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I'm glad I missed most of the game now. What a shocking scoreline. Hard to think that any home union wouldn't fancy their chances of a win against us on the EOYT. Even Scotland with their pack would have an eye on making history. The question now has to be whether we were that good in Brisbane...

I'm not saying it doesn't look "good" -- I'm saying it doesn't look intimidating. I'm not saying it does look good either. I'll leave that up to the fashionistas to decide.

Imo pressure through the chase is the difference between NZ's back 3 looking uncomfortable under the high ball against SA and them looking completely comfortable under it against us. Personally though I thought at the time that Richie had made a good call going for the scrum instead of the easy...

I hope there's plenty of green in it. I'm no psychologist but bright yellow has to be the least intimidating colour of the spectrum, rivalled only by pink. At least pink can play off fears of sunburn, indigestible bubblegum and homosexuality, but what fears does yellow have to draw on...

Great stuff. :thumb I like what you have going here, I just wish the forum were a bit more active. It's a bit of a worry for a top-20 rugby website to be this slow. I guess they're mainly voting you in on the blog side of things though. I think it's the snazzy YouTube clips which have done the...

I'm a bit surprised we haven't tried 6 Mumm 7 Smith 8 Elsom. It'd give us more grunt in the forwards and more lineout options. I'd also think that Elsom with his ballcarrying would make more of a natural 8 than Smith. And I read that Deans asked Elsom to try to play 8 as much as possible during...

I'm looking forward to seeing how our new-look scrum does against NZ -- especially with TPN starting. I know Cobus rates Moore as one of the 3 best scrumming hookers in the world, but we always seem to be more dominant at the set-piece with TPN on the field. Shame about his throwing. How is...

Sadly I'm going to tip the ABs by 5. They just seem to have the wood on us at the moment, and unless we get a huge lead in the first half they'll always chase us down in the 2nd at this stage. The advantage I think we'll have over the first test at Eden Park is that the ref might be less...

Ha nice emblem change. Didn't see that one there.

Since it won't be until after the WC (which usually sparks a bunch of sabatticals and retirements) there should be room in the S15 for Argie players without it being diluted too much. If every S15 team takes in 3 Argie players that should be a pretty decent pool (45) for their national team to...

It's finally happened. Conditional upon being able to guarantee their best players will be playing. 2012 is the proposed starting date. From: http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/news/argentina-invited-to-join-tri-nations/2009/09/14/1252780263080.html It's a long way away but this sounds like...

I'm still not convinced about Alexander at THP. Starting against a fresh Woodcock should give us a much better idea of where he's really at. Hopefully he comes through unscathed. Having said that, I have to say that I'm loving this new-look Aussie scrum. I'm so used to thinking "Oh crap" every...

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I wonder if the Wallabies actually know how to play a forward-oriented game when they get a clear advantage in that area? I doubt Genia, Giteau and BBarnes have ever played behind a dominant pack in their lives, for instance. It's not pretty to play...

Thanks Moses. That scrum was one of my favourite rugby moments.

The trouble with negotiating "delicately" with players is that it's always going to boil down to the bottom line. So "delicate" is always going to mean "more money". That in itself might not be so bad -- if you could do it in a bubble. But as Al Baxter (or was it Dunning?) made known to the...

Ireland, ok. But Wales? They're still bragging to all and sundry about beating us on the last EOYT. If they do it again they'll be insufferable. I'd rather we lost to Scotland. At least that way we could tell ourselves it's an aberration.

Phil Waugh must be regretting his decision not to head north for the big bucks right about now.

Re: Next appointment: Brisbane I'm intrigued by this comment by Rocky Elsom: "It doesn't feel like 2005,'' he said. ''We had some pretty big problems then, which helped us get into that big hole. We don't have those same problems now. In 2005, everyone tried really hard, and it wasn't as if...

I'll tell you one thing, the performances of our wings this season are causing me to wonder if maybe I wasn't judging Tuqiri a little harshly. He may have had just as little penetration in attack, but at least he was bigger. Not worth the price tag but still...

I'm sorry, I'm trying. Our scrum is better. That's the best I can do. But when the scrum is so much less important than the lineout (which has gone backwards at a rate of knots), it isn't much. It wouldn't hurt so much if this were a typical AB outfit beating us. But it's the weakest AB side in...