The Silver Fern

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360914378/who-englishman-alex-robertson-next-coach-npc-champions-canterbury

Award for Bunnings Npc player of the year
Tom Christie Canterbury
Dillion Pledger Otago
Lucas Casey Otago

Tom Chistie takes this one out for me

Good news for him then. He would have been an injury replacement this year but was injured too.

@Duluth backline shape looking nice there, still some of that shape with the tag off the back of a pod ball off 9. But there were a couple plays where a midfielder actually steps into that role, as opposed to (De Groot/Scott Barrett).
That try to ENS down the right is a real nice look at a stacked backline which i havent seen much of from ABs, that looked real good for the U20s - though was a bloody good offload from fihaki to actually make the try happen

@canefan said in England A v All Blacks XV:

@pakman said in England A v All Blacks XV:

@nostrildamus said in England A v All Blacks XV:

Fakatava still looks like a great AB bench option to me. What is he missing?

Based on the highlights he'd be an asset in the AB squad.

Has to get pass Christie first 🤷

I don't want to bag Christie but he isn't the best option if they want to play fast attacking rugby.

@KiwiPie I haven't watched every game but Lasaqa has often been inaccurate with his passing and at the breakdown. Maybe trying too hard. He appears to be used as a playmaker than out wide so is not getting those opportunities in space.

Now we have a nearly 2 month break until Singapore.

@canefan we did clear the bench and give some of our young fellas a run and only lost it by 3 points.

But generally it’s been our final 5 minutes of games that has cost us at least 3 or 4 games this season.

@antipodean said in Brumbies v British & Irish Lions:

Chessum went well.

I don't think he is mobile enough to be a 6, as was seen in the Creighton try from the scrum.

Credit to the Brumbies who went down swinging.

@Steven-Harris said in Māori All Blacks v Scotland:

He said to me as the yesterdays game was coming to its conclusion that the game has no flow and the referee and TMO’s are now the stars of the show
and the stop start nature kills any momentum with players slow to pack scrums and forming committee meetings before lineouts are set up not to mention players that are going down with injuries miles away from the action and yet the game gets halted

Did you tell him to watch Super Rugby as they actively addressed these issues this year?

@Bovidae said in SR U18 Development Squads 2025:

Here are the squads/teams. They have a similar amount of players missing with the NZS. Some players who were involved with the Barbarian U18s and Māori U18s.

559011715_18531127900059557_3657845862485532275_n.jpg

557293940_18534875311040386_8053031120361557139_n.jpg

Crazy to think Fletcher Stirling Cooper is playing Under 18s and he still has two more years left of school.

@Bones said in Japan XV v Māori All Blacks:

@Crazy-Horse said in Japan XV v Māori All Blacks:

@Bones said in Japan XV v Māori All Blacks:

@Crazy-Horse said in Japan XV v Māori All Blacks:

@Bones said in Japan XV v Māori All Blacks:

@KiwiMurph said in Japan XV v Māori All Blacks:

One thing that impressed me with Reihana was his passing - he had a nice mix of different types of passes and his timing and accuracy of those passes was for the most part top notch.

Yeah after reading all about his sloppy passing in the SR finals, I was pretty surprised to see silky passing of various lengths, bang on target.

I haven’t seen the game so it's good to hear, but we also need to take the opposition into account. If his passing was found wanting last night I would have been disappointed no matter what he did during the Super season.

Some people.

You don't think opposition should be taken into account?

Definitely not.

Why not?

France vs England

Chiefs vs hurricanes next week is going to be interesting, hurricanes look to be getting back in form

I wonder who applied?

https://www.allblacks.com/news/whitney-hansen-announced-as-black-ferns-head-coach

Teamwork

@Duluth thanks

@Mamuka he has stepped down this morning, been reported.

Follow the NH club comps on instagram and their highlight tries almost always have comical defending involved.

@nzzp said in Chiefs v Blues:

@Machpants said in Chiefs v Blues:

That should be a points loss, disgusting

You can't ding the team for that. The individual should lose pitchside privileges for some time though - it's a muppet thing to do... twice!

The rot starts at the top: “We have co-operated fully with Sanzaar on this matter and accept responsibility for the technical breach and the outcome of this process,” Graafhuis said. “As this is an employment matter, we will not be making any further comment.”

What a great catch-all comment that is as practically everything can be considered an employment matter.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/sportstalk/audio/craig-innes-former-all-black-on-the-future-of-new-zealands-rugby-pathways-for-secondary-schools/