The Silver Fern

Should have finished after the first three paragraphs

Sorry I post the teams on the wrong thread. Must be the age.

@Smuts said in Springboks vs Pumas I:

@stodders to be honest, I’m not sure who the coaches see as 1-5.

I’m in the minority (at least in my SA rugby chats), but I’d have Faf, daylight, Williams, Reinach and then a long way back van den Berg.

Faf is far from a perfect scrummie. But he’s the best ruck rat on earth for my money. A defensive menace who gets better as pressure increases and crucially makes everyone around him better too.

It’s probably too soon to tell if Williams has that killer instinct but I reckon we know Reinach doesn’t. Which is fine, so long as the coaches keep Reinach bracketed with a mongrel to deal with clusterfucks like Ellis Park, Eden Park or the RWC semi…

I hear you on Faf, but I’m not sure the coaches think he’s the 9 Tonyball needs.

I reckon he still has a chance of making the WC squad, if only to have on the bench with Pollard as the “reverse-choke squad”, tasked with coming on to wrestle back control of the game when Tonyball fails against a team that can catch and tackle near 90%, or the Boks run up against their 2027 Bryce Lawrence

Reports that Max Hicks will be joining the growing Kiwi contingent at Newcastle from Perpignan.

@OomPB he’s been there since before RWC2023

@Snowy said in Scotland vs Springboks:

@Machpants said in Scotland vs Springboks:

Henry IV.

Macbeth one I know is not so relevant for a time of release

How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?

A Springbok thread so:

"Is this a dagger which I see before me up Victor Matfield's arm band?"

I beg for justice, which you, Prince, must give. World Rugby banned Bakkies; World Rugby must not live

Thanks @KiwiPie for running the competition.

Home tests official now
The Springboks’ home Test schedule for 2024 is:
Saturday, 6 July: SA vs. Ireland (Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria)
Saturday, 13 July: SA vs. Ireland (Hollywoodbets Kings Park, Durban)
Saturday, 20 July: SA vs. Portugal (venue TBC)
Saturday, 31 August: SA vs. New Zealand (Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg)
Saturday, 7 September: SA vs. New Zealand (DHL Stadium, Cape Town)
Saturday, 28 September: SA vs. Argentina (Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit)

@OomPB 😁

@Bones said in France vs Springboks:

I guess this goes here?
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/wayne-barnes-reveals-hes-considered-25747560

Barnes siding with the French over a controversial match? well I never...

this looks like it could also go in the conspiracy theory thread, recently known as the Laporte thread.. its evidence he is corrupt lol!

It's good that batsmen have to face Jamieson's awkward bounce & he swings it, also has a good slower ball... but to add to his bowling armoury would like to see him bowl around the wicket when needed & use the width of the bowling crease too, Southee does that brilliantly.

@smuts said in England vs Springbokke:

I hope @Catogrande is recovering well. But I’m also hoping the boks are heading home thinking about how critical developing a more incisive attack is.

Thank you. My recovery was going well but due to recent self medication consisting mainly of Chenin blanc, I may be relapsing.

Red card in my books, but he did it out of stupidity, nothing else. I was upset because I wanted Louis Schreuder to play the whole game. The better 9 was on the bench.

Thought the Stormers played much better then against the Blues. The defense was back to normal and Trokkie (Trokkie is afrikaans for truck) (nr8) had a massive game. Now we understand why Notshe moved to the Sharks.

Mallett and de Bruin analyse the Stormers loss to the Blues

@sidbarret said in 2021 British & Irish Lions tour to SA:

@stodders the two things that stick out are the stoppages and that incident where the s&c coach got told off in NZ2.

Townsend had a bit of wingh this week about his players being sledged from the sidelines by the SA support staff (though I think he missed the actual sledge - the comments were in Afrikaans and half his team understood what was said - call it a meta sledge).

It's all very class stuff.

If you win it's fine (see Aussie cricket circa 2003) but if lose or are just average you soon become Aussie cricket in 2018.

See Haddin ODI CWC Final 2015... to quote: we won didn't we?

Bulls under Jake White and Duanne Vermeulen has been our top province since lockdown.

We are in a few weeks break before the start of the Rainbow Cup.

First 3 rounds local derbies (again) before we head to the NH for anther 4 rounds.

Final between the two top teams before the Lions tour.