The Rugby Championships

[rowan]

Mind-numbing predictability. Only with SA versus Aussie can we really expect the unexpected. Still, the crowds will come, simply due to the high quality of the teams involved.

[morepork]

Argentina. The Southern Hemisphere's answer to Italy.

Or is that a predictable comment?

[morepork]

Very true unfortunately. Japan does have better food than Wainuiomata though.

[J Dory]

I’d also add that Milner-Skudder is the new Kahui: an excellent backline player who’ll probably have a short but decent test career, finishing out his playing days in Japan where there’s a 9 to 10-month break between seasons because he keeps getting injured.

Poor Skud, unfortunate injury, he's a special player, the way he kind of skips on the spot then disappears leaving potential tacklers grasping at thin air, reminds me of Shaun Johnson. Hope he makes it back in black.

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[Spy]

He is good. I think he's lost some pace, though. When he came on the scene in 2015, he seemed fast as well as jinky. But he got run down easily when he nabbed an intercept in the first test against the Boks, and again in the latest match he had a couple of chances but didn't have the gas to clear the defence.

[scuzzaman]

SBW may not be the attacking force he once was, but he has reinvented himself as an excellent defensive 12.

An absolute necessity considering that, when you give the ball away every time it is passed to you, you kinda have to be a defender or what's the point in you being on the paddock?

I happily admit I was dreadfully wrong about the margin; fair play to South Africa ... that was a game of three halves at least!

[rowan]

As I've been saying:

There were major lessons for Hansen: Sonny Bill Williams has hit the used-by date, Lima Sopoaga is probably a stop-gap No.10, and there is everything to gain by fast tracking Wellington's little Exocet Asafo Aumua as a World Cup hooker prospect.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/ar ... ref=NZH_fb

[scuzzaman]

I doubt SBW is too old, or has suddenly lost the physical attributes that made him a star.

I think he's grown too comfortable and isn't the self-motivated player he used to be. He's hit his Tiger Woods plateau mentally, not physically. but that's the coach's job, isn't it? To recognise and deal with such patterns in the players ... ?

[J Dory]

As I've been saying:

There were major lessons for Hansen: Sonny Bill Williams has hit the used-by date, Lima Sopoaga is probably a stop-gap No.10, and there is everything to gain by fast tracking Wellington's little Exocet Asafo Aumua as a World Cup hooker prospect.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/ar ... ref=NZH_fb

You and Rattue know your stuff alright.

[morepork]

Perhaps we could have a whip round and award a Most Persistently Prescient Poser Award. Sorry, poster.

[rowan]

How about an award for the Hindsight Experts aboard. Brave fellows!!

Anyway, it was just an observation. Nothing for anyone to get their knickers in a knot about. I'm still not sold on Damian McKenzie's defense yet either. I think he may well develop into a useful cover as a utility, but wouldn't want him in a starting role against the big guns at the RWC.

[morepork]

What do mean "hindsight" you womble?

[Doorzetbornandbred]

Rowan are you related to dave at all?

[morepork]

Dave's not here man.