Author: KARL

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…

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 Corner It wasn’t a huge week of controversy, although there…

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…

Good morning fellow G&GRs and welcome to Hump Day. Another few hours of reminiscing before we start focusing on what this weekend will bring. Will our team step up this week or will we be lamenting yet another poor game. The ladder seems to be sorting itself out and while the top 5 or so may swap positions in the last couple of games, the real interest will be who manages to step up to fill the last few spots and will they be more than just a one game wonder in the finals. As always this is a fan…

Apparently going in from the side is just what Kiwis do. Welcome fellow G&GRs to another Hump Day where we spend the 1st half of the day reliving the previous week and the 2nd half of the day starting to look forward to the games that will be played next weekend. The Super Rugby ladder is starting to sort itself out and while there may be some team changes, especially in the 6, 7 & 8 positions, I think the rest is pretty much there, although the order may change a bit. I do like that things are closer this…

Welcome to Hump Day fellow G&GRs. Here’s hoping you’re having a good week and starting to think about how things will go this coming weekend. Last weekend certainly saw some interesting results and while the teams seem to be a bit closer than in previous years, there’s still a pretty consistent gap between the top and bottom levels. Today’s a Reds sort of day. No apologies and for those who follow other teams, sorry I just felt this was more important than some of the other stuff around. Remember, this is a fan site and if you feel that you…

Welcome fellow G&GRs, another fine Wednesday where we stop worrying about the previous week and start focusing on the week ahead. Who is our team playing? Will they win? And how much can we beat those pesky Kiwis by this week? (To be fair that last one isn’t one I think about very often.) Some interesting stuff this week and certainly a couple of incidents that led to frustrations spilling over and a couple of acts that are likely to see players on the sideline for a period of time. Now no doubt there’ll be people here who disagree with…

Welcome fellow G&GRs, certainly a mixed result last weekend that made a mess of our picks, and in some cases made drastic changes to our places on the tables of the fantasy games we play. Obviously still pretty happy with the Canes being on top and liking that the Force/Reds game opened up the gap just slightly. I know it’s hard, but I feel we should all be a little sympathetic for the Crusaders fans, we’ve all been down there at some stage, but to go from top of the ladder one year to bottom the next would be hard…

Welcome fellow G&GRs, it’s that time of the week again when we can bask in the glory, or pain, of last week for another half day before we start to refocus on Saturday and dream again of “our” team making us proud and giving us hope for the remainder of the competition. I must admit I’m loving the competition this year, mainly because for at least another week my Canes are top of the table, but also for the really good games on show and the way some new players are stepping up to challenge the status quo. I love…

Good morning fellow G&GRs, a wonderful weekend of rugby, for some, but now it’s time to put all that to one side and start looking forward to the weekend where new dreams can be made and where we live in hope that “our” team can once again, or sometimes just once, reach for glory. Been a busy week at work so I haven’t had time to write an opinion piece to drive you all senseless, in some cases a very short drive, so here’s a round up of news that you may or may not have caught up on. Rugby…

Good morning fellow G&GRs and welcome back for another year of hope, opinion and the ever-changing world of rugby, especially here in Australia. It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how things develop over the next year and where they end up. In addition, there’s going to be a huge disruption in the way the game is played here with the new tackle law that has been brought in. This is going to be a real challenge for RA as the “Old & Bold” bemoan the lowering of standards, wokeness and the referee killing the game. The New Tackle…

Happy Hump Day fellow rugby enthusiasts. In memory of one of my favourite TV programs, Not the 9 O’clock News, this is Not the Jones/McLennan News. Don’t know about you but I’m happy to take a break from all the BS and ongoing discussion about where things are going. They’re certainly a mess at the moment, but there’s time and considering we can’t actually affect anything, I’m happy to just let them get on with it. Carrying on from my last Wednesday post a couple of you have provided suggestions on other positions and what these positions might need and…

Sorry team, Hoss is away this week, and I’m stepping in for him, so it won’t be the same level of drivel we’ve learnt to translate on any Friday. However, in the interests of remaining consistent for a Friday, I will ensure that it remains an opinion piece with no actual truth in it. During the week the Daily Telegraph identified 10 ways that rugby could be improved, and we’ve had some chats about it on the paparazzi site. The article is here in Stuff and not behind a paywall unlike the one Keith first showed me. Now being a…

Well, it’s that time of the year. Rugby has finished for the most part and while our attention now turns to Christmas and having a long-desired break from the daily grind, there’s also a focus on next year and where our team might be going. For me the pain of the one point loss in the final is slowly diminishing as I start looking to where the future might be and trying to anticipate the changes that might occur next season for the All Blacks. Certainly, there’ll be some big changes here as well. At some stage there’ll be a…

Well, that certainly didn’t go the way I’d’ve liked it to go, or how I expected it to go. But there we are, that’s sport for you. We all have our teams that we support and while we expect and hope they always win, it’s never to be. Now that the game has settled a bit, and I’ve come to terms with the emotion of the day, it’s time take a more open view of the game. I won’t carry on too much as Nutta’s excellent review here outlines the game itself. What I will look at is some of…

Good morning fellow G&GRs, another day when we can put the previous weekend’s games behind us and start to concentrate on the upcoming weekend with renewed hope and expectations. Being the final of the Rugby World Cup we now need to make decision on which team we’ll support. Of course there’ll be a lot of people with the “My team isn’t there so I don’t care who wins” but we all know deep down they’ll be hoping for one or the other. Will years of losing to New Zealand in Super Rugby and tests push Green and Gold Rugby supporters into the…

Well, here it is,five games down and, if things go right, two to go. New Zealand takes on Argentina in the first semi-final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Despite beating Argentina in this year’s Rugby Championship, Argentina did have both their first win against NZ in 2020 and their first win against NZ in NZ in 2021. There is also the memory of the All Blacks failing at this stage against England in 2019. Both teams come into the game with a single loss in the pool games. Argentina losing to England and New Zealand losing to France. In…

So the second quarter final of the weekend. Ireland, have played at 10 World Cups and this is their 8th quarter final game. New Zealand has also played at 10 World Cups and this is their 10th quarter final game. Which team would go on to glory and can Ireland bust their hoodoo of not getting past this stage? Both teams were able to field their top teams, with players coming back from injury in time to take to the field for this game. New Zealand had a slight shuffle with Mark Telea not available for selection due to breaking…

Bit of a sad week for Australian rugby and I’m not sure the future is going to be any easier. However, it’s Wednesday so time to forget the past and start looking forward to the weekend where we again have an excuse to get up early and watch some rugby. It’ll be interesting to watch knowing that while you still have teams you support and will want to win over others, there isn’t the same emotional attachment that you have to the Wallabies and just maybe this might make it easier to watch. So who do we support now? Hmmmmmmm!…