then there would be a penalty. And a man down and in those conditions, you have to take your penalties. And they were all kickable yet BB missed a couple of sitters. 10 kickable penalties in all - when you see a number like that, you wonder how the Lions were never on a team warning for repeated offences - especially as the offside line seemed to disappear completely at times.

Just got home from the game after not being online. Interesting to read the thread start to finish and just so many premature calls made ....

Looks like NZ are half an excellent side and half a poor one. It's basically Tauranga keeping things together. What a maestro Kane is as usual walking to the wicket after just one ball.

Great atmosphere at the game. English fans supporting the Windies and NZ fans mostly in their early 20s and mostly pissed.

I've enjoyed this thread as a small place of sanity where rational rugby fans gather to discuss the game. Please stop any references to wars and cowardice etc as we really don't need it here.

So far I haven't seen any complaints by Joe Schmidt about the game - that is good for Ireland. He's a canny chap, he'll be learning the lessons and planning for the next time.

If Kane's stats were to exactly match those of the last 4 years (looking back from today) - in 8 years time he would be 34 and have

137 tests
45 hundreds
61 fifties
12742 runs
57.92 average

It's all over and Dice managed to hang on to win by a single point from Higgins and Winger, by 2 from Hydro11 and by 5 from Broughie. I can't remember a closer leaderboard at the end of a season. https://www.thesilverfern.com/tipping/

All the scores over 60 came in the final week of the season as many went big on Sunday nailing 30/30 and many also getting Manawatu as low scorers. Despite being in prime position to challenge at the end of Saturday, Sportboy somehow finished 9th!

Justin77 managed a full 7/7 but others were better on margins - both Higgins and Hydro11 getting 6 out of 6 for the games they picked correctly.

Northland win the title beating South Island by 5 points - a lot of it due to Northland's win over Waikato which they backed more than South Island did. But mainly it was due to Justin77's stellar score.

I'll do more of a wrap a bit later on.

What T20 has done is produce a current generation of batsmen who have very poor defensive technique. Even some of players who appear to have good/respectable records in test cricket. They plant their feet, have a good eye and hit through the line. If the ball comes on and is not deviating, they marmalise it. They can, and have, scored big in test cricket but also get a lot of low scores when conditions are tricky.

Which is why England's dangerous middle to lower order appear to be a strength in test cricket when it is Bairstow, Stokes, Moeen etc but all of them don't really have the technique to survive the moving ball - hence why there collapses. Same with Australia, Mitchell Marsh is a flat track bully.

It really stands out when you watch the likes of Root, Smith, Kane and Kohli. While Smith is unorthodox, he does know how to stay in for long periods.

Rant over.

Do old viewers remember Lee Grant on here and his spouting about a young kid called Beale who was going to be a great and single-handedly save Australian rugby? I think he's finally arrived, hell of a game he played last night.

From what I have seen of Kane he is very much in form - but India have been very good at frustrating him with a nagging line and length and he has uncharacteristically thrown his wicket away 3 times. It doesn't help when the openers are out so early as he knows they need 300 to compete and with Taylor being a slow starter, one of them has to force it a little.

Now if the Indians would just pitch a couple short outside off, a couple on the pads and throw in some half volleys then things would be very different. They could learn a lot from watching NZ bowling ....

@bayimports said in Cricket 2021: NZ in England and WTC Final:

@kiwipie said in Cricket 2021: NZ in England and WTC Final:

@bayimports said in Cricket 2021: NZ in England and WTC Final:

That's brilliant - were the rest even trying?

Its almost as though Southee was after a record he could own, now if I extended the list to include more six hitters then of course Shahid Afridi would join Southee, but that was too much effort

what the hell...

Afridi was always too safe a batsman.

@bayimports said in Cricket 2021: NZ in England and WTC Final:

That's brilliant - were the rest even trying?

Plus for England - stay at Wembley.
Minus for England - play France, Germany or Portugal next. OK so if Hungary beats Germany and France beats Portugal they could still be playing Hungary at Wembley. 3-6 anyone?

@donsteppa said in Cricket 2021: NZ in England and WTC Final:

A good list to be part of - from Wisden:

The only players with more Test sixes than Tim Southee:

McCullum

Gilchrist

Gayle

Kallis

Sehwag

Lara

Cairns

Richards

Flintoff

Hayden

Misbah

Pietersen

Stokes

Dhoni

Anyone feel like building a "sixes rate" table? Sixes per 100 balls faced? I'm too busy at the moment sorry

@sparky said in Euros:

@kiwipie If they've been staying 2 metres away and their Covid tests keep coming back as negative then under Public Health England rules they are fine.

Fair point given Scotland haven't scored a goal yet in order to avoid hugging

@sparky said in Euros:

@bovidae said in Euros:

Billy Gilmour has tested positive for Covid-19 so has to self-isolate for 10 days. A big blow for the Jocks.

Mason Mount and Ben Chiswell, his Chelsea team mates paying for England, hugged him on the field whistle so it's self-isolation for them too.

What about all the Scottish players he's been in a bubble with for the whole tournament? Or are they too manly so didn't do any hugging?

@mikethesnow said in Euros:

Wales v Denmark on Saturday

Not looking good for us

Not even sentimental favourites given Denmark are now the people's team. While Finland were holding Belgium, a quarter-final with Finland must have looked enticing.

@donsteppa said in EPL 2020/2021:

Unbelievable Jeff!

At the very, very bottom of the EFL, after 96 years in and four years away, the team that once beat Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United 6 - 0 has returned to League 2.

And somewhere, Jeff Stelling is having a brilliant night after a nail biting game

It sounded like a real thriller but I had lost interest when we went out to Torquay in the semis when I'm sure all their goals were either offside or handled. A few scandals in the league this season where certain clubs furloughed some of their players and then bought new ones to replace them! Clubs mentioned were Chesterfield, Stockport and Barrow so at least it seems like Hartlepool were clean.

Which of course reminds me of the day that Hartley and Poole scored for Hartlepool

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/21209277

In my view, the worst thing would be to try and force from the start if play does start on time tomorrow. It's a tough pitch to bat on and you have to work hard for your runs. NZ objective should be to bat all day, even if that is only to get to 350. Then see if India can cope with the fast bowler barrage for a whole day with no prospect of victory.

@chris-b said in Cricket 2021: NZ in England and WTC Final:

Throwing out a wild idea - how come more (any) fast bowlers don't also teach themselves to bowl spin? There's heaps of specialist batsman who seem to be able to roll down a few overs of spin in international cricket, but I can't really recall anyone since Gary Sobers who bowled specialist seam and spin (and Sir Garfield bowled both offspin and legspin as required - as well as being a sensational batsman).

You'd think that a specialist seamer would be more likely to also make a good spinner compared to a batsman - but, none of them seem to bother. And I've never seen anyone in the nets at club cricket who didn't fuck around a bit bowling (or trying to bowl) a bit of spin.

Tony Greig switched from seam to spin sometimes and famously took a bunch of wickets in the West Indies that way.

The legendary Mike Procter used to bowl off spin well as well as bowling lightning quick off the wrong foot and making pots of runs. What a player he was.