All Blacks vs Springboks at Twickenham: It's just a warm-up but if we lose, it's a catastrophe

[canta_brian]

Last 10 mins were all NZ

[morepork]

My are is sore and I have the taste of chloroform and braai in my mouth. In two weeks my are will be sore and my mouth will taste of chloroform garlic and butter. We are so fucked. The template has been advertised to ze whole vorld.

[Cameo]

My are is sore and I have the taste of chloroform and braai in my mouth. In two weeks my are will be sore and my mouth will taste of chloroform garlic and butter. We are so fucked. The template has been advertised to ze whole vorld.

"Big pack with initiative makes it easier to win" isn't exactly breaking news, dude.


Honestly, I'm not particularly broken up about it. It is what it is, basically. Even taking into account the team lacking match fitness (which they clearly were - it happens, no amount of training can really help, TBH) and not really adapting to South Africa's fast start, it also looked plenty like the main priorities were: avoid getting injured if possible, try out some shit that we've been working on with Joe, and not reveal too much. At the end of the day, it's a meaningless fixture purely there for commercial purposes, for a meaningless trophy. Like "Oh noooo, South Africa have the oh so prestigious Qatar Cup or whatever the hell it was called." Might as well treat it like a trial run for things they've been working on.

I'm somewhere in the middle. There were a few signs of them not showing their full colours. E.g. the series of mails early on, in the WC I can't imagine them not trying something different after a while like throwing someone up, but this was a great chance to practice that maul defence and it was actually pretty good. Same with some of the attack structure. Otherwise though, I think there will be some real worries about dealing with physicality.

[paddy no 11]

Hasn't frizell been the main physicality guy this year, with him and Barrett gone and down to 14 its hardly surprising. Plus when your captain and 7 is a brain donor it doesn't help

[paddy no 11]

Is retallick out?

[morepork]

Hey Hey...Fiji quite well on top here.

[morepork]

Done. Makes me feel a little less disconsolate about yesterday to see Fiji arrive on the scene as a genuine threat to tier one teams. Just brilliant.

[Banquo]

Done. Makes me feel a little less disconsolate about yesterday to see Fiji arrive on the scene as a genuine threat to tier one teams. Just brilliant.

mate....they were playing England before you celebrate too much. We are not tier 1 as we speak.

[morepork]

Now Samoa...Pasifika represent baby.

[morepork]

Fasi balasi doing the damage.

[morepork]

Fuck.

[morepork]

Platitudes for PI teams are just getting old.