The problem Harry is that focusing on outcome and not intent, you end up with a nonsense. Look at the high tackle issue. Ball carriers now duck into them regularly to draw the penalty and a possible card. The real issue here is Koroibete did not get out of the way and in fact was charging in to make the tackle when Barrett returned to ground, at time of contact. That should have been a penalty against Koroibete and probably would have, if the Barretts boot had contacted his chest rather than Koroibete’s face.

Well Koroibete was charging him, leading with his head and getting his timing wrong. It is also important to understand what a kick is. That was not a kick.

An unfortunate accident. Both players OK and did not damage the game. However, it seems to me that Koroibete interfered with a player in the air!

Abuse normally comes as a result of mistakes. I am not condoning it, but right now, there is no way a club can complain about a refs performance and get a fair hearing. Some refs need to appologise to the Clubs they have troubled. Finally many clubs now have ground marshalls to control bad behaviour.

I take my hat off to you for watching and listening to the Welcome to Country. I find it a convenient time to make sure the beer is cold and food is properly distributed. But if what you point out is correct, then it is a waste of time. They get paid for it so ask for the money back.

The Graham Mourie team was like an AB (B) team with a scattering of (As). NZ had a policy it seems of not playing countries that could not stand the pace.

I was surprised when Foster became an Assistant AB Coach, as his time with the Chiefs as coach, was not good. Rennie comes along and won two Super Rugby Championships with the same team. So I was more surprised when Foster got the main gig over others with better records.

I do like the card player analogy used above. Perhaps one of the real standout statistics to me from the Pumas test, was how poor the AB offloads were and how many turnover of tackled ball the Pumas achieved (14). That many will win games and it did. A good part of the reason was there were no, or few, supporting players for the ball carrier. Off loads and supporting players used to be an art form for the ABs, but not now. I do not think I have seen so much fumbling of the ball by an AB team and it was on a par with what happened in Homebush against the Wallabies. These are coaching issues, but if anything they got worse between the two Tests and the makeup of the ABs against the Pumas was generally recognised as their best. As for accuracy of passing, I do not think they remember what the term means.

You cannot write off a team that four games ago, executed the perfect game in Eden Park. They clearly have some internal problems at present. I think we know them well enough to know it will be corrected in time.

Last saturday? You are dreaming.

You are quite right. We should recognize BLM as the Marxist inspired and run organisation that it is. Recent publicity has made its leaders rich beyond dreams and like most Marxist organisations they are dab hands at distorting the truth. In its home country and the last year, it is not concerned about the 260 odd Blacks killed by other Blacks, only the 7 that were killed by Police. Of those 7, only two were not trying to kill the cop that killed them. Just bring a bit of perspective to the story.

I am so sick of hearing this Critical Race Theory diatribe about White Privilege. What has happened to Martin Luther Kings immortal words that resonated round the Western World? The Wallabies can do what they like in their own time, but to subject me to the embarrassing situation of kneeling during our National Anthem, it is just not on. By all means get more Aboriginals playing the game. In fact the Professional Players Association could organise for their members to contribute cash towards a program which would demonstrate their interest. But do not stuff up my watching of Test Rugby with political virtue signalling that has nothing to do with our sport.

There is one thing that we rugby players know about our sport. When two teams are close in ability as the Wallabies proved that in Wellington to the surprise of the All Blacks, each has to be single minded and focused on what they are doing. Political virtue signally activities like this, will distract and will only detract from their performance.

Many would not understand the cynisim attached to what you say.

Takes more than one game to make a season.

No Waratahs! What a shame, but deserved. They played like crap all season.

While the Guys have prooved them selves, not very appreciative of what Aust Rugby has done for them, we should cut them some slack. To not do so means that we have not learnt anything from the Folau issue. We may be in the top Teir of rugby playing nations, but top level players are few and far between. Find a fit for them. That is why we pay top administrators the big bucks to find a way through the maze of difficulties. Not to have them further deplete our ranks.

I like scrums that are real contests. Ball in straight and hooked, not under the second row. We use to allow teams to form their own scrums. Worked well without the ref being involved. Also if the ball is hooked (that is why we have a hooker) and parts of the scrum go down but the ball can still get out, let it.
My biggest beef is too many games are won on penalties which defies the purpose of the game which is scoring tries. Reduce the score for a penalty and increase the value of a conversion. Also, too much time wasted with penalties, so make them drop kicks and reduce the number of offences that are penalties (ie to genuine foul play) and make the rest free kicks.
Too much TMO. Use the report system or TMO can look at something while the game continues. Do not like an extra ref for the off side line. What are the Assistant Refs for and they should be tasked with policing it like they are with soccer.

They do have a limit of one minute. It use to be two minutes until a change in the 90s, thank god.

You really do have a bad memory Will. Eddie clearly has his moments of greatness, but he also has more troughs of despair. Think back to the last time he was axed by the ARU.

You have forgotten the 87 All Blacks. They changed rugby.

It is difficult of course, because we are not comparing like games. The game has changed and evolved significantly since ’87. That is not to mention the availability of substitutes verus reserves and an extended bench providing 23 players that were once 15. But looking across all RWCs and not just looking at the Final, I have to say my criteria has become which team not only dominated the tournament, but has had a lasting impact on the evoloution of rugby. I can not get excited about SA in 95. They struggled through to the Final and as we saw players spewing on the sideline, the ABs had been knobbled. It will always be a Final that draws comment because of the politics involved, but the Team that won was pretty ordinary. Both Wallaby teams in ’91 and ’97 were good and dominated throughout, although the 91 Team came within a damn of loosing the QF to Ireland in Dublin. On balance, I thought the McQueen Team was better and has had a lasting effect on world rugby through their game management methods, which is now almost standard. I also liked the England Team of 03, as old as they were. They retaught us that the forward contest matters, even though the refereeing community took a while to understand that and the Ref on the night made many mistakes in this area that could have cost England the game. The Teams from ’07 are best forgotten about as are ’11. In ’15, we saw perhaps one of the strongest Teams ever to come through, but there standing was damaged in my opinion by Ben Smiths lack of discipline that drew a Yellow Card in the Final. His absence from the field, ultimately gifted two tries to the Wallabies that bought them back into the game. Which brings us to this last RWC in ’19. While the win was remarkable, they lost a Pool game and almost lost a SF, so there was no real domination of the tournament. Perhaps the good thing that came out of ’19 and several teams exhibited it, was the relevance of domination upfront and we were blessed by both Teams in the Final having that attitude in their game.

So we come back to ’87. That year we saw rugby still an “amateur” game start its long transformation to professionalism in its play. The All Blacks transformed themselves prior to the tournament. Prior to that they struggled against top tier teams as much as others struggled against them. That RWC and the next couple of years, they wiped the floor with the rest. They were fitter, faster and more skillful than the rest by a country mile. Their attitudes and style in effect, became the basis of the modern game that everyone else eventually followed. So I go with the ’87 All Blacks.

Why any timed outage of a replacement player because of a Red Card or for that matter, a Yellow. It is the player who has offended and it is the player not the team that should be punished. The differences between teams is so slight, that the loss off a players slot in the team usually costs the match.

There are other issues that you have not covered. Do away with the not held tackle law. Did you know that the non held Law goes for almost two pages and cross references to other Laws like what is a tackler (briefly, someone who has bought a player to the ground and he has gone to ground as well). When any player goes to ground held or not and even if he slips over, he should have to play the ball; that means release the ball get on your feet and pick it up.

My pet bitch is about time wasting. I agree that something needs to be done about scrums. What happens now is a travesty. But I especially hate time wasted by kicks. Why do we call a Try a Try. Originally it was because the team scoring was allowed to try and kick a goal. Lets keep that as the ultimate scoring but all penalty shots should be relegated to drop goals. I might add, penalties should only be given for serious foul play.

Finally lets get back to scrums being contests with the ball being thrown down the centre, not under the feet of the front row or worse as we saw, into the second row.

Yes I agree with most. The Crusaders backline was not in good shape without Crotty. They have struggled during the year when he did not play. In fact, the Jaguares backline was better especially when supported by that wonder of the match, No 6 Matera. They were very unlucky twice not to score. But a team keyed to a grand Final at this level would have. It is a learning curve for them, just as knock out Finals and Grand Finals were for NZ teams when the Comp first started. The missed tackle count was incredible. The cover defence though was excellent. Almost as though they were expecting it to be that way.

What was clear and obvious was the ball being handled by a Hurrican off his feet at the bottom of the ruck. At least with the call they got, the Hurricanes had the chance to win the scrum, but it should have been a penalty against them. Otherwise a great game to watch and on the stats, Hurricanes unlucky not to win.

Hard to go past the Crusaders, but! Last week the Crusaders lost Crotty and Barrett to injury. Two key players. If this had not been a 17hr flight, I would have taken the Jaguares also. But in the end travel is the great leveler in this comp.

Folau has said someone else vetting his posts is false as is his willingness for a compromise. Why should he take his post down. This has been made a mountain dung by an incompetent RA administration.