Highlanders heroics make for a disturbance in the Force

I don't know why the schedule isn't drawn up to minimise travel as much as possible. Send two or three Aussie teams to NZ at the same time, have them play all their NZ away games in one hit. Then do the same with the remaining two later in the year. Repeat as needed with each country. Not only cuts travel time down, breaks the season into little events - ie the NZ tour, the Aus tour etc

There's a difference between what should and what will happen. I don't see how the result of a game, or even a season should have any bearing on the number of teams

This players struggle with the long flight to Argentina. Even the Lions send a second grade team. It was a mistake to expand the competition to Argentina, it is just not practical to fly 35,000 km to play four games in 16 days. The Force was off the pace the whole game and you cannot afford that against the Highlanders. SANZAAR can look at scheduling a bye after such much travel to protect the integrity of the competition.

Sorry Piru couldn't resist. I'm in the Uk (a Pom) but follow things as closely as I can Do you now think that no teams will be cut?

What IS wrong with Christie? I'm a highlanders fan over in the U.S. and can't find anything other than a cryptic article saying he gets headaches when he runs. Post-concussion? We do have a great stock of backrowers. One of the deepest in super rugby.

Piru, the nature of the location necessitates by-weekly long distance travel, which is a restraint as air travel affects everyone differently. Time zones are not kind to comfortable sleep patterns and some folk struggle trying to recover in a timely fashion. All this hinders performance particularly for the less travelled. What I find interesting the OZ conference in their wisdom to have a level playing field have never reviewed travel as a negative.

ho ho ho you're hilarious

Something, it's literally the other side of the world. That said we should be better equipped than anyone else to deal with travel

We dared to dream but realistically we always knew that the Highlanders were a big ask. Just as in two weeks we'll date to dream of beating the Hurricanes but deep down we know that whilst it's possible we'll win we will probably get flogged. We will however beat the Reds, Tahs and Rebels. I think serious consideration needs to be given to giving teams that travel to Argentina a bye immediately after.

There were contributing factors to the poor performance including travel, injury toll, a game plan that was poorly executed in the rain, loss of key players e.g. two fly halves. To win the competition you need a strong squad like the Lions and must be less dependent on key players. The performance was shocking and the loss painful in he light of the ARU's believe that the Force should be cut. Now focus on the Reds and do not dwell on this any more, win this game and you will restore the faith we have in the future of this team.

Darwin. There are two issue to address: (1) Financial viability and (2) The quality of the rugby skill pool. I believe all teams need to proof their financial viability until the end of the broadcast deal in 2020. With teams securing long term sponsorship, a private backer with deep pockets for the Rebels and the Own the Force campaign for the Force I think both teams will not knock on the ARU's door soon for additional funding. There is not truth in the argument that the quality of rugby can be improved by cutting the number of teams. A quality team will beat always beat a team with quality players as rugby is a team sport. Almost test side quality teams like the Waratahs and Jaguares are often beaten by team with much less ability. Good outcomes and wins come from exploiting synergies, combinations, players that knows each other, a good game plan and the proper execution of this plan. Another example is the Lions and Springboks. The Springbok's have the cream of South Africa rugby available, however is playing poor rugby and do not gel as a team. The Lions have players like Jantjies and Faf with obvious flaws in their game, but they play to their strengths and the team gels. To make team's competitive you need to have quality coaching. Cutting a team will not improve the quality of coaching. New Zealand is miles ahead of South Africa and Australia when if comes to coaching and that is translated to competitiveness and player depth. Is it a co-incident that South Africa's only competitive Superugby team's coach was mentored by New Zealanders (Mitchell and Spencer). When Graham Henry was a consultante to Argentina they started to play a more expansive game, focussed on skills development and became more competitive. With a Kiwi coaches both Wales and Ireland became competitive. Look at the transformation in England under Jones! Administrators must develop the environment for the coach to succeed and get our of their way! If your team lacks quality today you need to give a good coach time to build their structures and develop players - Heynecke Meyer and Johan Ackerman are both examples of what can be achieved if administrators support the coach. I think Wessels is the answer at the Force, he is developing players, a no-nonsense coach and that given time my make the Force good enough to compete for the title. The other coaches in Australian rugby (even New Zealander Gibson ) do not inspire me at the moment.

Don't take what I say as any kind of arrogance or presumption - I just expect my boys to win until they don't.

Ok people, hysterics help nobody. In every rugby game, there is a winner and loser. Losing a match isn't necessarily a metaphor for the game, the country or life and the universe - it's a game. The simple fact is the Highlanders played a better game than we did, they are in fact, on paper and apparently on the field, a better team than we are at the moment. All this bs about cutting a team and will they be here next year or won't they has added a stupid amount of pressure on to every game, to the point that every time we run out there it feels like we have to prove we deserve to have a team. It's not effing fair to put that kind of pressure on players, particularly the 5 or 6 rookies around the place - you think the kid playing his first minutes for the Reds or Waratahs feels the weight of an entire state on his shoulders every time he runs out? You think he feels like he has to perform or the existence of the sport in his state may be threatened? Hell no he doesn't. He concentrates on playing his game and not embarressing himself in front of the veterans and the fans. Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I wish we could lose a bloody game without people running for their guillotines.

The last couple of weeks were just like playing Invercargill! If anything our handling errors increase when we haven't got a bit of weather on...2 weeks of horrendous weather - well on our way to a repeat of 2015

Huh HL - the way your blokes are running around, they don't need a roof......just truck-loads of moisture.

Nice one Whaakata and Die Hard Stick the boot right in after your outrageously overwhelming favourites beat up on the cellar-dwellers. While you're at it use a piss-poor excuse of a hopeful fan's wildest dream as your motive.

Keep winning? They were 3 and 8 going into the match which admittedly is quite good for the force

TWAS ~ You're right as I do know that there are notable players from the Force who have insisted that if the Force get the chop, they will not play for any other Team in Australia because they're just a hopeless lot, so they'll go overseas or just stay and do something else, (dunno' what). Three have already made contact in New Zealand tentatively, just in case!

Fionn! As much as I don't like the thought of losing a Team, the hapless ARU are intent on cutting a Team come what may, they're going to do it! That being the case, I fear you may be correct as the Brumbies at this stage right now would be an easier target than either the Rebels or the Force because the Rebels have insisted they are going nowhere and the Force are more than ready to jump all over that defunct and useless organisation, the ARU if they so much as try! I sure hope we're wrong mate!

I preferred the sport in the amateur days (that might be because we were more competitive then :P)