Well the buck stops here, and here is where the buck started too.  BartMan, the founding father of the Fern, and one of the founding fathers of the forum (would that make Kirwan mother, I'll leave that disturbing thought here right now).  Started the Fern in 1999, the forum in various forms from about 2002 or so, until the current mutated form is up and running as we know it now.  The moderator of the mods, spends most of his time shaking his head a giggling while reading the forum, thinking how people can take something so seriously, especially when they are probably arguing with a 400 pound naked woman sitting in her own filth who calls herself Baron Silas Greenback...

Forum member number 3.

Describe yourself in 25 words or less: Rugby and sports nut.

What international rugby team do you support and why?  All Blacks.  Because I am a Kiwi, and black is always in fashion - just like my Canterbury rugby shorts.

What Super 14 team do you support and why?  Chiefs.  By default to start with, and then grew to love the roller coaster journey that a Chiefs fan takes every season.  Perhaps I am a sadist.

What's the biggest challenge facing rugby?  Keeping the game alive at provincial level and downwards.

Who was the game's greatest ever player?  I can't really answer previous to when I started watching the game, which was the 1981 series against the Bokke.  So probably since then Michael Niko Jones.  Arguably the best openside flanker, and the best blindside flanker New Zealand has ever produced.  Other Kiwi players though, perhaps not the greatest ever player, but who I always enjoyed watching would include, for starters, Steve McDowell (the first of the modern props, good ball skills as well as core duties), Sean Fitzpatrick (best hooker the world has ever seen), Mark Shaw (the hard mans hard man), Buck Shelford (Shaw's love child), Josh Kronfeld, Zinzan Brooke, Richard Loe, Jeff Wilson, Christian Cullen, hell, there have been so many players who have given me great pleasure watching their performances in black.  However, Jones is probably the one you could label 'greatest'.  World wide through that era, you would have to seriously consider Gregan and John Eales too.

How about non-NZ players? Who were/are the greatest?  Oh, I can do that now - non Kiwi greats.  See above.  Add in Martin Johnson, Laurence Dallaglio, and Os du Randt.   All players who plied their trade over many years and proved their greatness with their longevity as well as the quality of the day.  Like the above All Black list, I could go on, but will spare you...!

The best match you have ever seen?  The Lions versus Maori in 2005.  Was at the game, drinking with a Lions supporter who I ended up seated beside (both bitching about the warm expensive beer), and the game had everything, including the right result at the end!!  Jono Gibbes finest hour as a leader, and one of the best games of rugby I have ever seen from Marty Holah - two of my favourite players.

The best try you have ever seen?  Luchino Afeaki, 1997-1998 Hong Kong Grand final, Valley RFC v Hong Kong Football Club.  Yes, I was playing that day too, and that try, with two minutes to go, put us ahead for the first time in the match, and gave us the title.  What made the game even better though, is there were three rounds, followed by a major semi final, and then a final that season.  We lost to HKFC in all three rounds, before thumping them in the semi, and then beating them, last gasp, in the final.  That is the only jersey I have kept from my playing days.  

What position did you play, if you played, in rugby?  Prop and hooker, although in y early days spent a lot of time at loose forward, before my lack of height and pace directed me into the smaller numbers.  Played all three front row positions to senior representative level for the mighty Thames Valley Swamp Foxes - spending the 1995 NPC final, won by the Valley, sitting in the grandstand feeling sorry for myself after spewing and shitting myself silly the night before after a dodgy ham steak!!  I did reach the lofty number of second five at one stage at high school, but after 40 minutes that experiment was shelved, after I had not passed the ball to my outsides once.  It was back to number eight for the rest of the game, and the season for me!

What do you like about the Silverfern?  The ban button, and my ability to not use it...

How could the site be improved?  More articles contributed from our readers.  Their are some very good writers out there who could add more to the main site.  Less twats posting on the forums when they really have nothing to say on a thread.  If you have nothing to say, then say it - nothing.  Some good threads get diverted into slanging matches, which the Mods then have to stop, and they then get bitched at, and in ever decreasing circles, a shit fight starts.  Mind you, we have not had too much trouble with that lately, it has been good.

Who's your favourite poster?  Too many to name, but a few whose posts I will always read are His Bobness and Lee Grant (the ones less than two pages, not that there have been too many of those lately, as LG has been getting to the point quicker than usual lately,  but I digress).  A couple of older blokes who have been there and seen that, and have the tee shirts to prove it.

Who's the worst poster?  The ones that take everything so bloody personally.  Remember ladies, this is an internet forum, just opinions, it doesn't matter if someone disagrees with you.  By all means argue your point to the death, but no need to call someone names if they don't agree with your view!

How did you pick your user name?  Long time nickname is Bart (last name Bartley, this was 'BS' when I was named (before Simpsons)).  No idea why I tagged the 'Man' on!

How could the game of rugby be improved?  KISS - Keep it simple stupid.  Make it easier to understand.  Less interpretations for Refs to rule would be good.  A game in black and white, no grey areas like breakdowns would be perfect!!

What rugby player would you turn gay for?  I think I already am - Farah Palmer does something for me, on an intellectual level... 

Non-rugby questions now

Favourite music?  Not being the greatest music listener, my CD collection still consists of Queen, Rolling Stones and Jethro Tull albums...

Favourite book?  World War 2 history, and history in general books, along with Bernard Cornwall novels, Sven Hassel, Tolkien, you name it, I read it, I am a huge reader of books.

Favourite Film?  Remember the Titans, Rudy, Coach Carter - love a good sports movie.  Hah - also Happy Gilmore.  Think Remember the Titans would be the first move I got dusty eyes in.  That happens more often now though, I think as you get older you 'get' things more...  Also the LOR movies, good comedies.

Biggest lifetime regret?  1997-98 season in Hong Kong.  Coming home to NZ after being selected in the national side.

Greatest hope?  To bench press more when I am fifty than I did at thirty.  Which means being fit and healthy, and hoping those close to me remain that way too, so they can spot me as I rupture something...