Recent content by zer0

It's the same with a lot of rugby stats that are never really explained. What, exactly, is a "clean break", or how, exactly, is a "defender beaten". How is a scrum won or lost etc... As long as they're from the same source you can assume they're consistent enough. Naturally it gets murkier when...

Vikena left in 2024, Riccitteli left in 2025, Eklund will be 34 when the 2026 season starts, and Mullan looks like a Cantab sleeper agent. We ended up with some absolute battlers as injury cover during the season. I can't see how he wouldn't have been, at absolute worse, regularly on the bench.

I could understand JRK and Tangitau leaving as the Blues had Ioane, Telea, and Lam at the time while they would walk into the Highlanders starting positions. Surely now it would be the inverse for Tito-Harris. Go all in on stealing Dylan Pledger and Luke Casey as recompense.

Yeah, it's only the uppermost corners of the south stand that have any real seats available, the rest being random wheelchair access seats around the main concourse. It's the broadcast camera side so you won't see them up there in those pokey corners. Meanwhile I, being a West Stand...

Roigard, Ratima, Taylor, and Tuipulotu will all be available for selection. https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360830290/all-blacks-boosted-return-top-men-key-positions-big-bledisloe-cup-test-eden-park

Tosi for Lomax. Papali'i for Kirifi. Barrett is fortunate that Tuipulotu is (probably) unavailable otherwise I'd have cut his deadbeat ass too. "Leadership". lol. lmao, even. Clarke without a doubt. He was pulled from the Auckland match XV into the ABs camp on Sunday, which seems a bit of a...

9. Roigard 12. Fainga'anuku 19. Tuipulotu (if available) 20. Papali'i Make it so.

Given the turnover in the Blues backs going into next season, surely Simpson and Tito-Harris will join Lam and Taele. Simpson has a good punting range. Just needs to learn some of those shallow slicing kicks from Zarn Sullivan. Good to see the Papali'i Punisher (park the openside on the...

Wellington started as a property scam and only became the capital so that everyone would be equally unhappy. I'm surprised it's taken this long for the Wellington curse to seep into the All Blacks.

Frankly, it seems like Robertson is treading water until Schmidt is finished with the Wallabies. Wildly inconsistent performances. Weird selections. Wanderballz Will looking like he plays for the Chiefs. The question is whether he becomes another sock puppet a la Foster, or we don't bother with...

I'm unconvinced by Carter fielding kicks. IIRC he regularly spilled kicks throughout Super Rugby and reached a nadir when he flat out refused to field a kick when the Blues suffocated the Chiefs. That, surely, will not have been missed by the Springbok analyst. Clarke or even Fainga’anuku would've been a...

It's never really a competition.

Tense stuff. Losing what should've been the final breakdown was terrible execution, however. Taukei’aho was a big improvement over the ghost of Codie Taylor. I recall Lomax's scrummaging being average during Super Rugby so that needs to be sorted, possibly through selection adjustments. i.e., pair...

Would've liked to see Fainga’anuku on the bench. It's wet, brisk, the forwards are the best part of the team, and it's being played in Auckland. Which means