@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.

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

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 ....

Can anyone show me an example of a classy boozy team celebration?

@machpants said in NZ vs. Aust - Japanese yawn edition:

You see mad eye hooper bursting a gut to limit beaudy getting towards the goal posts, the winger just leave him to it. He maybe a knob but he puts in a hundred every time

After he has retired, that will be my abiding memory of him. Sprinting to chase a back he has no hope of catching but never giving up.

Final scores are up for the weekend.

https://www.thesilverfern.com/tipping/

Richie and Kiwiwomble shared the top score of 49, Richie getting 7/7 picks (the only one on a tricky weekend) but not getting a category pick when the majority of tippers picked Auckland as top scorers. Dice is the new leader, Stagazer up to 2nd, Kiwiwomble in 3rd and Caprice shares 4th with Gunner. Richie shoots into the top 10 in 8th place. Big falls for Virgil, Kruse and DK.

Wairarapa Bush and South Island are the top 2 in the teams comp but it is very close with only Counties-Waikato winless and needing probably 4 wins from 4 to make the semis.

All of those winning in the TSF Cup go into the first round proper next week to join the 16 who pre-qualified last week.

4 games in and only Paj and Richie have picked 4/4, Paj with the best score of 34 so far. Richie on 30 as is Phooey who yet again has picked 3/3 with maximum points but has not realised that Canterbury are a losing team this season.

Counties-Waikato 19 - 19 Wairarapa Bush
BOP 22 - 20 Harbour-Auckland
South Island 20 - 21 Wellington
Hawke's Bay 26 - 23 Northland

Hawke's Bay and Northland are the top scoring teams and unluckily for Northland, playing against each other.

Current overall top 5

Dice 121
Stargazer 114
Gunner 113
Justin77 105
Winger 105

Cup preliminary round

Justin77 22 v 20 Billsy
Mikey07 26 v 34 Paj
Cactus Jack 26 v 0 Canes4life
Trooa 7 v 14 Mikedogz
Virgil 21 v 19 Unite
Hydro11 17 v 20 Waynes World
TR 18 v 25 Donsteppa
Hooroo 12 v 14 Hurrycanes
YeetYaah 15 v 16 Smudge
Tim 17 v 27 Crucial
Buck 16 v 24 Stockcar86
Victor 26 v 21 Fiamacho
Caprice 17 v 14 Dogmeat
Sportboy 24 v 19 FarNthHayden
KP 18 v 18 Plastered Peni
Bay Imports 16 v 14 Corkscrew

As a bit of comfort for Bay fans, the team that started the final last season had Wardlaw, Ainley, Franklin, Karpik, Matenga at 4-8 in the pack with Ross a starting prop, none of them played last night. Blake and Eklund are missing, Ravouvou, Narawa & Judd missing from the backline from last season and Black absent last night. This is a much changed team and they don't seem to have much fluency.

@Kruse said in Tipping 2020:

@KiwiPie said in Tipping 2020:

This is your Friday reminder to get your tips in - around 20 still to tip.

https://www.thesilverfern.com/tipping

Shit - I'd forgotten until just now.
I assume you'll take the rest of the tips, and just throw away the Wgtn/BOP game? (I did do the tipping before checking the score, but would assume/hope that you'd have zero trust in my word for that).
Fucking lost the SR tipping comp by forgetting to tip the final week. Getting my slide into tip-dementia early for this oone.

If you picked the Bay to win (which any sane individual would have done pre-game) then I will count your tip!

Calm down son, you'll have nowhere to go when you score in the corner to win a test for the ABs

Watching this I'm just really happy we picked up 4 points last week as I fear we won't get many points this season based on this performance

@Donsteppa I think he mentioned he had a knee on the ground after 10 metres earlier

I was at that game at the domain they just flashed back to. We were lucky to not lose by more

@bayimports Trask will love seeing the replay of that "tackle"

Kirifi is playing well but appears to be obeying none of the entry laws at rucks

Jeez you finally get in their 22 and do that kick???? And then give a penalty away.