@Winger said in Bledisloe 1:

@antipodean said in Bledisloe 1:

@Daffy-Jaffy said in Bledisloe 1:

That level of whinging is undignified. All involved should be ashamed to have participated in that.

If it was in reverse unsure how I would feel. I think more inclined to blame the player for just ignoring the ref's warning

i know exactly how this would have gone had Mo'unga been the guilty party

The Cantabs would have been piling in to Raynal hard out

The Auckland guys would have been piling in to Mo'unga

Half of everyone else would have blamed Foster. The other half would have blamed a Ioane brother.

haven't read the thread but i bet it's spittle-flecked and angry. Seriously if you didn't find that fun you need some joy in your lives

When there is a bit of chaos, rugby is the best sport on the planet. Give me the carnage of last night over a robotic chess game any day. Cracking tries. Card drama. ref drama. some incredible pieces of individual skill on both sides of the ball. An after-the-hooter try to win. fuck what more do you want??

Firstly i would like to at the same time apologise, congratulate, and commiserate with the Wallabies. I didn't think that team was capable of that result. They were fucking excellent. Down 10-zip in the same number of minutes, they rallied straight away. They scored some incredible tries. Their loose forwards were beasts and just smashed ours. That was as one-sided a battle as you will see. Foley played a bit of a blinder really. Outside backs were a handful. A great performance cruelly not rewarded by a strange (but probably correct i guess?) call. You throw a couple of their missing pieces in to that team and they are going along not too bad are they?

For us Sami T was a fucking beast. In to everything, running like a train. Huge game. So glad he didn't get towed early. Our veteran locks were bloody good too, probably the next cabs off the rank for AB MoTM voting. Jordan seemed to find that spark again as well. Lots of stuff to fizz about in Black.

Enormous fun game. I am going to have to put up with a shit ton of whinging about the ref over here for a few days. And you know what? I reckon i'll let 'em. We won, and it was really harsh. So it's pretty easy to be magnanimous about it

A great Thursday night's TV

What has become apparent (well, what has been rammed home really) in the past 10 days is that rugby has allowed itself to become a sport where the refereeing panel are no longer just there to facilitate the game and allow it to happen, but have become nearly the most important people on the pitch (or box). Rugby is no longer about 30 players, it is about 30 players, and 4 officials whose remit has become sanctioning every single act on the field to its fullest extent.

The term rugby accident no longer has any meaning. Angus Ta'avao got his face caved in and got a red card. LF was in the air and got a yellow. In the England v Australia game two attempted intercepts got two players binned. Papali'i got penalised for a perfect cleanout because the touchie thought something else happened and had to get on the pitch.

Rugby is obsessed with getting people off the pitch. In a game defined by the fact it is a constant contest, players are sent from the field for contesting. Cards are flying thick and fast. AWJ got carded for absolutely nothing but suspicion on the weekend. How is that in any way acceptable?

And i absolutely do not blame the referees even one bit. This comes down to the lawmakers, their guidelines, and the instructions given to their referees. This is the game World Rugby want. Every controversial incident is met with a new, far stricter than required guideline in case it happens again. And that guidelines normally involves another player off the pitch. Professional Rugby is, above all else, a form of entertainment, and yet here we have a governing body obsessed with actively degrading their product, to appease who?

And yet, for some, they do not go far enough. Look at the chat in rugby media after every test. "this is a disgrace, there should have been more cards!! that card wasn't harsh enough, it should have been red!" every single fucking week. Pre-game the focus is on the ref, and what they should look at. Post-game the focus is on the ref, and what they misses, and who else should have been sent from the field.

I have heard more about Jaco in the press than the fucking players over the past couple of days. In what world is that the best outcome?

Long time fans are becoming more and more disillusioned. Casual fans are turning it off. And the response will probably e another crack down and more cards. Awesome.

@Machpants said in World Rugby chairman election:

Ugh nothing like a bit of corruption and nepotism to really help stink the place up

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/121047624/convicted-fijian-killer-nominated-for-key-world-rugby-role--with-french-backing

is there any role Cliff Curtis can't play?

Congratulations @Frank on the nuffiest thread in Fern history

Wrong opposition. Wrong players.

It's absolute peak nuffie. Top ferning

Welcome back Bart

Try this little known website called grindr. I reckon lions fans will be all over it

@gt12 said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:

Scott Barrett (39)

fuck off

@gt12 said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:

Ardie Savea (48)

fuck off

@gt12 said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:

Jordie Barrett (22)

fuck off

@gt12 said in Argentina Two: Newcastle, 28 November:

TJ Perenara (68)

fuck off

As New Zealand and Australia get set to do battle on the sporting field once again, this time in the Bledisloe Cup, the one-time pinnacle of International Rugby, i think it is only fair that we, as kiwi fans, take a moment to spare a thought for our Australasian cousins. The realists among them are starting to come to terms with the reality that their star has faded, and they are no longer the sporting superpower they once were.

Around the turn of the century, Australia could lay claim to being the best all-round sporting nation on the planet. Not a huge population, they still managed to excel in a number of discipines:

• Tennis: Their two best players in Hewitt and Rafter spent time at #1, and won multiple Grand Slams. The Woodies, particularly Woodbridge, could lay claim to being the best doubles players ever. It was a golden time

• Cricket: Undisputed kings of all forms, unbeatable at home, nigh unbeatable away, with a host of all-time greats; and in the discussion as the greatest cricket side of all time

• The Olympics: Sydney was a triumph of an event, with the home nation taking home 58 medals, including 16 gold. THis flowed in to 2004, where they took their tallies even higher, across a huge number of sports

• Motor Cycling: Mick Doohan was coming off 5 straight MotoGP championships, while Troys Corser and Bayliss were winning Superbike titles repeatedly

• The Socceroos were assembling their greatest ever side that would eventually get out of the Group Stage of the World Cup, including such luminaries as Cahill, Kewell, Schwarzer, Viduka, Aloisi, Bresciano

• And of course rugby. 3 super sides were always at the pointy end. The Reds topped the table in '99, The Brumbies were tussling with the Crusaders for the claim to be the best team in the comp. And this flowed to the Wallabies. '99 World Cup. 01 Lions. Multiple wins over the All Blacks, legit claim to be the best team in the world.

And this isn't an exhaustive list, their league team was more dominant, it seemed no matter what they played, they won. A true golden age.

Compare and contrast with today

• In tennis, their two best players are a couple of douchebags universally reviled by their own fans, who can't even be fucked playing at Wimbledon

• The cricket side has slipped to 4th in the world records, and closer to little old NZ than the top of the table. Series losses home and away are now the norm, rather than a cause for shock. Players were on strike a week ago because they couldn't afford to buy a 2nd Italian sports car

• In the Olympics, Australia's plummet down the medal table has been stark. Medal totals have halved, and again, they are closer to little old NZ than the top of the table.

• Do they still ride Motor Bikes? Daniel Riccardo seems like a bit of a dude in F1, but hardly in a position to actually win anything.

• The Socceroos are in a fight to qualify for the next World Cup, despite playing a bunch of impoverished nations.

• And of course the rugby. Super teams winless against NZ opposition. One team fighting their death in Court. The Wallabies are unable to bank a win at home against Scotland any more. Grass roots on it's knees. A bad Bledisloe series, and the public could switch off, for good this time.

So, dear All Black fans, while you are having your pints this weekend, celebrating the return of test match rugby, and the opening of the once-revered South Hemisphere competition, take a second and commiserate with our trans-Tasman cousins. They are going through a tough time of it, it's never easy getting used to a new reality.

Well done Ireland that was awesome. I loved watching you play. Hard, physical, inventive. Absolutely dominant everywhere except the scoreboard which flattered us all day. The constant ball in motion was confusing the AB defence all day, and your breakdown work was friggen excellent. A deserved dominant win built on good work both sides of the ball.

As for the ABS, fucking LOL. Talk about hammered boy. Picking an entire side of guys who can't make a dominant tackle, or get over the gain line, or be physical at the breakdown is certainly one way to play. Was the plan to confuse them by letting them have too much ball? We could not stop them doing what they wanted. Conversely when we had the ball we could do shit because we couldn't get past the gain line

So we kicked it, poorly. Over and over again. Because that's all that Ireland gave us.

Scored a couple of really pretty tries though. Jordan's a fucking star. The first was a hilarious piece of defence we ruthlessly exploited. The 2nd came out of absolute nothing.

The loose forwards were shit. They should be embarrassed the only guy who put a hit on was fucking TJP. Savea is just a non-entity in a game like this. Just a waste of space. The other two tried but just didn't have the ability.

This is humbling and shows exactly where we are. Which is nowhere.

Loooool

Here's a new one

Henry was a shit coach but Laumape was the answer at 12 and an asset we needed to keep.

Keep delivering Fern

@Duluth said in Super Rugby 2023:

But SR & NPC are sacred cows. Both must continue to exist forever in front of smaller & smaller & older crowds.

it'll never happen because there will be losers. And those losers will kick off

But a 14-15 team comp playing all year would be fucking great.

But i can already hear it
The hard core NPC guys will whinge
The provinces who miss out will whinge
Moana Pacifica will whinge and cry racism when they get cut too.

And there isn't a Board with the balls to tear it up and start again.

the crazy thing is

its not even like the NRL is this wide open competition. The Roosters, Melbourne, Souths and recently Penrith go in to every year thinking they can win. The Tigers haven't played finals in like 12 years. The Warriors once in a decade.

But their expansion team is sitting top 4. And if the previously unbeaten Broncos rested Reynolds, Carrigan, Haas, and Walsh they would lose to the winless Tigers.

the problem with Super Rugby as a sports competition is, it is too top heavy

Entering the season, actually, entering every season, 7 teams know they are no hope of winning. One know they need things to go their way. The other 4 know 3 of them will play semi finals, and then they are two wins away.

And the odds reflect that. Four NZ teams paying between $3 and $6.50 to win the comp. The Brumbies at $11. The Highlanders at $34 (massive unders), Everyone else is three figures.

Contrast to the NRL (its most direct competition). Four teams $4.25 to $8. One at $11. You then get six more teams before you get to Highlanders odds. And that favourite has already lost twice. The fucking Warriors are paying less than the Highlanders to win the comp. That should tell you something about the realities of the situation in Dunedin.

This weekend the Highlanders, Crusaders and Hurricanes are almost unbackable favourites, and two of them are playing away.

There is precisely one game worth watching as a neutral this weekend.

@Kiwiwomble said in AFL 2023:

so, slightly interesting discovery. a few months ago out TV antenna went dud, maybe hit by lightning or wind pulled out a connection....either way, we havent got around to getting it fixed basically because we watch almost everything streamed and even if we want to watch something "live" we can normally stream that.....except i have discovered the AFL, even the free to air games, they have the pre and post match shows....but in between its 3 hours of border force

streaming partner is Kayo that's why

Is that a statement win for the Celtics?

Or just another a regular season anomaly?

@Kiwiwomble said in AFL 2023:

stupid bulldogs

Tipping a shambles!

@bayimports Tedesco makes their attack worse because they constantly give him the ball, and he he jinks around trying to find holes, and can't actually make plays for others. He's a weird player in that he is a superstar but i think the team is worse for him in it unless he's doing shit for himself.

and there you go

If i was the Bulldogs i wouldn't be changing my thinking around where we are based on that. In a dogshit game that had the skill level of Cairns AFL reserves, they kicked 67 points.

And the Lions were awful. Daniher is a fucking spud. Hipwood is a spud. Charlie Cameron played terribly. Our forward line lost that game. Couldn't kick goals (even from simple set shots you absolute spuds) and applied zero pressure. Meaning the ball went inside 50 a lot, and came zipping straight back out.

Seriously the Lions are shit and quite frankly are not a contender. That forward line worries fucking no one. Fagan continues to prove he has no idea how to take the club forward. Write us off, we're fucking cooked.

lol fuck. Imagine how hard you have to fuck up for Pauline Hanson to call you out?

Has Latham been checked for a tumour or something? His general behaviour borders on deranged.

he's grade A fuckwit but what's he done now?