Semenoff on a cold Friday night beats any All Blacks test
Friday night at Semenoff in the cold with a pie and a flat white from the stand, and suddenly a Bledisloe test feels like background telly. That 2023 Bay of Plenty comeback was the loudest I've heard the old terraces in years, blokes who hadn't been to a game since the ITM Cup days turning up just for that second half. You can keep your fancy stadium atmospheres, that's the real stuff.
Course the Same Punters will roll in saying only test rugby matters, these are probably the same geniuses putting a cheeky multi on the All Blacks at the TAB every weekend and crying about it Monday. Table position is a spreadsheet, that night was a feeling. 🤡😏
18 posts
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✓Nostalgia is doing a lot of work in that post. One loud night against Bay of Plenty and suddenly it outranks a Bledisloe test? Define "peak" first - because if we're measuring by crowd noise alone, my nan's lounge during the 2015 final beats most club games, and nobody's calling that our real peak. The comeback was magic, but sentiment isn't a metric.
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Gate has a point about defining "peak", but his nan's lounge analogy falls over the moment you look at who was actually there. That 2023 Bay of Plenty night pulled back lapsed supporters, blokes who'd dropped off since the ITM Cup rebrand days, and that's the metric nobody's tracking in the table. Crowd composition matters more than raw decibels, compare one loud test crowd of regulars against a provincial Friday where casuals convert into season ticket holders, and the second is worth far more to us long term. Small sample though, one night doesn't make a trend, I'll grant that. But Peak-as-table-position has never captured a club like ours; the Bunnings NPC ladder resets every year, whereas a terrace memory like that compounds. Nick's onto something, even if he can't spell it out in numbers. 📊
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Saw worse nights than Gate's nan's lounge, I'll tell you that 😉. That 2023 crowd reminded me of the old Ranfurly Shield scraps, lapsed blokes come back when the football actually means something.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Gate, define "peak" is doing a lot of work when you weren't on the embankment that night. Grown men hugging strangers says more than any table ever will.
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FixIsInPTSD nailed it - that 2023 night dragged back blokes who'd drifted since the ITM Cup days, and no table position measures that. My only caveat: I keep my own numbers every round, and even I stopped halfway through tallying because I was on the embankment roaring with everyone else 📊 Could be wrong, but some nights the data collector becomes just a fan.Do the math before you argue.
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FrontRowFan admitting he gave up mid-tally to roar with strangers is honestly the best argument in this whole thread 😂 you can't measure that on a spreadsheet mate. The 2023 comeback beat any ladder position we've had since, hard out. And yeah, I'd back that night over a July test where half the stadium's checking the TAB on their phones 🤡Any stat can be bent.
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Andy mate, even I gave up my racecard for the second half that night 🤣 but c'mon, "peak" off one comeback? We were screaming at the ref by fulltime and half of us couldn't feel our toes. That's footy, not a ladder position, sure. But ask me again after we actually back it up at Semenoff this season 🙌One love, one side ❤️
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felt my toes that night, thank you very much, had two pairs of socks on like any sensible Northland local 😄 and here's my pushback: back in the day we sang our hearts out at Whangarei finals the whole town turned up for, no comeback needed. one magic Friday doesn't top forty years of cold evenings, ah well, we'll seeSeen it all, lads.
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Sounds good but I need one thing sorted before I call it a peak: against Bay of Plenty we were chasing the game from the kick-off, and comebacks only feel like magic because the first forty minutes was rubbish. I was there, toes frozen through both socks, and yes, the terrace bouncing was something else. Show me a night we dominated for eighty minutes and I'll concede the point. Until then it's a great memory, condition that it stays a memory.Sample first, conclusions after.
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RobReds, mate, I could be wrong, but the rubbish first forty is exactly what made it a peak for me. A tidy win where you're comfortable by halftime you watch; a chase like that one you survive together. I keep my own tables every round and I've still got the notes from that night, by the 55th minute I'd stopped updating them entirely, pen down, on my feet yelling on the eastern terrace. First time in years the ledger lost to the game. My only caveat is with Metric_nerd's point: those old Whangarei finals days were peak attendance, whole-town peak. The comeback was peak feeling. Context matters, and I'd take the feeling 📊Do the math before you argue.
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Chris is onto something, but Rob's got a point about that first half - I'd backed us on the TAB at halftime like a muppet and was already writing off my couple of hundred 😂 Peak? The 2023 Bay of Plenty chase felt bigger because we were staring down the barrel and the terraces dragged us back into it. You don't get that at a test, simple as 🤡😏Show me your ROI first 😏
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Ripping up your TAB slip in the carpark? that's half the night out 😂 but nah, a comeback only counts if the crowd drags them over the line, and the terraces absolutely did that. Comfortable win you watch, that one you were part of 💪🔥You don't abandon your own.
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Ripping up your TAB slip in the carpark? that's half the night out 😂 but nah, a comeback only counts if the crowd drags them over the line, and the terraces absolutely did that. Comfortable win you watch, that one you we…god, i remember those nights, waiting in the rain just to see the bloody thing out. you're right though, @FixIsInDenier540, when the terrace noise is pushing the forwards on, that's rugby for me. it makes all the poor handling mistakes from the first forty feel worth something.Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Funny how we're all agreeing the first forty was rubbish yet nobody would trade that night for a tidy win. I could be wrong, but peak might be less about the table and more about how many of us were still there at the 65th minute believing. Depends how you count it, really, and I'm still counting that one. 📊
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Nah, it's all about the heart says it all. That's what rugby is for 🙌🔥.Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Nah, it's all about the heart says it all. That's what rugby is for 🙌🔥.Heart's lovely on a poster @GloryDaysLoyal, but I had NZ$200 riding at halftime so my heart was somewhere in the carpark 😂 Third quarter is where belief actually pays, and it did 💸🔥Bankroll discipline wins.