Author: KARL

WOW! what a game. So here we are, last game of the RWC Pool matches and one that most people expected to go with an easy win to Fiji that would see the Wallabies out of the RWC. Now we know hope is not a planning tool, but we all just had that little bit of it in us. Could this be the upset of the tournament, and could it be enough to get the Wallabies through? Well, it almost was! Portugal winning 24 – 23 with a conversion in the last minute of the game. Unfortunately, not enough to…

New Zealand and Uruguay play their last pool game of the RWC. New Zealand needing a bonus point win to guarantee their place in the quarter finals and Uruguay playing more for pride, but also hoping to go out on a high. Ian Foster had made a number of changes from the team that demolished Italy and stated that for some of them this was their chance to push for a regular place. Now I don’t care who you are, or how experienced you are, or even how much you play for “the team”, when the coach says this, you…

New Zealand found itself in an interesting position heading into this game. The ABs had taken big losses against both South Africa and France (losing its first ever pool match in the process) and while it had put Namibia away well, there were still questions of the playing and coaching group. Some people were even asking (dreaming) if New Zealand was going to follow Australia and not get out of their pool. After all, Italy had beaten Wales in 2022 and only lost to a full strength French team 24 – 29 earlier this year. Even in New Zealand some…

Good morning fellow G&GRs it’s midweek, time to put last week’s disappointments behind us, or if you’re Eloise the successes, and look forward to what the weekend will bring. Yes things seem bad, but I woke up and got out of bed without falling over, the sun came up and life goes on. Now I’m not so much a “glass half full”, or “glass half empty” kind of person, as more of a “we can fill the glass up” person. As I sit here writing this with a nice glass of Ardbeg Anthology to help my clarity of thought, I’m…

Another warmup game for Ireland as they contemplate the big one next weekend when they take on the Springboks. While the new eligibility laws have allowed teams like Tonga to potentially be more of a threat than in previous years, the game showed that it takes more than a few names to change a team. The Match Clinical is the best way to describe this match. Ireland played very clinically and to their strengths running out a pretty easy 59 – 16 win against a Tongan side that never really lived to the potential some of their more experienced players…

This weekend it’s time for the minnows to step up against the big boys and after starting the weekend with France against Uruguay it was time for Namibia to step up against NZ. It’s hard to criticise a 71 – 3 win, even against a side sitting at 21 in the world rankings and to be fair NZ did what was needed and played with some flair and passion. Some players took their opportunities while others didn’t really set the game on fire in the way they would’ve wanted. Namibia is a good team with some good players. They well…

Half way to the weekend. Time to let it go from last week and start to think about where things will go this weekend. Will our team do better, will it do worse and what of the teams that may affect our run later in the tournament? How will they go and what impact will their game have on our peace of mind? I must admit I’m loving this tournament and really looking forward to seeing how things pan out. Why it’s a particularly big week for seven Wallabies players As written here in SMH by Tom Decent, a few…

The Match Well this wasn’t the result most Kiwis wanted; however by all accounts the French are very happy. To be fair to the game, the French played very well and deserved the win. For the most part they took the chances that came their way and in the last 20 minutes they applied a huge amount of pressure that paid off for a handsome 27 – 13 win against the ABs. While the first half was quite even both on the scoreboard and in the possession stakes, the ABs seemed to be off their game and were making a…

Halfway in the most boring week in rugby history, the week before the Rugby World Cup. Nothing happening that anyone cares about and we’re all just counting down until the best tournament in the world starts. Not sure about you, but I’m getting really excited about the RWC. I think that we’re starting to get to the stage where many teams have the ability to win much more so than in the past and I fully expect to see a few results that will shake things up. The Pacific Island teams, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are all stepping up in…

Just an opinion piece on my read of the game. Like every opinion, yours may differ and you know what? That’s ok. In the last warmup before the RWC, The Wallabies took on France in France. It didn’t go the way the Wallabies wanted but despite a score blow out, there are some points to take away from this match. By far the biggest though is the missed opportunities from mistakes close to the French goal line. Now while a 41 – 17 loss demonstrates some compelling shortfalls, the game itself also showed a lot of areas of improvement for…

Well that didn’t go to plan. Diving deep inside to find my optimistic side I’ve managed to find a few good things to go along with the bad and the downright ugly. So for the record a 35-7 loss to the Boks is not a good thing, ever! Unless of course you’re from South Africa or any other country except NZ. Reading the media on the game it appears that this result has been something that pleases so many other people. Seeing how good the Boks were I’d be a bit wary of them myself because if they were as…

I’m a bit with Nutta here. Lots of rugby over the next few weeks but it’s all a bit meh! Nothing that happens in these games is going to be a real indicator of what will go down during the RWC and while useful in some sense for coaches to try things – a bit like the Rugby Championship ended up being for the Wallabies – they really aren’t giving a lot away. With some of the injuries that have occurred I’m wondering if coaches are happy the games occurred. However, life goes on and here is just some of…

A game that went right to the end and delivered hope for both countries. While NZ was able to hold on and take the win, this game clearly showed a gap between the first team and the backup players. At the same time, the players worked hard to get back into the game and their 2nd half performance demonstrated the ability to not panic and trust the systems. In some ways a game like this will teach them more than what they would have learnt from an easy win. I think that while the coaches will find a lot to…

Happy Hump day fellow rugby lovers. At midday today we can start putting the disappointment from last week behind us and focus on the new disappointments coming this weekend. What will the weekend bring? Will Eddie make even more changes? Will NZ give players a run? Will I win Lotto? Who knows! Let’s just look forward to another great game this weekend. We’ve got Entertaining Eddie, so where’s his winning personality? A nice opinion piece here from Fitzy asking about where the winning is with the Wallabies. I think there’ll be a few more of these over the coming weeks…

It’s certainly been an interesting week listening to the talk from Eddie about what was going to happen and why. Personally, while I love the way he gets rugby in the news and on the front foot, I’d prefer that him and the team did their talking on the field during the game. I just fear that with all the trash talk since he came on board the media and supporters are going to turn on him if things don’t improve and if that happens it will be bad for the game here. I personally wasn’t too concerned or surprised…

My take on the game between New Zealand and South Africa It was certainly an interesting week reading and listening to all the media who were talking up the Boks as though each and every one of them was a new Superman and how they were all so strong and so brilliant and that NZ would be in trouble. Some people seemed to almost be anointing them as RWC winners already. This seemed to be based on two things; firstly, the way their “B team”, or “2nd team” or whatever had done so well against Australia and secondly, because a…

Midweek team. Time to put the disappointment of last week behind us as we start to focus on what might happen this week. Two big games for both the ABs and the Wallabies. Lose this and your tournament is looking toast, win and there may yet be some redemption. Lots of discussions and the question will be; “Will anyone in charge of the different teams actually listen to the fans?” Somehow I think not. Bad day at the office’: Jones confident Wallabies can beat Cheika’s Pumas As written here in SMH by Tom Decenty, Jones is adamant the Wallabies can…

Karl’s view of the NZ vs Argentina match Well despite the trepidation and nerves from most NZ fans at the start of the TRC, Saturday proved to be a relief. The game allowed for some hope that with this being his last year, Foster is able to shrug off some of the pressure and just get things going so that he can bow out nicely. The All Blacks are regarded as slow starters to the season, despite the last time they actually lost a season opener being against France in Dunedin some 14 years ago, however on Saturday they set…

A Review of New Zealand in the TRC It’s that time of the year when we have a break from the Super Rugby and we start to see if any of the promises made by the various coaches are going to bear fruit, or will they fall flat and become just a memory of hope that was dashed when reality came knocking. New Zealand fans are certainly approaching this year with more trepidation than is normal after a very poor year in 2022. While NZ did win the TRC last year, there were a number of losses, particularly losing to…

Well team this’ll be my last post. Nothing big happening but after a couple of years doing this I need a break. I’ve had an absolute ball doing this. Really enjoyed the banter, fun and friends I’ve made. Even managed to catch up with Nutta at a game last week. Didn’t ref his game so my plan to penalise him at the first scrum fell over. But we caught up, had some laughs and I got to see him play. The lad still has it that’s for sure. Looking forward to the TRC and RWC and still absolutely believe the…