IRB telling each hemisphere what they want to hear

Even the minimalist change has resulted in the six nations producing much higher standard games. Who would have known that Home Nations teams, except England, could actually run and pass. England tried it but it was a farce.

Top stuff WCR. Looking forward to it.

KOGS You're referring to the Nations Cup held in Romania last year. They came out of that particular tournament with only a win over Uruguay. Though I have to say they were unlucky in the Italy game. For the first quarter of an hour the competed really strongly and looked likely on several occasions then two poor decisions from the Canadian referee leading to two tries ( a clear offside and forward pass) seriously derailed their efforts. Since then they have improved. The most notable indicator is there good form on the 7s circuit. The Government backing will ensure Russia will continue to move forward at an impressive rate. As for an article. We'll have to wait and see. Getting information about Russian Rugby isn't that difficult its just I don't speak Russian and Google Translate doesn't quite get the point around as clearly as I would like. I am however about to write one on Asian Rugby.

Russia really is an interesting case study. i saw a bit of them play June last year on Setanta sports. they were in a copmetion with Romania, Scotal A, Uruguay and Italy A. I was impressed with Russia, notably there forward power and kicking from hand and at goal. What may surprise some is that there backs are actually rather impressive, particuarly in regard to there pace and skill. for those who follows the IRB sevens this will hardly be surprising. It seems that the sport in Russia is really growing in popularity, espically now rugby is an olmypic sport. from my understanding RL is all but dead i russia, with RU picking up the scraps. i think a thorough article on russian rugby would be very interesting and timely. interested WCR or RF?

KOGS Russian Rugby certainly is going forward quicker than many could have anticipated. Increasing profile within its borders, increased quality of the National League, WC qualification and the real possibility of hosting the 2013 7s RWC. Apart from Russia and Georgia this sets up quite an interesting repechange qualifying series. According to the posters on the FIRA forum it could be very tight with not much between Portugal and Romania. Uruguay might threaten but its unlikely. The real darkhorse appears to be Tunisia who I have heard aren't too far off the pace when compared to the 3rd and 4th place getters in the ENC. If they could put it together they could challenge. Korea could be another possibility though less likely. They share the same methodical nature of play to their Asain rivals Japan so on a good day for them and a bad one for the opposition you never know.

Congrats to Russia for qualifying for their first WC. Also, congrats to Georgia for qualifying for their third consecutive WC. Looking forward to watching the big boys run around in NZ in 2011.

I am quite enjoying the new interpretations being seen in the S14 as it is not reducing the forward contest, but is also speeding up the game. II will be interesting to see how the game adapts over the next few weeks to see if defence gives up on the breakdown and floods the defensive line, which would be unfortunate

I think they're doing the right thing by gradually applying the interpretations to the North. It would be a farce if a South Hemisphere ref showed up and started whistling both teams off the park. By gradually introducing the interpretations, they may stumble upon the right balance for Test matches. The scorelines this weekend were fairly normal and only the game at Loftus provided any real fireworks. The most notable thing about this Super 14 season is that the top sides are the sides who were on top at the end of last year's competition. We haven't seen a bolter under the new interpretations which makes me a bit cynical about people saying the new interpretations will do this, that and the other thing.

Well I think the new interpretations are going well, we aren't going to get cricket scores every week like the Chiefs-Lions game. The 3rd round results seem like more the scores people expect from quality rugby, rather than 6-3 or 72-65. Don't know how they can't enforce these rules, the way they are written makes it pretty clear they have been ignored for 5 years.

Well, today showed us something - Mark Lawrence's approach to the game at Twickenham was vastly different from his approach in the S14. Ireland, as usual, lay all over the ball and Lawrence permitted them to get away with it. They would have been whistled off the park in the S14. So the original poster is quite right. It's surely untenable that we effectively have two different games in the different hemispheres. I thought Wayne Smith wrote an excellent column in The Australian - the north ought to move much farther towards the southern interpretations than it has hitherto. There is only so much breakdown grappling that one can be bothered to watch. The happy equilibrium is probably somewhere between Lawrence today and Jonker in the 65-72. (And the difference between those two refereeing performances, incidentally, is absurdly vast).

God, if this develops into another ELV balls up with two differing law interpretations being applied in the different hemispheres it will be extremely disruptive and damaging for teams preparations going into the world cup next year. Please let sanity and open communication prevail. One intepretation to rule them all.