Nine times out of ten McCaw just played through it, he played in the Final of a World Cup with a broken foot which he never mentioned to anybody as he so desperately wanted to play! Remarkable player!

Rucking won’t legally ever see the light of day again Nic’ as the days are well and truly gone where rucking was the normal response for lying on the ball and lying offside in the ruck to mention a couple of instances, ~ If you were stupid enough to take the ball down and in without releasing it, you paid the price, same applied for not releasing the ball after a tackle or any ruck whatsoever was formed! ~ We as players back ”then” treated rucking for what it was, a type of admonition for digressing from the set rule about releasing the ball, never mind if you couldn’t release the ball as per these days, Rucking in all it’s legality as allowed only if necessary and never with undue force was all the thing, and the Kiwis perfected it, as they were never ever afraid to use it like most other Countries, the exception possibly being the Springboks, and when those two Teams played each other, 30 players on the Field had their lives in each others hands and all depending on how brave you were or just plain stupid enough to transgress when a totally legal move can be placed upon your body like around six opposition players practising their mountaineering skills on you poor old body lying ”down there somewhere”, ~ Referees rarely intervened as it was entirely legal providing it didn’t exceed the point of common sense!

Rucking was an accepted practice in those days when you could ”smack a guy in the kisser for something he may have done to yourself right in front of the Referee and his response would go something like “that’s enough boys we’re here to play rugby” end of story! ~ The modern game may as well be played in a large flower garden of pansies where you tip toe around the plants one by one and if you by chance stood on one, the Referee will ping you! ~ The game today has been sanitised to a degree that you say ”sorry” when you tackle someone and any tackle at all is pretty much a defunct exercise as they alter the tackle area every week! ~ Modern rugby is not one bit like it was back in the ”rucking” era and because of the sanitised game such as it is these days, the only person that’s made to look good is the Referee who will ping you if you give him an evil look! ~ Modern rugby would never cope with it as the modern Referee is trained to stamp out foul play, well, it could be asked what does and what doesn’t constitute foul play and the level of it when a player is being rucked off the ball!

Won’t happen!

As per the Brumbies and Blues game last weekend, exactly how it was!

The Kiwi Hierarchy has more or less decreed before the Super Competition that the World Cup is their priority and they will rest players from time to time in attempt to fulfill that priority and have conceded that if the Super Competition suffers because of it, sobeit, ~ They may only get two teams qualifying but the Crusaders will surely still win it, All Black Players or not!

Neil Bradley! The Blues could have stayed on the Park for a Month and they would never have won that game as the Referee whoever it was decided he would join the Brumbies as an extra man, ~ there was no one thing the Blues attempted to do that satisfied that Referee, and it got to the stage the Blues after the Skipper queried ”as to why” for about the 3rd or fourth time he ended up walking away shrugging his shoulders, not being able to understand why they were getting absolutely flogged with penalty after penalty! ~ at one stage close to the goal line the Brumbies going forward, the Ref’ dished out 9 penalties in a row against the Blues! ~ I cannot see how the Brumbies could ”hang their hat” on that game! Shocker!

Jakeball style of rugby, that’s exactly how the South Africans won the 2007 World Cup Final, ~ 7 penalties and a dreadful game!

Considering the Brumbies had 16 players on the Field at any one time, they should have won and they did! ~ I don’t know who that so called Referee was, but I have never seen a worse display of Refereeing almost in my lifetime of interest in rugby!

He had absolutely no reasonable idea of the art of Refereeing in the unbiased form and I only hope that some of the Refereeing Hierarchy pick up on that Display and deal to that guy! ~ It was never Refereeing, it was a nondescript excuse for adjudication of the game! ~ When one side gets penalised 11 times on the trot more or less for the same movement and an All Black front rower got yellow carded for not ”pushing straight” there’s something wrong somewhere! ~ The Captain of the Blues queried a few times ”as to what that penalty was for and it got to a stage they were scared to play in case they for some reason or other they incurred the wrath from this Clown Referee! ~ It was a disgusting display and as I mentioned earlier, I hope that guy as a so called Referee gets nobbled for all it’s worth, ~ Shocker to say the least and the Blues for having to try and play through that rubbish, played well and should if it have been Reffed’ correctly and fairly, would’ve won that game, they weren’t allowed to play!

Israel Folau is nothing but trouble and he has proved he can’t keep his Homophobic beliefs to himself and when he obviously feels the urge he posts something that he was warned by Aussie’ Rugby after his previous episode, not to do again and he promised the CEO of OZ Rugby that he wouldn’t and also promising that if things become untenable between Him and the CEO rather than hurt the game in Australia, that he’d walk away! He hasn’t walked yet, and is appealing the dismissal notice so he’s a Fibber too, which in his own beliefs is a crime so he’s going to have to repent on that also!~ It is a breach of trust thing with a proviso attached which he’s scorned, so he surely in a very sackable position!

This Folau thing has caused immeasurable problems and bad blood has been created between not only rugby players and supporters everywhere but the Joe Blow in the street, as it’s in every newspaper, rugby Forum, Facebook, Instagram and most media sport reporting mediums everywhere, not only in our area, but the News World in general! ~ Everybody is heartily sick of it as it got to the stage now that some Wallaby players have refused to play with Folau in any team whatsoever, then surely it must get to a point that Teams whoever they may be will refuse to play against any Team whose lineup he may be in!
He has to go but he’s not going peacefully which means this ridiculous saga is here for a while yet! He should just walk as no Rugby Team wants him so seeing as he’s told a few Fibs’ and hasn’t done as he promised, ~ The ”Old Fulla Upstairs” may be a tad off with him for transgressing anyway!

For reasons known only by the Australian Rugby Hierarchy at the inquiry into the first episode of Homophobic utterings by Folau, they warned and insisted that he the Player guarantee to them the Australian Rugby that any so called Homophobic rants making it into the Public Arena of any type by him, he would be dismissed immediately!

The Australian Rugby Top Brass then offered him an extension to his current contract to the tune of Four Million Dollars and issued the above directive on the issue of his dismissal if it happened again!

Folau them made the statement (whether it was written down, I’m unsure of), that if his Beliefs became difficult and worrisome to Rugby Australia in the future, that he would walk away from ”His Contract and Rugby in totality” meaning he’d forgo his Wallaby Contract and anything monetary pertaining to it!

He has not walked away from his current contract as said by him, after embarrassing the Rugby Australia Board and it’s members signifying dishonesty on his part!

Seeing as he has repeated what he promised A.R. he would not do, he has broken his promise and therefore should forego anything monetary as spoken by himself as agreed by both Parties, ~ It could be asked as to why he has not done as he said he would, and that is ”walk away from Rugby Australia and his monetary Contract” instead of appealing the case, surely in legality he hasn’t got a leg to stand on providing all the wordings from his previous disciplinary encounter have been recorded!

He has abused a condition that being dishonesty, so it could be wondered as to what his Keeper thinks of this blatant case of dishonesty!

Surely he does not have a case in his favour whatsoever!

“I was really happy when I broke my ankle as it was Gods punishment to me for getting a big head”!

You’d have to wonder where this guy is coming from, never heard such tripe!

Just Nuisance< Exactly correct as put! Folau was most certainly tempered by conditions as you say allowing him to freely express himself in the disgusting manner that he has. ~ But he has broken those conditions as set by the Australian Rugby by repeating pretty much what he was told not to! ~So they now have got that licence to sack him! ~ Why is he still on Rugby Australia Books? because the proviso after the last outburst of this disgusting diatribe of his was, ''that he keep his trap shut'' on anything of similar nature or you're history! ~ He is trying the Rugby Australia Board out to see if they are game enough to sack him, But! the original proviso to keep his trap shut has been dishonoured, so he is, or should be well and truly down the road! Aussie' Rugby weren't game to do it last time because they thought that he was the be all and end all of Australian Rugby, Holier than Thou in other words! ~ Player capability for retention of one player regardless, so he should not even be here since the previous episode, Aussie Rugby has no one but themselves to blame! ~ Good riddance to him for bringing the game into disrepute, and it should be understood that ""no one player is bigger that the game", and Israel Folau does not a 15 man game of rugby make!

Worry not about Aaron Smith’s form of late as he was no different to any other All Black player, ~ he had a lot of hard and extremely tough rugby before he ever went on that Northern tour, and in fact he certainly wasn’t the only one,`~ because I don’t remember so many All Black Players playing as much woeful and inept rugby as they did in that Irish game, it showed as the uncharacteristic mistakes that were as a rule a given to succeed, didn’t happen!

Take nothing away from the Irish it was a spirited display, but if the All Blacks had played as we all know they can and eliminated just a few of the ridiculous mistakes they as a rule usually take as a norm, and play the complete All Black game as normal, that game would no doubt have had a very different result! ~ Ireland did only win by 6 points did they not?

They will all be semi resting right now and will shortly be into Camp preparing for the Big One next year hopefully all fit and raring to go!

Bluesfan! Important to get things right mate, as I don’t remember England having ever been one of the strongest Unions or a top team as you suggest!

Far be it for me to disagree with your opinion but it does seem a tad different to most! ~ Th first win by Ireland was nothing much more than an exhibition game at Soldier Field and the All Blacks played with a depleted team indeed, with the seconds playing in most possies’ and the likes of Kaino had to play at lock, so I really don’t rate that game much at all, ~ Of course the Kiwi’s eventually arrived in Ireland and took the pants off the Irish in the next game and were and still are being accused of ”thuggish and brutal win at all costs rugby”; ~ The last game I would imagine one could say the Irish played the tactical game better and after the game Joe Schmidt admitted that he as a rule watches most of the Super games and ITM rugby, so they’ve copied the Kiwi’s and at the end of the day they only won by a converted try! ~ In those two wins, the Irish took 105 years to get them playing the All Blacks!

Danny! Good post mate, but I really don’t think that Ted Henry could be altogether blamed for that debacle in 2007 and I imagine you’d be aware of the absolute reason they did “LOSE” against France!

That game was an absolute ‘travesty’ of justice, and surely something could have, should have, been done about the result of that game immediately if not sooner after the final whistle!

16 Penalties against the All Blacks and none against the French, in the second half alone, then that at least 2 and a half metre forward pass by Michalak to the try scorer that won them the game, ~ When that forward pass was thrown forward, the South African Touchie’ (Top International Referee whose name escapes me) was running along the touch directly alongside that ridiculous forward pass and never called it or even mentioned it!

Possibly the most annoying aspect coming out of that Quarter Final loss was the fact that the Kiwis were starting to hit their straps and were playing well, but that made no difference to Mr Barnes the Referee who was canned from Refereeing Internationals for quite a period of time because of the substandard adjudication of that game but, the All Blacks were to have played the Bok’s next had they won against France and the Boks weren’t playing very well at all, remembering of course they were playing the Jakeball style of game and we’ll never know but, I doubt those Springboks 0f 2007 would have beaten the All Blacks had they played, but as theoretical as it is I opine and always have that the All Blacks in a Mickey Mouse sense, were robbed of that Trophy because the Springboks ended up winning by that dreadful Jake White style of kicking seven penalties for 21 points, and I doubt very much that the All Blacks would have allowed that to happen!

So I have never blamed Ted Henry for that loss, as it was beyond his control when the very incidents happened as they did!

Regardless, Blues Fan, ~ I’d have Hansen as Coach of my International side any old time at all, I know of none better, including Schmidt who admitted he ogled the games played by the New Zealanders on a regular basis, ~ Forget the Wales thing, it was probably only a gaining experience thing for him, and once Ted’ retired he was a natural fit and has the best record of any International Coach/Team on the Planet!

Steve Hansen was very much his own man and was never ever afraid to drop or add a player regardless of whom that player may be, it made no difference whatsoever!

Not at all sure who’ll take over after the World Cup, but Joe Schmidt will be there eventually the NZRugby Powers that be have tried and have been knocked back, (tried to get him back after Wayne Smith retired but Schmidt declined) ~ the NZRugby wants Schmidt come hell or high water so I’d say it’d be only a matter of time! ~ The Possie in the interim could be very interesting and if the general rule of appointing the Coach of NZRugby International side would indicate that Foster would get the job! ~ But it seems as if the Kiwi rugby Hierarchy are a tad cool on that idea! ~ Knowing Hansen as the ”snake in the grass” type that he is, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if he hangs on till Schmidt feels his sabbatical is up meaning he’d drop in as Coach and Hansen drop out, all with each others blessing!

Geronimo!!!! Australian Rugby Coaching woes could be over, as Steve Hansen is loose after the next World Cup and they should perhaps throw the Cheque book at him,!

He’d be a good fit as his Coaching credentials are not bad, bit of a task master though!

Gloria! ~ ”The Kiwi sides put under some pressure in attack with trademark Cooper flair and variation” ~ I like your optimism but Quade Cooper has never had any one of those attributes you mention, never ever! ~ You must have him mixed up with another player because Cooper doesn’t do any of that he never has, he’s like Beale, dances on the spot for about 12 seconds then runs sideways towards the sideline and when some big burly opposition player rocks up and looks like he’s going to be tackled. he shovels the ball on to someone else to take the tackle! ~ And as for bringing interest to the game and drawing crowds with entertaining play as you say, I have yet to see that either!

Nothing wrong with being optimistic though!

Waxhead ~ If I was Cheika I would be miffed if my career was hinging on a decision made by one Cameron Clyne, ~ He should be down the road himself!

Hulk! I don’t remember Quade ”ripping into” anything , he usually plants himself in behind the backline somewhere to avoid the dangerous art of having to tackle or be tackled

Wouldn’t have him anywhere near an International Team!!

Bison!! We all know that Cheika is a problem but he is but a small cog in a long chain and the complete Rugby Australia is Broken badly and that’s not he or Raelene Castles fault, ~ the problem lies very much deeper and it appears that Clyne is a puppet of those running and organising that very deep system!

Castle if she beat over 200 applicants for the job she now has certainly can never be regarded as a fool, but did she or did she not know the system as it is now with the voting set up as it is?, as I’d suggest if she did, she needed to have her head examined, ~ it’s so toxic!

TWAS! Rugby has always more or less been a niche Sport here in OZ! But we all know that it could have a far better following than it does now, because we also know that it has had a reasonable following, but!!!!

Who at the end of the day is the complete Australian Rugby answerable to? ~ or are they whoever they may be just turning a blind eye,?

Could it so happen the SANZAAR or the World Rugby would be able to step in here because whatever way you look at the structural set up with two Unions holding the Trump Card it’s just wrong, so very wrong!

TWAS! ~ You’ve just told me something that I was unaware of! ~ If the State Unions have that sort of power it’s no wonder that Rugby is in the state it is!

That sort of carryon is for the Dark Ages and it surprised me when you mentioned it, boy that’s saying something about Aussie’ Rugby at it’s worst, ~ The whole system obviously needs a major overhaul with changing of the Rugby Constitution a major priority! No wonder rugby in Australia does not function properly!

Exactly, ~ And what would it take to organise and implement that very plan?, centralise the system and take all that said power away from the NSW an Queensland Unions and make every State Rugby organisation answerable to the Powers that Be of the Aussie Rugby, presuming of course these clowns are removed holus, bolus, and if necessary install a Caretaker Board to operate things in the interim, nullify this nonsense of all power to two Rugby States as that system is all so very, very, wrong!