Super Rugby Pacific 2023

[Guy Smiley]

29-0 at HT... a real 15 man effort from the Crusaders with every player getting involved.

[Gumboot]

Williams is so much fitter and faster than he was last year. His progress has been really impressive.

[Guy Smiley]

Williams is so much fitter and faster than he was last year. His progress has been really impressive.

Yeah, he's the standout tonight. Confident and hungry.

[Kiwias]

Who is the brain-dead commentator who just said "here is one of the top 2~3 players in the world, Beauden Barrett?"

[Grandpa]

Who is the brain-dead commentator who just said "here is one of the top 2~3 players in the world, Beauden Barrett?"

Dunno, but Tim Horan backed him up!

[Guy Smiley]

Who is the brain-dead commentator who just said "here is one of the top 2~3 players in the world, Beauden Barrett?"

Dunno, but Tim Horan backed him up!

You get a free blazer fitting on entry to the Old Boy's Club.

[Grandpa]

Who is the brain-dead commentator who just said "here is one of the top 2~3 players in the world, Beauden Barrett?"

Dunno, but Tim Horan backed him up!

You get a free blazer fitting on entry to the Old Boy's Club.

I loved Horan as a player... but what an un-insightful dullard he is as a pundit.

I thought Heem played well.

[Torquemada 1420]

I loved Horan as a player... but what an un-insightful dullard he is as a pundit.

I thought Heem played well.

Horan was a great player: he and Herbert probably the best centre pairing of their era. But we was an utter tw*t of a person on the field and no surprise he's a terrible commentator.

Anyway, meantime, these Landers

[Gumboot]

I loved Horan as a player... but what an un-insightful dullard he is as a pundit.

I thought Heem played well.

Horan was a great player: he and Herbert probably the best centre pairing of their era. But we was an utter tw*t of a person on the field and no surprise he's a terrible commentator.

Anyway, meantime, these Landers

Probably my favourite ever 12, but he doesn't really add much with a mic.

And yep, this is an average Landers side... sadly, they just don't have the cattle.

[Torquemada 1420]

That's a terrible, homer decision.

[Torquemada 1420]

Great break but that really needed to go right.

[Gumboot]

Highlanders win a tough watch 20-17.

[Guy Smiley]

Bit of a wet night in Hamilton

[Kiwias]

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the Force? Nary an ulterior motive in sight.

[Guy Smiley]

Things have sharpened up a bit....



Next week the Brumbies host the Chiefs while the Crusaders host the Waratahs and the Blues host the Hurricanes. The week after that, the Hurricanes host the Crusaders. Comp is very much alive and kicking.

[Certain Navigator]

I loved Horan as a player... but what an un-insightful dullard he is as a pundit.

I thought Heem played well.

Horan was a great player: he and Herbert probably the best centre pairing of their era. But we was an utter tw*t of a person on the field and no surprise he's a terrible commentator.

Anyway, meantime, these Landers

Probably my favourite ever 12, but he doesn't really add much with a mic.

And yep, this is an average Landers side... sadly, they just don't have the cattle.

Well, they don't have a decent 10, that's for sure. But if they could keep a couple of actual locks on the field, there's nothing wrong with their pack — and Harmon's been the best NZ 7 in soup this year. With Nareki back, they're also not that short of backline firepower either, but selection isn't helping — why would you pick the very-average Garden-Bachop to start and leave the very-hard-to-stop Umaga-Jensen on the bench? Especially when the very-much-better Gilbert is a far better option at fullback anyway.

The Aussie commentators are just being Aussies — they have no interest in, or idea about, what's happening in NZ. But the NZ commentators are no better — many of their utterances about Aussie team players have been embarrassingly out of date.

[Kiwias]

Fakatava off the bench for Nugget scores the winning try in injury time to send Nugs off with a win.

[Kiwias]

Crusaders vs Tahs about to kick off, with 39 year-old John Afoa starting at THP.

[Kiwias]

Burke has made a couple of superb breaks from fullback, the second one leading to a try

[Kiwias]

Old Man Afoa putting in a decent shift, winning one scrum penalty and coming agonisingly close to his first try as a Good Guy.

Burke looking seriously sharp

[Kiwias]

Bugger it! Grace is injured again.

[Kiwias]

And Havili injured too, not looking good at all.

Crusaders can score from lineout mauls but do not concede them at all.

Bonus point try there!!

[Kiwias]

A bloody good performance -- led by Havili-Talitui, Big Sam and Richie, with special mention for Burke.

[Sandstorm]

Absolutely diabolical handling in the Chiefs v Brumbies match. Scrum after scrum.

[Dan54]

Crusaders vs Tahs about to kick off, with 39 year-old John Afoa starting at THP.

I see Afoa figures he got another NPC campaign in him now!

[Kiwias]

Crusaders vs Tahs about to kick off, with 39 year-old John Afoa starting at THP.

I see Afoa figures he got another NPC campaign in him now!

He’d be welcome in the Red and Black now.

[Kiwias]

Will Jordan has resigned with the Crusaders and NZ rugby through to 2027. Fabulous news. Now we just need a coach who will play him at 15 in the ABs.

[Dan54]

Will Jordan has resigned with the Crusaders and NZ rugby through to 2027. Fabulous news. Now we just need a coach who will play him at 15 in the ABs.

Bloody good news with Jordan, NZR seem to be doing pretty well getting players to stay on. Though I still not absolutely convinced he a test 15 yet.

[Kiwias]

Will Jordan has resigned with the Crusaders and NZ rugby through to 2027. Fabulous news. Now we just need a coach who will play him at 15 in the ABs.

Bloody good news with Jordan, NZR seem to be doing pretty well getting players to stay on. Though I still not absolutely convinced he a test 15 yet.

We will most likely have to wait till next year to find out, won't we?

[Dan54]

Will Jordan has resigned with the Crusaders and NZ rugby through to 2027. Fabulous news. Now we just need a coach who will play him at 15 in the ABs.

Bloody good news with Jordan, NZR seem to be doing pretty well getting players to stay on. Though I still not absolutely convinced he a test 15 yet.

We will most likely have to wait till next year to find out, won't we?

No idea, not sure where Foster, Schmidt etc see him , but even Jordan says although he prefers 15, like Izzy Dagg, Ben Smith etc sometimes you start on wing for a few years.

[Kiwias]

Bloody good news with Jordan, NZR seem to be doing pretty well getting players to stay on. Though I still not absolutely convinced he a test 15 yet.

We will most likely have to wait till next year to find out, won't we?

No idea, not sure where Foster, Schmidt etc see him , but even Jordan says although he prefers 15, like Izzy Dagg, Ben Smith etc sometimes you start on wing for a few years.

Dagg spent most of his first few years in black at 15 but Ben Smith spent a lot of time on the wing, because we had a world-class player at 15 already. That is not the case with Jordan now, as he is a better fullback than Foster's love child BB.

[Dan54]

We will most likely have to wait till next year to find out, won't we?

No idea, not sure where Foster, Schmidt etc see him , but even Jordan says although he prefers 15, like Izzy Dagg, Ben Smith etc sometimes you start on wing for a few years.

Dagg spent most of his first few years in black at 15 but Ben Smith spent a lot of time on the wing, because we had a world-class player at 15 already. That is not the case with Jordan now, as he is a better fullback than Foster's love child BB.

Hey, Jordan was the one who talked about Dagg and Smith, not me (though I thought Dagg started on wing). I actually remember Smith saying he had to learn to communicate when he was trying to get 15. I still think that the main reason rightfully or wrongly that BB is picked at 15, is he is meant to be pretty good at letting 10 etc know whats happening. I never played in backline or at any decent level, so not quite sure how it all works, but always hear 10s say how important they find getting info!

Just thought of a question, and it is a genuine question. What's with the calling of players love child etc? I never worked it out, is it meant to be funny etc? I miss the joke, I know it's a big thing on PR etc and then a lot follow along. I just don't get it? One of mates who went into PR for a while, just sticks with other forums and asked me about it, I thought maybe it was posters wanting to get noticed more?

[Kiwias]

No idea, not sure where Foster, Schmidt etc see him , but even Jordan says although he prefers 15, like Izzy Dagg, Ben Smith etc sometimes you start on wing for a few years.

Dagg spent most of his first few years in black at 15 but Ben Smith spent a lot of time on the wing, because we had a world-class player at 15 already. That is not the case with Jordan now, as he is a better fullback than Foster's love child BB.

Hey, Jordan was the one who talked about Dagg and Smith, not me (though I thought Dagg started on wing). I actually remember Smith saying he had to learn to communicate when he was trying to get 15. I still think that the main reason rightfully or wrongly that BB is picked at 15, is he is meant to be pretty good at letting 10 etc know whats happening. I never played in backline or at any decent level, so not quite sure how it all works, but always hear 10s say how important they find getting info!

Just thought of a question, and it is a genuine question. What's with the calling of players love child etc? I never worked it out, is it meant to be funny etc? I miss the joke, I know it's a big thing on PR etc and then a lot follow along. I just don't get it? One of mates who went into PR for a while, just sticks with other forums and asked me about it, I thought maybe it was posters wanting to get noticed more?

I never had a major issue with Smith being used on the wing because we clearly had a superb player at fb but even BB admitted once that he was aware he had a tendency to get excessively involved at 10, not making it easy for Mo'unga to settle fully into the position of leading the backline. Clearly a case of TMI for RMo.

As for the term 'love child', I use it to mean any player the coach insists on using even when it is clear that he is no longer the best in that position.

[Dan54]

Dagg spent most of his first few years in black at 15 but Ben Smith spent a lot of time on the wing, because we had a world-class player at 15 already. That is not the case with Jordan now, as he is a better fullback than Foster's love child BB.

Hey, Jordan was the one who talked about Dagg and Smith, not me (though I thought Dagg started on wing). I actually remember Smith saying he had to learn to communicate when he was trying to get 15. I still think that the main reason rightfully or wrongly that BB is picked at 15, is he is meant to be pretty good at letting 10 etc know whats happening. I never played in backline or at any decent level, so not quite sure how it all works, but always hear 10s say how important they find getting info!

Just thought of a question, and it is a genuine question. What's with the calling of players love child etc? I never worked it out, is it meant to be funny etc? I miss the joke, I know it's a big thing on PR etc and then a lot follow along. I just don't get it? One of mates who went into PR for a while, just sticks with other forums and asked me about it, I thought maybe it was posters wanting to get noticed more?

I never had a major issue with Smith being used on the wing because we clearly had a superb player at fb but even BB admitted once that he was aware he had a tendency to get excessively involved at 10, not making it easy for Mo'unga to settle fully into the position of leading the backline. Clearly a case of TMI for RMo.

As for the term 'love child', I use it to mean any player the coach insists on using even when it is clear that he is no longer the best in that position.

Ok, well in the case of playing people at wing, I have quite a few coaches say they like to do that as they don't have the same pressure on them on wing while really getting to grips with game, and do know that they also value highly 15s giving info to players in front of them. I agree what BB said about he was overplaying the time he was 2nd playmaker with RMo earlier, have also heard RMo also say he relies on second playmaker to help him, (why I think Havili does it quite often). I actually heard Bryn Hall saying that from set play fro Crusaders RMo was almost never first receiver off set piece until well into second half, which was also interesting.
As for the 'love child'when my wife saw that in one thing she said whoever writes it is really getting at player's mother , even to say in half hearted manner is saying she has been having affairs. Must admit I use the term favourite which isn't I suppose insulting enough to catch attention, as when I coached I had favourite players, and the were generally the ones I though that were the ones I thought (rightly or wrongly) the ones that did the job I wanted them to do. So we all use different expressions huh?

[Kiwias]

Ok, well in the case of playing people at wing, I have quite a few coaches say they like to do that as they don't have the same pressure on them on wing while really getting to grips with game, and do know that they also value highly 15s giving info to players in front of them. I agree what BB said about he was overplaying the time he was 2nd playmaker with RMo earlier, have also heard RMo also say he relies on second playmaker to help him, (why I think Havili does it quite often). I actually heard Bryn Hall saying that from set play fro Crusaders RMo was almost never first receiver off set piece until well into second half, which was also interesting.
As for the 'love child'when my wife saw that in one thing she said whoever writes it is really getting at player's mother , even to say in half hearted manner is saying she has been having affairs. Must admit I use the term favourite which isn't I suppose insulting enough to catch attention, as when I coached I had favourite players, and the were generally the ones I though that were the ones I thought (rightly or wrongly) the ones that did the job I wanted them to do. So we all use different expressions huh?

The difference between RMo in the Crusaders and in the ABs is that he is in full control at 10 in the Cru, having others switch the first receiver role with him as he desires, whereas in the ABs, BB from 15 imposes his presence on RMo at 10, effectively emasculating the younger player.

[Dan54]

Ok, well in the case of playing people at wing, I have quite a few coaches say they like to do that as they don't have the same pressure on them on wing while really getting to grips with game, and do know that they also value highly 15s giving info to players in front of them. I agree what BB said about he was overplaying the time he was 2nd playmaker with RMo earlier, have also heard RMo also say he relies on second playmaker to help him, (why I think Havili does it quite often). I actually heard Bryn Hall saying that from set play fro Crusaders RMo was almost never first receiver off set piece until well into second half, which was also interesting.
As for the 'love child'when my wife saw that in one thing she said whoever writes it is really getting at player's mother , even to say in half hearted manner is saying she has been having affairs. Must admit I use the term favourite which isn't I suppose insulting enough to catch attention, as when I coached I had favourite players, and the were generally the ones I though that were the ones I thought (rightly or wrongly) the ones that did the job I wanted them to do. So we all use different expressions huh?

The difference between RMo in the Crusaders and in the ABs is that he is in full control at 10 in the Cru, having others switch the first receiver role with him as he desires, whereas in the ABs, BB from 15 imposes his presence on RMo at 10, effectively emasculating the younger player.

Yep I thought that earlier too, but I think it been better last year or so. I think RMo really seems to have confidence now to not let that happen, or should do. A good 10 is listening to info from 9 and 15 I think, and is able to be able to control things from there. I think it perhaps shows a bad flaw of RMo's if he allows other's to control him in game. As you said even BB said he was needing to give him space, etc. I honestly have never known a 10 who people think doesn't stamp HIS authority on backline.
Actually was listening to James Parsons last night, and he was talking about how messages to 10 come from 9 and 10, was in explanation why he thinks 9s shouldn't make more than 3-4 tackles in a game

[Kiwias]

Ok, well in the case of playing people at wing, I have quite a few coaches say they like to do that as they don't have the same pressure on them on wing while really getting to grips with game, and do know that they also value highly 15s giving info to players in front of them. I agree what BB said about he was overplaying the time he was 2nd playmaker with RMo earlier, have also heard RMo also say he relies on second playmaker to help him, (why I think Havili does it quite often). I actually heard Bryn Hall saying that from set play fro Crusaders RMo was almost never first receiver off set piece until well into second half, which was also interesting.
As for the 'love child'when my wife saw that in one thing she said whoever writes it is really getting at player's mother , even to say in half hearted manner is saying she has been having affairs. Must admit I use the term favourite which isn't I suppose insulting enough to catch attention, as when I coached I had favourite players, and the were generally the ones I though that were the ones I thought (rightly or wrongly) the ones that did the job I wanted them to do. So we all use different expressions huh?

The difference between RMo in the Crusaders and in the ABs is that he is in full control at 10 in the Cru, having others switch the first receiver role with him as he desires, whereas in the ABs, BB from 15 imposes his presence on RMo at 10, effectively emasculating the younger player.

Yep I thought that earlier too, but I think it been better last year or so. I think RMo really seems to have confidence now to not let that happen, or should do. A good 10 is listening to info from 9 and 15 I think, and is able to be able to control things from there. I think it perhaps shows a bad flaw of RMo's if he allows other's to control him in game. As you said even BB said he was needing to give him space, etc. I honestly have never known a 10 who people think doesn't stamp HIS authority on backline.
Actually was listening to James Parsons last night, and he was talking about how messages to 10 come from 9 and 10, was in explanation why he thinks 9s shouldn't make more than 3-4 tackles in a game

I don't disagree that a good 10 is able to take control but in RMo's case, the player causing the problems is a favourite of the head coach and has his total support, making it hard for a younger 'newcomer' to tell him to STFU and stay at 15. RMo has never had an issue with more experienced ABs in the Crusader backline, to a significant degree because he has the absolute support of his head coach.

[Kiwias]

Wonder how many of these lads will go on to play for Canterbury or the Crusaders.

Annual match between CBHS and Christs College.

[Guy Smiley]

The difference between RMo in the Crusaders and in the ABs is that he is in full control at 10 in the Cru, having others switch the first receiver role with him as he desires, whereas in the ABs, BB from 15 imposes his presence on RMo at 10, effectively emasculating the younger player.

Yep I thought that earlier too, but I think it been better last year or so. I think RMo really seems to have confidence now to not let that happen, or should do. A good 10 is listening to info from 9 and 15 I think, and is able to be able to control things from there. I think it perhaps shows a bad flaw of RMo's if he allows other's to control him in game. As you said even BB said he was needing to give him space, etc. I honestly have never known a 10 who people think doesn't stamp HIS authority on backline.
Actually was listening to James Parsons last night, and he was talking about how messages to 10 come from 9 and 10, was in explanation why he thinks 9s shouldn't make more than 3-4 tackles in a game

I don't disagree that a good 10 is able to take control but in RMo's case, the player causing the problems is a favourite of the head coach and has his total support, making it hard for a younger 'newcomer' to tell him to STFU and stay at 15. RMo has never had an issue with more experienced ABs in the Crusader backline, to a significant degree because he has the absolute support of his head coach.

If you want other players to step into first receiver you want those who are tuned into the team dynamic and able to distribute in their own right. Havili does that very well. Jordan seems to have the ability. I think Shaun Stevenson is another who goes well…. But BB isn’t like that. He’s a soloist, not an ensemble player. His injection into the line from FB falls flat because he’s not a natural distributor in his own right.

He is Fosters love child though.

[Kiwias]

Yep I thought that earlier too, but I think it been better last year or so. I think RMo really seems to have confidence now to not let that happen, or should do. A good 10 is listening to info from 9 and 15 I think, and is able to be able to control things from there. I think it perhaps shows a bad flaw of RMo's if he allows other's to control him in game. As you said even BB said he was needing to give him space, etc. I honestly have never known a 10 who people think doesn't stamp HIS authority on backline.
Actually was listening to James Parsons last night, and he was talking about how messages to 10 come from 9 and 10, was in explanation why he thinks 9s shouldn't make more than 3-4 tackles in a game

I don't disagree that a good 10 is able to take control but in RMo's case, the player causing the problems is a favourite of the head coach and has his total support, making it hard for a younger 'newcomer' to tell him to STFU and stay at 15. RMo has never had an issue with more experienced ABs in the Crusader backline, to a significant degree because he has the absolute support of his head coach.

If you want other players to step into first receiver you want those who are tuned into the team dynamic and able to distribute in their own right. Havili does that very well. Jordan seems to have the ability. I think Shaun Stevenson is another who goes well…. But BB isn’t like that. He’s a soloist, not an ensemble player. His injection into the line from FB falls flat because he’s not a natural distributor in his own right.

He is Fosters love child though.

And because he still sees himself as a natural and the rightful 10.