The Rugby Championships

[Lizard]

I'm flying down to New Plymouth tomorrow night to go to the game. Should be a good atmosphere at least.

I don't know the town at all - does anyone have any suggestions for pre/post match drinks etc?

[rowan]

It's rural New Zealand, man. Just try every street corner . . .

[cashead]

Dane Hayleytt-Petty is out with a biceps injury.

[rowan]

I think the Pumas are going to give New Zealand a fright. But they still won't quite get that elusive All Blacks scalp. It's coming, and it's probably not too far away now, but it will happen in Argentina itself, not in NZ - where still only 4 nations have ever emerged victorious against the home nation.

15-19 early 2nd half

[cashead]

Joe Moody's season is over, unfortunately.

[zer0]

Hames has been called in for Moody. Hopefully he does a Laulala and jumps in straight into the starting XV ahead of Tu'ungafasi.

[cashead]

Hames has already been with the squad as an injury call-up, appearing off the bench in Bledisloe II.

[zer0]

Even better. Though I had also forgotten about Crockett. It appears that he'll be starting with Hames on the bench.

[Lizard]

So at Yarrow Stadium I ended up in the terraces between two boisterous groups of Argentinians. They were singing and carrying on for the whole match, which was great. At half time there was even a tiny bit of me that didn't want the inevitable comeback to occur just to see them explode completely.

[cashead]

Shag's all but confirmed Izzy Dagg's season's over.

I hope Matt Duffie gets a call-up at some point. He's probably the best uncapped winger under the high ball in NZ.

[zer0]

Duffie has certainly improved drastically since his first Blues season. I would avidly support his inclusion.

[cashead]

The Boks and the Wallabies played out another draw. It's the first time ever that both fixtures between two teams in this competition, including the Tri-Nations years, has not ended with a clear winner.

[rowan]

It's one of the few positive features about the championship - South Africa v Australia has basically been a 50/50 since the end of the amateur era (Boks kicked ass before that). We all know the All Blacks will win it and the Pumas will get the spoon, but when the Wallabies meet the Saffas these days you just can't call it. & that unpredictability is a necessary ingredient for any championship to be successful.

Hopefully the Lizard will now come up with a list of successive draws between two nations, because personally I can't think of any off the top of my head...

[cashead]

The All Blacks have already won it. The result means it's already settled. Had either side won, the All Blacks were going to need to win in BA.

[cashead]

Also, both sides were kind of shitty, and it's increasingly obvious that Australia's performance in Dunedin, where they still lost, is a blip in an otherwise uninterrupted descent into mediocrity.

The Springboks in particular were frustrating to watch, as they showed signs of life, but would often let themselves down, especially in the second half, with soft defence (what, Rhule gets dropped so everyone else decides to copy his defensive styling?) and really poor work at the breakdown where the Wallabies were often allowed free reign to harass the Springbok players actually in the ruck, while the rest of the team stood around with their thumbs up their butts watching the ball get turned over. Ross Cronje played well enough, but he sure as sugar hasn't got his forwards to thank for that. It was in spite of those softcocks.

[cashead]

Brodie Retallick will miss the final test of the competition against South Africa due to quite possibly the worst circumstances - the premature death of his baby boy.

[Doorzetbornandbred]

Brodie Retallick will miss the final test of the competition against South Africa due to quite possibly the worst circumstances - the premature death of his baby boy.

That is bloody awful news. Very sad.

[rowan]

Hopefully there will be an upset in the final round this weekend. Both games have that potential, I believe. Saffas at home in a dead rubber against the All Blacks, Pumas looking for a first win against the Wallabies - also with home advantage. I'll take either one of them, but both would be better . . .

[scuzzaman]

I dunno. Look at the table for the RC; it's the All Blacks and an enormous gap to second and third place, and another gap to fourth.

Martin Johnson can crack all he likes about teams that rank 1st for years on end but don't win world cups (to be fair to him he said that before 2011), but the rankings tables has the same pattern: New Zealand at the top and the biggest gap in the table is between first and second. Been that way for ... always.

But coming back to this year's RC, this New Zealand side is massively depleted from the 2015 RWC side. And it is still humiliating the rest of the southern hemisphere.

Basically, today, England are the only real hope for the global game. God knows I don't want to lose to those expletives, but let's at least hope they put up a good fight.

[cashead]

Hopefully there will be an upset in the final round this weekend. Both games have that potential, I believe. Saffas at home in a dead rubber against the All Blacks, Pumas looking for a first win against the Wallabies - also with home advantage. I'll take either one of them, but both would be better . . .

Didn’t you say that the Argies just might beat the All Blacks?

[rowan]

I retracted that well before the game after seeing their team and watching a bit of footage. Unfortunately wins are going to be fewer and farther between than ever for the Pumas so long as they continue to ignore their offshore players. But there's an outside chance they could catch Aussie on the hop. That's not a prediction; just a bit of wishful thinking. Ditto Boks v NZ.

[Lizard]

Hopefully there will be an upset in the final round this weekend. Both games have that potential, I believe. Saffas at home in a dead rubber against the All Blacks, Pumas looking for a first win against the Wallabies - also with home advantage. I'll take either one of them, but both would be better . . .

Pumas looking for a first win against the Wallabies? They’ve beaten them 5 times already.

Or did you mean a first win in this year’s tournament and it just happening to be v Aust?

[rowan]

Hopefully there will be an upset in the final round this weekend. Both games have that potential, I believe. Saffas at home in a dead rubber against the All Blacks, Pumas looking for a first win against the Wallabies - also with home advantage. I'll take either one of them, but both would be better . . .

Pumas looking for a first win against the Wallabies? They’ve beaten them 5 times already.

Or did you mean a first win in this year’s tournament and it just happening to be v Aust?

Yeh, first win in the tournament, obviously. But the Aussies have been surprisingly decent this year (surprising given the Super Rugby results), and I'm not about to go out and place a bet on the upset or anything. Meanwhile, I see a fired up Boks leading the All Blacks for at least part of the game but ultimately wilting in the final quarter for yet another loss which will nonetheless be lauded as a vast improvement on Albany.

[rowan]

Hopefully there will be an upset in the final round this weekend. Both games have that potential, I believe. Saffas at home in a dead rubber against the All Blacks, Pumas looking for a first win against the Wallabies - also with home advantage. I'll take either one of them, but both would be better . . .

Pumas looking for a first win against the Wallabies? They’ve beaten them 5 times already.

Or did you mean a first win in this year’s tournament and it just happening to be v Aust?

Yeh, first win in the tournament, obviously. But the Aussies have been surprisingly decent this year (surprising given the Super Rugby results), and I'm not about to go out and place a bet on the upset or anything. Meanwhile, I see a fired up Boks leading the All Blacks for at least part of the game but ultimately wilting in the final quarter for yet another loss which will nonetheless be lauded as a vast improvement on Albany.

Well . . . there's still a chance the Pumas will provide that elusive upset

[Lizard]

The UAR be petitioning World Rugby to reduce tests to 60 minutes.