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Milked them? o_O The ABs have one of the lowest number of players born outside of the country representing them at just 4. The case could be made that the Islands have 'milked' NZ with the bulk of the Samoan and Tongan teams born in Aotearoa. But that would be silly. NZ's contribution to the...

Japanese rugby has been built on the back of the pacific islands and their players. To some extent, every team in Tier 1 (except maybe SA?) has been keen and eager to snap up Polynesian talent when available. I hope that we see some kind of re-balance happening for future world cups. Good to...

I don't think he was beaten. If Maitland had continued running and had dived where he would have realistically been in a position to slide to the line, Fidow had him. Did anyone really expect Maitland to try and slide over from that far away in the dry? If there is nothing you can do to stop...

Braveheart is right though - what is Fidow supposed to do to try and stop the try? It shouldn't be a penalty at all. I don't mind the game being strict on things like head contact where the interests of the player are paramount but this is fucked. This is 3 times worse than the Hodge incident...

I don't know why he felt it necessary on EVERY kick to tell Samoans to stop and yet nothing to the Scots - and yes, they would go forward as well. Off-side not reffed at all. Line-out throws. Samoan players with rights to the ball not getting the penalty. A hard hit having to be looked at by...

What would you have liked him to wrap his arms around? The entire pitch? Maitland dived early - how do you tackle a player sliding across the turf? How many drills are there to teach that? The reffing against Samoa was shit but that's to be expected for Island nations at RWC now I guess.

Exactly. At contact, his arms are still tucked to his chest. It is simply a bad tackle which Kerevi shouldn't be punished for.

I don't get it. Is a ball carrier not allowed to protect himself anymore? Not allowed to attempt a dominant carry? As you say, Kerevi had his arms tucked to his own chest - do runners have no ability to go into contact with their arms protecting themselves? There is no way that this should be a...

Looks like it worked!

Kerevi penalty is absolutely ridiculous. Cheika finally has a reason to actually be pissed off.

This. Stick with CLL. Or To'omua. The real shame is that neither have been available for the last few years to give them the time in jersey that Foley has been afforded. Who is the next cab off the rank after the RWC? I can't see any of the current 10's being available for a lot longer.

Cheika can understandably be frustrated about a decision or two but to say that you don't understand why the game is going this way or to say that the players aren't concerned is terrible. One only needs to look at what has happened in the NFL in recent years to understand why the game is...

I have an 10yr old son who plays really physically and has started putting some real venom in his tackles/hits. This is really highlighting for me that we make sure we focus on hitting below the nipple line. The tackle is still damaging and still dominant but anywhere higher and you are taking...

Quite the opposite. I just watched the first tackle, the yellow card, and the ref starts calling for a red card almost straight away. Hodge's shoulder charge didn't even get looked at on the field the same way. No stoppage of game to watch video etc. Not reviewed by the on-field ref even once.

This is apparently a red card but a shoulder to the head, leading to a concussion, isn't even a penalty

No one was worrying about the implications when it was Polynesian players and teams getting penalised/carded/suspended for tackles less dangerous than this.

Exactly. Personally, it's why I wasn't really upset about Barrett's card. I don't think it was a thug move or that he intended to shoulder charge Hooper's head but in the end, he hit the head and there is little leeway for it. Farrell o_O

No arms at all. I don't know how to attach the pics but the stills from behind show Hodge's arm doesn't even get close to wrapping. His arm from his shoulder to his elbow, stays tucked in to his body. Even your stills show this. The only difference between what he did and the 'sling' position is...

I think this is a better article https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/sep/21/reece-hodge-high-tackle-peceli-yato-australia-fiji-rugby-world-cup?fbclid=IwAR2Vk2ZTcClu6a1cpXVuBbf2UcUjjxr-nx8qSzPmxFDHLrHEeczokTmmbgM

My point is that fans see it differently. You guys call Barrett a thug when I didn't see it like that. Some to think that Hodge was just unlucky. Some Fijian fans probably think he's a thug. I don't defend Barrett cos even though I don't think he was trying to target Hooper's head, the reality...