3 week suspension? lol what in the actual ****.  This sport is so broken as to be anger inducing now. Pathetic.

Kopkiwi:

 

3 week suspension? lol what in the actual ****.  This sport is so broken as to be anger inducing now. Pathetic.

 

Yeah, I am struggling to understand that too. 

networkn:

 

Kopkiwi:

 

3 week suspension? lol what in the actual ****.  This sport is so broken as to be anger inducing now. Pathetic.

 

 

Yeah, I am struggling to understand that too. 

 

Let me make it a lot easier for everyone here:

Chaired by Wang Shao-Ing (Singapore), and joined by former player Leon Lloyd (England) and former coach Frank Hadden (Scotland), they deemed it merited a mid-range entry point of six weeks.

Not one SH person of origin on the hearing panel.

Handle9:

 

A change in strategy to commit to an effective kick-chase game, modern attacking shape focussed on go forward rather than go wide and commitment to play in the right areas of the field. Instead we continue to play wide-wide 1 3 3 1 without players in motion or go forward ball. It's been worked out and the rest of the world knows how to beat it consistently.

 

There was the opportunity to move on from a number of older players as the primary starters was there but instead more of the same was the formula. Coles, Whitelock, Retalick, Moody etc can't stay on the field. Now we don't know who our best team is and don't have time to change it.

 

 

 

Given the tantrums by NZ fans every time we lose, I can sort of understand the reluctance to give up on proven performers, as likely in the short to medium term, our win-loss ratio would take a hammering (Worse than now). To be fair players like Coles and Moody haven't really featured in the past few years anyway, so we have had new players in those positions for most of the time they would have likely anyways. Retallick spent a year overseas, so we have had people playing for him. Whitelock has been there the whole time, but to the fair you'd usually pair inexperience with experience, so he or Rettalick would have featured regardless, anyway, right?

We have introduced a number of new players, but very few have really put their hand up the way the previous generation of players did. We see some good performances from them, but hardly consistently. 

A year ago or so we were poor under the high ball, I think that has been addressed, however, our tactical kicking is really poor at the moment. It's a relatively easy fix, it just needs some direction and focus.  Fixing kick-chase is also relatively straightforward to fix. 

GV27:

 

Not one SH person of origin on the hearing panel.

 

Well, not sure the role of the Chair, but Singapore is in the Southern Hemisphere. 

networkn:

 

Well, not sure the role of the Chair, but Singapore is in the Southern Hemisphere. 

 

I knew I should have double-checked that.

Having said that though, I'm still quite surprised that a NH team can play a SH tour and have 2/3 Home Union representatives on a series judiciary.

Worth noting the Australian player who head-butted an English player only got two weeks - it was three, but they decided the sanction of three weeks did not match the offense.

Going to have to be squeaky-clean next RWC as I suspect we'll face similar judiciary issues.

The MAB-Ireland game was a great watch. 

I felt the MAB made far too many handling errors, though both teams were rampantly guilty of it initially.

It was quite a different Irish performance, and for most of the game, they looked in control. Great heads-up play on the sideline by Ireland to score that try under the posts, it's such a Kiwi move :) 

Overall I suspect the MAB will be disappointed to have had so many errors, it almost certainly cost them the game.

There were some great tries scored by both teams. 

I will say though, that Ireland were off-side about 75% of the time in defense. Pinged possibly 2-3 times.

Weber had his best game in a year I think. His passing was great, I haven't seen it so quick for a long time.  Grace was pretty strong as well, I wonder where he is in the pecking order of loose forwards considered for the AB's? I don't really Ioane has helped himself to be in contention for higher honours. 

Whilst I think it was an arm wrestle, I think the final score probably flattered the MAB a little bit. Perhaps without that last try (good as it was) it might have more accurately reflected the way the game played out?

networkn:

Kopkiwi:

3 week suspension? lol what in the actual ****.  This sport is so broken as to be anger inducing now. Pathetic.

Yeah, I am struggling to understand that too. 

 

Handle9:

 

You thought it should be more?

You're a funny guy. 

networkn:

Handle9:

You thought it should be more?

You're a funny guy. 

 

Handle9:

Then why is it so hard to understand? It’s a mid-range offence which is a 6 week suspension with a 50% discount due to previous good record. It’s pretty simple and consistent.

It was an accidental collision. Swains *headbutt* got 2 weeks. 

It's neither consistent or simple. Above all, it's far from common sense. 

networkn:

Handle9:

Then why is it so hard to understand? It’s a mid-range offence which is a 6 week suspension with a 50% discount due to previous good record. It’s pretty simple and consistent.

It was an accidental collision. Swains *headbutt* got 2 weeks. 

It's neither consistent or simple. Above all, it's far from common sense. 

Handle9:

Have you bothered to read the suspension guidelines? Swains offence was low end, which has an entry point of 4 weeks. He got a similar discount to Ta’avao.

I’ve been consistent that the way head contact is officiated is stupid but Ta’avao got the suspension that he should have gotten as did Swain.

There is something wrong when an accidental and pretty much unavoidable collision gets more punishment than an intentional act of foul play. 

Handle9:

 

Have you bothered to read the suspension guidelines? Swains offence was low end, which has an entry point of 4 weeks. He got a similar discount to Ta’avao.

Uh, have you? 

"The committee deemed the act of foul play merited a low-end entry point of six weeks given the provocation before the incident, low degree of force exerted by the player and that no injury was caused to the victim. This resulted in a starting point of a six-week suspension," World Rugby said in a statement.

Yet also:

"The committee further determined that given the above off-field mitigating factors and that a three-week sanction would be wholly disproportionate given the level and nature of the offence, the sanction was further reduced by an extra week, resulting in a sanction to weeks.

Intentionally head-butting someone is less of an offence than being stood up by a back changing direction.