The Silver Fern

Ireland looked better for their hit out against the All Blacks. Wallabies looked exhausted, easily exposed in defense as if they no longer had the engine to get to the spaces required or trust in each other had evaporated.

Not the end of the season I expected given their start.

England have crazy depth in terms of forwards who are battle-hardened from seasons of Premier Rugby.

Australian fans are talking about resting blokes after a "hard year" of footy, yet we played 14 rounds of Super Rugby + finals as prep for Test Rugby, with the only fallback being semipro club.

Premier Rugby guys are getting 18 rounds + finals + crossover games. You get found out there pretty quickly in terms of your preparation

Really we should have won that in a canter.

Tries rubbed out in the first half - the maul being called correctly only when the TMO jumps in - and a fair few brain farts when we had the ball in the red zone

@Catogrande said in Ashes 2025/6:

@NTA We've got the pace attack to do the job IF both Wood and Archer stay fit. After those two I struggle to see how we will take 20 wickets unless Bashir has one of his moments, but even then he won't run through your line up cheaply.

I'll just leave this here.

Have a real soft spot for Harry Wilson. Hasnt the finesse of Read or Aldritt.

But he is game as fuck. Id follow him into the trenches all day long.

"thats what we want, lets fucking go then".

Fair play to him.

All duck or no dinner.

@MiketheSnow said in Wallabies v Lions I:

@Catogrande said in Wallabies v Lions I:

@Dodge said in Wallabies v Lions I:

@MiketheSnow said in Wallabies v Lions I:

Friends who went said it was a great evening with a tremendous atmosphere

Farrell totally vindicated with his selections of Beirne and Curry in the back row

Beirne got MOTM but I would have given it to Curry

Excellent, dominant first half from the Lions and should have kicked on to give the Wallabies a real pasting in the second half

But personnel changes gave the Aussies a sniff and they were like 50 year olds at the Oasis reunion gigs, didn’t need a second invitation to have a go

There is no way on God’s Green Earth that Earl had arms in that tackle

Should have been Penalty (possibly Penalty Try) and YC

12-24 with Earl in the bin from the 60th - 70th minutes is a very different game

Lowe, Keenan, and Freeman the only realistic changes for the second test

With possibly Morgan or Pollock on the bench instead of Earl

If Schmidt has his thinking cap on this week and the Italian ref wants to penalise the Lions offsides and repeated killing of the ball in their own 22 it could be a very interesting second match

Back three all had pretty average games which there’s no real excuse for when your forwards are that dominant.

As for the Earl tackle, surprised he got away with it but wouldn’t necessarily blame BOK, the TMO was categorical that there were arms in the tackle and it was fine, BOK checked on a number of occasions but was shut down.

That was my recollection but on watching again, when BoK goes to the TMO for checking the try, he says firstly that he wants to check for foul play by red in the lead up to the try AND states that he feels that there was an attempt to wrap using both arms. The TMO agreed with that.

And even with slow mo they were both wrong IMHO

I think the discussions between the refs should not be broadcast. It discourages debate and disagreement.

@Nevorian said in Ireland v Wallabies:

Thought if they had scored off the TT intercept that might have taken the game, unfortunately support didn’t quite get there

Shit option from Tupou - should have given it to Williams once through the line, and then followed him. They should have both drifted left a little and called Sua'ali'i and Jorgensen into the middle of the field.

Passing late and badly is never a good option. See it all the time with the leaguies at my club: they think the offload-in-contact is a hero move, rather than staying alive to support.

@NTA said in Aussie Community Rugby:

So, despite winning the GF easily, they were disqualified due to the competition rules.

There's no incentive, i
s there

Works fine on v13

Both sides ended up in Cirque Le Soir nightclub after The Oval test for drinks.

England were late because they stopped off at High Street Kensington McDonalds en route.

@Dan54 nothing memorable in this game - I was speaking generally about home broadcasters.

Your point about the TMO is valid BUT that doesn't stop the OB director replaying stuff up on the big screen and getting the ref to check.

Happened to us several times on EOYT last year.

Belated watch of second half.

Not much in it. Injuries buggered Aussie backline, and the way the half went hampered what looked to me like opportunity against tiring Boks.

As it was, BOK’s refereeing mid half left a lot to be desired. Nine consecutive penalties including seven around 22 only gave way to warning, when a yellow was warranted. Then TMO call for relieving penalty. Wallabies might well have expected to have scored a try after all that at around 60, and at 10-17 would have made it more interesting.

As was, Boks’ mugging of Gold in H1 was always likely to be decisive.

@antipodean am stoked with the one I got. $450 I think it was gave it a good clean and took the display apart and alco wiped it now the display works completely.

Far from good as new but rowing-wise does everything I want. Old model but came up good after a clean. I hate cycling and/or assault bikes so having it in home gym has been great.

Did a challenge the other night get 300m or more in one minute then thirty second break. Did eight rounds arms=cooked. Need to average under 1:40/500m

The post I saw the challenge on tagged ex league player Frank Puletua apparently his record was 42.

@ACT-Crusader said in Highlanders v Waratahs:

@Machpants only concern with that is that the broadcasters love more ‘finals’ because they rate higher and they can sell to advertisers.

Yeah it's never going to happen but the comp would be much better

From Brian Laras FB page…….

WTF!!! We were just sipping on a beer celebrating Warnie’s life and enjoying each other’s company💔💔💔💔💔💔💔
Our great friendship and respect for each other started the very first minute we met in battle. You were such a competitor doing any and everything for your team.
I had the greatest respect for you Roy!!!
You also made friendship so easy, I loved the spontaneous phone calls and messages. You reached out just yesterday “How are you champ” … “All good Mr Symonds … How things with you”
Well all isn’t good anymore I will miss you and I’m devastated.
You were a champion bloke and the cricket world will miss you. We have lost another great human being.
Condolences to Andrew’s family and friends.
#riproy #❤ #💔

Italy 17 - Uruguay 10

@nta totally agree mate. I spent a bit of time playing with and against Molly Strano and Sophie Molyneux about 4 years ago and they were skilful then, but the improvements have been astronomical. Great chicks too!

(apologies for the name drop but those girls were way cool and molly played the most technically perfect reverse sweep I've ever seen)

On the plus side - we use SquarePOS for our club EFT, and I've figured out how to set up a shop online.

Processing fees go from 1.9% to 2.2% but it is a handy option rather than just running around on game day. Tracks inventory too...