Back from my corporate jolly to game...some thoughts having not seen any replays or TV. Long-ish post. (Skip to he last 2 paras for the incisive bit)

Twickenham a pain to get to...and into. Ticket entry barriers weren't working, RFU needs to get its act together - pretty crap really. The crowd was far more respectful to the opposition and the kickers. First time I'd been to Twickenham for a test in about 10 years, so credit to the RFU. Atmosphere was great.

Pom tactics and decision making were excellent in the first 30 minutes - crap after that. Thought Farrell had a poor game - zero variation in his game. Underhill was astonishingly good for England and was my MoM.

AB backline was poor until Crotty came on and he seemed to give a lot of solidity. Thought SBW was poor and you wonder how long he'll be in the team. England targeted DMac with the high ball but he did OK and as well as anyone else - he certainly doesn't lack guts, thats for sure. On attack he was probably the most dangerous AB back. Thought our kicking game (inc. DMac) was shite. We looked way more dangerous when keeping the ball in hand.

Retallick & Savea were immense. BBBR utterly owned the Pom lineout, ruck, maul and, well, the whole pitch. Ardie seemed to be everywhere.

Ben Kay and Ugo Monye hosted a post match analysis for the corporate clients which was excellent. No argument that Lawes was offside from them. We then had a Q&A with Itoje and Danny Care.

Itoje & Care seemed good blokes but I was surprised by the complacency in their attitude. They thought that as they had only lost by 1 point they had scored a famous victory. Astonishing attitude in many ways. Hope I never hear an AB talk like that.

All in all, a mistake-strewn game. But we dogged a win - which I sense Hansen will be happy with

It's a childish, unfair thing to say but it's a pity Sexton wasn't playing.

Would have loved to seen his face at the final whistle

@sparky said in R.I.P. 2020:

Sgt Matt Ratana sounds like a great guy:

Bit shocked when I saw the name. Actually knew Matt when he lived near Bourne End/Marlow in the early 2000's and gave me and my kids tennis lessons at the local tennis club. Had more than a few beers with him after the lessons.

The club was a bit snooty and didn't quite know how to handle the "gee whiz" maori bloke who turned out to be a degree-educated policeman... think he used to enjoy that.

He really was a bloody great bloke. Kia Kaha

Exclusive Interview with Foster

Interviewer: Thanks for talking to us again, Ian.

Fozzie: No worries. My shout this time. How many Big Macs do you want?

Interviewer: What's changed in the camp since the defeat to Argentina?

Fozzie: We had a sit down and a good think about what went wrong and how we could improve. We even brought in a sports psychologist to help us.

Interviewer: How so?

Fozzie: She told us to be open and honest with our shortcomings as there's a natural tendency to hide things we're not good at - especially in a team environment. For example I admitted I had problems with numbers like 12, 13 & 14 at school, TJ owned up to having a fixation with chickens and Scooter has this weird thing called Xanthophilia.

Interviewer: What’s Xanthophilia?

Fozzie: A love of all things yellow, apparently.

Interviewer: There's been some criticism of your comments that things are going well on the training pitch but why are they not being transferred onto the playing field?

Fozzie: Fair question. Look, I can only say it how I see it. I understand the frustration from the supporters’ point of view. And Scotty & Plummy feel it too. For me as head coach it's worse. Way up there with getting to KFC at closing time and finding out you've missed out on the last Big Bucket.

Interviewer: There's been some criticism of the game plan against Argentina.

Fozzie: A lot of that criticism is unfair. We've taken loads of time to analyse and work on our game plan. Obviously, It’s a work in progress but we hope to share it with the players soon.

Interviewer: Are you looking at how to counter the rush defence?

Fozzie: We're working really hard on that and trying different variations on attack. We workshop things in the training sheds before trying it out on the practice paddock. We used my empty KFC Big Buckets to represent the opposition forward and the Big Mac boxes for the backs.

Interviewer: How did that go?

Fozzie: OK, but we had to stop using the Big Buckets though as they were triggering withdrawal symptoms in Asafo Aumua.

Interviewer: You've picked JB at 14 again. What is your thinking behind that?

Fozzie: He's played pretty well in SRA at 14 so he was the logical choice. He was particularly impressive in the game with the Hurricanes. I pretty much made up my mind about him then.

Interviewer: Didn't he play fullback for the Canes in that game?

Fozzie: I clearly recall discussing the 14 slot at the airport & Scotty McLeod saying "Well Jordan played bloody well in the Hurricanes - Crusader game" and I decided there and then he was in the squad at 14.

Interviewer: That was "Will Jordan went well "surely, and not "Well Jordie went well"?

Fozzie: Why wasn't I told about these things? Can you see the sort of ineptitude I have to put up with? People aren’t even able to get players names right.

Interviewer: What about the balance in the loose forwards? There’s been some comment that Ardie Savea is a bit too light at 8 and should be brought on as an impact player.

Fozzie: That’s a good point. But Ardie has the experience which is vital and we’ve been working on his physicality. He’s working really hard on bulking up.

Interviewer: He doesn’t seem to have bulked up much though. Is he working on it enough?

Fozzie: You should see the McDonalds loyalty cards I lent Ardie.

Interviewer: What do you say to some of the social media attacks by supporters on you and the team after the Argentina loss?

Fozzie: Just knock that crap off will you? Just because you're right, doesn't mean you can be abusive.

Interviewer: But can’t you see how supporters might feel with the way the All Blacks are playing?

Fozzie: I can certainly empathise with how they feel. It’s a bit of a shock when you lose twice in a row unexpectedly when you have a history of winning. The only thing I would say is that the shock does wear off after a few losses. Trust me on that.

Interviewer: Will you consider your future if you lose on Saturday?

Fozzie: I'm contracted until 2021. So we'll see after that. But you know, you never know, you know.

Interviewer: Thanks for talking with us

Fozzie: My pleasure. Do you want those fries?

As a long term devotee of the GOM thread, thought it a good idea to have place to post when things are going well. In true Fern and Grumpy Old Men tradition, it will probably die in a day or two....

I'll kick off.

I normally have a shit-load of tree debris to cut down to logs and shred the stuff after the annual visit from my friendly, local tree-surgeon. It's generally a bit of a pain - particularly the thinner branches - until I bought one of these.

It;s a cross between a chainsaw and a lopping tool, is the absolute dogs bollocks and possibly the best garden tool I've bought. It's bloody awesome at cutting away the smaller branches from the trunk and saves me hours of effort.

I'm now feeling smug and happy at spending my money wisely.

@chimoaus said in All Blacks v France, 2021 NH Tour:

When did we last lose 2 in a row on the spring tour?

About 40 minutes from now, I reckon.

@mariner4life said in All Blacks Vs Ireland - 2nd Test:

Lol considering even at my playing weight I was about thr size of Ben Smith this place would fucking erupt

Yeah, but think of how much pace you'd have compared to BBBR, SB & Sam.

@mariner4life said in All Blacks Vs Ireland - 2nd Test:

3 weeks ago we picked 5 locks, now we have 2, after 1 game. That's quite the attrition rate.

One assumes Patty T will come straight on to the bench. God help us if one of the starters goes down early.

Me too. On the plus side, he's experienced and a good leader.

I recall 1 or 2 games when Pat T really stepped up, plenty of others when he was OK to anonymous. If he's in the 23 (as appears likely) let's hope it's the former.

Strong is the narcissism & faux rage in this one.

(Hopefully the comments will help him become a better person)

UPDATE: The C.H.U.D.’s over at the NY Post shared this today. So donate - Michael Lopez on LinkedIn | 496 comments

UPDATE: The C.H.U.D.’s over at the NY Post shared this today. So donate here: https://abortionfunds.org I'm a queer brown person and I was fired during... 496 comments on LinkedIn

@chimoaus

Really sorry to hear that, mate. Glad you felt able to share here.

I have a close friend who went thru 10 years of seriously awful, lifechanging stuff happening to her husband & son and I've often told her I marvel at how she got thru it. Her response was that opening up and just talking to people about her situation (and sometimes venting) helped enormously and was probably key to getting her thru it.

Look like you've figured that out already. You'd be amazed at how kind people can be when you ask them to listen when you need to open up.

Kia kaha.

@Catogrande

Link is to the Scouts Style guide (for writing and talking). Sets out what is acceptable and unacceptable speech/words. E.g.

Mate referred me to the "Down under" entry.

@booboo said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:

@Victor-Meldrew said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:

Scouts in the UK seem to have banned the words "Down Under" for OZ & NZ (among other words and phrases) as it may cause offence...

Link

Any further explanation?

Not really. I never regarded "Down under" as being the slightest bit offensive and just thought it worth posting

Scouts in the UK seem to have banned the words "Down Under" for OZ & NZ (among other words and phrases) as it may cause offence...

Link

Hamburger patty from the farm across the valley, home-grown tomatoes & lettuce, onions from neighbour. Topped with mayo & home-made tomato relish.

Bloody marvelous

@booboo said in All Blacks Vs Ireland - 2nd Test:

So ... let's move on.

How's our confidence levels?

Just cruised in by 23 points.

Are we back on track and 23 points better than them? Or did we get lucky and take our chances while they didn't?

How many tries did they leave out on the track?

And how easy did that first try of theirs look?

Given @ACT-Crusader 's talk of all the COVID in the ranks and losing our 2x 7s and all our skippers ... assuming for half a second it's true... where would a scenario like that leave us?

Can the Irish get better? Many touring teams take a game to settle into their pattern (I don't count the dirty dirties v Maori - they're a separate squad).

Is Sexton is ok?

Have the ABs flattered to deceive again?

I (whilst I expect us to win... never ever think we'll lose) just have some reservations about this game. Think it will be close and we'll play poorly, and the Fozzie is fat brigade will be reinvigorated.

Thoughts?

My head says Ireland will come out fired-up and it will be a close game.

I want us to absorb that pressure, stay calm and focussed with minimal errors like Saturday. There will be periods when we play poorly due to Irish pressure, but If they can weather those periods and regain control, then that is progress for me.

Our set pieces were good last week but I'd be happy to hold parity in the scrum as Ireland will have been pissed off at being owned there. Would love to see Reiko with more attacking opportunities & think we need to up our kicking game.

But my heart wants to believe we'll blitz Ireland and be up by 2 tries inside 10 minutes...

@Catogrande said in Australia v England - 1st Test:

Here's hoping for Underhill

Whatever happened to him? He was awesome in 2018 and then seemed to fall out of favour and seems to have had only sporadic appearances.