Trump's behaviour over the election perfectly encapsulates why he is so reviled. It has nothing to do with whether he is conservative or liberal, or left or right or anything like that. This is the bullshit line trotted out by his supprters - it's all because the media is left wing. It's not really, it's that he is a piece of shit who thinks he is above the institutions.
He's acted like that from the outset, and done his utmost to remove independence from the other branches of government, and basically wants to behave like he is a king. Now he's tweeting that he wants people's votes to not be counted, so even democracy itself isn't above his own self-interest.
Shame on the Republicans who have not had the strength of character to denounce him. If he loses, watch the backlash from these cowards.
Shame on the Democrats who have been so fucking useless that they may not be able to defeat someone both immensely unlikeable and abjectly incompetent, who with 4 years to prepare for it have managed to come up with 77 (?) year old Joe Biden.

@Dan54 It's a pretty harmless rant on the fern sort of rage mate, i wouldn't bother getting too concerned.

this WAS the big game. this WAS the game you keep your powder dry for.
the reality is that we aren't doing that, it's just wishful thinking from fans to excuse us playing like shit, which frankly we've been doing for quite a while now - our servings of shit have regularly been papered over by bits of individual brilliance getting us out of jail when we've been dominated all day, and a shit-hot lineout. the lineout saved us last week against the poms, but wasn't quite enough this week. we dropped the miracle balls that would have won the game this week. but both weeks, and against the saffas, we have been pretty thoroughly dominated this year.

we kick way too much ball away, and badly. the opposition give us scraps, we finally get the damn ball, and these primadonna fuckwits immediately put boot to ball in low percentage plays. then they laugh about it at half-time.

we get a penalty advantage and BB takes a fucking drop kick. the potatoes get a penalty advantage and they - jonny fucking sexton - try to score a try. we are fucking dumb. we kick a penalty to give us a chance of a draw. a fucking draw. the all blacks. playing for a draw and kicking drop goals under penalty advantage. fuck my days what a fucking disgrace.

all it takes is an off-day for a couple of guys when our tactics are mud and we are so reliant on individual brilliance. sam whitelock, a great player - giving away dumb penalties. BBR, a great player - dumb penalties, terrible handling - his worst game i can remember. it's not time to throw the baby out with the bath water, but when guys like that don't perform, it does show the glaring deficiencies in other areas.

we are dumb. we still can't cope with a good rush defence. we haven't really been able to since the 90s when france used it to beat us. our defensive line speed was utter shit - so the potatoes made ground all day and had momentum. their line speed was really good, and there seems not to be a single fucker out there who has the wits to think, 'oh you know, with all this fanning out and quick line speed, we could either pick and go a few times or throw it behind the line to get around the rush'. barely a pick and go all game, and it was only in desperation when chasing the game that we threw in some depth to get around the rush - which promptly worked - except then when we made breaks, we were so totally lacking in composure that we forced dumb shit low percentage passes, or kicked the damn fucking ball away yet again. pack of fucking morons.

barnes is still a shit ref, inconsistent and doesn't seem to understand when a ruck forms. he had nothing to do with the loss however.

to the players:
karl T got a bit of a rough ride, but not as bad as some are making out. 2 scrums went badly, and 1 barnes should have reset. why barnes didn't blow their scrum when we were dominant i don't know. franks was solid, as was taylor, and all the replacements were good too. poor old ofa showed great hands to hold that piece of shit perenara pass - but when you have to catch that slop you're always going to get barrelled and struggle to win the ruck.
BBR his worst, and whitelock pretty poor too by his standards. scott barrett played well, was our best lock, but was playing out of position which fucks our forward balance.
squire was okay before injury, ardie at least tried hard, and read was rank. dropped everything, hasn't run hard into contact in about 3 years, and is a shitty captain. the way the irish were playing, and the way barnes was reffing, the player in our 23 most suited to that game was matt todd. bit disappointed he didn't manage to win it for us in his 3 FUCKING MINUTES YOU MORONS.
aaron smith's kicking is nowhere near as accurate as it was against the lions. he is still so much better than perenara -because he can actually pass - but if we don't have the brains to use smith's speed to get around the rush then he's wasted, and why not use a bigger running halfback.
BB. well it's pretty fucking limiting when your 10's weakest skill is his passing. also dumb. also doesn't appear to care a great deal. also thinks wasting try-scoring opportunities with drop-goals is a good idea, and funny. can run, can catch a high ball.
crotty and goodhue were both really pretty good given the shit they were served up. 20-something touches vs 40-something for the irish midfield wasn't it?
ben smith no ball. can run.
rieko no ball. no composure. can run.
mckenzie, not bad, but we are wasting ben smith on the wing.

to ireland: well bloody played, a good plan, well executed. you knew exactly what we were going to do, because we do it all the time (keeping our powder dry hahaha fuck me) . we box kick and put up high balls. you dealt with that easily. you know that if you rush, we will chip. you covered that easily then kept the ball. you knew that we throw our ruck ball to forwards one or two off the ruck - you got up quick on them and we never made the gain line.
great fire and commitment from all on the park, and an inspirational and thoroughly deserved victory, which i could really have done without watching.

rant over. as you were everyone.

@gt12 said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@Hooroo said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@canefan said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@Hooroo said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@Salacious-Crumb said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

@booboo said in 2019 Rugby World Cup:

#1. Brad Thorn securing lineout ball 80th min Final 2011.

Up to that “moment” my asshole had never been tighter my entire life.

For me it is when a shattered Stephen Donald was tackled on one side of the park and got turned over at the ruck, France spun it to the other side of the field and the first tackle made since the turnover was Donald on the other side of the field.

The guy was running on pure Columbian grade uncut adrenalin.

That's how legends are born. I don't think he probably has to buy himself beers when he's out on the town in NZ

Deadset, I will always buy him a beer if he is in the same pub!

This may sound a bit strange, but it’s something I’m looking forward to being able to do - I’m sure at some stage in my life I’ll be in the same room as him, and at that point the drinks will be on me. I can’t wait.

That reminds me of my favorite JK story - I met him in Tokyo one evening when I was out on a date with a very good looking girl (sadly hot crazy was in full effect though). I quickly talked to him on the way in (thanks, you’re a legend etc), then he stopped by our table on his way out (he was Japan coach at the time I think) to briefly say hi, making it seem like I kind of knew him (even though he was a complete stranger of course). Then gave me a greeeeat look like ‘get in there!’ and left, and I did, until the crazy fully developed.

great wing man JK.

Pathetic. Lomax outplayed on starting debut, Coles stupid then Taylor shit lineouts. Moody okay I guess, bit flat. Pat a bit flat too. Whitelock tried hard in a well beaten pack. Cane looks a bit knackered. Savea is, again, a lightweight against big teams playing fast defence and makes no impact. He should have been subbed rather than Frizzel, at least then we would have had someone make a few more tackles and hit some rucks. And you'd also be leaving on the guy who just had a rest, and taking off the guy who hasn't. Sotutu tried hard once on, a couple of good runs and had the skip pass execution been on - as it usually is - we'd have been in with a chance. Vaai went okay too.
In the backs, just anonymous, the lot of them. It almost seems like it might be an NZR directive to have Goodhue play 12 at the crusaders, trying to develop a combination with mo'unga, and foster is sticking to that... unfortunately it is wrong. goodhue is a gun at centre, and he's being wasted.
as for refusing to bring webber on for the hopeless TJ last week, then dragging smith early... christ, make up your mind.

i guess this is what you get when you pick a coach who has never won anything. It was good to hear JK, another coach who hasn't won anything, get stuck in a bit. At least when JK couldn't coach for shit what he got was sacked, rather than promoted to the ABs job.

Well done Argentina, thoroughly deserved. Nico Sanchez runs a bit hot and cold, but when he's on, he really is world class. Combine that with 14 blokes tackling their arses off and it's a good recipe - that was a hell of a defensive effort.

How dare someone leave people open to criticism in public eh Steve? Best you criticise them in public for that.

Your closed doors is how we got Foster in the first place. The hiring process was abysmal, ruled out all the good options deliberately so your mate could get the job. And the organisation, having previously wheeled out bullshit like 'coaches must have international experience' when it suited, then pick a guy without any head coach success in NZ, let alone inernationally.
Zero integrity.

It's just bizarre. Every decision ever made puts all of the onus on the defender to get it right. This impact caused a severe injury, but they are mitigating it because the defender didn't supply enough of the momentum? That's effectively saying it is Retallicks fault for running hard.
Despite the defender having plenty of time to go low, and deciding to go high on a 6'8" lock.
I give up.

Jesus, the McKenzie criticism is a bit over the top. As others have said he was involved in most of the tries, one bad error, and some seem to think he's worst on the field?
Meanwhile Rieko makes pretty much the same error, runs Reece out of space then throws a rank pass into touch, and he's best on the park?
The only difference I can see is that Caleb Clarke turned one of the errors into a try, but he seems to be getting a free pass...

Shit super season sure, but a good game last night.

Not really too sure what to make of that game.

They put out a B front row and we hammered their scrum, so what. Their forwards looked a bit tired, and we dominated a bit. Our ruck work was improved. Our ball running was still mediocre, even against tiring defence. We clearly won the forward battle though.

Our backs on the other hand, were nothing short of terrible. Just really, really fucking awful. That much ball, and they couldn't do shit with it. Aimless kicks. Kicks when you have an overlap. Poor finishing. Poor option-taking. The kicks were clearly a tactic drilled into them, because they were doing them even when they weren't on. Worst part is that we didn't even bother to send someone back to cover - that's some pretty basic schoolboy stuff when you're kicking to a 50/50 contest.

The thing about the Argies is that without field position they can't do much. And with Cubelli out, and Sanchez struggling then off the field, our shit kicking was never effectively cleared, likewise our other mistakes/turnovers in their 22. So we basically spent the whole game hot on attack with all the ball, a dominant pack, the world's best halfback, and were pathetically ineffective with it.

Now, despite some odd selections which I think may have been mentioned in passing by others, we have a number of reasonably effective ball runners in our backline. That makes me think that our tactics are dogshit. We aren't finding the space. Honestly it doesn't even seem like we're looking for it.

So we're left with kicking the ball away. A shit tactic, poorly executed, which won us the game pretty comfortably.

Fucken yuck.

Last time I saw this much confidence here was just before the Aussies smashed us to bits.

Ireland are a good side, who lack depth at 10. We seem to think they're shit now because they were beaten by Japan and thumped by England before the WC. But both games no Sexton. You can't play 10 man rugby without a 10.
They whipped Scotland and looked good against Samoa - they're not a spent force and they've beaten us 2 out of last 3. The Dublin game was one which we targeted to get payback for the first loss, and we scored 9 points and were well beaten.
Now I see Coles in the Herald saying 'we haven't talked about what happened last time'. Sounds a bit too much like Cheika not worrying about the opposition to me.

As for us, our best forward is underdone, and our reserve scrummaging has looked a bit shaky. I don't think Cane is back to his best, and we lack the grunt to bend set defensive lines. We have beaten South Africa, and had a couple of pretty meaningless cakewalks vs minnows, that's all. There's obviously a lot of potential in the Mounga Barrett axis, but I don't consider it proven under pressure just yet, and we have inexperienced wings who we know will be targeted in the air. Our centre has been out injured and the 12-13 combo lacks match time together.
Underdogs, clearly.

Glad we have Owens compared to some other options, but he's been below his usual high standards this cup, letting too much go at the breakdown and offside line which will suit the Irish. He is however the least likely to give a panicky dodgy shit red card.

@Chester-Draws said in Jacinda resigned:

@gt12 said in Jacinda resigned:

I’m no fan of hers at all, but she really has done this the right way.

Get out far away enough from it that she is set for her next role with the UN or whatever.

She’ll continue to be the world darling and likely won’t wear any of the deserved shit that should be coming labors way.

My thoughts almost exactly. I didn't mind her, but I really don't like her government trying to turn NZ back to the 1980s.

Losing an election would spoil her brand. Never mind she didn't actually win the first election she got to be PM, and the second was basically NZ back-slapping themselves over how awesome we were at keeping Covid out (cough!), people outside NZ think she is pure magic and we are all in love with her.

I don't imagine she did it for those reasons directly though. You can see the effect being PM has had on her physically. She may want another child.

I hadn't picked the Fern to be quite so anti-Jacinda though. Are there no fans here?

The (vocal) Fern is largely centre-right wing conservative. Most conveniently forget how abjectly incompetent the centre-right opposition party have been throughout Jacinda's time in power. National simply did not provide a credible alternative with their in-fighting and stupidity. Do they now? If they manage to put up a semblance of a united front they'll win due to the negativity around Labour, but if anybody thinks National has any answers I'd be interested to hear what they are. I don't like a lot of things about our current government, but you have to consider the 'who else then' aspect: it's basically all the same shit, but I guess in my opinion she's been the more palatable turd.

@Victor-Meldrew either Eddie doesn't know what 'retribution' means, or that is a mis-quote and they've missed a 'not'? Retribution is not getting the Wallabies playing consistently well.

Mmm mmm mmm mmm
Barbie girl
Vengabus
Blue - eiffel 65?
Who let the dogs out
Mmm bop

A bottom 100 would be quite doable.

If Ardie is big enough for 8, then so is Blackadder. Except neither of them are really.
Papalii is just a younger Cane. Big defensive heart, but not a lot extra.
If Sotutu, Savea and Blackadder all played 7 we would have some really interesting options there. Instead we are stuck with Savea at 8, a tackler at 7, and needing to pick a big limited 6 in Barrett or Frizz to try to balance the trio - and we are still going to get beaten up by the big packs. Admittedly the injury forced front row changes have helped a lot with the overall balance of the pack, and lessened that problem, maybe even enough to hide it until the WC when we have 3 big packs in a row to play.

Jordie is and always has been a natural fit at 12. At 15 he is always going to be a little bit slow and lacks a bit of evasiveness to be a long term keeper. At some point he'll probably cop a card for leading with elbows and forearms hitting it up, but hey.
Rieko Ioane frequently does some pretty amazing stuff - particularly in defence - but blows about one try per game. And in close games we don't get a whole lot of opportunities to blow. Clarke has the same problem: can't find support, can't keep movements going. Of course he's a bit of a defensive liability at present too, so that's not great. Both those guys in one backline at the moment means you're going to leave points out there.
So if/when ALB comes back, then what? Is Rieko a better centre than him?

@MN5 said in Bledisloe 2:

@voodoo said in Bledisloe 2:

Fuck SBW is bad. Why is he employed? Surely it's some sort of work experience, we're not actually paying him are we?

For someone who criticised him lots as a player I actually find his “aw shucks” demeanour quite endearing.

He’s revolutionised broadcasting too, I’ve never heard anyone refer to Dave Rennie as “bro” before !

The demeanour is fine, it's the absolutely pathetic 12 year old kid could do better analysis that's the problem. It's such a waste of time that it hurts listening to it. Seriously the best you can hope for is for him to get a meaningless cliche correct.

Both locks and jordie.

@Crucial yes

@antipodean said in Movie review thread...:

Fall

Tit watch: Cleavage only. Goes for too long and ignores both common sense and physics too much to be believable. As a result you don't invest in the outcome.

that's the most detailed tit watch yet, nice work.

@Billy-Tell said in Bledisloe 1:

@nzzp said in Bledisloe 1:

@Billy-Tell @game_film he's a phenomenal player. But the reality is if you select him, you have to compromise elsewhere in your loose forward trio.

You're welcome to your opinion, and I think Ardie is awesome, but would he be the best 8 in world rugby?

Edit: for me it's a bit like recognizing BB's incredible physical talents, but that he may not be the best 10 while being one of the best rugby players

As I’ve already posted I’d probably have him at 7. But ask fans from elsewhere which AB they could have and you’ll mostly get one of 2 replies: savea or r ioane. Maybe a few for Jordan, a few for whitelock and a few for b Barrett. You won’t get papalii, akira, cane or frizzell.

Sami needs to perform against England at twickenham not Argentina in Hamilton to start getting some recognition.

Papalii, A Ioane and Frizz aren't even confirmed 1st choice starters for us, let alone a world XV. Go back not too far and every team would want a Whitelock, Retallick, Smith, BB before Savea. He's not a patch on our great loosies i.e. Mccaw, Jones, Zinzan etc, and also not a great role player like a Kaino or Collins. I also don't think he's that influential in games. He's a great Savea, and maybe at 7 with some more grunt at 6 and 8 he would be a more influential player, as he certainly has some unique ability. To me in the ABs he looks like a standout in a losing team, but I'm not totally convinced that he's not a part of the reason it's a losing team.