B
The thing about Noosa is it seemed almost performative. Take their drinking for example - they seemed to spend all their time at Rococo bar, which is the one that everyone walks past to get to the better spots. You couldn't pick a more exposed spot if you tried. At least golf courses are private, leafy sort of places.
Go to the bar at the resort, or one a bit further down Hastings Street with less foot traffic.
Joe Root seems to be escaping criticism, but from someone who has been described as the best England bat of all time, has he been good enough? Good hundred at the Gabba, but his other scores have been 0, 8, 15, 19 and 39. All of which were high pressure digs when his team needed a score.
If England was to win these Ashes he needed to stamp his GOAT credentials all over the series, and while he's got the monkey off the back with the century he's been a non-factor outside of that. With inexperienced players around him (in Aus conditions), they really needed him to hang around and eke out a few more scores.
When I think about England's preparation, the lack of work (proudly at times) and the lack of adaptation to conditions, it reminds me of a story about Matt Hayden preparing to go to India.
He hadn't had success in India, so he requested the groundsman in Brisbane prepare him a dusty pitch to mirror Indian conditions. He went out on the hottest days and had spinners bowling at him in a real match simulation and he'd bat all day with a break for lunch and a break for tea. Averaged over 100 for the series.
I don't know how you can be Brendan McCullum and look at that and think 'nah'. Because really that's exactly what his players should be doing if they actually want to take this seriously. But that's the truth of Bazball - freeing the arms and playing fast is more fun and it's less work. Who cares if you win or lose?
It must be tough being an England fan. This was all completely avoidable. I don't even think we are really that good.
Yep our bowling has been accurate but half the wickets have been gifted to us. And they have bowled too short all tour and not played a genuine spinner. And dropping catches! A couple that were just regulation.
There's enough talent there, they just had to not play like complete morons and the series would still be alive.
The rhetoric from England is so interesting. It's why cricket is great, you need to have a diploma in psychology to truly appreciate it at times. And the drama is so drawn out, it's slow playing over a month and a half.
So McCullum said that if anything they overtrained. Despite not listening to 'the noise', it's clear that's exactly what they did by scheduling more training sessions. Then they lose again, so McCullum basically says 'see, that's why my way is the right way, back in your fucking box we're going to Noosa'.
Stokes says Australia is not a place for weak men. Implying he himself is not weak, rather his teammates. He showed fight in the second innings, and by fight we in this case mean blocking balls on the stumps, waiting for the bad ball, absorbing pressure. But as others have pointed out, isn't he the architect (with McCullum) of Bazball? He can't seriously point the finger at his teammates for playing a style he himself has created and championed.
This is not just cricket, this is a personal crusade by McCullum and Stokes. In Baz's case it's an attempt to recast himself and his playing career as 'well he was right all along, it was the rest of us who just couldn't see'. And with Stokes it was about 'saving' cricket in England.
Now in some ways it's been wildly successful. We've gotten this far after all. But the crash seems like it's coming. This 2-0 is very different to the 2-0 in the last Ashes (where we scraped home from an epic 8th wicket partnership in the first test, and Stokes almost batted them to victory in the second).
But I think they will be telling themselves that winning 3-2 will actually be their greatest success, to pick yourself off the canvas and stick it up the chorus of naysayers. It's your back against the wall, telling yourself it's exactly where you want to be. I just wonder if this time they are facing a firing squad.
@nzzp said in All Blacks 2026:
@Jet said in All Blacks 2026:
@game_film said in All Blacks 2026:
@Jet Loves a long soak in the bath too…. as is my understanding.
Not sure of the euphemism, but I do love a bath (with a beer).
@barbarian does a bath count as colonic irrigation?
Depends on the shape of the bathtub, I think
And that there is the parallel to rugby. The Wallabies mental hoodoo at Eden Park, or NZ in general, is the equivalent of England in Australia. Lesser sides have gone to NZ and won. Lesser cricket sides have come to Australia and won.
But the combination of mental block and the lift in the home team for a grudge match is what makes the difference.
I think there's a laziness that's crept into all tail end batting in recent years. Gone are the days where you try and hang around and try and hold up your end. You're compelled to tee off, for some reason. Scott Boland's innings was the type you just don't see much any more - no wild swings, just compact defence, nibble a few to fine leg/third man, soak up the pressure.
England are the worst culprits. Even after losing Stokes and Jacks, there still should have been the hope or aspiration to do what Starc and Boland did - extend the game and lead into the night session. But nah that's not our style, prefer to middle a pull shot straight to mid wicket. Sweet strike though.
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
@barbarian said in Ashes 2025/6:
I can't really think of a sporting equivalent of England in the (away) Ashes. Every four years arriving with a mixture of confidence, hopefulness and at times arrogance and just getting the piss beaten out of them every time.
The Wallabies haven't won in NZ for a very long time but it doesn't provoke anguish like this. We know our place, we expect failure. It can be disappointing but it's never devastating.
But watching the Poms roll in here, tails up, only to see them go straight onto the canvas... and then the avalanche of opinions, think-pieces, fan vitriol... there's just nothing like it.
Well they came into the series ( which is still alive, just ) with the number one and two ranked test batsmen in the world. The Bazball mentality which has worked for them at times and based on that is something they refuse to change. Confident captain who can be a game changer, a few quicks with talent.......Australia have had a few injuries and untried newbies. Plus many of their stars are getting on in years.
The English press certainly do them no favours though.
....and my boy Beefy is right to mouth off about them. They should be doing far better.
Oh of course. We were all expecting a close series, as you say there was a strong case for England favouritism, backed up even more after the first half of the Perth test.
And that just makes it funnier. We're rolling out Shield trundlers and still knocking them off.
I can't really think of a sporting equivalent of England in the (away) Ashes. Every four years arriving with a mixture of confidence, hopefulness and at times arrogance and just getting the piss beaten out of them every time.
The Wallabies haven't won in NZ for a very long time but it doesn't provoke anguish like this. We know our place, we expect failure. It can be disappointing but it's never devastating.
But watching the Poms roll in here, tails up, only to see them go straight onto the canvas... and then the avalanche of opinions, think-pieces, fan vitriol... there's just nothing like it.
@Tim said in Rugby World Cup 2027 Draw - LIVE:
@mariner4life said in Rugby World Cup 2027 Draw - LIVE:
world wide broadcasting money
Japan would still make it. Probably USA and Canada. What markets are you worried about? Uruguay, Hong Kong, Namibia, Spain? About $10k revenue?
USA wouldn't make it. They are the reason we expanded to 24 teams, so they can scrape in to the one they are hosting in 2031.
@game_film said in "LIV Rugby"?:
@sparky They’ve taken the world’s most complicated sport and tried to complicate it further. All of this a year before the Nations League and Club World Cup start and the rugby battleship begins its slow turn to a more synchronised calendar.
If they’re desperate to invest why not just try and buy a team and turn them into a powerhouse?
Or buy a whole competition. Reckon they'd be able to get Super Rugby for the change down the back of the King's couch.
That's it Cato. It's not that aggression is bad, it's just that being aggressive all the time is just silly.
Take the flurry of wickets in England's second innings that turned the game. In that period, Brook and Root were both dismissed cheaply driving on the up with hard hands at balls going across them. On that pitch, at that time of the game, it was a really poor decision. So you lose your best two bats at a crucial time to just shit decisions.
Shoulder arms, get to the next ball and use your brain. And yeah if it's short, or full then throw the bat at it, which is what Head did in the early part of his innings.
I'm not as down on England as others. They are still very talented and these tests are going to be closely fought.
There's a tendency to swing too far after game one of a series. After game one last year Australia was old and washed, India resurgent and the series was teetering on the edge. India didn't win again.
If England come out and it clicks in Brisbane, it's 1-1 and they have the momentum. The Gabbatoir hasn't been that for quite some time, but it would be an enormous mental boost for them. Pink ball tests can be erratic.
I'd still rather be us than them, but I think $6 for England to win the Ashes is still a touch overs.
@barbarian said in Ashes 2025/6:
And now England refuse to field any of their XI against the PM's XI in Canberra. It's a pink ball D/N game designed as a warm-up for the Brisbane test.
The main team are in Noosa instead. Who needs match practice in Aussie conditions anyway?
I see the value of rest, the value of getting away from it while doing a bit of practise. But it's like Usman Khawaja playing golf for three days straight before the first test- all good brother, but you'd better play well. Because if you don't you just put a massive target on your back.
Sure if Ussie scored a couple of 30-odds then nobody would have cared, or even known. But he fails, drops a catch and picks up a back injury, so of course people will raise an eyebrow when they hear you played three straight rounds.
The same will be said for England. The stakes are high now. Win and it's all good, but lose and you can bet the knives will be well out and the chariot's wheels will be starting to loosen.
I've avoided the rugby threads here for a while, but I'll get right back into the cricket pages. How good. Suck shit England.
Certainly not ruling them out for the series, but you feel like that was the one they had to win. Cummins will be back in Brisbane. Joffra/Wood will only tire as the series goes on. We've just got to keep them at the bowling crease for as long as we can.