Thing is though the anti-pedestrians care not a dot. My favourite local example is the one tiny bit of the Hastings CBD that has been cut off from cars between Market St & Russell St:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/39°38'29.2"S+176°50'33.9"E/@-39.641439,176.8420221,439m/
Its been closed to cars for ages; but even though there's apparently not been any accidents from the way the rail travels through that park because the track is not blocked off it needs redevelopment to add a fence protecting people from trains.
And as soon as that was mooted some of the retailers in that one little block, despite being surrounded by parking every other side but that 75m stretch of Heretaunga St, started campaigning to allow cars back down it again. Because apparently having full blown parking lots 50m away from them its the lack of cars outside their door that's impacted their trading (not global trading down turns, cost of living crises and covid pandemics).
If anything the parking behind the retail sections of Hastings is way better than the street parking anyway, there's more spaces for differently abled people, and its way easier to get in & out of the masses of actual parking lots. If you travel further east along Heretaunga St there's a section from Russell St to Hastings St that could also easily be pedestrianised too.
Its got loads of hospitality outlets, a fair bit of retail and crucially - is surrounded with car parking. Particularly in summer in the height of the fun seasons it would be a wonderful place to allow more al fresco dining and entertaining and events* but the naysayers will never let it happen.
*They run a few night festivals through summer with temporary road closures and they are very well attended.
Its double destruction, trash the environment, and throw away a bunch of capital on dead assets.
Lots of the various provider's networks have central routing in Akl, Wgn & (sometimes) Chc. So everything lower north island hauling back to Courtney Place doesn't surprise me. For a fault like this one to impact i'd guess that either some redundancy had already been lost prior to this failure, or for some other reason it didn't failover in a predictable & non-impacting way. It happens.
AEW is also a smaller pond, albeit one with lots of fishes kicking their heels with not much to do, but its still easier to stand out when you get the opportunities.
She was definitely a good prospect, but was also very unproven, even with her AEW stint her career is very short so far.
It would make sense in the long run but a cost of billions would cover doing something rad like making a new line running something north though Linwood, Wainoni, North New Brighton, Marshland before joining back up around Belfast. A lot of that isn't as unfeasible as it once was due to the emptying out from the earthquake near where it would need to link through.
I found an old article I read ages ago that talks more about the network:
https://talkingtransport.com/2018/11/22/flashback-when-christchurch-had-commuter-trains/
It looks like more of the paltforms have been removed than i'd hoped, but as I say they're not particularly complicated bits of engineering if you have the land.
Why do you think this would be billions? The track is already there, though probably not enough is double tracked so over time that would have to be done, but the proposal is really just reinstating the passenger network that was slowly downgraded & then eventually cancelled from the early 50s to the mid 70s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Christchurch
There were a lot of stations, and i'd wager most of these the land & surrounds are still in Kiwirail's ownership, they may only be platforms now or not even that but looking at satellite imagery some still exist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christchurch_railway_stations
Christchurch's rail network is probably more extensive than people think, because it is where the Main North & Main South lines join and the latter goes all the way through to Lyttleton. Its almost exclusively freight of course but the rails are all still there & are still being used.
So you're looking at a new operational company to setup, some DE units, staff and then access rights to coordinate with freight & the other passenger services and building platforms; the latter don't need to be fancy - most of Wellington's are just concrete at the level of the carriage and a couple of shelters.
Its the same reason its not ludicrous to suggest passenger rail in Hawkes Bay as well - even though there hasn't been passenger trains for a couple of decades most of the old stuff is still there in some form - and most importantly is still part of the rail corridor. You just need car parking, bike racks and some larger-than-bus shelters and then figure out a vehicle type you can run frequently enough with low enough staff costs.
External costs to the general populace while all the benefits are internalised? Almost like all the dairy farming coops reaming us on butter while shitting & pissing in our rivers so much you can't swim without getting a rash.
Just a completely moronic take. Someone should explain to Jones that Tourism is worth nearly 5x to NZ GDP than mining is. Just like chicken farmers who did the bare minimum then got burnt when supermarket customers didn't want their shitty eggs anymore if we trash our environmental reputation we might find that mining grows at the expense of tourism.
Yeah I think i'll put Parliament TV on at 2pm today to see how it goes.
Unfortunately I can see Labour being gutless and not wanting to antagonise the racists by standing up against the overreach here. Hipkins has already hinted at it by saying he thinks the focus should be on debating pay equity & the budget.
In an unsurprising, but significant slip of the mask towards authoritarianism - Seymour's been arguing in the media that the punishment should be 90 days.
We are now on the slippery slope where the party with a majority in Parliament can suspend their opposition whenever they want on a slim majority - ala Fiji.
The misinformation was in a segment on RNZ I think, not an official proceeding.
He's got a very high pitched whistle, and he's been subtly blowing it throughout his leadership of National.
In this case the Speaker is actually pushing back against the committee's recommendations. There's a really good write up from RNZ here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/561329/the-house-parliamentary-privileges-race-as-an-aggravating-factor
Its hard to say, typically takes a wee while for Kiwis to admit the mistake, or experience the buyers remorse of a National government. Plus with the trend amongst western liberal democracy towards authoritarianism, the massive funding gap between the two major parties and the inevitable disinformation shitstorm ramping up even more around election time on Facebook where seemingly so many morons learn about the world its very much a 50/50 even if this lot get even more unpopular.
Its been interesting reading some of the blow-back Vance took for her language. Willis herself was not happy with the "c word" being used, nor the depiction of her "girl-maths" as a derogatory assessment of her abilities as a finance minister.
Setting aside the language used, the intent of the assessment rings true to someone who knew of Willis when she was at University (and knows people who knew her well). She wasn't a deep thinker then, and got ahead on connection and socialising with the right people more than anything else as far as we could see.
Nobody I know from back then has seen anything since that would change their opinion either. It seems pretty obvious to me that she's in a position of decision making far in excess of her ability to reason and understand what she is doing, or the long term implications of it.
But like most of her prior "work" experience she's ballooned in on the recommendation of well connected others, and mostly because she can be relied upon to unleash the magical thinking of the Atlas aligned fundamentalists.
Yes, and! From me on that.* There are a lot of perhaps temporary voters who swung away from Labour as part of the hangover from the Covid times. But there's also a large voting block made up predominantly of white, male, historically middle-class folks who have also swung right.
When i've engaged with them they tend to be rabidly anti-green; quite chauvinist and have a simmering racist resentment as they experience their once privileged position being eroded away. They work fairly hard, but due to high house prices and cost of goods in general are finding that they can't get ahead in life like their parents did.
They have legitimate complaints but as is often the case are easily led to blaming the folks suffering even worse than they for their problems rather than the dominant agenda's since the 80s that are the real problem.
*For the most part anyway, a lot of my parents generation are old fashioned Nats mostly because I come from a farming background.
I suspect it was thrown out to distract from the (removal of) pay equity bill being rushed through in 24 hours and the Regulatory Standards Bill with 0.3% of support from select committee submitters being rammed through as well.
This is one of the most deeply undemocratic NZ governments of recent time, but given Act are in it, and Willis et al are Atlas network aligned neo-liberal fundamentalists that's no surprise as that's the whole point of neo-liberalism.
And Groundswill
Yeah, I am one of those who has been confused by legal tender & payment options.
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/education/explainers/what-is-legal-tender
So it seems like that's only a thing if its paying a debt. So as long as retailers, and/or anybody else flags clearly in advance that they don't take cash they can refuse it.
But each transaction is still significantly more expensive in processor (and thus electricity) and slower than a normal database is right? Don't get me wrong alternatives to VISA & MasterCard are more than welcome, I just don't think crypto is it.
So all teams have played now, and the early signs are that this season is going to be an absolute belter.
Of the 10 games, only 2 have been a bit of a blow out, everything else has been well fought for the full 80, and with the Aussie teams absorbing one club to reduce to four they look much more competitive already.
Probably the biggest talking point so far is how the new focus on continuing the game rather than pissing about for a cup of tea every few phases is making the last 20 minutes a huge battle.
Basically what happens now is lineouts have to be formed within 30 seconds, I think the only reason to delay is if the hooker isn't available. So there's just way less players taking a knee for a breather (though SR traditionally didn't have much of that anyway).
Kicks, Scrums, Lineouts are all going way faster, and once a player has held up play for an "injury" a couple of times the referee is making sure that its severe, and if it is asking them to get a replacement on.
I expect the popularity of those changes is going to be pretty high down here, but of course international rugby swings to the beat of the NH rule makers so it will be interesting to see if it hurts the ABs & Wallabies come test time, where because the big forwards will be allowed to have a breather any extra fitness gained won't matter.
If you want to watch any recommendations from this weekend: Chiefs-Crusaders for the (so far) clear best team putting on a clinic in that last 20. Highlanders-Blues for one team overcoming cards due to a hugely emotional game and possibly one player demanding Razor gives him the black 12 jersey. Force-Brumbies for a game down to the wire right until the whistle.
Just starting an early thread as there's injury news that will impact the weekend.
The NZ based franchises & Moana Pasifika are all announcing their squads for the 2025 season today. On the hour, in NZDT:
- Hurricanes 10am
- Crusaders 11am
- Chiefs 12pm
- Moana Pasifika 1pm
- Highlanders 2pm
- Blues 3pm
I hated Cheika when he was the Wallabies coach and having ding dong battles with the ABs. But since he's coached around the place and learning a lot more about his story i've begun to find him a much more interesting and charming coach than I ever gave him credit for.
This is a great interview, well worth a listen and i'm so far barely half way through it.
I guess week 1 was really NZ v Japan last week, but somehow I don't think that really counts.
Ran out of puff at the end of the NPC so haven't been posting much, but lets have a thread to discuss this weekend's matches.
Super Rugby obviously has a bit of a weird structure now with only 11 teams after the Melbourne Rebels collapsed.
It got me thinking a bit about what NZR & ARU could change assuming no other countries are going to join, and one thing I wondered was whether New Zealand should deliberately weaken our Super franchises to help make the Australian ones more competitive & hopefully make their public a bit more interested (if they win more).
So I started to think about what the population spread was like around New Zealand and one thing that really sticks out is how bottom heavy our current distribution of clubs is. 1 million punters in the South Island get 2 franchises, but 4.5m odd North Islanders only get 3 + Moana Pasifika. Its actually a bit silly that the Highlanders still exist given the population shifts since the 90s.
Anyway, that made me wonder if it might be possible to in effect add a 6th New Zealand franchise - which including MP would make 7 based in New Zealand in total, so came up with this before & after table to show how its a much more equitable split. And then 7 NZ, 4 Aus & 1 Fiji gets us back to 12 Franchises and at least in NZ gets more games in front of more people.
|Super Franchise|Population Approx|Provinces|Population (2018)|Stadiums|Capacity| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |Auckland Blues|1850k|Northland|186k|Semenoff Stadium|19k| |||Counties-Manukau|1|Navigation Homes Stadium|12k| |||North Harbour|1|North Harbour Stadium|25k| |||Auckland|1655k|Eden Park|50k| |Waikato Chiefs|920k|Bay of Plenty|321k|Rotorua International Stadium, Mercury Baypark|26k & 20k| |||Waikato|476k|FMG Stadium|25k| |||Taranaki|121k|Yarrow Stadium|25k| |Wellington Hurricanes|950k|Hawke’s Bay|172k|McLean Park|24k| |||Manawatū|248k2|Arena Manawatu|15k| |||Wellington|526k|Sky Stadium|35k| |Canterbury Crusaders|725k|Tasman|103k3|Trafalgar Park|18k| |||Canterbury|623k|One NZ Stadium4|30k| |Otago Highlanders|335k|Otago|235k|Forsyth Barr Stadium|31k| |||Southland|101k|Rugby Park|17k| |Moana Pasifika5|-|North Harbour based|-|North Harbour Stadium|25k|
- 1 Included with Auckland.
- 2 Includes Whanganui in the census data.
- 3 From 2026 I think the new stadium is supposed to be in use.
- 4 Includes Marlborough, same as the NPC Province
- 5 Moana Pasifika are currently, and for the forseeable future going to be playing most of their matches in New Zealand, neither Samoa nor Tonga have stadiums and infrastructure setup to host like Fiji Drua have.
- Population regions not included:
-
- Gisborne 50k - because its quite remote from either Hurricanes or Chiefs
-
- West Coast South Island 32k - because its remote from everywhere
|New Regional Franchise|Provinces|Population Approx|Stadiums| |-|-|-|-| |Auckland North|Northland|850k|Semenoff Stadium|19k| ||North Harbour||North Harbour Stadium|25k| |Auckland South|Auckland|850k|Eden Park|50k| ||Counties-Manukau||Navigation Homes Stadium|12k| |West North Island|Waikato|600k|FMG Stadium|25k| ||Taranaki||Yarrow Stadium|25k| |East North Island|Bay of Plenty|550k6|Rotorua International Stadium, Mercury Baypark|26k & 20k| ||Hawke’s Bay||McLean Park|24k| |Bottom North Island|Wellington|770k|Sky Stadium|35k| ||Manawatū||Arena Manawatu|15k| |Canterbury Crusaders|Tasman|725k|Trafalgar Park|18k| ||Canterbury||One NZ Stadium|30k| |Otago Highlanders|Otago|335k|Forsyth Barr Stadium|31k| ||Southland||Rugby Park|17k|
- 6 I included Gisborne population in this one as with a franchise based in this part of the country they are a bit more included than they are with the Chiefs or Hurricanes.
Table: |Pos.|Team|P|W|B|PTS| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|Tasman|9|8|5|37| |2|Wellington|9|7|7|35| |3|Taranaki|9|7|7|35| |4|BoP|9|6|9|33| |5|Hawke's Bay|9|6|8|32| |6|Waikato|9|5|8|28| |7|Canterbury|9|5|5|25| |8|Counties-Manukau|9|4|7|23| |9|North Harbour|9|3|11|23| |10|Otago|9|4|5|21| |11|Auckland|9|3|7|19| |12|Northland|9|2|5|13| |13|Southland|9|2|4|12| |14|Manawatū|9|1|5|9|
Fixtures: 4/10:
- Northland v Otago
5/10:
- Manawatū v Counties-Manukau
- Southland v North Harbour
- Wellington v Hawke's Bay
- Canterbury v Waikato
6/10:
- Tasman v Taranaki
- Auckland v Bay of Plenty
Notes: Auckland managing to fail against Hawke's Bay on the Saturday didn't bode well for their effort to take the shield off Tasman, and sure enough they failed again so bar a miracle where they manage to beat BoP and the two worst teams pick up wins they're out. Ditto for Otago.
The drama in this round is basically down to how many bonus points North Harbour pick up against Southland, compared to Counties-Manukau against the Manawatū Turbos who are awful.
Beyond that there's still another couple of big games. Given recent form Hawke's Bay are unlikely to be much of a challenge for Wellington, but the Tasman v Taranaki game should determine who gets 2nd place and later that day Waikato & Canterbury are basically playing to determine which team they have to travel to for the quarter finals.
Table: |Pos.|Team|P|W|B|PTS| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|Wellington|8|7|7|35| |2|Tasman|7|7|4|32| |3|Taranaki|8|6|6|30| |4|BoP|8|5|8|28| |5|Hawke's Bay|8|5|7|27| |6|Canterbury|8|5|5|25| |7|Waikato|8|4|7|23| |8|Counties-Manukau|8|3|6|18| |9|North Harbour|8|2|10|18| |10|Auckland|7|3|5|17| |11|Otago|8|3|4|16| |12|Northland|8|2|5|13| |13|Southland|8|2|4|12| |14|Manawatū|8|1|3|7|
Fixtures: 27/09:
- Counties-Manukau v Wellington
28/09:
- BoP v Northland
- Hawke's Bay v Auckland
- Otago v Tasman
29/09:
- North Harbour v Canterbury
- Southland v Waikato
- Taranaki v Manawatū
2/10:
- Tasman v Auckland
Predictions:
- Wellington 15+
- BoP 21+
- Hawke's Bay 1-1
- Tasman 12+
- North Harbour 6-
- Waikato 12+
- Taranaki 50+
1 - I don't know if Folau Fakatava is back from injury yet or not; he's been out the last two games and without him as a 2nd playmaker my Magpies have been dreadful. No ability to relieve pressure means two massive hidings in a row. This is a prediction from the heart, not the head :)
Notes:
Its now the second to last round, and mathematically probably only Manawatū are definitively outside of the top 8, but I think we can assume that Northland and Southland are also no chance given at best they can only be expecting to win 1/2.
Otago are also only likely to win 1 more match so there's the 4 wooden spooners confirmed and we only need to pick two more teams to stay or slip out of the top 8.
Auckland have had a terrible season, but have 3 games in hand, so could pick up another 15 points, except they are playing Hawke's Bay, Tasman & BoP so are only likely to win 1, they should finish somewhere around 24 points.
North Harbour could beat Canterbury, and should beat Southland so are potentially looking at a points upside of 6-10 points, but Counties-Manukau have a guaranteed win against Manawatū so for Harbour to make it they really need to push for a win against the Rams.
Waikato should pick up another 4-5 points against Southland, even if they lose to Canterbury the following week so are probably safe.
So, weirdly the two other teams that are at some risk are Hawke's Bay & Canterbury, purely because neither of their next two games are guaranteed wins. The Rams are probably more likely to get a win given the Magpies woeful form since losing the Shield, but i'd say both of them are likely safe - even if the 'pies get the job done with bonus points rather than wins.
As for the top of the table, well with a game in hand, the high spending Tasman Makos are most likely to take 1st place again, followed by Wellington. Taranaki & BoP will both get wins this round, so if Auckland continue to suck and Tasman continue to be good, BoP will secure 3rd in the final game of the round-robin ahead of the playoffs.
- All Blacks v Wallabies
- Argentina v South Africa
Big news ahead of Bledisloe 1 is that Beauden Barrett is out with illness which sees Jordan move to 15, Reece comes on at 14 with Harry Plumber being named on the reserve bench.
That suggests he’s leapt ahead of Havili as the utility player - and in a way it actually does make a lot of sense. Jordan, JB & McKenzie give 3 options at 15, Plumber gives cover at 10 & 12, and ALB gives 12 & 13 cover with the option of Ioane heading to the wing too. Very versatile backs.
Table: |Pos.|Team|P|W|B|PTS| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|Wellington|7|6|6|30| |2|Tasman|6|6|4|28| |3|BoP|7|5|7|27| |4|Hawke's Bay|7|5|7|27| |5|Waikato|7|4|6|22| |6|Taranaki|7|4|4|20| |7|Canterbury|7|4|4|20| |8|Counties-Manukau|7|3|5|17| |9|North Harbour|6|2|8|16| |10|Southland|7|2|4|12| |11|Otago|7|2|4|12| |12|Auckland|6|2|4|12| |13|Northland|7|1|4|8| |14|Manawatū|7|1|3|7|
Fixtures:
20/09
- Hawke's Bay v Taranaki
21/09
- Northland v North Harbour
- Canterbury v Counties-Manukau
- Wellington v BoP
22/09
- Waikato v Tasman
- Auckland v Southland
- Manawatū v Otago
25/09
- Taranaki v North Harbour
Predictions:
- Hawke's Bay 3+ (going with my heart on this one bc after last weekend, the head says its going to be a struggle)
- North Harbour 14+
- Canterbury 10+
- Wellington 4+
- Tasman 10+
- Auckland 10+
- Otago 5+
- Taranaki 10+
Notes: Including this weekend there are 3 rounds left until the quarter-finals, the current top 4 should make the top 8 though all of them would be hoping for at least 1 win from the next 3 matches. Especially with Tasman & Taranaki having a game in hand, the former should be eyeing up top of the table.
Of course, they're a very good team, and clearly well resourced given the talent they have signed up so anything outside of top 4 would have been a fail. I'd say the top 7 are probably going to make the playoffs and its really just about whether North Harbour or Counties-Manukau squeek in last place.
The new, cheaper scheme shifts costs from central government to schools – and risks damaging the very thing that makes the programme work.
Write up from my old mate Max Rashbrooke on the success of the school lunch program, and the likely impacts of the cuts to the program from the National-Act-NZ First government.
Table: |Pos.|Team|P|W|B|PTS| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|Wellington|6|6|6|30| |2|Hawke's Bay|6|5|7|27| |3|Tasman|5|5|3|23| |4|BoP|6|4|6|22| |5|Taranaki|5|4|4|20| |6|Waikato|6|3|5|17| |7|Canterbury|6|3|3|15| |8|Otago|6|2|4|12| |9|Counties-Manukau|6|2|4|12| |10|North Harbour|5|1|7|11| |11|Southland|5|2|7|11| |12|Auckland|5|1|3|7| |13|Northland|6|1|3|7| |14|Manawatū|5|0|2|2|
Fixtures:
13/09:
- Southland v Canterbury
14/09:
- BoP v Taranaki
- North Harbour v Manawatū
- Waikato v Hawke's Bay
15/09:
- Counties-Manukau v Otago
- Tasman v Wellington
- Northland v Auckland
18/09:
- Manawatū v Southland
Predictions: Canterbury 9- BoP 5+ North Harbour 25+ Hawke's Bay 5- Otago 5- Wellington 3+ Auckland 9- Southland 5-
Notes: Well, after the absolute tragedy that befell Hawke's Bay in their Shield defense against the Mako, i'm hoping Wellington will visit Nelson and at least ensure that Tasman only get to celebrate for a week.
That should be a hell of a game with all of the squad ABs being released to play for their provinces and Wellington have been very good so far this season.
Last weekend saw a lot of movement in the bottom half of the table - with lots of drama as well. See if you can find clip of wet-ball-gate from the Battle of the Bridge. Absolute dastardly shithousery robbed North Harbour.
There's plenty of other good matches ahead this weekend too - BoP v Taranaki should settle who's in 4th place, and the mid-week home game for the Turbos could be their only chance of picking up a win this season.
I'm glad the tests are over for this weekend, hopefully the rugby pundits down here will pay some attention to the NPC in their shows. But likely it'll get a passing mention while they spend 45 minutes talking up the Wobblies and then at the end of the season they'll have another moan about how nobody cares about the NPC.
Table: |Pos.|Team|P|W|B|PTS| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|Hawke's Bay|5|5|5|25| |2|Wellington|4|4|4|20| |3|Tasman|4|4|3|19| |4|BoP|5|3|5|17| |5|Waikato|5|3|4|16| |6|Taranaki|4|3|3|15| |7|Southland|4|2|2|10| |8|Otago|4|2|2|10| |9|Canterbury|5|2|2|10| |10|North Harbour|4|1|5|9| |11|Northland|5|1|3|7| |12|Counties-Manukau|5|1|3|7| |13|Auckland|4|0|2|2| |14|Manawatū|4|0|2|2|
Fixtures: Friday 06/09: BoP v Manawatū
Saturday 07/09: Auckland v North Harbour Wellington v Southland Otago v Canterbury Hawke's Bay v Tasman (Ranfurly Shield)
Sunday 08/09: Taranaki v Waikato Counties-Manukau v Northland
Wednesday 11/09: Otago v Wellington
Notes: The biggest game this round is the Ranfurly Shield match on Saturday night, Tasman have never one it as the combined union of Marlborough/Nelson Bays so they'll be up for it; and of course Hawke's Bay will be desperate to keep their winning record. Whoever wins gets both the log o' wood and top of the table.
Other than that, there's a couple of other usually fierce derbies. The Battle of the Bridge on Satuurday, then Otago v Canterbury. Most of the rest of the matches aren't especially exciting.
My Predictions: BoP 24+ North Harbour 9- Wellington 18+ Otago 3- Hawke's Bay 3- Taranaki 9+ Northland 9- Wellington 6+
What PM didn't mention when he outlined the dire state of maths performance in schools.
Unfortunately that's behind a paywall, but there's ways and means of reading it, eg via RSS subscription to NZ Herald.
A couple of notes for the benefit of those that can't read it. Two lecturers in maths education have pointed out that Luxon's claim that there is a crisis is misleading as the achievement data is "based on a new draft curriculum, with a higher benchmark compared to previous years."
ie, the standard for achievement is higher, not the level of maths knowledge declining suddenly. In fact "We’ve been tracking student achievement in mathematics at Year 8 for more than 10 years, and in that time, there has been no evidence for improvement or decline."
More alarmingly for me, a ministerial advisory group was setup which has recommended a new curriculum even while acknowledging there is a lack of evidence for teaching maths the way it proscribes.
That advisory group is chaired by an NZ Initiative idealogue, Dr Michael Johnston and the article almost infers he is basically pushing his own manifesto on how education should be conducted into the curriculum - again, despite evidence it has application to maths education.
For anyone that doesn't know, the NZ Initiative was formed by merging the Business Roundtable and the NZ Institute. They are far right neoliberal idealogues and you'll see people cycle through the organisation before going into political reporting or lobbying, or in Nicola Willis case being placed into political party roles.
Table: |Pos.|Team|P|W|B|PTS| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|Hawke's Bay|4|4|4|20| |2|BoP|4|3|5|17| |3|Wellington|3|3|3|15| |4|Tasman|3|3|2|14| |5|Taranaki|3|2|3|11| |6|Canterbury|4|2|2|10| |7|Otago|3|2|1|9| |8|North Harbour|3|1|3|7| |9|Waikato|3|1|2|6| |10|Southland|3|1|1|5| |11|Northland|3|1|1|5| |12|Auckland|3|0|2|2| |13|Counties-Manukau|4|0|2|2| |14|Manawatū|3|0|1|1|
Fixtures:
Friday 30/08:
- Northland v Southland
Saturday 31/08:
- North Harbour v Counties-Manukau
- Taranaki v Otago
- Waikato v Auckland
- Tasman v BoP
Sunday 01/09:
- Canterbury v Wellington
- Manawatū v Hawke's Bay
Wednesday 04/09:
- Waikato v Northland
My Predictions:
- Northland 9+
- North Habour 18+
- Taranaki 6+
- Waikato 9+
- Tasman 6+
- Wellington 9-
- Hawke's Bay 15+
- Northland 6-
1/3 of Round Robin Notes: With Round 3/9 complete now (the fixtures list I refer to has the playoffs as Rounds 10-12 which is a bit random) I figured i'd entertain myself by doing a bit of a stock-take of where we are at.
The defending champs Taranaki are progressing ok with their 1 loss so far coming away to one of the top 4 teams Wellington, are sitting ok, but the draw is a little unkind to them in that their easier games are mostly at home but they still have to play BoP, Tasman & Hawke's Bay on the road.
The comp progresses through quarter-finals, semis to the final so they'll make the playoffs but will need to work hard to get the home advantage they had last year.
The beaten finalists Hawke's Bay are looking quite good especially this week picking up a win away in Canterbury during the storm week. Time will tell though as its all tough games from now, even this Sunday's match against cellar dwellers Manawatū could be banana peel being the 3rd match in 9 days.
Probably the biggest surprise so far is how average Waikato, and how poor Auckland have been. You know you're having a bad season when Southland are ahead of you on the table.
The current top 5 look likely to make the playoffs, of the rest Canterbury will surely make it in though are battling a lot of injuries. The table feels a bit similar to Super Rugby this year. The top 4-5 are clear but places 6-12 are still probably anyone's to take and really only Manawatū & Counties-Manukau are looking completely out of the running.
Crowd wise - its the usual story. The over-saturated Super Rugby markets that struggled to get people to turn up unless it was a big game struggle to get people to show to the NPC. But the provinces that get one or no Super Rugby matches are having pretty good crowds in attendance from what i've seen so far.
The first match of the All Blacks vs Springboks series is on August 31.
This is my editorialising, but I struggle to see how its not yet more Crusaders bias selecting Bower over Numia.
I get that the latter is uncapped and coming off an injury but Numia was probably the form prop in Super Rugby this year and is going to be 3rd choice prop, not playing in either game unless there's an injury anyway.
Bower's only come back from even more serious injury this year and while he's had some tests under his belt i'd say there's just as many question marks over his international game with answers as unanswered questions about Numia.
Table: |Pos.|Team|P|W|B|PTS| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|BoP|3|3|3|15| |2|Hawke's Bay|2|2|2|10| |3|Wellington|2|2|2|10| |4|Tasman|2|2|1|9| |5|Taranaki|2|1|2|6| |6|Northland|2|1|1|5| |7|Canterbury|2|1|1|5| |8|Waikato|2|1|1|5| |9|Southland|2|1|0|4| |10|Otago|2|1|0|4| |11|North Harbour|2|0|2|2| |12|Counties-Manukau|3|0|2|2| |13|Auckland|2|0|1|1| |14|Manawatū|2|0|0|0|
Fixtures:
Friday 23/08:
- Hawke's Bay v Northland (Ranfurly Shield Challenge)
Saturday 24/08:
- Counties-Manukau v Tasman
- Auckland v Canterbury
- Southland v Taranaki
Sunday 25/08:
- Otago v BoP
- Wellington v Manawatū
- North Harbour v Waikato
Wednesday 28/08:
- Canterbury v Hawke's Bay
My Predictions:
- Hawkes-Bay 6+ (I'm on call this week so won't be at McLean Park :( )
- Tasman 18+
- Auckland 6-
- Taranaki 6+
- BoP 6+
- Wellington 27+
- North Harbour 6+
- Canterbury 10-
- Australia v South Africa in Perth
- New Zealand v Argentina in Auckland
Table: |Pos.|Team|P|W|B|PTS| |-|-|-|-|-|-| |1|BoP|2|2|2|10| |2|Tasman|1|1|1|5| |3|Taranaki|1|1|1|5| |4|Canterbury|1|1|1|5| |5|Hawke's Bay|1|1|1|5| |6|Wellington|1|1|1|5| |7|Southland|1|1|0|4| |8|North Harbour|1|0|1|1| |9|Counties-Manukau|2|0|1|1| |10|Auckland|1|0|0|0| |11|Otago|1|0|0|0| |12|Northland|1|0|0|0| |13|Waikato|1|0|0|0| |14|Manawatū|1|0|0|0|
Fixtures:
Friday 16/08:
- Otago v Auckland
Saturday 17/08:
- Northland v Manawatū
- Tasman v Canterbury
- Hawke's Bay v Southland (Ranfurly Shield Challenge)
Sunday 18/08:
- BoP v North Harbour
- Wellington v Taranaki
- Counties-Manukau v Waikato
My Predictions:
- Auckland 13+
- Northland 21+
- Tasman 6-
- Hawkes-Bay 6+ (Hoping to make it to McLean Park for this one)
- BoP 13+
- Taranaki 6-
- Waikato 13-
Seeing as I care more about the NPC than any other Rugby I feel like I ought to start a thread for this too, even though i'm the only person here that probably has any interest :)
Round 1 Fixtures:
- Taranaki v Counties-Manukau
- Auckland v Wellington
- Canterbury v Northland
- Southland v Otago
- Waikato v Bay of Plenty
- North Harbour v Hawkes Bay
- Manawatū v Tasman
- Bay of Plenty v Counties-Manukau*
*Due to the compressed nature of the competition every team has what's called a storm week where they end up playing 3 times in about 10 days which is why this match is marked as the 2nd game in round 1 for these two teams