The Mike Hosking Breakfast

A statistical look at the All Blacks' shock 25-15 defeat to Argentina in Sydney.
1 clean break - The All Blacks made 54 runs in the test but only one player broke the Argentina defence – Caleb Clarke. It's worth noting Argentina only had two breaks.
2 metres gained for Jordie Barrett – According to Opta, the All Blacks wing had just two metres gained in three carries.
1 scrum - The number of scrums won by the All Blacks. There was just five scrums in the test.10 - 10 different All Blacks were penalised with six of them converted into points by Nicholas Sanchez.
402 – Numbers of days since the Pumas last played a test match before facing the All Blacks.
40 - Ian Foster's current win percentage as All Blacks coach after five tests. Yes a small sample size, but you have to go back to Ivan Vodanovich in 1971 for a coach with a winning percentage as low.
2 - The five previous All Blacks coaches Steve Hansen, Graham Henry, John Mitchell, Wayne Smith and John Hart all went 5-0 in their opening five tests as All Blacks coach. Foster has lost twice.
25 - Points scored by Nicolas Sanchez is the third most points by a player against the All Blacks.
29 – In 29 previous tests the All Blacks had 28 victories over Argentina with one draw in 1985.
25 – The most points Argentina have scored against the All Blacks (previous best in 46-24 defeat in 2018).
15 – The fewest points the All Blacks are scored against Argentina (previous worst was in 20-16 victory in 2019).
2 – Equals the fewest tries the All Blacks have scored against Argentina (occurred in six other tests).
10 - Argentina's world ranking heading into the test. The Pumas had won just three of their past 36 tests against Tier 1 nations.
5 - Number of tests under Ian Foster for the All Blacks to reach two defeats under his reign. Under Steve Hansen it took 37 tests before a second defeat.
2011 – The last time the All Blacks lost back-to-back tests (South Africa 18-5, Australia 25-20).
9063 – One of the smallest crowds in recent memory for an All Blacks test.
0 – Cards. At least one positive for Ian Foster.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins has acknowledged the "unprecedented disruption" and extraordinary challenges faced by students this year before NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams begin on Monday.
About 140,000 high school students will be taking the exams, which are being held 10 days late because of the impact of Covid-19 on learning this year.
"I want to congratulate students for their hard work during a year of unprecedented disruption, and I wish students all the best as they begin exams," Hipkins said.
"The wellbeing of students is one of the top priorities for the Government. I encourage students to stick to a study plan, remember to build in breaks for exercise and relaxation, and talk to someone if the pressure is getting too much.
"This is an important time of year, and whānau have vital roles to play in supporting and encouraging students to do their best."
Despite the impact of the virus outbreak, Hipkins said students would have a fair opportunity to achieve NCEA and go on to further study or work.
He said the Government had taken a range of steps to support students.
"Extra support is in place for Auckland students who faced a second lockdown, and those in other areas who were unable to attend school due to the resurgence of Covid-19 in August," Hipkins said.
"Exams end on 9 December, by which time around 140,000 students will have participated in 120 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exam sessions.
"Around 35,000 students from almost 300 schools are entered to sit some NCEA exams online. This year, 58 online exams will be available across NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3."
The minister said the increase from about 20,000 students entered for digital exams last year reflected the growth in online teaching and learning, which had accelerated this year.
NCEA results will be released in late January, and New Zealand Scholarship results in February.

SpaceX aimed for a Sunday night launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station, although the prospects of good weather were just 50-50 and its leader was sidelined by COVID-19.
Vice President Mike Pence was expected at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the long-awaited start of regular crew rotations aboard privately owned and operated capsules. It also marked only the second time in nearly a decade that astronauts were set to rocket into orbit from the U.S.
“Game day!” tweeted NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, the crew commander.
As nearby towns braced for an onslaught of spectators, SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk disclosed via Twitter that he “most likely” has a moderate case of coronavirus, despite mixed test results.
NASA policy is that anyone testing positive for the virus to quarantine and remain isolated.
Musk remained upbeat. “Astronaut launch today!” he tweeted Sunday morning, adding that he had symptoms last week of a minor cold but currently felt “pretty normal.” Representatives for the California-based SpaceX didn't respond to queries about his whereabouts.
The launch of three Americans and one Japanese — all but one of them former space station residents — comes just three months after a pair of NASA test pilots successfully concluded SpaceX's first occupied flight of a Dragon crew capsule.
The crew led by Hopkins, an Air Force colonel, includes physicist Shannon Walker and Navy Cmdr. and rookie astronaut Victor Glover, who will be the first Black astronaut to spend an extended period aboard the space station — a full five to six months. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will become only the third person to rocket into orbit aboard three different kinds of spacecraft.
They named their capsule Resilience given all the challenges in 2020, most notably the global pandemic.
The 50-50 forecast focused only on the local weather for the planned 7:27 p.m. liftoff, not the wind or sea conditions all the way up the East Coast or across the North Atlantic to Ireland. The wind and waves need to be within limits in case something goes wrong during the launch and the capsule needs to make an emergency splashdown.
Rough seas prompted SpaceX to bump the launch by a day in order for its booster-landing platform to reach its proper position in the Atlantic. The company plans to reuse the first-stage booster for its next crew launch, next spring.
NASA turned to private companies to haul cargo and crews to the space station, following the 2011 retirement of its space shuttles. The space agency will save millions by no longer needing to buy seats on Russian Soyuz capsules.
NASA's other crew transport provider, Boeing, has yet to launch astronauts. The company is still working to overcome software problems following last December's marred space debut of its Starliner capsule.

A New Zealander who's had a key role in the Trump Administration says it's been a challenging, but rewarding four years.
Chris Liddell is one of the few people in top White House positions who've stayed the distance, apart from Trump family members.
The Deputy Chief of Staff has been nominated to become Secretary-General of the OECD.
Liddell told Mike Hosking the last four years have been worth the ride, but hasn't been without its costs.
“I have always wanted to be a player, rather than a spectator, and I want to make a difference to the world.”
Preparations are going on for a transition in the White House.
Donald Trump is still contesting President-elect Joe Biden's win in the courts.
Liddell says there will be a transition one way or the other.
He says the legal challenges have got in the way of some of the formal aspects of a transition, but there's a lot happening informally behind the scenes.
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Turns out the Covid cluster we really need to be worried about is called the government cluster.
Yet again last week they overreacted, yet again they cost business millions, and yet again we find out that what they said was happening and what was actually happening are two completely different things.
Having closed downtown Auckland, it became fairly obvious at seven o'clock Friday morning when we talked to Chris Hipkins that the shutting down of the economic engine of the country was not required, and that the poor girl at the centre of this maelstrom was indeed connected to an established cluster.
By the end of the weekend, you had threats against the owner of the business, you had Auckland's Mayor laying into them for what they may or may not have done, you had lawyers claiming what the Ministry had said wasn’t entirely accurate, you had the Ministry defending themselves, and you had claim and counterclaim.
You had, in a nutshell, a shambles.
Meantime, back at the Vincent Apartments, the ones Hipkins told us were locked down with everyone in their room, it's turned into a comedy. The lobby looks decidedly like Waterloo Station at rush hour. No one is in their room.
In fact, the crime was we told Hipkins all this at seven o'clock Friday morning, at which point he clearly got on the phone only to find out none of what he said was happening, was.
The camera followed one resident walking out, through the lobby, walking down the street the wrong way to the wrong van, only to walk back up the street to the right van. If it was a comedy, no one would think it was real.
What haunts me about all this is clearly nothing has changed. All the border breaches, all the mistakes, all the misinformation, all the stuff they say is happening but isn't, is Deja Vu.
The index cases never tracked, the answers never found, the whole regime that’s never really quite up to scratch, and look at the price we are paying for this.
Events cancelled, millions of dollars lost, acrimony between lawyers, businesses and the Ministry, a Minister who clearly isn't joining dots, and all for what? One case.
This is the government nearly 50 percent of this country voted for. The government that failed on delivery for three years, and fresh out of the starting blocks of term two, hasn't changed a thing.
Is it too much to ask that, at some point, they might actually learn to do their job properly?

The Prime Minister has indicated masks will be made compulsory on Auckland public transport and flights for the "foreseeable future".
Cabinet meets today to discuss making masks mandatory on planes and Auckland public transport in a bid to prevent further community transmission of Covid-19.
The new rules could be in force as early as Thursday, though some experts say the public health order should be broadened to give more protection against the deadly virus.
It follows a community infection scare last week after an AUT student tested positive for the virus after going to work and visiting various other business in the central city while potentially infectious.
Ardern said today while wearing maks on public transport would immediately impact Auckland commuters, the extent it would impact the rest of the country was under discussion. She said cabinet would be taking a "proportionate" approach.
"No one wants Covid to be with us but for long as it is these precautions are necessary for the foreseeable - we're not talking about short term here."
The Prime Minister this morning told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking while mask-wearing on public transport would immediately impact Auckland commuters, the extent it would impact the rest of the country was under discussion.
She said the cabinet would be taking a proportionate approach.
Ardern today defended the move to request Auckland's CBD workers to stay home Friday saying it was a necessary move which took into account the various risks.
She said it allowed for 24 hours of caution to establish the link with the existing cases.
It enabled time to get the genome sequencing ahead of taking more drastic action.
"Had that case come back and not been linked with the one we had in the inner city then that would indicate a much bigger problem," she said.
The alternative was to not do anything, cross your fingers and then see unchecked community spread.
"I don't want that," she said.
Cabinet would be discussing the mandatory use of masks today, Ardern confirmed.
If adopted mask use would be required for the "foreseeable future".
"We're thinking about places that it's hard to trace people," she said, referring to buses.
Yesterday a neighbour of the AUT student was confirmed as a positive case following further investigations.
There were also two new cases; both are returnees in managed isolation.
The new case connected to the Defence Force cluster was confirmed after returning a "weak positive" result on Saturday.
The person's initial test was negative but a further test picked up the weak positive result which officials investigated further.
The Ministry of Health said the test results indicated a "very recent infection".
The neighbour was classed as a close contact of the AUT student - also known as Case D - who lives in the Vincent Residences and attended work last week at A-Z Collection on High St despite being unwell.
The neighbour has been in the Auckland quarantine facility since November 12.
The Auckland Regional Public Health Unit has also identified seven close contacts and three casual contacts. All have been contacted and testing arranged.
Testing for all 10 contacts was expected to be completed by last night.
There are no places of interest identified to date for this latest case.
The other two cases in managed isolation are returnees from the UK and Dubai. Both have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.
The number of active cases is 58 and the total number of confirmed cases is now 1645.
The Ministry of Health said increased demand for community testing continued over the weekend across Auckland's testing network.
More than 10,500 tests were processed on Saturday, bringing the total completed to date to 1.17 million tests.
Saturday was the highest number of tests processed in one day at a weekend since August...

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Monday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Perhaps the Start of Something New/How Many More Shutdowns?/Mandatory Masks/Some Silver Linings/The China-Clark Connection

Every Friday morning, Mike Hosking is joined by Tim Wilson and Kate Hawkesby to wrap the week in news.
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For all you car lovers there will be some rare vehicles on display this weekend.
It's the annual big boys toys event beginning today in Auckland and a very rare Ferrari is the big draw-card.
The pista piloti - only available for drivers in the Ferrari car program and we happen to have one in New Zealand.
V8, 710 horsepower, 0 to 100 in under three seconds and a top speed of 340 kilometres an hour.
The organiser of big boys toys dean Wilson joins Mike Hosking to talk about the event.
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A university boss says big bucks aren't the only incentive for getting a degree.
New university research has found those with a degree earn around $1.3 million more over a lifetime than those going straight to work from school.
Medicine tops the list at an extra $3.5 million.
Universities New Zealand CEO Chris Whelan told Mike Hosking there's huge value in any post-school education.
He says religious studies graduates end up being priests who don't earn a lot, but follow their passion.
Whelan says young doctors start off by earning about one third of their eventual income after eight years study.
He also says there are many hidden sins with the research, and some young people going into a trade after school will end up owning a company and doing very well."
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