The Silver Fern

@reprobate said in All Blacks 2026:

If I were NZR, I'd still look at Rennie pretty closely.

Rennie is a good bet for turning around an underperforming team in a short period of time.

I can't wait until Thursday to have this all resolved. I want answers now.

@Grooter said in Highlanders 2026:

Rambling incoming so feel free to ignore, Luckless landers. Going on half a decade now I've noticed an upswing in injuries to our backs. It's a contact sport yes but it seems as tho the majority will face time on the sidelines.
● Halfbacks Dylan Pledger ruptured his acl gone for 26, Folau Fakatava multiple acl injuries throughout the course of his career. ● 10s Cam Millar missed time due to a head knock last year, Taine Robinson Injured against the Crusaders last year and only saw 1 or 2 as a result for Ta$man, Andrew Knewstubb Joins the landers with a history of acl injuries. ● Midfield firstly have to mention Thomas Umaga Jensen & Josh Timu who have departed dunedin both of whom had disastrous runs of Injuries, Joining us in 26 is Reesjan Pasitoa who seemingly had Injury issues across the ditch, Timoci Tavatavanawai interestingly enough his injuries in the last 2 years have taken place in the spring months for Ta$man so no affect to the landers. Jake Te Hiwi multiple injuries throughout his career ● Outsides Finn Hurley with 1 notable injury that sidelined for 6 months last year and has picked up a shorter term Injury as of now, Jacob Ratumaitavuki kneepkens the 1 notable Injury being a broken neck suffered playing for Taranaki, Caleb Tangitau who joined us last year picked up an injury that sidelined him for 5 months, Jona Nareki dozens of Injuries throughout his career although he finally came through unscathed for Otago back end of last year. Jonah Lowe suffered an acl injury in 2024 although intriguingly enough he returned in 2025 in better form than prior to that injury. So yeah nothing to gain from all I've said other than I see why Squads are larger these days.

Were you trying to do bullet points and it didn't work or the plan was always to have a gigantic paragraph with little black dots occasionally?

On the actual content itself I wonder if a similar injury toll is happening with the backs of other teams. Also Lowe is an injury magnet, he was injured at the Canes and the Chiefs too (thankfully he often recovers in time for the NPC).

Jesus christ I go out for lunch and things have gone mental in this thread.

@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks 2026:

@Nepia said in All Blacks 2026:

TBH, I don't believe this conspiracy theory, if Richie Razor Jnr Mo'unga was in NZ all this time he would have been starting.

We'll never know how it would have played out over the last couple of years, but we will get an indication next year. I suspect BB would have still featured heavily if RM was around. I reckon DMac would have been the one missing out.

Well we know RM would have been the number 1 (why pretend otherwise), and I agree with you that DMac would have missed out.

@Kiwiwomble said in All Blacks 2026:

@Nepia you might be right...but there are also only so many top tier coaching jobs out there and generally people want to keep their job

I think Razor could have found alternative employment pretty easily if he didn't want to be a yes man.

TBH, I don't believe this conspiracy theory, if Richie Razor Jnr Mo'unga was in NZ all this time he would have been starting.

No coach is going to stay in a job where they're being dictated by marketing over team selection. Surely Razor is not that much of a yes man ....

@mohikamo said in Super Rugby 2026:

@Nepia

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.

Not sure I agree with that, and especially not based on last years games. I nearly got banned from the league forum I'm on for not fawning over a game last year (I think I got a couple of shots on here too), I can't remember which one but I think it had a spectacular end but was average throughout. But I like both so honestly think they both have great games and they both have shit games. I'm a dirty both sideser,.

I was a forward in rugby and a back in league so two completely different experiences for me. Could do a lot more walking in league as the standard in the Bay wasn't that high.

@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.

@Bovidae said in Super Rugby 2026:

Some pertinent comments from someone who was on the inside. Bums on seats is the only way a SR team makes money from matches. And the salary cap is a sham as I've mentioned previously.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/former-hurricanes-ceo-avan-lee-opens-up/

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.

@booboo said in All Blacks 2026:

As examples of teams that were not as good as 2025:

1991
Lost in Sydney
6-3 abomination win in Akl
Awful scrape through wins v Italy, USA, Canada in RWC
Loss in SF
Awful, Awful year

1994
Loss to Frogs 2-0
Draw with Bokke
Gregan/Wilson

1999
Awful QF v Scotties
Loss in SF
Loss in 3v4

I think the current is better than all of those.

But I think we have the players to be better than we currently are.

For me personally, I think only 1999 compares with this year due to the similar capitulation (aided by stupidity of selection) but the other two were just years when teams got the better of us.

1991 we were the clear second best team in the world even if we muddled our way through. Despite the rankings I don't think we're the second best team this year.

1994 we won a series over the Boks and lost to a classy France in the second test by the try from the end of the world. The Wallabies were still a class act in 1994, in hindsight that loss isn't as earth shattering as it felt that Wednesday night.

Even when we were losing those matches, and I was less mature at dealing with losses then, I was never as dismayed as I was in the Boks and England losses this year.

On 2022, I don't think anyone is trying to defend our performances that year so not sure if it's a great whataboutry.

Highlight: Magpies knocking over Wellington and BoP in consecutive weekends and Kiwis smacking the Tongans and then winning the PC.

Lowlights: Wellington AB capitulation and the Magpies loss to Northland.

Best Live Sport: Pacific Championship Final, great comeback and then slaughter from the Kiwis to put some cocky Samoa fans in their place (who do they think they are, Tongans?)

For 2026: Agree on the league world cup, I'm confident we're going to win it. I've always been worried about Stacey as a coach while being confident in the players, and we seemed to be decently coached this year. If Hughes stays fit I'm very confident. Our pack is just continually underrated and we have a budding superstar in McLean.

The tour of SA should be good, hopefully this is the year that Razor becomes the messiah as promised.

As ever I'm not confident in the Warriors. We seem to be betting the house on Metcalf, I think teams will have, or will, work him out. He's no James Maloney. Hopefully they put me in my place because most of the games I've lined up to go to are later in the season so I still want they to be in the hunt.

@chchfanatic said in All Blacks 2026:

@Nepia here you are. You’re right. You’re always right. Keep telling yourself that.

Great retort, you've convinced me with your liberal use of facts to illustrate your point.

@chchfanatic said in All Blacks 2026:

I think Razor was always up against it , no matter how well he did. The nth island journos hammer him on everything.

I know @Duluth refuted this point already but it bears repeating, this is fucking nonsense. The media kissed him on the dick constantly and even now he's got a team of journos running defence for him.

Also, when you did spend time here, you would have noticed that Razor had pretty much broad support from all the posters of here who think too highly of ourselves when he was first chosen to be the coach.

@booboo said in 2025 The Silver Fern Team of the Year:

Will Jordan one vote.

Why the low voter turnout from the Fern Crusaders fans?

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2026:

@African-Monkey said in All Blacks 2026:

@MN5 said in All Blacks 2026:

@Nepia said in All Blacks 2026:

@Yeetyaah said in All Blacks 2026:

Robert Van Rooyen circle jerk for ya

Crusaders circle jerk with Knowler there alongside him although Knowler was playing the (only) slightly more balanced role in the exchange.

Takeaways:

• Mo'unga was finally coming right after 50 tests when he took the Yen and ran.
• Everything was BB's fault.
• The assistant coaches are all good because they once made the Crusaders backline "hiss".
• Barrett is fine despite the fact he needs to play better and tidy up his discipline which has been shit all career.
• Razor doesn't have the cattle but also the team makes too many unforced errors and they'd threaten the Boks without those (so wait we do have the cattle?)
• The most important thing it the ABs are peaking in 2027 (fuck off, we're not a RWC only team).

They've done that with the ABs backline too in that they hiss while they're deflating.

You'd think these 2 fanboy 'journos' would have gotten the message that Super Rugby and Test Rigby are worlds apart by now.

Regular Show is wonderful, used to enjoy watching it with my boys.

But to address your point, Ardie Savea made quite a number of World Teams of the year so that should tell you all you need to know.

A great highlights reel player.

Has someone put together a highlights reel for him for 2025?

@Yeetyaah said in All Blacks 2026:

Robert Van Rooyen circle jerk for ya

Crusaders circle jerk with Knowler there alongside him although Knowler was playing the (only) slightly more balanced role in the exchange.

Takeaways:

• Mo'unga was finally coming right after 50 tests when he took the Yen and ran.
• Everything was BB's fault.
• The assistant coaches are all good because they once made the Crusaders backline "hiss".
• Barrett is fine despite the fact he needs to play better and tidy up his discipline which has been shit all career.
• Razor doesn't have the cattle but also the team makes too many unforced errors and they'd threaten the Boks without those (so wait we do have the cattle?)
• The most important thing it the ABs are peaking in 2027 (fuck off, we're not a RWC only team).

@Daffy-Jaffy said in Chiefs 2026:

Wallaby Lalakai Foketi has sued Rugby Australia and the Waratahs for wrongful dismissal.
https://www.theroar.com.au/2025/12/12/ill-never-come-back-wallaby-sues-rugby-australia-after-crossing-the-ditch-to-join-rival-super-club/

I made the mistake of reading the comments under the article ... took me back to the trolling of the earlier days of the internet.

@gt12 said in All Blacks 2026:

This shit about walking to get beer is one of the problems.

I did that as a job when at uni in the 90s.

Looking in the mirror, and then looking at her I can see why it wasn't viable in NZ.

@cgrant said in NH Club Rugby:

French annual salaries in the Top 14 by position :

LHP : 245 000 euros
Hooker : 247 000 euros
THP : 260 000 euros
Lock 4 : 290 000 euros
Lock 5 : 302 000 euros
LF : 242 000 euros
Nr. 8 : 296 000 euros
Halfback : 261 000 euros
1st Five : 343 000 euros
Centres : 274 000 euros
Wings : 223 000 euros
Fullback : 251 000 euros

Is that average? Also, I thought TP were supposed to be the best paid in the norf? Also, weird that the locks have a big difference, and why are LF paid relatively so low?