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Slightly more palatable: Auckland Angus Ta'avao Ofa Tu'ungafas Patrick Tuipulotu Rieko Ioane Bay of Plenty Sam Cane Canterbury Codie Taylor Joe Moody Sam Whitelock Matt Todd Richie Mo'unga Ryan Crotty George Bridge Counties Manakau Nepo Laulala Kieran Read Sonny Bill Williams Hawkes Bay...

Does anyone know of an easy way to find the NPC teams of the current All Blacks? I thought there'd be a list somewhere but i haven't been able to find it easily. Also New Zealanders that were playing in Japan until the season got cancelled, and any others that are currently overseas and would...

1. Joe Moody (41) 2. Dane Coles (64) 3. Nepo Laulala (20) 4. Samuel Whitelock (112) 5. Scott Barrett (32) 6. Ardie Savea (34) 7. Sam Cane (63) 8. Kieran Read - captain (122) 9. Aaron Smith (87) 10. Richie Mo’unga (12) 11. George Bridge (5) 12. Ryan Crotty (45) 13. Anton Lienert-Brown...

Akira Ioane?? A sloth would have a better workrate. Seriously, that guy has got where he is on natural talent and nothing else. He's an incredible athlete, don't get me wrong, but the way he plays the game he's only using a fraction of that potential. Haven't seen any of him in NPC yet so...

They've said they talked about doing the drop goal, but saw space to the right so made the decision to go there instead. Your argument that we wouldn't be talking about it if they'd taken that option is a moot point, because nor would we be talking about it if they'd scored that try.

Yep, I did believe Hansen went for the best players he had available, based on form for the most part. Injury will pretty much always prevent selecting the perfect 23 mind you. Also.... My views are mine alone and are not representative of the wider New Zealand rugby community o_O:p

I'd always prefer we go for the try rather than the DG. If you screw up your one chance at banging the droppie over, that's it, you're done, game over. If you don't score a try in one phase of play, you've got a 95% (roughly) chance of getting the pill back, and you can try again. Hence, for a...

I just wonder whether Hansen has decided it'd knock too much confidence out of Barrett to take the tee off him. Sounds like a stupid little thing that shouldn't matter to you professional sportsman, but first fives are fragile beasts It would've been the easy option to go to McKenzie when...

Becaus Because we didn't kick anything else where it should be kicked all night..... How would we suddenly pull an accurate droppy out of a hat?

Swearity swear swear. Don't know why it feels so much worse when the AB's drop one....

Brilliantly informative, clearly set out explanation. Thanks Brigantine.

Any word on what province he'll be playing for at npc level?

I just want to see him and Laumape run into each other at full speed

I may or may not be part of the setup irl :p

Good good, Hansen rolling out the best 23, although I wouldn't be surprised to see SBW scratched if he can't train today. Jordie vs Waisake debate still there. I wouldn't be against putting Naholo on the bench if SBW can't play - we already have Ioane, J Barrett and B Smith that can cover...

No one jumps into a tackle. In almost every case they're jumping to try and evade the tackle. The only real reason jumping is any more dangerous than any other way of entering a tackle is that there is more potential for the player to land past the horizontal, which is covered in another rule...

Everything else I've found on it suggest that there is no specific rule around jumping into tackles. Referees seem to interpret it as they see it, and bring it under the general dangerous play rules. Which opens a whole new can of worms, because if the player does something that's only...

Good to see the shield change hands again - now for the magpies to have a crack at it. Hawkes Bay have seemed to regularly challenge for the shield in the last few years, while other sides don't get to look in. Not that I'm complaining :D

This is NPC - players are always coming up with creative half cooked ideas on the edge of the law. It's the referees job to call them on it if they're not lawful, thus anything out of the ordinary should be scrutinised even more. I reckon he just didn't think it was illegal.

Vaea Fifita hurdled Piers Francis a couple of years ago for Counties Manakau with no repercussions. It was a clean jump straight over as Francis was crouched to make the tackle. If he'd stood up he would've taken a boot to the face, but it's not like there's any comfortable ways to tackle Fifita...