Well I thought this was about the All Blacks and the Waratahs, so I guess that's my answer.
Just thinking about how oddly the media can pit one sport against another, there was a bizarre story in 2023 asking what the All Blacks could learn from the Warriors about being successful. The All Blacks had just been denied a World Cup title after some highly questionable officiating, while the Warriors had been comprehensively beaten in the NRL semi-finals. It was a very strange comparison to make.
@Kirwan said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
Well I thought this was about the All Blacks and the Waratahs, so I guess that's my answer.
Who'd you decide on?
@reprobate said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
I have zero interest in league.
Let alone union, I'm more likely to watch about half a dozen other sports before it.
The fuck you doing on a rugby website?
Edit:
@reprobate read your subsequent posts. Sorry
I'm quite oblivious to the whole union vs league stuff, I'm not sure why anyone would get worked up about it, I'll put both on but watch the ABs more closely as that is a more important game overall. Union has a much stronger international game which probably makes it a bit more meaningful, and why the Wallabies will always pull a crowd despite all their failings, but the NRL is a fantastic competition though so I can see why it's so popular in Aus. Also I would fucking love the Wahs to actually win the bloody thing - that would be right up there with a RWC win in my books given how tough the competition is.
Something has gone seriously wrong when our so-called national team has been dragged down to comparison with a club who play against teams named after cities/suburbs of Australia.
For what it's worth, I've watched two league games in the last decade, and don't plan on watching it at any point in the near future.
I have no real interest inthe NRL, hope the Wahs do well, but it makes zero difference to me. As others have stated the death-riding of rugby by some terminally online league fans is plain weird, actually really effing weird. Nonetheless just like the sport itself I pretty much ignore the Wahs. So the rugby for me.
Watch the Wahs every week. Watch the ABs every test. Not going to be any different this weekend.
Well as I haven't watched Wahs/NRL in well over 30 years, and I always watch rugby and tests , guess I will watch the test.
I not against League or anything, I just don't watch it. I haven't watched any WC soccer either, not because I got anything against it, just no real interest.
Might watch a couple of games of League a year, haven't missed an All Blacks test since the 1990s, keep the faith!
@zedsdeadbaby said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
a glorified Sydney suburban league comp
now worth about a billion $NZ per year
but wahs v St george . . . yeah/nah
probably why none of the parties involved were bothered about the clash
@mohikamo said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
now worth about a billion $NZ per year
What isn't?
@Dan54 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
Well as I haven't watched Wahs/NRL in well over 30 years, and I always watch rugby and tests , guess I will watch the test.
I not against League or anything, I just don't watch it. I haven't watched any WC soccer either, not because I got anything against it, just no real interest.
What the fuck could you possibly have against an entire sport Dan? Just a redundant comment.
I'll have both on, with more focus on the ABs hopefully just stuffing the Irish, God I hate them. I hate the whole country. Stupid whiney accent. Guinness is shit. Inferior whisky. Zombies is a shit song.
I'll have the wahs on a 2nd screen to make sure we don't fuck up against an ordinary side.
@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@Dan54 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
Well as I haven't watched Wahs/NRL in well over 30 years, and I always watch rugby and tests , guess I will watch the test.
I not against League or anything, I just don't watch it. I haven't watched any WC soccer either, not because I got anything against it, just no real interest.What the fuck could you possibly have against an entire sport Dan? Just a redundant comment.
I'll have both on, with more focus on the ABs hopefully just stuffing the Irish, God I hate them. I hate the whole country. Stupid whiney accent. Guinness is shit. Inferior whisky. Zombies is a shit song.
I'll have the wahs on a 2nd screen to make sure we don't fuck up against an ordinary side.
Ordinary is being kind to the Dragons.
@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@Dan54 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
Well as I haven't watched Wahs/NRL in well over 30 years, and I always watch rugby and tests , guess I will watch the test.
I not against League or anything, I just don't watch it. I haven't watched any WC soccer either, not because I got anything against it, just no real interest.What the fuck could you possibly have against an entire sport Dan? Just a redundant comment.
I'll have both on, with more focus on the ABs hopefully just stuffing the Irish, God I hate them. I hate the whole country. Stupid whiney accent. Guinness is shit. Inferior whisky. Zombies is a shit song.
I'll have the wahs on a 2nd screen to make sure we don't fuck up against an ordinary side.
Wahs on delay for me. I don't like to multitask my sport, it's hard enough watching and posting on TSF in real time!
@Crazy-Horse said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
I am betting @chris-b will be setting up his VHR for Saturday so he doesn't miss a thing.
I can't - because that effing @Tim, never told me how to set the whole thing up. 
But, to be fair, many years ago I decided I hate losing more than I like winning - so I rationalized the teams I support.
At that point, supporting Nelson Bays and the Black Caps were as much as I could stomach.
The Warriors have been largely been relegated off the radar - I watch their results from afar.
If they make the play-offs, I'll watch them in the same spirit as I watched England in the football World Cup.
To paraphrase The Exponents, "Zero Hopes, Zero Expectations" .
Watching ABs exclusively tonight.
@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@Dan54 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
Well as I haven't watched Wahs/NRL in well over 30 years, and I always watch rugby and tests , guess I will watch the test.
I not against League or anything, I just don't watch it. I haven't watched any WC soccer either, not because I got anything against it, just no real interest.What the fuck could you possibly have against an entire sport Dan? Just a redundant comment.
I'll have both on, with more focus on the ABs hopefully just stuffing the Irish, God I hate them. I hate the whole country. Stupid whiney accent. Guinness is shit. Inferior whisky. Zombies is a shit song.
I'll have the wahs on a 2nd screen to make sure we don't fuck up against an ordinary side.
I have nothing against entire sport, maybe why I said I not against it? Is that hard to understand? Or did you read something I didn't write? It's just not a sport that interests me, I actually went to a SOO when I first moved to Aus, been to a test before that and a couple local club games, and they did nothing for me. Same as soccer, hockey etc I have try to watch a couple of games, doesn't do it for me. I also don't get into horse racing, show jumping etc etc. You may like every sport. I don't .
Pleased they there for people that like them, and good on them .
Pleased to see that the Warriors won.
@booboo said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
How was the crowd at the Warriors? Should they have mived the kick off?
It was sold out a while ago.
A Warriors sellout though, which means lots of empty seats on the broadcast.
23,895 at Go Media 96% of capacity according to Ausstadiums.
Can't find figures for the All Blacks. Will surely be less.
@Steven-Harris said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@cgrant are you sure Rugby is 3rd ?
I would suspect cricket world cups ,motor racing ,MMA possibly the big golf tournaments would trump rugbyRe last nights game i suspect the sky figures will tell you Last nights rugby I reckon out did the Nz Warriors game by 5-1 ratio
You’d be surprised at the RWC numbers. The last one was huge - over 1.3 billion apparently. Slightly more than the cricket World Cup. The F1 has more over the course of the season, but that format isn’t comparable to an event like an Olympics or World Cup.
@booboo said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
23,895 at Go Media 96% of capacity according to Ausstadiums.
Can't find figures for the All Blacks. Will surely be less.
48,153
@booboo said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
23,895 at Go Media 96% of capacity according to Ausstadiums.
Can't find figures for the All Blacks. Will surely be less.
Considering it was a sell out, it was always going to be more. And the test match tickets were a lot more expensive than the Wahs, one guy I know sat right up top and still paid over $200 a ticket
@Steven-Harris said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@cgrant are you sure Rugby is 3rd ?
I would suspect cricket world cups ,motor racing ,MMA possibly the big golf tournaments would trump rugbyRe last nights game i suspect the sky figures will tell you Last nights rugby I reckon out did the Nz Warriors game by 5-1 ratio
There were some really silly figures from WR previously which were laughable, but the media growth has been huge in the last 10 years or so and it's now certainly in the top 3 or 4
@canefan said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@booboo said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
23,895 at Go Media 96% of capacity according to Ausstadiums.
Can't find figures for the All Blacks. Will surely be less.
Considering it was a sell out, it was always going to be more. And the test match tickets were a lot more expensive than the Wahs, one guy I know sat right up top and still paid over $200 a ticket
Think i should have used an Irony emoji.
@akan004 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
As union fans, it's not in our best interest for league and the Wahs to do well. They're already a threat to rugby, and this new TV deal means their clubs will raid our junior ranks even more than they do now. I might be in the minority, but I hope the Wahs start losing.
They don't raid our junior ranks as much as the media tells you, or at least the players don't choose to go as much as the media tells you. The media hangs on to stories of the Warriors junior teams stealing from rugby, and they're mostly just league kids at rugby schools because our schools are all league schools. Or they hype a guy who can't get a start for Ta$man as the best young rugby player in NZ gone to league.
I don't like soccer, lots of kids play soccer in NZ, but I still want our soccer teams to do well.
@akan004 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
As union fans, it's not in our best interest for league and the Wahs to do well. They're already a threat to rugby, and this new TV deal means their clubs will raid our junior ranks even more than they do now. I might be in the minority, but I hope the Wahs start losing.
what?? i hope the Wahs go on a Penrith-like run and win 5 comps in a row.
It'll make fuck all difference to NZ rugby and lots of kiwis will be deliriously happy.
@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@akan004 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
As union fans, it's not in our best interest for league and the Wahs to do well. They're already a threat to rugby, and this new TV deal means their clubs will raid our junior ranks even more than they do now. I might be in the minority, but I hope the Wahs start losing.
what?? i hope the Wahs go on a Penrith-like run and win 5 comps in a row.
It'll make fuck all difference to NZ rugby and lots of kiwis will be deliriously happy.
As insufferable as the media will be if this happens I too want this - I also want it combined with the same for the Magpies in the NPC and the ABs in the next two RWC's.
My dickey hard couldn't take that much excitement so not sure I should be too hopeful.
@Nepia said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@mariner4life said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
@akan004 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
As union fans, it's not in our best interest for league and the Wahs to do well. They're already a threat to rugby, and this new TV deal means their clubs will raid our junior ranks even more than they do now. I might be in the minority, but I hope the Wahs start losing.
what?? i hope the Wahs go on a Penrith-like run and win 5 comps in a row.
It'll make fuck all difference to NZ rugby and lots of kiwis will be deliriously happy.
As insufferable as the media will be if this happens I too want this - I also want it combined with the same for the Magpies in the NPC and the ABs in the next two RWC's.
My dickey hard couldn't take that much excitement so not sure I should be too hopeful.
This is a first-rate typo.
@akan004 said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
As union fans, it's not in our best interest for league and the Wahs to do well. They're already a threat to rugby, and this new TV deal means their clubs will raid our junior ranks even more than they do now. I might be in the minority, but I hope the Wahs start losing.
I hope the Wahs do well because I’ve been a long suffering fan since they started.
As a rugby fan, the way I see it is that some public pressure (not the OTT talking head hot takes) when the Wahs are doing well can be a good thing to keep rugby administrators and organisations on their toes, to keep them evolving in how the game is governed etc. If league or basketball or soccer success can influence that, then that’s a good thing for rugby.
I think it is the likes of B-ball that is a bigger threat, well along with kids playing no sport at all.
I mentioned elsewhere, there are not alot of.tall players running around Northland club rugby, but i do know alot of kids play B-ball and there seems.good development programmes, with tournaments and kids going on trips overseas (parents doing alot of fundraising)
@taniwharugby said in All Blacks vs Wahs - what are you watching?:
I think it is the likes of B-ball that is a bigger threat, well along with kids playing no sport at all.
I mentioned elsewhere, there are not alot of.tall players running around Northland club rugby, but i do know alot of kids play B-ball and there seems.good development programmes, with tournaments and kids going on trips overseas (parents doing alot of fundraising)
Basketball is massively advantaged by the fact it requires fewer numbers per team and can be played as an after school activity rather than on the weekend, and at a casual level, really doesn't require any extra training etc. I'm sure parents must love it.