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Joined June 2019
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If the results from the 2 games yesterday were repeated next week then, according to the rankings calculator, the Boks would still be no. 1 by 0.04 pts. Australia would shoot up to 3rd.
'A grovelling apology from me': World reaction to Quade brilliance and 'one dimensional' Boks
the worry is McKenzie as a back up 10. We totally lost our shape when he he replaced BB. Lets hope Barrett stays fit until RM gets back.
You Beaudy beauty: Barrett's moment of magic sums up 'principles of the All Blacks'
I don’t see having 2 professional rugby teams in Auckland as being a problem. Auckland is by far and away the biggest NZ SR region by population, it probably has 5 times the population the Highlanders catchment has.
Having a genuine local rival could be good for them if it can capture the imagination of the communities. Prior to professionalism the ‘battle of the bridge’ had become a fierce local derby that the whole country took an interest in and it certainly didn’t hurt Auckland’s success at all.
I think the bigger problem is basing a team around ethnicity rather than geography. Has this ever worked in the long term? I know it has caused a lot of problems in soccer.
Pacific X-factor, COVID contingencies and the missing link created by Super Rugby Pacific
Now it’s confirmed I am quite happy with this. There are many improvements on previous iterations, especially compared to the bloated super 18:
The tournament is the right length and finishing before July internationals is a huge improvement to the season.
Only one bye week per team.
All games in a reasonable timezone and reduced travel.
No conferences.
Simple format including finals.
Pacific representation.
All the competition needs is to ensure that the Australian and Pacific teams are competitive with the NZ teams. At least one of these teams needs to make the top 4 every year for the competition to succeed in my opinion.
CONFIRMED: Key dates and format for 'Super Rugby Pacific' announced with extra 'derbies' flagged
They are flying there straight after the RC.
FIXTURES REVEALED: Queensland to host four weeks of rugby heaven as TRC locked in
$5m is nothing to the WA govt in this pandemic. There’s no way they will risk a lockdown to save $5m. My prediction is that the game will go to Queensland and RA will agree to a Bledisloe in Perth next year for not having to pay the $5m back.
The Wrap: COVID strain stretches Rugby Championship to breaking point
The wallabies will never get a better chance to break their drought at Eden Park. This is a very poor NZ team playing in what looks like it will be a half-full stadium. If Havili goes down we are looking at a midfield of J Barrett and R Ioane. 😱
Welcome back Lachie! Swinton confirmed as Wallabies name their team
Actually NZ would have finished further ahead of Australia under this new system than the old one, even before you take into account the harsher penalties for slow over rates.
Where to from here for the World Test Championship?
The bowling attacks look fairly even but NZ clearly have the stronger batting lineup and if there had been 5 full days I think that NZ would have worked their way towards a victory.
The pitch also played a major role in the draw. It was so slow that it was not helpful to either batters or bowlers. There were only 3 wickets in the final sessions across the 4 days and run rates were below 3 for the entire match until NZ went for the slog on Day 5. It also meant that Wagner couldn’t use his short bowling tactics which NZ have relied on, in the absence of a quality spinner, for wickets when the ball gets old. Hopefully we will see more pace at Edgbaston.
The talking points from the England-NZ first Test
I think for this to work you will have to have at least 4 kiwi teams in the top division and may be 1 or 2 from Australia and japan otherwise you are still going to see a lot of blowouts and kiwis lifting all 3 trophies.
Involving Japan requires transforming the Trans-Tasman into a champions league
My thoughts are that each Australian franchise should pay NPC unions to take in 4-5 of their upcoming players. Kiwi unions need the cash and it will be cheaper and possibly more effective than running the NRC. It could also give a little boost to interest in the NPC in Australia so win-win.
The Wrap: New Zealand sides ruthlessly hunt Super Rugby bonus points
Japan has realigned its domestic season to being in January to open up the possibility of playing international club fixtures so I think they are ok with it.
Australian rugby's new pyramid (scheme)
It’ll also be interesting to see if they play a spinner. Personally for the Test against India I would pick the 4 specialist seamers and Conway to bat 6, but I think in the absence of Boult they might play Patel and pick CdG at 7 if he’s fully fit.
How England should line up against New Zealand in the upcoming Test series
You had to qualify through the previous year’s NPC and Canterbury weren’t that great in the early 90s.
Two Pacific Island teams given green light to join Super Rugby in 2022
Also Santner took 4-31 – makes you wonder how a bowler can get motm in a high scoring game.
Australia fall agonisingly short in second T20 despite Stoinis heroics
They toured Bangladesh in 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_cricket_team_in_Bangladesh_in_2017
England's giant Ashes advantage due to uneven Test schedule
Winners: Code warriors who want to pedal their case for which is the stronger code based on the fortunes of one player.
Losers: Everyone else who has to filter through these tedious comments/articles
Winners and losers from the Roger Tuivasa-Sheck code switch
The concept has been successful in increasing interest in all test matches and if given the right support could be a vital part of the sport going forward.
I think the worst thing for the concept is if Australia scrape into the final and then beat India in a one-off test. Would that really prove anything?
My preference would be to make it a 4-year tournament, split the teams into two pools based on rankings, home and away within your pool in the first two years and then split into a top half-bottom half for the second two-year period to find a winner.
The World Test Championship shows Test cricket is in rude health
Paine’s ‘banter’ was hardly abusive but just really embarrassing for himself. He got completely burned by Ashwin’s comeback and then became really prickly.
More concerning than the language used was the fact that he was talking about the Gabba test when there were still 9 overs to go – an admission that he had given up on the current game even though they could still have pulled off a win, which would have been a real possibility if he hadn’t dropped a catch the next over.
Paine has also been served up by Cricket Australia as they new face of Australian cricket so to see him resort to the ‘ugly aussies’ stereotype is very disappointing.
Having said all this the guy apologised and he deserves a chance at redemption. However, there seems to be a faction of Australian media and fans who have been against Paine from the get go and I think there is almost a campaign to get rid of him and reinsert Smith as captain. the idea that Smith would have done any better is completely contradictory to Smith’s record as captain.
Give Tim Paine a break – he's earned it!
What the rankings demonstrate is that NZ over the past 3 years have (very marginally) been the most consistent team. Nothing more, nothing less.
New Zealand deserve the no.1 Test ranking
average fans wait until the tickets come out, (usually within 12 months of the tournament) try their luck in the ballot and work their trip out around that.
This system is all about accommodating the tour operators, who get access to the tickets before everyone else so they can sell premium packages at exorbitant rates, over the average fan.
Wallabies handed nigh-identical 2023 Rugby World Cup draw
What a non-sense the pumas just made of SAs decision not to come for reasons of ‘player welfare’.
Ian Foster is destined to become the All Blacks' Allister Coetzee
There has been a gradual decline in standards since 2015. The first sign was losing to Ireland in 2016. 2017 we couldn’t beat the Lions at home. 2018 we lost to SA at home and Ireland away. 2019 we were thrashed by Australia in Perth and drew with SA at home. A few blowout wins against SA and Australia every year papered over the cracks that were emerging and Hansen made excuses after every poor performance, even the games we scraped home in, telling us we should wait for the world cup to judge this team. WC came and we were hopelessly outplayed by England.
So what do NZR do? they appoint his assistant and guess what 2020 has brought? 3 awful performances with a couple of blow out wins against Australia mixed in.
I don’t blame Foster entirely because the decline started 4 years ago and was somewhat inevitable given how good the previous 5-6 years were, but I just want us to learn from our losses so not to repeat them in future.
We need to address why our discipline has been so poor . Why are we starting so many games so slowly? How do we plan to win games if the opposition is making all their tackles?
What's wrong with Ian Foster’s regime?
The halftime interview segment should be introduced something along the lines of “right, now down to the sideline where Phil Kearns is with Nic White for some halftime cliches…” because that’s all it is, a gimmick. You are never going to get a an honest assessment form a player in that situation.
Australia seems to be living in another world when it comes to the All Blacks
It won’t happen because the national unions and clubs all lose money in world cup years.
World Rugby explores option of making RWC a biennial event