Pete Samu extends contract at Brumbies

What makes you think McCaffery isn't in line given he is probably the form Australian backrower over the last two seasons? He has shown leadership, smarts, ball carrying ability and flexibility to play both 6 and 8. He may not be the first choice, but leaving him out of any expanded squad (at this stage anyway) reeks of the Cheika era where promise (and province) were given preference over body of work.

ok Jez - I'm happy to throw in the eastern suburbs cartel also :) The private school old boys cartel who run NSW Rugby are half the problem imo. Tahs will never improve until the old boys club is permanently put out of business and replaced by a progressive, inconclusive, competent admin with a devotion to excellence.

My apologies, you aren't cheering anyone, you are just accusing one group of being duds because they have lacked success when as it stands they have given up an entire super squad worth of players to help develop the other regions of Australia. Sure NSW have issues - I've complained about their ability to spot talent before: https://www.theroar.com.au/2017/04/25/cant-waratahs-spot-talent/ I'm an advocate for exiting Super Rugby and focussing on NRC and a three way Origin series between NSW, Qld and Rest of Oz. And I suspect that NSW would do pretty nicely in that kind of tournament. (ps. why aren't you assigning the eastern suburbs private school cartel their share the blame?)

@Jeznez I'm not cheering anyone or claiming anyone is a genius or anything close :) The player recruitment process in Aust has long been a largely unregulated free for all with players swapping provinces on a yearly basis. Aust would greatly benefit from the NZ centralised system imo but that's another discussion. And there's no point cherry picking a few individual players either. The poor history of Tahs performance over 20 yrs is on the scoreboard. There's lots of reasons for it. At top of list is a long history of many poor recruitment decisions, poor coaching and a culture of mediocrity and smug entitlement entrenched by the private school north shore cartel who run NSW Rugby. Yes, that's bagging the Waratah province and given their history they fully deserve it imo :)

Or they’ll wind up like Latu, Kepu, Simmons, Hooper who are all better players after joining the Tahs. I’ll ask again how many local ACT players the Brumbies have developed into Wallabies? It’s a bit thin since Gregan, Larkham, Roff and Kafer. Isn’t it? So you really are just cheering when your side picks up a late developer, or a younger player that later outstrips someone that was in the system at another franchise. Should the Waratahs have dropped then first choice Wallaby Benn Robinson for Scott Sio back in 2011/12? Considering Sio only became the new Wallabies prop when Robinson retired in 2015 that may have been premature. Do you really think Sio would have never got there if he’d stayed in NSW? I think NSW massively let down Vui. I’ll be watching how he goes in Canberra with great interest Hore hiring and then re-signing Gibson, losing Cron and then quitting because the group spent more than he wanted on Penney has been a shambles. But claiming your guys are geniuses because they pick off future quality from another system that can’t sign all their talent due to artificial squad size and salary cap limits, while then calling that system producing the talent you profit off duds is pretty small minded.

@Jeznez I don't think it's an ordinary comment - I think it's very reasonable as supported by history :) I'm not celebrating the team I follow (brumbies) for having picked off NSW players. Fact is the great Brumbies teams that won comps mostly consisted of players the Tahs did not want. Many Randwick guys I played with went to Brumbies after being ignored by Tahs. With a squad of rejects Brumbies then developed this revenge culture of "we'll show you" in a rivalry with NSW that they almost always won. Similar to the Queensland view of NSW. It's a valid one imo. More recently I'm not bagging or complementing anyone for picking off players from other states and countries. It's long been a free for all. What has been clearly shown though is NSW have made 100s of very poor recruitment decisions over past 20 yrs. And then they have failed to adequately develop many young players with obvious talent that good coaching and a culture of excellence like the Crusaders would have developed into great players. That's why I believe the worst decision any young aussie player can make is to sign with Waratahs. They'll end up like Foley, Beale, Phipps and so many more who never really improved.

Any talk or speculation about Shi should play for the Wallabies in 7 months time is a symptom of what's so wrong with Wallabies selections. There should be no locks or sure things. No public or private guarantees. The World Cup shows in spades that no player was up to the standard need to match top sides. The Wallabies ranking proves it. Pick the side of form. Pick the form payers regardless of where they play. Players who are put of form, who do not perform, at the next level will not find form in Test Rugby. That's why Beale, Foley, and the rest were so poor at the World Cup. It's not a school boy rep side. Let's wait until SR season is almost done. Tell the possibles where their game is lacking, wingers who can't kick, backs who miss tackles, fly halves who kick poorly etc need to know the where they need to work on their game. Be clear. Behave like a professional set up. Ask Paul Roos or Craig Bellamy for advice. Coaches who know how to get more from a team than the sum of its parts.

The English did quite well with two small flankers, Ardie isn't huge himself. Maybe, just maybe, it is more to do with the size of the fight in the dog than the size of the dog in the fight. Hooper has plenty of fight in him and the problems with the Wallabies are that very few others in the team come close to him

I believe Cheika really only wanted him to stick it to NZ. Once he was released he could no longer do that so he went back to his favourites.

Queensland has a lot of very good players coming through. Question is, can Thorn use them properly?

This world cup has shown us we need a big backrow to compete with top teams. No room for Hooper anywhere, proven failure. Time to get these guys in as we cannot go any lower after the Clown atrocious reign. Get rid of all the deadwood and pick big young tough punks now. 4 LSL 5 Rodda 6. Valentini 194 cm 114 kilos 7. Wright 193cm 97 kilos 8. Naisarani 195 110 kilos Reserve 19 Hockings 207 cm 21 year old 206 cm (6 ft 9 in) 118 kg (18 st 8 lb; 260 lb) 20 ASY 194 cm 109 kilos

Tahs much more burned by the Brumbies – the likes of George Smith, Owen Finegan, Stirling Mortlock hurt a lot to this day. . But the general comment still stands with NSW supplying more Super Rugby players than any other state. . The likes of: . Scott Sio Folau Fainga’a Brandon Paenga-Amosa Alan Ala’alatoa Sam Carter Rory Arnold Matt Philip Luke Jones Will Miller Lachlan McCaffrey Nic White Tom English Billy Meakes Reece Hodge Jack Maddocks . Provides the bones of a pretty strong team, and Qld could make a similar list. All this before you even look at the developing talent like Nick Frost and Esei Ha’angana – I mean NSW can’t buy a lock and our most promising youngsters are off with the Brumbies and Rebels. . There is an element of truth to Waxhead’s comments – I think Frost may turn out a better player under Fisher’s influence in Canberra than he would having arrived at NSW as it is now. . However to carp on about them being a dud organisation that doesn’t develop players while celebrating your own side for picking off all the guys that would create the competitive pressure to be selected is a pretty ordinary comment. . All the above said, I’ve been prepared to accept the drop in performance that NSW (and QLD) have had to endure as their players helped build rugby across the country – but all this entitlement, lack of development, dud organisation comment is garbage. . For all the great development that Laurie Fisher and co. do – how many ACT born and bred Wallabies are there at the moment?

Dempsey ? No never again. Failed Cheika experiment.

Samu may get a chance now in Gold after the Clown has been ousted. But with RA based in Waratah land and Hooper captain it still maybe hard to get a fair crack. Ask his fellow team mates Powell Banks Valentini Speight Carter Faaingaa and MaCaffrey.

Did the Tahs get burned badly by the Force? From memory their introduction hit the Reds the hardest by far, whereas the New South Welshmen contingent looked to be more fringe squad players or Shute Shield players who never had a look-in in the first place, guys like Hodgson. Experiencing it first hand you probably have far better view of the damage. From an outsider perspective it came/comes off like the Tahs as an organisation thought they could always depend on players sitting around in Shute Shield waiting for their opportunity, at the expense of establishing stronger internal talent scouting and development processes.

I think he’s more of a 6 at this stage mate. Big hitter in defence, strong runner in tight and good at the breakdown. Doesn’t quite have the ball skills or elusiveness in the wider channels of an elite 8. At least at this stage.

If you had to pick, would you say Valentini is more 6 or 8?

Maybe if we didn’t ship so much of our talent to other franchises we’d have a more competitive selection/development environment. . That is ultimately what p’d me off about cutting the Force so much – we’d worn the substandard performance of shipping so much of our talent out for years and just as the West started to produce some of their own talent they got cut. . Way to go RA, spend the capital of downgraded performance in the heartland and then when you are ready to start reaping the reward of development in the other areas cut the investment before pay-off. . I love people that hate the Tahs but will cheer for New South Welshmen when they wear a different shirt.

Problem at Tahs has long been their entrenched culture of entitlement and mediocrity imo Tahs are the last Aussie province I'd send any young player to learn and develop. History has shown they don't at the Tahs. So imo it's very bad for future of aust rugby that so many talented young players have signed for this dud province :)

Good news for Brumbies fans :) Samu is an excellent player and another who was treated poorly by Cheika imo. Hopefully now he'll be given a fair go.