Pakman was at Dublin 1991, Ellis Park 1995, Twickenham 1999, Sydney 2003 and Cardiff 2007. He's watching on Sky.

Irish have no chance.

Last 20 rewatch. Was our worst period:

• Big gaps close to rucks, esp. for Koroibete try, after Tupou twice made good ground.

• ABs passing to no one -- Patty T after SW takes kick off at 33-19, Taylor after great Savea break from 22 -- and Patty T drop in contact.

• Poor kicks gifting possession -- Laumape grubber, RM kick which Beale ran from goal line and could have led to end to end try but for Read covering.

• More easy metres from pick n go, leading to Hodge's second.

• Moli poor defensive alignment attacked, second time big hole when Beale scored.

• At 40-26 Read taps penalty rather than kicking into Oz 22?

• Moli under pressure at scrum.

• Last try from good scrum on our 10 metre -- Oz momentum wasn't checked (our forwards on wrong side field), leading quickly to final try.

Takeaways:

1. Gave away possession by forcing things rather than being patient (5 times!). Treasure the farking pill!

2. Defence round ruck abysmal.

3. Fast Oz ball meant they several times made 40 metres in a blink, and once five out were clinical.

@sparky said in RWC: England v New Zealand (SF1):

England Vs New Zealand in the RWC Semi Final. It's happened before.....

No one who saw Jonah's brilliant quartet of tries in Cape Town will ever forget them.

Pakman certainly won't. As I walked up the stairs in the stadium I was thinking that English were getting too confident, and thus ultimately dangerous, and we needed to give them a good spanking to keep them in their place. Five minutes later Jonah did his thing!

He also scored in pool game 1999 (best atmosphere I've ever experienced at Twickenham) following which Dayglo dropped a knee on him. The big man got up angry then clearly thought, 'You're not worth it'!

For completeness, I was also at first game of 1991 Cup, the only other time the sides have played.

So 100% and doing the right thing by getting my ass to Yokohama to ensure the record remains intact.

@tewaio Yes. A bit concerned that Owen Franks will have lost his pace when he returns.

@Jaguares4real said in TRC: The All Blacks against the Springboks (version 98):

@Yeetyaah

You misinterpreted my post

Simply put Cane is more versatile as a player than Cane

ala Hooper is with Pocock

You've got me with that one.

@antipodean said in The Folau Factor:

@chimoaus said in The Folau Factor:

His termination had nothing to do with him being a christian though did it, otherwise half of rugby players would be terminated. He was terminated because he breached the code of conduct. Surely saying my religion gives me a free card to use hate speech at work doesn't fly in today's society.

Depends if you think quoting religious texts is hate speech. I doubt he'd be quoting it in earnest belief if he wasn't a Christian.

What if I was an extremest and I was saying all non believers will die a fiery death, all non "insert religion" will die if they don't believe "my religion". If I approached a non believer in my work place and said John, sorry to say but you will die a painful fiery death unless you join my religion, you are a horrible person for not believing, you are sentencing you and your family to a horrible death. Do you think that would be tolerated?

Anyway I think it will be a good case to set a precedent and hopefully stop others spreading hateful speech in name of their religion.

I accept the nobler intentions of what you say, but who is to determine the extent of religious speech versus hateful speech? Does the Federal Government now step in and determine what passages can remain in the bible/ koran/ torah etc? Section 116 of the Constitution specifically prohibits such action: "The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion"

I must say this whole debacle only serves to highlight to me how much I abhor the Brand values bullshit of commercial Rugby. It's going down somewhat of the same route as e.g. Apple, where the creation of an Apple persona, with its associated plethora of 'right-on' values, is a mechanism for gouging excess profits from its fan base (customers in old money).

I don't watch rugby as some sort of moral endeavour and I certainly don't implicitly sign up for the various rugby unions' 'values', which are spouted in such situations.

The level of hypocrisy is breathtaking. Anyone with any awareness realises that some of the pro's are women beaters and general psycho's/arseholes, having values which don't appear to be part of rugby union ideals.

The ARFU would do itself a favour if it adopted a code of conduct which didn't pontificate on which legal off field values were acceptable (or not) and just stuck to promoting the entertainment and athleticism of the sport.

That way IF repeating Christian beliefs would just be one man's view. Those who don't agree can simply chose not to be Christians, in much the same way I chose not to be Muslim, or Hindu, etc..

End of rant.

@Rembrandt said in US Politics:

Trump flotilla, Penascola, Florida this weekend

Typical. Vast majority of boats white.

@booboo Looked for him. Must be on outer?

@Rembrandt said in NZ Politics:

Warning, contains scenes of violence that may offend some viewers.

Crusher lived up to her billing. Gower also very good. Jacinda very sharp on Covid but floundering on gritty issues.

@MN5 said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@pakman said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@Tim said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

Cripes, I hope Barrett is fit to play soon.

thankfully we have quality 120keg, 2 plus metre locks coming out of everywhere in NZ

Dom Bird, is grabbing plaudits at Racing. In at least one team of weak following Heineken semis on weekend.

He’s always gonna be well down the pecking order now he’s flown off overseas though.

Dad humour is alive and kicking!

@Machpants said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

@Tim said in AB squad for the Bledisloe Cup?:

Cripes, I hope Barrett is fit to play soon.

thankfully we have quality 120keg, 2 plus metre locks coming out of everywhere in NZ

Dom Bird, is grabbing plaudits at Racing. In at least one team of weak following Heineken semis on weekend.

@Paekakboyz said in NZ Politics:

@pakman I wonder if they've relaxed requirements at all?

Part is probably deterioration in China:US relations, then there's UK courses being shorter than those offered in US, and UK (cunningly) reopening a post-study work programme for Chinese graduates.

China:Oz relations may explain reluctance to head there.

Dave Halligan. The AB who wasn’t?

Lots Chinese and Indians going for top universities. Would have thought Oz would have been a safer bet.

Bottom line is that seems Covid not a criterion in choice.

@canefan said in NZ Politics:

@nzzp said in NZ Politics:

@canefan said in NZ Politics:

Universities might be next

Universities already hard hit. I have heard they are actively looking at selling land to shore up income, due to lack of overseas enrolments. Seriously people, it's tough out there, and it's only the start of the downturn. Things will get much worse before they get better.

No overseas students next year unis are suffering big time. And all the businesses that depend on them, such as landlords, and service businesses nearby are in trouble. There has to be a way to get these kids in

Oddly enough, UK universities have had record overseas enrolments for the new academic year, which started in September.

@pakman said in Coronavirus - UK:

Checked today graph of daily Covid deaths.

Absolutely no sign of any uptick.

Infection uptick has no real impact.

Must say the logic of six is beyond me.

Very slight uptick in admissions and daily deaths.

@Crucial said in Coronavirus - UK:

@sparky said in Coronavirus - UK:

UK goes up from Level 3 (virus out there, restrictions being removed) to Level 4 (virus in general transmission and growing exponentially).

Up to the devolved administrations to decide what to do now. COBR meeting tomorrow.

Apparently the levels are based on the Nando's Spice level chart.

So long as they don’t adopt that for tax I’m with them!

@MajorRage said in Coronavirus - UK:

Whitty & Vallance gave the UK an update on factual information. It was worthwhile watching & I thoroughly enjoyed turning off the TV as the media companies then went through what it all meant. I.e - what they think it means which will help their ratings.

Could be up to 50k cases per day if nothing changes by November, which translates to 200 deaths per day.

The $64,000 question is the fatality rate, which is VERY low at present.

Going to be a heavy 6 months ahead, and we all must play our part.

EDIT: Because I am detrimental to myself at times, I had a quick twitter scan. Yep, media are showing varied updates showered with their own opinions which are extremely mixed. A lot of anger of no questions & no politicians.