Posts by Simon Poole
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Dude, you're going to be awesome. I'm not sure the girls will like Bullet Surprise as much as Keith Quim, however...
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The Herald, in all it's wisdom, has allowed a "your views" thread on the topic.
Surprisingly, it's mostly pretty mild... for now. However, there is one gem:
Telsh@r (United States of America)
0 minutes ago
Sorry but if she kept the medal it would only serve to justify cheating in the future. Three times the amount of testoserone then a 'normal woman' means her body naturally hormone dopes all the time.Leaving sexism comments aside the hormone differences are the reason why men don't race against women. What's the point of seperation in races if it isn't based on the groups hormone levels and biochemistry.
It has nothing to do with it being the 'correct genitalia' and everything to do with the hormones made by those genitalia. If she keeps the gold what's to stop someone from having testies sown into there body for an advantage
*headdesk*
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Graeme - fair enough, but your headline is a lot more sensationalist than mine so you get bonus points there.
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Semenya a hermaphrodite, screams the Herald.
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Cheers Paul, it sounds like we're working the same line of argument here.
Yamis: Accepting a draft system is just acknowledgement that the players in the top 5 teams will play twice as much rugby as the players in the other ANZC teams. As Paul said, and as Naly has pointed out just above, you can't get picked for the AB's when 1) You play half as much rugby as the rest of the contenders and 2) The international window starts before the ANZC.
Unless you plan on picking players for the AB's from ANZC teams based on 6-month old form over players that you have seen performing in the S15 more recently, then every AB that doesn't make the S15 might make the November tour, but there's no way they'd be picked for the June internationals having not played Rugby for 6 months.. That's not the way to build a consistently good national squad - which is actually the aim, I thought. A small draft fixes this.
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Forget the draft Simon.
You don't reward unsuccessful players in unsuccessful teams. You take the teams that qualified and go with them.
Sounds good, but wouldn't work. You need to reward the good players in developing teams and give them further opportunities to develop - and then send them back to those teams for the ANZC to help improve their fortunes.
Would Hawkes Bay ever have gotten to the point they're at if their players had been barred from S14 selection unless they finished top 5? Same goes for BoP, plus can you really deny players like Aaron Cruden a slot because Manawatu are going to struggle to finish in the top half of the competition?
Lack of a draft would just encourage massive player transfers to the top provinces, and impoverish the rest - exactly the scenario we're trying to avoid.
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Well, Glenn Moore's been in control of the Highlanders for two seasons and has beaten Canterbury twice. Colin Cooper and Ian Foster are yet to achieve that in their whole career.
I call bullshit. The Chiefs beat the Crusaders twice on the trot in 07 and 08.
2007: Chiefs 30-24 at Christchurch
2008: Chiefs 18-5 at Hamilton
Half-way down the pageIn '07 it made the Crusaders fly to SA to play the Bulls in the final where they lost.
In '08 it was the Crusaders first loss in 10 rounds - their only other loss on the way to the title was to the Highlanders in the final round.The Hurricanes haven't beaten the Crusaders since 2004.
Otherwise, point taken.
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take the top 5 and play a shortish champions league style comp with the top Aussie and Currie Cup teams.
This is an idea I've toyed with a bit before. As our players are centrally contracted to the NZRU I don't see why it would be so difficult for the five top teams to retain the bulk of their squads and run a draft from the remaining 3-5 teams to pad out their numbers for the "super 15" or whatever they'd want to call it.
Unions could put players on a bonus-based contract where they have an average base-rate salary, which gets a hefty top-up if they make the top 5 (Increased gate-takings etc providing the revenue, but also not leaving the unions out of pocket if they don't make it). Drafted players also get a decent top-up to their pay-packet.
We would have to re-work the jersey deal with Adidas, as ideally the unions would keep their own strip. Staff could also be picked up on events-based contracts. The marketers in Hawkes Bay must do something to keep themselves busy over summer, I'm sure they could manage it in Hamilton.
Get two distinct playing windows (Run the ANZC during the Currie Cup) and everyone wins, surely? And a whole lot more interest in the ANZC if your team has A) a shot at playing the best from Aussie/SA or B) a shot at playing Wairarapa Bush for promotion next season.
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That'll learn me for not double-checking my tags too. Or previewing for that matter.
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[quote]In an unintentional way Jones almost makes a good point.
I agree that a neutral observer would say that The Lions played the most enterprising rugby on show this year.
But, with the current rules, that’s not winning rugby.
[/quote]What gets me is that the AB's win like the English team did in the early part of the decade (Which Jones still wanks on about occasionally), and he has a go at them for it. The Lions lose trying to play like the AB's did in 2003, and he praises them for it.
Someone remind me, was he so fond of the AB's style of rugby in 2003?