I have always called him that Muzzo – taken from article I read and in NZ when he was coaching Ireland – I liked it as it said “…he may be a kiwi and one of us but after beating the All Blacks perhaps we should all call him Irish Joe now”. So that’s what I call him.

Sorry Ben that’s not enough after years of being bullied and beaten by NZ sides with the exception of the Brumbies in their best recent years obviously.
They need wins- but unfortunately it will be a tough road in NZ against any of their sides – even the Highlanders at home won’t be easy. The Blues pack are playing like demons with real nous and power – they are a monstrous outfit full of ABs and have a very strong bench and their D is superb right now and no one seems to have figured out how to contain that ridiculously explosive backline and they are my favourites for the championship followed by the Canes.
The real key will be how the Brumbies fair as they are best of the Australian side IMO – even this year. The good news is that with Irish Joe and Cron the Wallabies will be the best they have been in years – he is another level to anyone they have had in the last ten years and Cron is one of the very best in the business at what he does. But…do Australia have the cattle and experience in a match day 23? Wales will not be a true barometer as they were pretty ordinary in the 6 nations and many big name stars have left the party so they will be trying out things as well. Georgia forwards will be a test but they lack world class firepower across their backs. But I think the Wallabies will be a better coached outfit this year and IMO by some distance.

Looks like you are the last of the originals writing regularly Geoff…My own view of Super rugby so far is that it is clear it is pretty much the same as always….the final this year will again be two kiwi sides IMO with – as usual – the Brumbies being the best of the Australian sides. The Rebels are travelling but if Cairns was the final, the car will break down at Rockhampton. Due to the stupidity of the 8 team finals format – the Crusaders will make the top 8 and then who will seriously want to play them in a semi?
The Blues under Cotter are a different beast and Hoskins and Akira look much better players under his watch as he has stopped Akira constantly ranging out wide so his physicality and off-load game is more beneficial in the tight. And Reiko is now a very good defensive and creative centre. Perafeta is challenging DMac as well as the AB 10. Hurricanes are humming as well. The most telling game will be the Brumbies ( who are playing well but….) v Blues in Auckland – then Hurricanes also away for the Brumbies. IMO Auckland pack will monster them the way they are playing at the moment ( Bell looks out for a while as well) and the Blues arguably have the strongest bench in the comp when all are fully fit. But sadly it is starting to become pretty predictable even if some don’t like hearing it. The pacific sides are languishing as well with Fiji Drua resorting to Viking raider tactics in their last game but should – I say should – make the top 8 – by a whisker. My god Geoff half the side could have been yellow carded in that last game and that could hurt them going forward if it continues from individual players.
One positive is the Wallabies have the best coaching team they have had in a very very long time IMO with some promising young players coming through as well. Time will tell how that plays out come the the international season but lets hope is very positive. Roigard is an astonishing talent and just gets better and better – pity about his injury.

No of course not Ben – I meant the Competition will just drag on with more team in it – many of whom will be nothing more than cannon fodder for the big guns.

How long and tedious to you want to be for goodness sake Ben?

No Tony “The Start of the World C 😛 up”

I with you to a point Brett. It was exciting because of how close it was and that it looked like for a long time England would pull it off, but the game was blighted somewhat by never ending farcical and deliberate time wasting where O’Keefe had to issue a warning to both sides and their support staff. He should have done it far sooner IMO.

I agree Brett but I doubt even you want to see 25 plus penalties in game- one every 3.5 minutes or even worse and I doubt you like seeing the TMO constantly jumping in all the time either like they are insecure they won’t get noticed and especially for some of the mindless callbacks. In AB semi final – the TMO stopped the game showed the footage he thought showed an infringement then when the ref said “I see nothing much in that at all how do you see it” and the bloody TMO goes “Yes I agree”. What the ? Then why friggen stop the game you wannabe 5 minutes of fame in big knockout game clown. Thank god he is not in the final.

Condition look good for the game – as of now anyway

I think you make some strong points as always Brett. Rassey has already commented that they will be looking at the Poms tactics and how to counter them but as you say dealing with it under pressure against an AB side with far more pace and precision across their backline is another. My issue with England is they never really looked scoring a try even though they were in the Boks 22m zone more often. So, they nullified the Boks game but perhaps nullified their own attacking game out wide in the process and the AB’s will not have any part of a tactic that does that so I suspect it will be a reproduced AB version of the tactic but not a remake. I suspect we will see a few chips in behind by the AB’s as well and a little more back play from the Boks. Discipline from both sides might be the key and Barnes stopping the deliberate time wasting by the Boks and their support staff which is now farcical. Key man – Irish Joe who some X-Irish players said last week on UK TV analyses each individual player in the opposition and the plays and their D, searching very meticulously for any weakness then plots way to exploit that weakness. The players were saying they have never seen any coach who dissects an opposition side like JS so it will be interesting what he might spot and how the AB’s exploit it. the move that Mounga did to set up Jordan against Ireland was exactly that from Joe apparently.

Agreed Geoff – a proper fix indeed – but then it needs to be properly policed by ALL refs and therein lies a huge problem in the refreeing of test matches.

Actually it you who show your bias CheetahBok. The fact the ref had to speak to Boks support staff and give them and England a warning says it all and it is not the 1st time the Boks support staff have had warnings for endlessly coming on in tests to slow it down. England are the worst at set piece to be fair but watch out for the endless Boks time wasting and support staff coming on in the final mate. I hope Barnes put a stop to it.

They have got right so far Muzzo even if you personaly disagree with some selection the proof is in the pudding and they have made the final so I have no concerns at all as we pretty much know who will start. But I suspect we may have a 5-2 split on the bench this time round.

I am deeply concerned Geoff for the weather after a report that 3 polar bears have made camp at the ground and enjoying the weather!!! Furthermore, there will be a turf issue as all the ground staff have gone strangly missing!

Yeah agreed WEST and yes someone tallied time wasting over and above other stoppages and is was about 20 minutes or some thing ridiculous.

Great read as always Geoff and you made some excellent points reagarding the AB’s and Boks making the final. I worry the the Boks will turn the final into a dour affair of cynical time wasting as both they, and the English did in the semi. So bad the ref – and way too late – t had to tell both staff to stop coming on every stoppage ( and sometimes he had to ask them 3 time to get off) and the fake injuries are now becoming farcical.

A new time wasting technique is constant rechecking and quzzing the ref about things he has already gone through or just getting constantly in his ear. I thought that was the job of the captain only. The governing body must do something about this nonsense like ban pow wows before set peices totally and set time limits for team forming lineouts and scrums. I hope Wayne Barnes comes down on this in the final but I won’t hold my breathe. IMO Foster needs to say something about it at the prematch media front up. This is one of the reasons IMO the AB’s are deliberately not kicking out on the full half the time unless it is absolutely the best option. But I fear with the Boks knowing a fast game will suit the AB’s they will use every slow down peice of crap in the book and we will see Boks support staff rushing on at every break in play and fake injuries galore. It is a sad indictment on the game that this is not only not being policed properly but also seems to be encouraged by a lack of action from refs. Barnes needs to call it early before it becomes a farce in the final – and it will – if nothing is done by Barnes IMO.

Hey Harry? Boks v AB final – told you so did I not? And if you recall the reasons I gave they came true! I give the AB’s the slight edge in the final if the weather gods are kind.
But Harry I hope we don’t see the endless deliberate time wasting we saw tonight from both Engalnd and South Africa which bordered on shameful. In the end O’Keefe had to give the suppport staff a warning not mention the fake injuries, especially England. Every scrum and lineout was nothing but a time waste as was the endless getting in the refs ear from so many of the players once the support staff were told to get off. Most nothing but time wasting to slow the game down.
Unfortunately I suspect the Boks will double these efforts against the AB’s so I hope Wayne Barnes gets the final as he has less tolerance for time wasting. O’Keefe should have put a stop to it in the 1st half. The AB’s will try to have as few linouts as possible by not kicking it out unless they have to in an effort to reduce this rubbish as it is a blight on the game IMO.
New laws should come in Harry to put and end pow wows before scrums and lineouts and the number of times support staff can simply just come on should be limited unless a genuine injury occurs and if you can stand up – get off the ground and play on. Watch how miraculously they recover Harry. Bloody ridiculous how often some teams are pulling these stunts but IMO SA and England are the worst offenders with France coming in 3rd.
But the final is clash of the giant of the game Bring it on!

So what are you going to say if the win JImbob? That is was the refs fault as well?

Nice one Muzzo!

Jimbob enough already – there was a clear gulf in class between the two sides. From 1-23 the AB man for man were simply better. Every ref every game get things wrong and every time the losing side always thinks their ones that got stiffed the worst.
France were so bad – including Dupont – they barely had a seriously good word to say about the Boks except pulling out every cliche in the book to infer they weren’t totally blaming the ref – but they were. Ireland had a slight go at the ref but were far more gracious and sportsmanlike – they had to be – their lineout got exposed as it did against the Boks and Irish Joe clearly exposed some of the weaknesses in their D. The move when Mounga set up WJ was apparently JS’s idea. The Irish paper cliamed “if the try wasn’t held up different story” okay fine but some inferring it was Ireland who made the error not simply superb defence by JB and the AB’s and the AB backrow was simply superb. They whinged slightly only about the 3 scrum penalties but post game overhead fortage absolutely showed the Irish prop was burrowing in on his side – so spare me.
If there is a flaw with the inconsistncy its that some refs let sides get away with some stuff giving them a false sense of security then another ref calls them out on it – when the fault is not the ref that pulls them up on it but the one that does not do so in the 1st place. The ref that calls them out is ALWAYS the big bad ref for doing his damn job more professionally.
The scoreline tells you that the Pumas were never going to win this match and great credit to Cheika who showed good grace in the post match not blaming the ref but heaping prasie on AB’s. But the French and Ireland were hyped to the max before the cup – deserved? Yes but perhaps just wee bit too much at times -where fans started to believe all the hype and when that happens on most occassions, they always need someone to blame when things go pearshaped. Refs are flawed because they are human and these days the game is refereed by the main ref – two assistants and a TMO – who can – and do – have their say just as they have in all the finals so far at various times.

When they happened is what matters most Funbus. Knockout rrugby when mettle and skill and mental strength is tested most. In every WC Ireland have failed come the knockout stages. Coincidence? The Irish were held up over the line by brilliant and desperate AB defence not some error by the Irish and that made all the difference and they were beaten at the breakdown by one of the best backrow trio performances we have seen in while. Even the UK media have said so. Their scrum and lineout lost the overall battle as well and that try by Jorden came from Mounga opening up the Irish D like a can of worms. A play I might add that has been credited to Joe S – so he knew a weakness was there – and pulled off briliantly by Mounga and WJ.

Brendon most of those SA and Argentinian players played a lot of super rugby well before they went to the North so spare me nopt to mention growing up plying in SA and Argentina..You sound desperate to claim some NH victory and it comes across as lame mate and reaks of insecurity. Matera played two seasons with the Crusaders for pities sake.

You cannot replace experience Faith that is for sure. But Ireland has a good system bringing players through and NZ has some really promising players in MPC in forwards. They are not the same team without Sexton so who that bring in as the 1st choice 10 by next WC is important. They have two very young front rowers coming off the bench doing a very good job already so I think will be even better for the experience come next WC. And the AB’s have a very very good new coach taking over as well. Sure, untested at test level but he is one hell of a coach trust me. Arguably the best ever in Super rugby that NZ has produced. If he can translate that to international level, then that is exciting for NZ going forward. Only time will tell of course.

Good points HHB but I think as you rightly pointed out it has taken a long time for him to get back to his bruising best form as he one injury after another and that neck injury almost saw him retire. But at his very best as he was against Ireland there are very few if any the tackle with his ferocity. Players who have played against him at his best say that when he hit you it like truck and sometimes hard to get back up. I am glad he is back to his very best and at the right time as well. That was one of the very best performances by a 7 anywhere in recent times and those sentiments were reflected by former Boks and English players as well I saw in the media. At his very best SC is as good as anyone IMO. We just haven’t seen him shine for a long time after all those injuries. I was one – I don’t mind admitting – that thought he may have lost his mojo and that DP should start at 7 but not because I thought he was rubbish just that he wasn’t quite the influential SC we once knew. But I am very clad he has made me eat some crow and good on him. Hats off to him. What a time for him to make a comeback eh HHB?

Coaches from the North have been pressured into resigning knowing they would be sacked as in 2015 world cup when England – in England – failed to get out of their pool.