Ben, if you don’t like scrums maybe you should be watching the other form of Rugby. Union without scrums is not Rugby at all.
Trying to force teams to play the same homogenous style that is “entertaining” will be the death of rugby. Teams should be able to trundle out 8 behemoths and force penalties if that is their style conversely you can choose to play more dynamic players to find holes around those same behemoths but run the risk come scrum time. It’s the beauty of rugby with teams being know for traditional strengths.
Don’t like kick tennis? Well your team can choose to run it back.
Embrace the game and enjoy it or move on. Fairly simple.

A move to Leinster would be amazing for him. World Class coaching in one of the best teams on the planet. Always felt Tupou was incredible on the open field but lacked some of the finer skills when actually doing what he was meant to do – scrum. Seemed to get shown up by world class opposition time and again. Being in Leinster will sort that out as he is clearly a beast with some incredible skill. They’ll teach him those finer points and I see him becoming a top 5 prop on the planet.

I really don’t see the point of bringing Whitelock in. If it was a Worldcup year yes, you could nurse a guy through to a final and ask him for one more big effort. But in a rebuilding phase now what is the benefit of having him there? If you’re wanting him there to mentor some younger players bring him in as a lineout consultant. Can’t see Razor being so insecure about his position and worried about losing. Better to get moving with the next generation of cattle and bedding them in. See who’s got it and who doesn’t and can have a team ready to go by 2027.

French Rugby is the most crooked in world (Laporte).
How much more of a leg up did they need for that QF. Playing in front of a patriotic home crowd with a ref appointed by a frenchman.
One of the best QF’s in worldcup history.
Googles needs to let it go.

I disagree with this article. Looking at that list only enforces the opinion that there is no depth.
No world class props or hooker in that list (yes I include Tupou).
Only lock that could his put his hand up is Skelton and he’s not even top 5 in the world.
Loose forwards are average at best. No quality blindside in sight and 8th men are average at best.
Out of all the backs Kerevi (purely on reputation) and Koroibete (good but every country has good wings now) are the only ones who put their names up.
Fortunately rugby is played by a team of 15. A team of solid 15 players can still achieve success but it’s going to be tough against the like of NZ, South Africa, France and Ireland.

Sinking ship, these lads need to look after themselves and grab whatever contracts they can.

ARU needs to loosen the restrictions and select Wallabies from overseas. Players will be getting world class coaching globally and it doesn’t cost the ARU a cent whilst they try consolidate their funds.

After that, do their best to extricate themselves from Super Rugby and start a domestic competition. No one wants to watch their team get pumped by kiwi teams every year and a domestic competition will hide the mediocrity of the current class of Australian domestic rugby. Take a page from the NBL, it’s nowhere near the level of NBA but everyone enjoys it because they’re not getting hammered by American teams but playing locally and it’s all even. Aussie rugby should follow suit.
Once people have a local team to follow that has half a chance of winning a final they’ll watch. The best players playing overseas get selected for the Wallabies and hopefully they can start winning some games again.

All indications point to next years Lions tour being a fiasco. Was looking forward to this but current situation you’d bet on Wallabies going down 3-0. Wallabies wouldn’t beat Ireland let alone adding talent from the Home Nations.
Maybe once the Lions have it wrapped up at 2-0 they’ll give the reserves a run in the final match and we can scrape a win.
Sad state of affairs.

Jake White would be a good fit. He has made no secrets about wanting to coach internationally and the Wallabies can only have an upward projection. A lions tour and home WC would be good carrots to dangle.
He has a good reputation for building a culture (sorely needed in the Wallaby camp) and surrounding himself with very good assistants (will bring in Aussie talent that will lead to good experience for Australian coaches). Also spent some years with the Brumbies so already knows the Aussie culture. It would be good to have a coach that will bring an abrasiveness / tough edge to the Wallabies that has been missing since George Smith.

So if a player carrying the ball drops their height into the tackle or crouches over to drive into the tackle it makes it nearly impossible to make a legal tackle. What about if they’re in the act of diving to the try line? Can’t stop that either!
What about holding the player up to force a turnover?
This all just amounts to a bunch of rubbish. You want to play rugby, these are the risks, go have fun. Don’t like the risks go play tennis or golf.

Having watched rugby at a few footy ovals now I’d say it has to be a rectangular, purpose built, stadium. The atmosphere at an oval can’t compare and you just feel distant from the game.

He has an over-inflated opinion of himself because he used to run over everyone in school boy rugby. Reality is there is a significant list of tight head props ahead of the ‘Tongan Thor’

For sure: Tadhg Beirne, Itoje, Mostert, Snyman, Etzebeth, Jean Kleyn, Barret and Retallick would all be in my team before Skelts.

We’ve got the backs for sure, Wallabies problem is not a shortage of good backs but a lack of quality forwards. There’s not one Wallaby forward that you’d select in the top 3 of their position in the world.
With the amount of South Africans living in Aus now you’d think we’d be able to cobble a half decent pack together but nope.
You need a good tight 5 and a great blindside that can carry over the advantage line. Until we find that we’ll keep being rubbish.

If you don’t like scrums and mauls go watch league. Simple.
Rugby is growing globally so clearly people are liking the spectacle. Leave the scrums and mauls alone it’s what makes our game what it is.

After reading your wing selection I was getting ready to write a comment about “What how can you leave Boffeli out, doesn’t even get a mention!” then you put him at 15 and I was happy again :).

Can’t argue with this list.

Australia vs Argentina??? Huh there’s another game this weekend other than the Boks vs AB’s 😊

Well next year is the Wallabies best chance in ages with a draw sent from the Rugby Gods themselves. As for Hoops I’ve felt he has one of the biggest engines in world rugby possibly only rivalled by Pieter Steph Du Toit. Great player with loads of heart but a bit off form this year so far.

He’ll probably go on to be Australia most capped player and possibly even beat Alun Wyn Jones for most capped player ever but George Smith he will never be – Australia’s greatest openside (yes even better than Pocock)

Wallabies have decent props, probably none you’d select in a world xv, but they’d be getting close. They can hold their own against some of the best in the world. I’d say what’s letting the Gold scrum down is not numbers 1-3 but rather numbers 4 & 5. When one compares the power that other countries are getting from the second row in their scrums it’s surprising that the wallaby scrum isn’t getting blown more often. South Africans have almost gotten used to scrums being a gimme penalty for them such is the quality of their tight five and it’s a shock when you see another country dominate them in an occasional scrum. Commentators for the wallabies seem to get excited when they manage to just have a stable scrum let alone a dominant one. After all these years immigration surely by now there must be enough biltong chugging Saffers living in country to lock up the aussie scrum?

Scrums: Leave as competitive. If you don’t like scrums and scrum penalties watch league. I would say go old school – get rid of the ref at scrums – no more touchy feely – your ball your call. Dominant scrum gets a penalty if they walk all over you, fair enough.
Lineouts: let teams have as many or few in the line out as they want. No need to match numbers or even have a scrum half. This removes the pointless free kick. Also if the throw wasn’t straight and the other team didn’t jump let it go, they chose not to compete.
Penalty Advantage: Once you’ve advanced 10m advantage over.
Knock-on advantage: roughly 15s of play then over.
Get rid of: goal line drop outs for held up in goal, I thought the point was to see more try, it favours the team under pressure far too much. 50:22 it’s just another rule spectators have to learn.
New card: yellow for minor items as current. Red for head collisions etc, player is gone for the match but replaced after 10 minutes. Black card for punching, biting, gouging etc. player is gone and can’t be replaced.
Ref to get stricter on offside: this opens up more space for attacking team.
Enforce the “use it” 5 seconds or free kick to the other team.

Highlander, I hope I’m not right 😊 . This is not out of some innate dislike for the All Blacks but rather I looked at the World Rugby rankings this morning and is it not wonderful to see the top 8, based on current form, being able to knock each other over on any given day. This can only be good for rugby globally, having multiple teams being able to compete, I for one have never seen as much global competitiveness as I have now.

I’m not an AB supporter by any means but I believe watch next year – they will be back. In 2009 the All blacks were completely outplayed. 2010 there was a correction and they went on to hold the no.1 ranking for a thousand years (or so it seems) winning back to back world cups. Sometime losing is a good thing as it makes you aware of your faults. I am often bemused how AB supporters feel like the sky is falling down whenever they drop a few a games. Your team is too classy not to rise again.

I found the timing of the findings interesting. In a build up week to their final test this will surely hamper their preparations. It’s been months since the video surely the panel could have held out a few more days to publish their findings.

I think something would be missing from rugby if it ever were banned.

I Like Hoops getting the nod onto the list, him and Pieter Steph du Toit probably have the biggest engines in world rugby… but is he the best player in the world? Unfortunately I don’t think so doesn’t deserve the win but nice to see him getting recognition on the list.
Kerevi, (and Koroibete) is definitely a world class player but didn’t even play all his games for the wallabies and shouldn’t be on the list for this reason (besides getting pumped by NZ 3 times)
Itoje ahead of Eben Etzebeth is laughable.
Dupont is very exciting and nice to watch leave him on the list.
Also why can’t we have a prop on the list?!!! There have been some epic battles at scrum time and sheer dominance, I get they aren’t flashy but they win games.

Whilst I’d love a WC here in Aus I expect this will be awarded to the US. World Rugby will be able to knock off two birds with one stone, giving it to a region outside of the European time zone and a developing rugby nation. The subsequent one Aus will have no chance as it will be in the European time zone again for maximum income, probably the French who will simply buy another WC again.