The Silver Fern

In the cold light of the next day, it's perhaps worth a recap of yesterdays events.

There is a patch of carpet in my house, just to the right of coffee table which is now a little more worn. That was my spot. That's where I stood. It's right in front of the corner of our L shaped couch, which is my favourite spot to sit. However, between 4:30 and 7pm yesterday, the All Black forward pack couldn't have pushed me into the seat. If I stand there, we do ok.

It's amazing the superstitious bullshit that comes into one's head during a tense sporting match. Stand in the same spot, don't log off work, don't turn off the coverage, don't drink any water, don't change ANYTHING. We lost both wickets yesterday as I checked the score & Taylor was dropped when my family got home and they sat on the couch. I swear to god, if I'd sat down, Bumrah would have held the catch. Even as of this morning, I can't say I don't truly believe that.

I woke up yesterday with that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Timmy's couple of wickets the night before giving us a sniff. I'm always much better watching us bowl, than bat, but I couldn't do it yesterday. Went out for a 30 min bike ride at 10, which lasted nigh on 2 hours trying to keep my head off the cricket (sorry boss, not an overly effective day for me yesterday). By the time I got back, India were 5 down I still thought we had a sniff .... so I turned it on, put the laptop in front of me & settled in. And they walked off for lunch. Shit. 45 mins later, I settled in again, meeting coming up at 2pm, what could we do in that hour ... not much for a while. Head accepting the draw. BOOM, Wagner! Back in it. 2pm comes and goes, sit down. A few mins in, "so thats setup, Matt could you please ....FUCKING YESS!!!!!!" ... Oops. Supposed to be working. Trent in the wickets! Time for the inevitable slog from the tail enders. Come on guys, these runs are gold to India .... c'mon .....Timmy! Again, Timmy!

Breather. Shit. I promised the wife we'd go and get some clothes for her sisters 50th this weekend. I don't think I can watch it anyway. Resting heart rate is about 256 as it is. Off we go. 45 mins odd later. Gotta check. 19 without. Tea. Phew, negotiated that first session. At the picture framers now picking up the gift. "What do you think of it hon", she says "sorry, what, just checking the sco...FUCKKKKKKKKKK". Latham's out. Here we go. Phone away, pay attention. Drive home ... unpack car. TV on ... 44/1 .. awesome, under 100 to go. Big appeal and .... shit. Conway. Literally first ball of turning the TV on. What do I do?? Hit up the fern, and offer my predicament. Whilst doing this, an over passes with no drama. It's obvious now isn't it. Leave the TV on & we'll be fine. Hang on ... I've been watching the cricket from this spot, and then checking work / TSF in the over breaks. OK, thats what we do from here on in. Commentator is going on and on about run rates / dot balls. And it's working an absolute treat on me. Nervous shit needed. Can't do that, could cause a wicket. So stick with the plan. Getting fidgety. Drinks. What does that mean? Can I have a drink? Can I sit down? Not sure. Decide to change nothing. Wife leaves to get the kids. And suddenly the runs are flowing. Half way there. What the fuck is a mallet on the pitch for??? What does this mean? Can I drink some water now and have it offset by the mallet? Don't come back wife/kids, we are doing great. Oh, you're back. "Edged and ..... dropped". Jesus Christ. Do I need to kick the family out?? Not sure. Dot balls again. Dot ball commentator is back. Need a shit again ..... and we're scoring again. Under 50 to get. Surely our tail can get this now? Under 40 ... Under 30 .... ... Kane Dropped! It's in the stars, it's happening, nothing can stop us. 50 for Kane! only 7 or 8 to go. We're going to win! Can I have a drink now ... NO!!!!! Ross on strike, it's in the air ... it's 4! IT's over! We've won!! We've won!! We've won!!!

There is enough praise for the team above that there is little I can add honestly. It's a colossal moment in time for NZ cricket & it's so fitting that Ross & Kane had the unbroken partnership at the end. What a team. Perfect balance of youth, new players, legends, and team men. Although arguably they are all legends now.

Jamieson was officially MOTM and this arguably should be shared with Kane. Anchor in both of our innings. However, for me, its the players in the moments which really count, those who step up when the heat is on who should get this accolade. Think Carters drop goal / penalty in 2015 RWC, think Wilkinson for England in 03. Think Stokes for England. It's can be only person for me in this match. 3 times in the one test he had those moments. The value of his 30 runs in the the first innings cannot be underestimated. No lead, no psychological edge. India innings 2, both openers out lbw. No wickets, India without loss going into the last day with a handy lead. Different gravy. Remember I mentioned above India into he tail slog. Who cleaned up the last 2? Extra 20-30 runs on 4/5 less overs. Different gravy.

MajorRage MOTM of the WTC Final - Tim Southee.

What a day.

I was top tier in the temporary seats for 2011 final.

When Cruden got injured and tehre was a delay, i nipped down to get some beers ... in my haste to get back, I tripped over entering the stand (beers were ok though), and as I stood up and continued walking in, the cop/security guard standing there, put his hand out to stop me. I was expecting all sorts of shit, and questions as they were being pretty hard on drunken behaviour. Started panicking about kikicked out etc. Instead he slowly turned his head, looked me dead in the eye and said

"Before you go back to your seat, you need to know that Stephen Donald is now on the field"

SA Rugby In Shock After TMO Correctly Rules In Favour Of The Away Team

Shockwaves went through SA rugby today, when a TMO (television muppet official) correctly ruled against the home SA team for the first time ever in a televised game. Late on in the match, with the Lions looking to close out the match it looked for all money that the Lions had scored with time almost up to put the game beyond reach. Despite the ball clearly having not been grounded, expected transmission began with the assistant referee running in to let the referee know that the ball had indeed been grounded correctly, and he'd had a clear view.

However things began to unravel shortly after, when the referee decided that it was worth another look, leaving all viewers confused. After looking at 3 angles, of which the clearest had correctly been blocked by a spectators head, the TMO then sent seismic waves through the community by correctly saying the ball hadn't been grounded. The Blues then went on to score a last minute winner, although replays clearly showed there were at least 5 potential reasons for the referee to completely fuck up and call it back.

Lions coach Johan Ackermann when asked about the incident was inconsolable and somewhat confused. "I didn't really see it and haven't had time to review it, as like all good coaches I wasn't looking at the 42 live screens in front of me all showing the replays. This is however a huge shift change for SA refereeing, and I'm wondering if there is any point in even having home advantage anymore. Fans don't turn up, and if the referees are going to police things correctly and without bias, then we may as well just play away".

Team captain Warren Whitely concurred, simply saying "it's not my job to comment on referees decisions, but if the home teaming isn't getting all the 90/10's, let alone the 50/50's, it's going to be tough from here on in"

Blues coach Tana Umaga was delighted with the result, the first time in his tenure that his team actually did anything decent. "It's great to get a win against a well coached and strong Lions team, although I don't have time to talk right now, as I've got to help Sonny Bill get a flight to Port Elizabeth - he's got an old pal or something there he wants to catch up with".

SA referees were approached for comment, but politely declined as they, quite rightly commented that like all controversial decisions their view is firmly to have their heads up their arse.

All this talk of respect - seriously, fuck off.

Year and years of Richie's a cheat, New Zealanders are classless, the constant fucking moaning against everything NZ rugby, the pissing and bitching from Aussies during RWC visit, I'm totally fucking over it.

I really can't be fucked with insults & advice from Australians about respect in sporting circles.

On the whole, I've done my best over the years to provide some reason where I think we are getting ahead of ourselves / shown arrogance / demeaned the opposition. But over this weekend, there has been a clear narrative to do everything in their power for global "neutrals" to demean the fantastic achievement of 18 wins in a row and divert attention away from it. The usual shit of Ab's offside (we were, we got penalised btw), AB's favouritism from refs, and then the final nail if this shower of shitness, the global attention on Chieka's whinge being FAR FAR greater than that of the achievement of this bunch of blokes.

And people want to talk to us about respect, or lack there of.

Freshly finished after Super Saturday, but here is the (eagerly awaited?) MR thoughts.

Firstly, another brilliant tournament. Going into the last day with 3 potential winners is the sign of a fantastic tournament. It never ever fails to deliver. Geography is certainly one of the things that makes it, in my view, the best annual international tournament that exists (in any sport), but it's not the only one. It's close, it's competitive and very few games are sure things. The rugby isn't always the quality of the atmosphere, but it doesn't need to be. 30,000 Paddies in Italy today, just unreal.

France: Best team in the tournament and the rightful winners. They will spend many hours looking at what happened in Twickenham to stop the Grand Slam, but they will rarely reflect that winning at Twickenham has never been an easy feat. Brilliant team, brilliant to watch with some generational players. Wish they didn't buy into the "bomb squad" bullshit though.

England: Not sure many will argue that they ended up higher than expected given the games and expectations. But they aren't a bad team, they just aren't a great team. Losing to Ireland at the moment is no disgrace but they certainly didn't look like winners of any of the Slam, 6N or Triple Crown. So in some ways, they out performed?

Ireland: Only one loss, but what a loss. The game where the French got it together, and properly. No disgrace there, but on the whole they are starting to look little bit old, and in my view, a little bit big. Seem to have chosen power over pace in every position. Thats easily exploitable by a team like France.

Scotland: Hmm, they didn't play bad, but they didn't really play amazing either. Certainly the biggest under performers, which is odd as I didn't think they really played bad. On the days though, they just didn't do enough to get past their opposition. Ultimately, thats all that counts.

Italy. They had their moments, but they still don't show anything which suggests they really belong in this competition. Harsh, but realistic. Yes, they beat Wales (more about them below), but it does feel like they play out of their skin to achieve a close loss. Infuriating to watch, as they infringe (and get caught) in so many good situations.

Wales. Fucking awful. Under Gatland they literally had nothing. So they sacked him off. Then in the next two games they showed some real heart, but had nothing to show for it. But vs England ... wow. Awful. Truly, fucking awful.

Awards:

Same Rule For All Awards: Would the plays going to Dupont injury have been so scrutinised/viewed as controversial if it was the number 22 for Italy that had been injured? We all know the answer.

More Things Change Award: I've lived in Pomgolia for over 10 years and I support the Football team passionately, the Cricket team against most and I try to warm to their rugby team. But I HATE their media so much. I like Marcus Smith, he's like Carlos. Has his weaknesses, but is a real talent. Anyway, Fin Smith gets a shot at 10, goes ok (not amazing) and all pundits given him at least 8/10 with words of "finally can move away from Marcus". It's just wrong. I genuinely think they are not independent as they take one eyed views as a pack (Itoje?) and never move away from them. Drives me up the wall.

Your Too Big Awards: Kiwi exports. Aki & Lowe, what happened? Both of you are at least 10kg heavier than when you left, and I'm not sure it's really helping you. Oh and Lowe, this goes to your mouth as well. Just STFU ok?

One That Got Away: Van Der Merwe is a beast. Jaapies can say what they want, but he'd be starting for South Africa no question. Failed a bit on the big stage in the last game, but otherwise, superb.

Could have been POTT, but you play for England: Curry was superb all tournament. Probably the number 2 player in the whole thing, but I doubt you'll read that anywhere else ...

Your Time Has Come, But Not In A Good Way: Retirement of the 3 Irish legends was due. Not going to dwell too much, but I do feel words for Peter O'Mahony are due. Probably the closest any other player has gotten to be built with the same concrete as Kaino. Hard. As. Nails. Respect.

Game of the tournament: England vs France. Incredible game, incredible result. France are looking like an all time great team, England are not. They needed some luck, but almost every match has luck at some point. No need to hold back.

Player of the tournament: Louis Bielle-Biarrey. Absolute pleasure to watch this kid play. Unreal pace, unreal skill and a breath of fresh air in the current world of bigger is better.. Hope he sticks around for a while. I'm not on the Dupont train as much as many others, but I am with this bloke.

@stargazer said in All Blacks v France Test #2:

@tim Good to know that basically nothing has changed since last weekend. Hope the media (esp those of the NH), which generally either lacks intelligence or pretends it lacks intelligence, understands it, too.

[tin foil hat]

Don't be so naive. The NH media has really ramped things up, and you want to know why? Because Gosper, Pichot and co, LISTEN TO THEM. They write unbelievably one-eyed biased bullshit, and will continuously attack attack attack at points which are not really relevant to the context of what happened in the game, to divert away from anything which could be written as positive. And, "co-incidentally" enough, it's always NZ, or if not NZ, at least the SH, which is in the bad.

It's fucking bullshit and frankly, for all that is written about NZ, rule leniency etc being a "blight in the game", it's the cancerous journo's who really are the blight on the game. Here's a short list I've compiled:

Luke Pearce, the English ref. Apparently in test one, he was "let down by his TMO peers", or "leaned by the pro AB crowd", or "succumbed to the world rugby sponsored view that the AB's play to different rules".

Paul Williams, the NZ ref for Ireland - Aus "a disgrace to the game" - this was tweeted DIRECTLY at Gosper. Wanna know why? Because he didn't give Ireland a yellow card for continual Aussie transgressions. Maybe a point, but a DISGRACE? Especially after a week of continual media hum drum about the "unfair yellow" (where the poor young outstanding english ref was let down by everybody around who wasn't english) ruining the game in NZ.

Gardner - "should have certainly taken ALB's run into account", "a red card for ALB shouldn't have been out of the question given his part in it" ... this isn't from rabid one eyed fans, this is from JOURNALISTS ... who are sending messages to Gosper!! Seriously, here's the fucking video:

ALB did JACK SHIT. His eyes were on the fucking ball too, it doesn't even look like he touched him, let alone ran from 50 yards away to directly push poor skinny Fall into Barrett to milk the red card. The world rugby media release here is COLOSSAL BULLSHIT, written purely to appease the same NH media they infuritated with their COLOSSAL BULLSHIT media release from a week earlier about Ofa.

And you want to hear the ultimate shit in the face ? During the England - Tunisia football match, Harry Kane was tackled in the penalty box, rugby style .. One Walrus wrote ... "Some of the high tackling on Harry Kane in the Tunisian box would have even got an All Black carded. Lord Harry I should say"

Not a big deal really, for the pompous alanis morrisette style irony fellow, but you know who liked it?

His BFF Brett Gosper.

[/tin foil hat]

I am so sick of he questioning around if "NZ is ready for a gay All Black".

It's so demeaning to the general population. A bloody socialist was voted in overwhelmingly in the last GE. Why on earth would it not be ready for a gay All Black?

It's pathetic.

@antipodean said in Bledisloe I:

we don't have many right wingers running around,

Try the politics forum.

Ireland are still a better rugby team than us.

BUT.

Ireland at their best will never ever beat iItaly like that. Never ever.

We aren’t out of this cup. Not by a long shot.

YESS. The big one.

Got me a corporate shindig for this one.

That's all I've got to say really.

@booboo said in Black Caps v India - Semi Final:

For the Ganguly fans.

Fried bum face.

https://t.co/dMqC576nlE
(

I’m a bit drunk but I have zero criticism of Smithys commentary there.

His chin, yes.

Kudos to a team playing well.

This hooker is playing off the scale

@sparky said in All Blacks 2024 - looking forward:

Do Robertson, Ryan and co. have a race problem?

Selection after selection after selection, they have overlooked a brown-skinned player for the paler alternative. A really grim start to the supposed new era.

This crosses a line.

Be pissed off about selection, but throwing the race card out is shockingly poor form snd has no substance whatsoever.

Dilemma.

Marathon is next Sunday. Fly out Friday.

The world cup final is this weekend. I'd made the decision not to attend as I've invested far too much into this run. Preparing for literally over a year. Am in the best shape I've ever been in and feeling great.

Irish's friends Dad has just offered me his ticket for face value (450 EUR) and he has an airbnb as well which I can use.

So that is a quandry ... I've put so much focus on this run (perhaps too much focus) and thats my number one priority. Nothing else.

Anyway, dilemma is. Eurostar or fly.

@Jet said in England v All Blacks:

This is why we are where we are.

There is no edge.

I listened to a podcast recently where Conor Murray told an anecdote from his new book of how he tried to go into the Allblacks dressing room to get a jersey swap and Ma'a Nonu was stood outside eating.

He turns to Murray and says "where are you going?" "eh I was going in to swap a shirt" "you're not going in there mate".

Thats Henry Pollock. Englands youngest player, shithouse in chief, and Cortez Ratima is gurning with him for a photo after a rubbish performance himself.

I know im a dinosaur, but I preferred when our boys were aloof, unapproachable, hard nosed, miserable looking bastards.

You are giving Pollock an inch there. It's all cosy. "These Allblack lads are sound".

Imagine Austin Healy sat beside Tana Umaga in the dressing room...........

Good lord. What a complete load of wank.

Two young players swapped a jersey. A photo was taken of just after it, clearly with little planning.

Hate to tell you this, but if losing teams didn’t want to swap …. You could only do it when you drew.

It's not worth doing any analysis on the Cane uproar.

Fact of the matter is that if that exact tackle had been done by the Irish, nobody, on either side would give a shit. All these "neutrals" would be quiet and there would be no demanding of anything.

It's a contact sport, these sorts of things happen - everybody knows it, everybody agrees it. Until it's the AB's and then suddenly it's a big issue.

Call me tin foil hat, whatever. As far as I'm concerned that's fact.

Have always hated Serena.

Feel justified now.

Awful person. Being black and female has saved her over the years. Comeuppance due.

Had to take an hour break after that to get myself together. Frustration doesn't even begin to start the way I feel about it.

Firstly, hats off the Boks, especially the back row. Kolisi & Smith made turnover after turnover. We obviously weren't expecting that, as we not once changed our approach to the rucks to counter this. Either that or we simply couldn't. Their line out was also far superior to ours, although that shouldn't really come as a surprise - been one of the strengths of their game for as long as I can remember.

On the AB side, Jordie played his best game in black. Diffused the kicks and then nailed it at the end to take the victory. Well played, I'm one of his detractors, but credit where it was due. Little doubt that DMac could have been as effective. Blackadder played well and I thought, line out aside, that Taylor was pretty strong around the field as well. Our ball carrying on the whole wasn't too bad into contact, but we were isolated too often and hence the Box back row coming in.

Reffing wise, it was good to see a much better usage of the TMO. No endless replays of pointless things to make decisions.

It's a shame that's where the positives end.

Firstly, SA, hang your head in shame with your time wasting bullshit. Complete shame. Every single stoppage having your suite of medics, water carriers run on to attend to the latest injury / blood / cramp has gotten incredibly boring. It's not part of the game, it just kills it. I get it. Your boys are fucking massive, and that's basically your game plan, therefore they need those breaks to get wind in the sails again. But that's not rugby, that's American Football. If you want to play that game, then just bloody do so. Complete joke, which Pearce never really got a handle on.

Nice segue into Pearce there, but seriously talk about inconsistent. Starts off being pedantic as all hell, which is not my type of ref, but whatever ... but then to just let shit go right in front of you and apply possibly the worst interpretation of advantages I've ever seen. For a knock on, when the advantage is 10 metres forwards with momentum, that's advantage over. Also, when the AB's have the ball in any spot in the opposition 22 .. never blow your whistle to go back for the penalty. Ever. Thats when holes exist which we want to take advantage. Sorry mate, you looked out of your depth with a complete lack of feel for the game.

As for the rest of the Boks. Why even play a backline? You just kick kick kick and when you do spin it, you look completely amateur. Completely. Balls into touch, passes to nobody ... I think if we'd played Reece we would have got an intercept or two.

As for the All Black's ... I'm not as disheartened as others. I thought we played ok. We generally got go forward ball, made our tackles and outside the one Bridge error, SA never looked like scoring a try. Made some bad decision errors, with not taking the 3's early in the second half. Needed some scoreboard pressure / rewards for time down their end. I doubt we'll make that mistake again. We really missed Aaron Smith, and Perenara was all over the show passing wise, and did little ball in hand. Backline looked better once Weber was on.

I had thought during the Argies matches that all the try-bombing would really cost us against SA, and it very nearly did. So many dropped balls, mistakes when trying too hard. Need to figure out the right time for the off-loads, man off into the gap. There were loads of gaps to be exploited, but our decision making in getting them / taking advantage when through them just wasn't there today. That's credit to SA as much as criticism of NZ really.

All in all, I think we should go better next week. All it takes is some work on decision making & ball retention. The Bok's are not fit at all, they rely on switching out the forward packs and excessive delays to get through the 80 minutes. IF we use that against them, then we should be just fine.

MOTM - Jordie.

Bullshit. You guys are pathetic.