The one asset the Manu has that Williams didn’t have was carrying that huge ego and big head around with him while he learns to play rugby.
They are very different players although physically they look similar they are miles apart in mindset.
Williams thought he was great and still thinks he is. But that was the problem, he didn’t have too much brain power, you only have to listen to him commentate, Bro seems to be the only word he uses consistently and enunciates correctly. Whereas Manu is quietly going about his business as a really good player and IMO he will be a success as a really good rugby player, he has the physical attributes to succeed and the brains to go with it. I think he will be a good out centre

Totally agree with every word in this article, but the problem is that how can this happen without the support of the states etc acting independently. They have not done this prior and in past experience they may never do this, as this would be against all that they have valued in the past. I really can’t see the states voting for this as they usually put their own advantages before all else. I fervently hope that this is successful as I see this as the only way that Rugby can survive in Australia. If we continue the way we are Rugby as a sport will die

Manu should do well in Rugby, although it will not be a walk in the park and I think he has done the right thing by going to japan to learn under ex AB coaches. The comp will be a tad easier and he will get good advise from the AB pair

Again again I realise that he did what you said he did. I watched the game. However What I actually said was that I was disappointed in his game from a management point of view and that it was not wallaby in waiting level. I expected more from him as the now probably appointed flyhalf for the wallabies. I just felt at times he could have taken some different more constructive options. The team won the game in the forwards.

point taken Cam, as I said there is really no defining definition on if being knocked out many times or only once or twice has an effect. I do not have a problem with Teddy continuing on. He is a great player I have enormous admiration for him as a player, he is the epitome of what I think a really good full back should be. He takes the tough stuff up when returning the ball and does the hard yards at times when needed and is always there backing up. He has in my eyes been at the top for quite a while and I do not see any slowing down as yet. He would be the first picked for SOO and Australia etc in my team. But eventually father time will catch him and as I said why not go out when you are at the top of your game. He also speaks quite intelligently and I would think that he would have a long life in the media after playing and get paid quite well. The warning is though that you can only go to the well so many times and you eventually run out of water. I think that he is no danger of loosing his spot this year but maybe he might think about it next year. by this time I would think that if he has invested wisely he should be set for life

On the subject of concussion. This is the hardest subject to judge as it is so variable with each player. I personally have had multiple concussions, commencing when I was at school, being knocked out at morning tea and loosing a day and a half after that, then when I was 17 being knocked down three times and then had my head kicked in breaking my jaw and loosing most of my teeth and spending 23 hours in a coma in hospital and loosing a week after that of my conscious life and after that when I was 21 I has four losses by knockout in the ring over a two year period. I won the majority though, overall. And then to my career playing VFL and Union being knocked out on 7 occasions over a long period of time. I am now at nearly 79 and have no cognitive impairment of any kind. So my point is that it is so individual that it is hard to group all into the one basket. For one person 1 knockout is disastrous, I witnessed a player dying in my front of me after an innocuous tackle, he suffered a brain bleed and died. He had the week before been knocked out in a tackle. This was before any of these protocols were in place. This what makes it so hard to define, it changes from one person to another, even medical science cannot define who is going to be effected and who is not. My honest opinion is probably that Teddy should retire as he has done everything that anyone could aspire to and why not go out on top

If we didn’t have Harrison and SBW it would be a blessing. SBW only knows how to say bro every second word and that is nearly the extent of his vocabulary and Harrison hypes up everything like it is a starwars mammoth movie instead of giving some intellectual incite into actually what transpired on the field

I watched the rebels game and IMO Carter Gordon did not have a good game. His miss at goal right in front of the posts leaves a bad taste and his game management left a bit to be desired. At the end of the game I felt disappointed with his endeavour, I have been a fan before but this was not a wallaby in waiting performance. Rebels front row performed really well winning scrums and this was prior to Thor being introduced. And I have to say Lancaster was really good, a breath of fresh air with his speed and agility and his obvious enjoyment at being on the field

If he wanted to play in my team I would be carefully watching his interaction with other younger players in that he did not try to influence them to his way of thinking, He has a disruptive history and and his recent court case did not make good reading for a man of his maturity. Good luck to him if he wants to play rugby, I think his aspirations are a tad high for a bloke his age and getting back into it after a longish layoff. IMO he should just concentrate on playing well for the Force.

I do not agree with the assessment of Crichton in this article. He is a really good player in league and was a really good player in Union when he was younger. This article suggests that he has forgotten his skills learnt in Union and become a non skilled battering ram in League that would not have the skills to compete in Rugby. How inane is this opinion??? I mean does your brain immediately shrink as soon as you run onto a league pitch. This is an opinion that ran rife when I was playing etc in the 70s. It is outmoded and archaic to say the least.
Today’s modern player be it league or union are more overall skilled in every department. IMH humble opinion Crichton could slot into a inside centre position. at just over 100 + kegs he would be entirely suited to being used as crash ball or if it warranted using his skills that he acquired as a young man to drift through the line and off load to his full back. You only have to go back to when Bunter Shaw was the centre for the Wallabies and Queensland, at well over 115 kegs he was the best at crash ball and also had a turn of pace and a swerve that was used all the time. You do not have to be a ball playing second 10 to play at 12 the game doesn’t have to be the same all the time. You can be the big tough crash ball centre with skill. I do think that Crichton will be a great asset to rugby and I would love to see him a Red

I picked the Knights in this match, even though I am normally a Roosters supporter. My reason for this is I am vehemently against the return of Jennings. I am normally a bloke that says if you’ve done the crime you do your time and then if you do your time you should have a chance at redemption. However Jennings has failed in this and should not be given a chance at redemption. On the other matter of Ponga remaining on the field, I’m in agreement with Joey, they should have taken him off immediately. he was a passenger. The Knights lack a good halves pairing and that is obvious watching Ponga as first receiver in the early part of the match, he was used as a halfback most of the time. I know that he is gifted but he is a fullback, I have no doubt that he could play halfback or five eight, but he needs to stay as a fullback to at least give his halves a chance to find their feet, and run off them as a good fullback should do. If they are determined to use this type of play, look to get a gifted full back to replace Ponga and then let him play in the halves. And I agree that the knights need to look for better halves than they have got at the moment.

The article is the best I have seen up to now of what I have been advocating for the past two years. I have put quite a few articles on this subject and BH 101 has described this in so much more detail. I would back this proposal and also say that if something like this is not instigated in the next couple of years rugby will die in Australia.
I’m a Queenslander and a foundation Wests Bulldogs supporter, having coached, managed,played been a board Director etc for a long long time and have no doubt that Wests could put a side up coupled with PE and be one of the major sides from Queensland, I would suggest that Brothers, Wests, University either Souths or Easts could form the sides from Queensland verses similar from NSW, then the Brumbies and a side from Victoria then NSW and Qld Country sides. There you have a competition that people can support in a tribal fashion

I commend the action by the authorities to punish this deplorable abuse. A longish time ago I was always reticent to go to a league match due to the foul mouthed behaviour by spectators etc. However in recent times couple or so years ago my boys played league and I approached going to their matches with trepidation thinking that I would have to put up with language etc. But to my surprise League spectators have cleaned their act up, I was pleasantly surrounded by family minded people in general that wanted to watch the game and not use foul language. I accord this to the influx of Islander people that have good family values. I recently visited a rugby union match and was really disappointed to be accosted with a fair amount of foul language. even from the girls, using the F and the C word in general conversation I can swear with the best of them in the appropriate time but that is not in public when children and women and older people are about. It would seem that Union has gone backward and League have made good inroads into good behaviour

Yes I agree that Jennings should never have been allowed back on the field. He has done his time for the drug abuse but he has not done time etc for the other dreadful stuff. If league were as good as their word in supposedly treating women as equal they should never have let him back in the game. an appalling decision by the roosters to even give this a thought. I’m really disappointed in the Roosters as a team

Having read all that this article says about Mitchell I have to say I’m a little non-plussed about Mitchell and the adoration that surrounds him. I have watched him for the duration of his career and overall I’m not particularly impressed. He has done some remarkable things on the field at times scoring tries etc. He is a big unit. However this is usually on the end of some really good lead up work done by the inside backs etc. I find that he is quite lazy. He does not do the grunt work that other fullbacks do he is very reticent to take the ball up in returning from the kickoff If he had the work ethic of Tedesco I would be right behind him as a great player but he doesn’t even come close to Teddy. I love that they rave about him going to communities to be a presence with indigenous children, I commend that, however why is it just indigenous why is it not all children no matter their race or colour. He seems to make lots of stuff about race etc. and I am not in accord with that, we are all equal and we are all the same, to me that is. I honestly look at Mitchell and say to myself what a self adulating self centred person he portrays. I just wish he would get a move on and do some work for his team and shoulder some of the tough work and not be so lazy, his foul mouthed rant not that long ago left a very bitter taste to me I do not condone the use of foul language in public. He is a grown man and should know better. Perhaps the Rabbits should finish with him and give a more deserving player a go

Having read all that Nick Styles has said about Tupou and his struggle with his body and laying a small part of these problems with the Reds playing him for long periods, this actually draws a laugh from me. There was a time when Props played long minutes in every game and no one complained at all. There also was a time when Props would play for the wallabies one day and then back up and play for your club the next day. Nobody complained, no one ever mentioned that they were over worked or over played, the tough ones just got on with it and played. If you want to get better at playing long minutes you improve your fitness and if you are carrying too much weight you work at reducing that weight or turning the fat into muscle. It would seem to me that Tupou is struggling recently due to the fact that he has not been playing the long minutes that he wanted to play at the Reds, this may have had a impact on his general fitness. Big blokes like him need constant exercise so that they do not put on excess weight, and to do this it is best to have long game time minutes. This is far better than training or exercising in a gym

Agree FF

I have extreme doubt that our players would walk into any of the top sides, and there lies the problem. It is alright theorising this type of thing but in reality I do not think it would work. In saying that I agree with your assessment of super rugby it is far too short a season and the players do not play long enough at all. I believe that a higher club competition is required. I have and have others on this site put forward ideas for a club competition with clubs from most states competing as per the league does at the moment. It will take some braveness to do this but due to the present state of super rugby getting crowds of maximum 14 to 16 thousand at large venues that have a capacity of 40+thousand and perhaps running at a loss, I think that change is inevitable. If something is not done Rugby will wither and die as a sport in Australia. For all you people that are too young to imagine rugby without Super rugby. We had a great competition going in clubland in Brisbane Sydney and Canberra. Why cannot this be expanded on and with private backing of clubs, you then create a sustainable competition. By all means have your state champs at the end or do it like SOO and that would then go towards selections for the Wallabies. We have got to start somewhere the present competition is not sustainable in its current form.

I’m with you on this issue Jez, I’ve been commenting on this for a few months now and my opinion is aligned with yours

Hog your are totally correct

Kiwi your opinion is pretty much what I would say, thanks for that

IMO I have always said that he is far too overweight. On his day he is a matchwinner but that’s on his day. I anticipated that he would suffer injuries, carrying that much weight around is bound to affect the bone structure. If he did move overseas I see that as a plus for him and for the wallabies if they allow him to be selected from overseas. If the rebels fold its a no brainer for him to go. And playing on the softer fields and the structure that they play over there would suit him much better than playing here. The only doubt I have over his future is the ongoing injury problems that may arise due to the size of the man, injuries are only going to increase as the wear and tear on the body increases with age. However most props do not reach there zenith until they are 30+ so maybe with his move overseas to softer grounds etc he might last the distance.

Gee it seems that the F word is becoming very prevalent in today’s modern word. You cannot watch a movie or even a tv series without being bombarded with this word. I taught my boys to be circumspect about swearing. There is a time and place for this. You do not go on public radio and curse without restraint. There are a wide selection of the community that listen to the radio and they do not want to be inundated with profanity. My philosophy in teaching my boys was that if you have to use profanity as an extra adjective to get your message across you lack intellect and show how limited you vocabulary is. That set the level with my sons, they can swear with the best of them but are able to pick and choice when and where. They do not use profanity in circumstances where it may offend others. I am very proud of them, as I am sick of hearing profanity used instead of proper descriptive adjectives that require some intellect. To end this. Why am I not surprised that Mitchell would be using this type of language in public. I need say no more.

I remember the game back in the 90s what a great initiative this is to resurrect the concept. In the nineties we packed Ballymore. What a great place to watch rugby and cheer your team on from the hill and the stands it was just fabulous. With ABC televising and my old Wests mate Joe Mosey on camera in front of the windows of the club and we all behind him in the club getting replays on his monitor for us members, They were the good old days

Watched the game and they missed Averillo and also I was at Toowoomba watching Uwen Aitken playing Q cup and having a blinder, they were both missed in a very ordinary performance by the Fins Also I have never been a fan of Jessie Niu he is just not quite there, and that added to Farnworth struggling a bit. The Cowboys were good though Deardon played really well