@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

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 ....

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

@taniwharugby said in Golf:

Patrick Reed courting controversy again...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/golf/300246417/cheating-again-golfer-patrick-reed-embroiled-in-fresh-rules-row-at-arnold-palmer-invitational

That clip looked very dodgy

A quick update after Game 1 not at all connected to the fact that I picked the Highlanders to win. All these people picked them too, Delicatessen & Fiamacho with 9-16.

Delicatessen 34
Fiamacho 28
ACT Crusader 24
Rico 24
KP 23
Stockcar86 23
Corkscrew 20
Richie 16

which leaves the top 10 looking like this

Winger 80
ACT Crusader 78
Triple T 78
Stockcar86 77
KP 75
Antipodean 70
Langakali 69
Higgins 69
Victor 68
Rico 68

Plenty of people picked and have zero so far. These people didn't pick at all

@Hooroo , @Nevorian , @Tim , @Canes4life , @Kiwiwomble , @Stag , @ARHS Bruce K

@dogmeat said in EPL 2020/2021:

Fulham must be due a fucking shit load then. I get we haven't got the most accurate attack but FFS. WE WUZ ROBBED (again).

That handball was very harsh - it wouldn't have been given against a defender (example is Kante in the Chelsea game where his arm was up)

But then VAR is a guessing game most of the time.

@jk said in Tipping 2021:

Would have got in but didnt see last week and no good enough to start a week behind

You start 5 behind the worst tipper last week - so would you have 13 points. And plenty of people will forget to tip as the weeks go by and you will fly past them

Only around 20 have tipped so far this week - is it hard for people to remember to do something 2 weeks in a row? Or maybe you want to give yourself the maximum thinking time.

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

@bovidae said in EPL 2020/2021:

Tuchel gets one over Klopp in the battle of former Mainz 05/Borussia Dortmund managers.

Is that something like a 68 match unbeaten run at home in the EPL followed by 5 consecutive defeats - extraordinary

@dogmeat Spreadsheet says you picked the Highlanders 9-16.

@kruse said in Tipping 2021:

If anybody's interested in doing the SuperBru one again, I've created a pool called "TheSilverFern".
If people are not bothered, but only because they didn't pick Round One - I can configure it to only count from Round 2 onwards.

I am already entered so I did pick Round 1 - but happy if you start for Round 2. Will join, thanks!

Results are in for Week 1. Now all you have to do is remember to tip for the next 9 weeks.

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

The reigning champion Winger is already out in the lead with a superb 73 points, almost perfect selections except for being a bit low on the points for the Highlanders and Crusaders. Triple T is just 2 behind with Antipodean, Arhs and Crucial rounding out the top 5.

Only Winger, Triple T, Unite and Donsteppa picked both games 9-16 to the away team but the latter 2 fell down on their category picks. Richie is 45th and last, the only one to pick the Highlanders and the Hurricanes to win.

Good to see NZ Cricket is onto it and still sending out emails encouraging me to get tickets for the Wellington game .....