Author: KARL

Welcome fellow G&GRs to the penultimate week of rugby for 2024. With the Ireland v Australia match next weekend and Yowie doing the week’s news this is likely to be my last one for the year. Thank you, Hoss and the team, for giving me the opportunity to write my dribble and opinion pieces, and all of you for the support and fun times we’ve had. This site represents a lot of what I love about our game: a bunch of people with diverse ideas and different opinions enjoying the company, debates and differences, and still getting on and having…

This was an epic game that lived up to the pre-match hype and was a joy to watch. When rugby is played like this, with two teams close to each other and both wanting to play fast exciting rugby it shows what a great game our code is. Leading into the game a lot of talk was if France could maintain their dominance over NZ at home or whether the ABs had grown enough under Robertson to get the win they wanted. My biggest fear was would the TMO allow the game to be played, or would they interfere and…

I must admit when I first got this game to review I was a bit concerned that I’d be writing about an All Blacks loss. In fact, I think that’s why it was given to me. Ireland, #1 in world rankings and getting a win in South Africa against the Boks do look dangerous and deserve their ranking. They’re a well drilled side with forwards who compete well and in Aki, Lowe, Hansen and Ringrose they have some dangerous backs who can score good tries.New Zealand has been in development mode for a while and the coaching team have been…

Welcome fellow G&GRs. These weeks between the RC and the end of year tours have always been a bit difficult as there isn’t a lot going on. In Australia there’s nothing except a few age grade competitions with both the U16 and U19 finals this weekend, U16 between the Tahs and Reds and U19 between the Reds and Brumbies. In NZ the NPC has finished with my Wellington team winning the competition in a hard fought final. The ABs played and won against Japan in what was a bit of a meh game, although it did show the coaches what…

Welcome fellow G&GRs. It’s that time of the year when we can sit back and review where things are at and start looking forward to the upcoming November tours. TBH, I find this time of the year pretty ordinary and most of the rugby news seems to be click bait designed to get people talking more than of real interest to me. However, here we are so let’s move on and make the best of it.Referee CornerNot a lot to report on here but I’ve been thinking about some of the issues that I’ve seen or been part of. One…

BLL has gone off to join Hoss in the yoga and wellness retreat. I managed to get a pic of him setting up for some meditation by the river. He texted me an update “KARL, managed to find Hoss but his leotards won’t fit me. Between me and Hoss it looks like Sasquatch and Jabba running for the buffet. Not liking the vegan dinners and no alcohol but the mind is certainly resting. Can you do Monday for me, the interweb thingy isn’t working here and I really don’t know what’s going on.”No worries mate, the Kiwi’s got your back…

Welcome to the end of the Rugby Championship and that brief period of review thinking about “What ifs?” To be fair, I’m ok with how things have gone and while I would’ve loved seeing Argentina beat the Boks and NZ win, it wasn’t to be. For me the best part was watching the Wallabies grow after the changes from last year. TBH I pretty much expected Australia to struggle and as I mentioned at the start, I’d be happy seeing incremental growth and improvement from the team and after the debacle that was Eddie Jones. I saw some growth and…

The penultimate game of the Rugby Championship and two teams playing to avoid the wooden spoon for the tournament. This is a place the All Blacks have never been and certainly the change from Foster to Razor hasn’t been the smooth transition that many had hoped for. In Bledisloe 1 in Sydney the All Blacks were very lucky to come away with a win. Racing out to three converted tries before the Wallabies scored and going to the half time break with a big lead, the second half saw the Wallabies gradually reduce that lead to only 3 points and…

Before anyone gets too carried away here I’ll start by saying these are my thoughts on the team this year. I know we all have opinions, and the chances that mine and yours agree are probably not high so you’re bound to read something, maybe a lot of things, where we differ. By all means tell me in the comments where I got it wrong and what I should’ve said. But let’s keep it civil and not make personal attacks on each other.That last game certainly didn’t go to plan for the ABs. It started off well enough, but before…

Welcome to Hump Day fellow G&GRs. You’re getting two in a row from me as Yowie has other things on, so I’m doing today and he’ll be back next week. I must admit, like most of you, I’m still hurting from the last games and unfortunately we don’t have a game to look forward to this weekend to help take our mind off it all. Sometimes you just have to embrace the suck and move on and I think that’s where we are at the moment.Referee CornerThe only real questionable decision this last weekend was the late YC to the…

So another week, another game lost against the current World Champions and unfortunately, another week of the same mistakes that this current All Black team seems to be very good at. At this level the game can turn on small margins and the AB’s don’t seem to be taking theirs when they arrive. For me the team still looks like a group of individuals who are struggling to understand the game plan and their role in it. A number of times in this game players seemed to receive balls they weren’t expecting and because of this a lot of the…

Welcome fellow G&GRs it’s Hump Day. We have until midday to continue with reflections of the weekend and then we can start looking forward to the upcoming match and start wondering how our team will go this weekend. Will we prevail or will we go down? Either way it’s international rugby so let’s enjoy it.Referee CornerBit of a mixed weekend this week, and as pointed out by BLL in Monday’s news the refereeing seemed to drop off compared to the opening week. Certainly for me Andrew Brace and his ARs looked to be a bit out of their depth and…

Welcome to another Wednesday fellow G&GRs. Only club rugby this week as the International teams take a week off while they travel to Argentina and South Africa for the next two games. It’s an interesting concept where a team plays two games away against one opponent, two games at home against another opponent and then a home and away against the third opponent. I dare say both Argentina and South Africa are happy with their two games away and will be confident of doing well at home. Can Australia and New Zealand change the narrative and take wins away from…

Well that certainly didn’t go to plan. Argentina coming away with a close win after outmuscling and out passioning New Zealand where it mattered. This game demonstrated once again that the difference between the top few teams in the world isn’t that great, and that any of these teams can win if things go their way on the field on the day.Congratulations to Argentina, they absolutely deserved the win and can take a lot out of the match. They outscored NZ in both tries and penalties and while the game was pretty even for the most part, they won the…

Welcome fellow G&GRs. I can feel the levels of anticipation and expectations rise as we slowly, oh so slowly, creep towards the weekend and the opening round of the Rugby Championship. Will our team step up, can it actually win and can we at the least not embarrass ourselves this weekend? I have two levels of expectations. Of course, as always, I expect the All Blacks to win. I know it won’t occur at every game, but it’s always something I expect.For the Wallabies, it’s a bit different. I’m hoping the Queensland bug will bite and that we’ll see the…

Good Monday G&GRs, BLL went down to assist Hoss with his court case, rumour has it that he broke Hoss out of gaol by kicking the wall in and the two of them driving west in a stolen police car with the radio playing “Highway to Hell” on repeat. I’m not saying it’s true but, there’s word on the street about a large and a tall person robbing KFC and taking two months’ worth of fried chicken and leaving the money in the till. It’s a bit of a short one today and if he manages to stay ahead of…

Happy Hump Day fellow G&GRs. Another week of reflection, but not leading into hope for a weekend result. We take a short break and steel ourselves for the naming of the squads for the Rugby Championship. How will this go for “our” team? Will the coaching group reflect our bias informed opinion, or will they go down a path we didn’t expect? Only time will tell.I’ve got a couple of referee pointers from last week and then from there some news items that you may have missed/not cared about. The above photo was at Eden Park just before the second…

Welcome fellow G&GRs to another midweek post. That time of the week when we slowly let go of the previous week’s results and start looking forward to the weekend and another game when our team will once again either win through glorious play or be denied by those cheating officials. Here’s to both the Wallabies and ABs getting up again, and let’s hope this week the Argies and Boks also win so we have a full Southern hemisphere takeover. Nothing better than rubbing it into the NH rugby fraternity.Referee CornerIt wasn’t a huge week of controversy, although there was a…

Happy Hump Day fellow G&GRs, Not the easiest of weeks as two of our favourite teams crashed out of the semis and those damn cowbell clangers and JAFAs will fight it out for the title this year. After a few days sulking I did manage to go back to both games and try and look positively at them. They were both enjoyable games with some good rugby, and just a few controversies that’ll help the conspiracy theorists work on their plots about how the referees/World Rugby/NZRFU/RA and anyone else is working behind the scenes to torpedo their team’s chances of…

Happy Hump Day, fellow G&GRs. Another few hours of reminiscing about last week before we get to the midway point and change our focus to the upcoming games. How will our team fare and will any of the Australian teams get past the quarter finals? Personally, I think the Brumbies will and while the Reds are in with a good chance both they and the Chiefs need a few things to go their way for either to win. What will be very interesting in the next few months is the review of the Crusaders and what changes they need to…