The Silver Fern

@Grooter said in Chiefs v Force:

Magic from Harry Potter

Absolutely shite defence if you ask me. School boy shit.

@Steven-Harris said in Chiefs v Force:

Parker an upgrade on Finau
Really not sure what the AB coaching sees in Finau

Hard disagree. Finau's defence is much better.

Wonderful to see Wallace Sititi back on a Rugby paddock.

What a fucking player!

Terrible result for Blues.

I'm about half way through. It's excellent.

@No-Quarter said in All Blacks 2025:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2025:

@Old-Samurai-Jack said in All Blacks 2025:

@mariner4life said in All Blacks 2025:

Not to be overly negative, but can any one tell me what brand of rugby Razor's ABs play. For all the other big teams i can pretty much tell you what their over all plan is. I have no idea what the ABs are trying to do. It often looks different depending on who has the ball in their hands at any given time.

Fozzie kept it secret for years as well.... quite frustrating.

i sort of worked it out by the knocks outs of the world cup. literally the last 3 fucking games of his time as a coach. before that, yup, no clue.

Yeah, Razor's All Blacks are so similar to Fozzie's, so much headless chicken stuff.

This was the thing that annoyed me most last year. Robertson spent a lot of the previous four years briefing, through his pals in the media, against Foster and the brand of rugby his All Blacks played. Robertson became coach and the All Blacks played in almost exactly the same way. It was continuity Foster in all but name.

@sparky Her Instagram includes a lot of other photos of her looking pensive in other fashionable European locations too.

https://www.instagram.com/desireinglander?igsh=OG41Mzl2bW5kN24x

Ben Youngs, England's most capped player, has announced he is retiring next month:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c89gqj1d25lo

The next two Rugby World Cups are going to be played probably on fast tracks: Australia in October/November 2027 and the USA (mostly sunshine states) in September/October 2031.

So developing run and gun 10s makes a lot of sense.

Hopefully, the refs will let things flow a bit more than the "stop-start-check the replay 50 times" nonsense we saw in France in 2023.

Arguably Dan Carter was initially picked as a "run and gun" 10 who turned out to be a brilliant game manager and director too.

The expectation from Hansen and Foster was that Mo'unga's game would evolve in a similar manner, but it never happened.

We haven't had a First-Five who was primarily picked for game-management skills since Grant Fox. It's all been Run and Guns.

Mondu Duplantis won another award yesterday.

Congratulations to Leeds United and Burnley on being promoted back to the Premier League.

A visual summary of the likely Conclave frontrunners:

@Tim To be fair to Sevu Reece, Louis Bielle-Biarrey has been making lots of other wingers look slow in recent months. 21 years old and probably the best back in the world at the moment. The French are really lucky to have a such an exceptional talent. I wish we had someone like him at the moment. But we don't.

@Chris-B Jordie will available after Leinster's season ends on May 17th or May 24th if they make the European Cup final. His playing minutes have been carefully managed by Leinster so fatigue won't be a factor. My guess is that he will play a half of so of a club footy once he's back in New Zealand. He'll be a contender for Player of the Season in the Northern Hemisphere for 2024-5. Bar serious injury, he's a certainty for the All Blacks squad against France.

Leicester F is still contracted with Toulon until the end of July. Under NZR rules he will need to play for Ta$man in the NPC before he's All Blacks eligible. So he might play towards the end of the Rugby Championship if there is an injury. I think he's a near certainty for the end of year tour. He's played well at Toulon and Robertson is a fan.

@NTA Newsweek have released this on the favourites to be the next Pope.

Apr 21  /  News

The next Pope: who are the frontrunners to succeed Pope Francis?

The new pope's leadership will set the tone for the Church's future, whether continuing Francis's progressive reforms or shifting back toward conservatism.

RIP Pope Francis.

And sincere condolences to any Roman Catholic or Argentine Ferners.

@SBW1 Nothing about Manu exiting that contract has been formally announced by the club or the player's management yet.

@SBW1 There have been talks to try and get RM back since Robertson became ABs Coach. The snag is that RM really likes living and playing in Japan and seems content to represent Tonga at the next World Cup. It would be foolish to assume he's coming back.

An attempt to make a XV

1. Josh Fusitua (Blues)
2. Ioane Moananu (Crusaders)
3. George Dyer (Chiefs)
4. Fabian Holland (Highlanders)
5. Josh Beehre (Blues)
6. Anton Segner (Blues)
7. Du'Plessis Kirifi (Hurricanes)
8. Christian Lio-Willie (Crusaders)
9. Xavier Roe (Chiefs)
10. Harry Godfrey (Hurrricanes)
11. Leroy Carter (Chiefs)
12. AJ Lam (Blues)
13. Timoci Tavatavanawi (Highlanders)
14. Caleb Tangitau (Highlanders)
15. Josh Jacomb (Chiefs)