Super Rugby 2026
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Chiefs have a deep squad, but there's some poor defenders in there. Leroy Carter and Wallace Sititi in particular (in the 2nd SA game they were both pathetic). Ratima badly out of form. Can Vaa'i become a good player again? Parker is such a provincial plodder.
They should win, but I can't see them performing in the playoffs.
Huge year for Tupaea.
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@Duluth said in Super Rugby 2026:
@Tim said in Super Rugby 2026:
@Bovidae said in Super Rugby 2026:
Feb 6: Blues vs Crusaders – Takapuna Rugby Club, Onewa Domain, Auckland
Might be a fun afternoon on the Shore.
Good excuse for a TSF catch up
A question: Does the Poenamo Hotel still have a bar?
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@taniwharugby said in Super Rugby 2026:
@canefan its going back a couple of years, but when the Drua played here in Whangarei, the Drua fans were great, signing, dancing, was a great atmosphere, but NZ grounds seem to prefer to play shitty music and kept playing it over the top of the crowd creating that faux ambience.
This needs to be emphasised and repeated.
Not just NZ and not just rugby. Classic examples at Suncorp in recent years (won't bore with specifics).
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@booboo said in Super Rugby 2026:
@taniwharugby said in Super Rugby 2026:
@canefan its going back a couple of years, but when the Drua played here in Whangarei, the Drua fans were great, signing, dancing, was a great atmosphere, but NZ grounds seem to prefer to play shitty music and kept playing it over the top of the crowd creating that faux ambience.
This needs to be emphasised and repeated.
Not just NZ and not just rugby. Classic examples at Suncorp in recent years (won't bore with specifics).
Amen, hasn't stopped according to mates over there. I think when they do it, they trying to stop you discussing game during breaks?I will say the Naki have got it right, just loud enough so kids in crowd can jump around etc, but you can still talk to person next to you.
But on this year, as this is what we discussing, should we actually be sending messages to super clubs, after a game, send an email to them and perhaps we should give them examples of how it pissed us off at game. I just thought of that as for a few years I have moaned--to mates and in a forum like this, but not to the people who running the thing, as someone who goes I sure they not coming into forums to read what a couple of dozen posters say. -
@Tim said in Super Rugby 2026:
Chiefs have a deep squad, but there's some poor defenders in there. Leroy Carter and Wallace Sititi in particular (in the 2nd SA game they were both pathetic). Ratima badly out of form. Can Vaa'i become a good player again? Parker is such a provincial plodder.
They should win, but I can't see them performing in the playoffs.
Huge year for Tupaea.
Love your work. You tried, seems the chiefs tiddlers aren't hungry.
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@cgrant said in Super Rugby 2026:
@canefan said in Super Rugby 2026:
Pro rugby league is an infinitely more exciting watch than Pro rugby union right now.
That's your opinion, not mine.
Obviously each to their own opinion, but I do find that opinion odd considering how good the actual rugby, as in the matches, were in Super and NPC was last year. The test rugby was a less enjoyable watch.
League for me finished with a bang with the Pacific Championship win, but my eternal pessimism about the Warriors meant that even when they were flying high early in the season I just assumed how it fizzled out would be how it fizzled out.
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@Nepia said in Super Rugby 2026:
@cgrant said in Super Rugby 2026:
@canefan said in Super Rugby 2026:
Pro rugby league is an infinitely more exciting watch than Pro rugby union right now.
That's your opinion, not mine.
Obviously each to their own opinion, but I do find that opinion odd considering how good the actual rugby, as in the matches, were in Super and NPC was last year. The test rugby was a less enjoyable watch.
League for me finished with a bang with the Pacific Championship win, but my eternal pessimism about the Warriors meant that even when they were flying high early in the season I just assumed how it fizzled out would be how it fizzled out.
Rugby, and other sport, journos in this country are more likely to criticise rugby, and league journos in both NZ and Aus are more than happy to sell their product so it becomes accepted as fact.
It was usual to criticise Super Rugby early season several years back when it was a slow start so that when it was good it wasn't acceptable to say so.
I'll also throw in that I do not find League a particularly entertaining spectacle. Feel free to enjoy if that is your bag though.
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@booboo said in Super Rugby 2026:
@Nepia said in Super Rugby 2026:
@cgrant said in Super Rugby 2026:
@canefan said in Super Rugby 2026:
Pro rugby league is an infinitely more exciting watch than Pro rugby union right now.
That's your opinion, not mine.
Obviously each to their own opinion, but I do find that opinion odd considering how good the actual rugby, as in the matches, were in Super and NPC was last year. The test rugby was a less enjoyable watch.
League for me finished with a bang with the Pacific Championship win, but my eternal pessimism about the Warriors meant that even when they were flying high early in the season I just assumed how it fizzled out would be how it fizzled out.
Rugby, and other sport, journos in this country are more likely to criticise rugby, and league journos in both NZ and Aus are more than happy to sell their product so it becomes accepted as fact.
It was usual to criticise Super Rugby early season several years back when it was a slow start so that when it was good it wasn't acceptable to say so.
I'll also throw in that I do not find League a particularly entertaining spectacle. Feel free to enjoy if that is your bag though.
I am a league fan too, but yes, it is seen as the cool thing to do in NZ to bag Super Rugby and hype up the NRL, even if you got some awesome Super Rugby games and dire NRL games. Ironically, and not trying to cause offence to Wahs fans, but man, they can be one of the worst teams to watch in the comp a lot of the time, but hey, credit to their promotion for getting people on board.
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Super/NPC rugby is the only pro rugby i'll actually take the time to watch nawadays.
Although that game in Pretoria last night got my attention.
I still follow international rugby, but a lot of that is absolutely dire; extra disappointingly the very big games seem to be the most dire.
Still watch the locals tho; saw some cracking games from the amateurs last season; very entertaining.As for the league v union thing.
A good game of union will shit all over a good game of league . . . BUT . . . you get a lot less good games of union, than you do of league.
League is a little more simple than union; and that seems to ensure that every game is going to be, at a minimum, a half-decent spectacle.
You cant say that about union, a lot of games can be complete shite.
At times a close score line is the only thing making it interesting.Just on top of that, the guys I know who have played both legaue and union (I never played league) generally say that they actually prefer to play union.
Even the shite games of union can be fun, if you are actually playing.
But playing and spectating are lots different. -
@Nepia said in Super Rugby 2026:
Even if the majority of what he says is true, a CEO who was in charge of a fiscally failing organisation (which didn't have to pay the players) might need to have some of his comments taken with a grain of salt.
Shows you how tough it is out there tho.
When someone else is paying most of your wage bill, and you still cant stay afloat.
And a rainy day can fuck you completely.
I'm sure it aint much different at the other SRCs.Wellington rugby really is a basket case at the mo.
Just lucky for them there is another rugby institution just round the corner worth $3.5 billion to bail them out.
Make the call, and down to the coffee shop.Love to know what the Wellington PU got for their 50% canes stake.
That’d give you some idea of what they canes were worth, probably fuck-all.
Probably handed it over for nothing, in exchange for a bail out by NZR.
All the financial arrangements are “confidential.”
NZR are calling all the shots tho, giving all the guarantees to allow WPU and Canes to pay their bills.
Right now, NZR could merge them if they wanted.
The canes being worth zilch means the Pte Equities don’t have much, or any, say.Funny that the Horowhenua RFU are the only PU in the region that now has a direct stake in the canes (3%).
All the other PUs are only “stake holders.”
The Horowhenua RFU a little fiscal power-house, who’d have thunk it. -
@mohikamo said in Super Rugby 2026:
Funny that the Horowhenua RFU are the only PU in the region that now has a direct stake in the canes (3%).
All the other PUs are only “stake holders.”
The Horowhenua RFU a little fiscal power-house, who’d have thunk it.Lol I would mate, been singing their praises for quite some time.
A well run union, books been in the black at last 18 AGMs, and in that time have built own new HQs at the Levin Domain!
