They’re 6th and their four remaining games are one in Fiji and three against teams higher than them on the ladder. They’ll probably finish with a losing record and it’ll be their highest ever standing. All with a player wage bill its clear they couldn’t afford in the first place. Oh and two other Aussie teams are 11th and 12th. This is not evidence of decent player depth.

Rugby Australia aren’t the gaslighters, Melbourne management are. The Rebels ‘offer’ to RA is basically: “we’ve decided you owe us millions more than you gave to any team plus we want our license back unconditionally and we refuse to produce a business plan on how we can run our business sustainably in exchange for that”. No one in their right mind says yes to that. The Rebels management have failed to run their business well and they are trying to pick a fight, because they can understand a fight. Winning that fight won’t solve any of the problems, but its all they know how to do so they’re doing it anyway.

Most Aussie fans didn’t agree with the Eddie move, that’s dishonest Phil. Most Aussie fans were willing to give it a chance because they support the Wallabies and this was the coach we were given. Most fans I talked to thought Rennie was shafted and the move was knee-jerk and worrying, and then it got more and more pear shaped quick. Also Western Australia was beginning to produce and contribute good SR players and Wallabies, then they got cut. Classic Kearns: a few wise and on the money points muddied by a few selective memories and convenient half truths to try and make his points seem more man of the people.

Love the passion. I hope for the healthy, smart middle ground. I don’t reckon we have to ignore the crap stuff and focus zealously on the good – that’s closing one eye and taking away the depth in our vision. Australian rugby is at its worst when it decides to live in an alternative universe where we’re one good Bledisloe away from being world beaters, and its at its worst when its all doom and gloom. We’ve all seen those two movies and they suck. AR is at its best when its in the smart middle ground. The great wallaby sides of the turn of the century were flexible pragmatists: they knew they had weaknesses and they saw where the opportunities were; they boxed clever, wadded into the s… when they had to and chased the gold when it was there to be chased. Anyone saying we should only believe and celebrate is about to walk off a cliff; anyone saying we’re dead and buried is about to smack into the base of that cliff. Those of us that can deal with the bad whilst keeping an eye out for the good have a chance of scaling the mountain: building something strong and resilient that can steer us slowly and surely towards better days.

Getting rid of the Force rather than the Rebels that year was the worst decision. Rugby showed vision by expanding to Perth over Melbourne, if only they had retained that vision. I want the Rebels to be put out of their misery not to hate on the fans or the city but because I genuinely, honestly believe that will make Aussie rugby stronger. Respect many will disagree. I just don’t believe there is a pathway to consistent success in Melbourne. For now concentrate the talent more on four sides and aim to have rugby thriving in Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth. Imagine in ten years being able to say rugby union is going gangbusters in those four cities – what an improvement on where we are today. Worry about Melbourne after Australian rugby has engineered a generation of sustained success based out of the places better set up for it to succeed over the next few years.

Writing 96 names of decent players doesn’t dispel anything. New Zealand, France, England, South Africa and others could write much longer lists of players of similar or better quality. Depth is relative, and once you account for form, injury, player development and wear and tear, this isn’t a number that shows Aussie rugby’s cup runeth over at all. “This will only happen if Australian players and coaches start pulling their weight by getting results.” Such an easy thing to write, but this can be rewritten more frankly and honestly: all the Aussie SR sides need to do is consistently beat teams that have a larger number of better players. Some clever gymnastics done in this article by a fairly skilled writer, but you’re still arguing water flows uphill. I want to see Aussie rugby thrives – pretending left is right cos you want it to be isn’t what will get us there. Aussie rugby does have some great talent coming through AND it’s pipeline is thin in places and most of it’s biggest competitors have better, deeper pipelines and have for a while. That doesn’t need to be true forever, but pretending it isn’t right now doesn’t help deal with the situation in the way realists like Horne and Schmidt will.

Forecast looks grim.

Shades of their unconvincing performance against Wales in the semis in 2019 before they took it up ten gears for the final.

I find it kinda surreal how many people just don’t believe Rassie isn’t the sole decision maker. So many “Rassie pulled Manie” comments on socials and in articles.

To give a bit of balance: SA is 1-1 under O’Keefe this tournament after the Irish loss. It’s not really interesting he is appointed to this game after also doing their quarterfinal if you think about it. It was inevitable. Of the stated top 4, Barnes and Raynal (if England make the final) are the two likely Final refs being held back from the semi round and Jaco is injured. BO’K is last man standing and he can’t do the ABs match. You may disagree with him being a top 4 ref (and maybe I do too), but we all know WR currently have him rated there. So he always gets appointed to this specific match.

They were outcoached but not ambushed. I was a kiwi living in London through the last cycle and barely a week went by during a Six Nations or Autumn Internationals week when England didn’t mention “when we play the All Blacks on 26 October 2019”. Didn’t have to check the date, heard it so many times it is etched in the brain. That’s why it was their WC final performance AND why the next week was such a step down. The ABs knew that, they just did a bad job of dealing with it. They picked a third lock specifically to compete at lineout and win the gain line battle, then badly lost them both. Just cos you get beat doesn’t mean you didn’t see it coming.

Best way to make it not a banana skin? Pick a few players who would be desperate. Its been said: the quarters were the highest standard ever – humans just can’t perform at that level three weeks in a row. Lomax has been injured – start Laulala and use Tyrell as a finisher. The ABs have often started Coles against Argies as he is well suited to fighting fire with fire to their latin niggle. Bring in Sam. Bring in Dalton and use Sam as a finisher. Not because the Pumas deserve a B team, but because that is the best way to keep performance levels elite. Those fresh starters would be hungry for a WC semi and desperate to put their hand up for the final 23.

Shot answer is because its only a simple fix from an Australia only perspective. I’d be open to two full rounds, but you’d be effectively telling New Zealand they had to shut down their national provincial championship, which is where their top players play for the other half of the season. That’s a big difference between the two: when Aus players not playing SR they’re playing vastly lower level rugby; when NZ players not playing SR they’re playing rugby one reasonable but not massive step down that prepares them well for SR. If NZ got on board with making SR the whole season, let’s go, but if Aus rugby wants them to do that they’ve got to be aware that they are asking NZ rugby to pay a price they are not having to pay themselves and enter adult negotiations. And yes, I accept NZ rugby has not covered itself in glory negotiating with Aus either. This is the time for both to get their acts together.

Probably is. 2011 quarters were pretty awesome. Wales beating Ireland, France and Aus upsetting Eng and SA, and then Argies giving NZ an almighty fright, but this is a level above that. Just wish the big quarters were semis. If the hosts had been knocked out seven days before the final (a fairer reflection of their place in the world order) rather than two weeks, it would have kept the passion and energy of the tournament up better.

To be fair its actually really strange given they’ve won so many titles between them that this would be only the second time SA and NZ have meet in the final. With all the supremacy France have had in the last few years at U20 this feels like delaying rather than defeating the shift of power to the North.

Don’t hate that idea. Knows Aussie rugby pretty well and has been coaching against top European teams with some success.

I find it bemusing that those outside New Zealand see that POM quote as some iconic, epic sledge, that was super sharp and original. Sam has literally been told he’s a s*** Richie every week of his life since he was 20 years old – it was a tired decade old dad joke. The local response was essentially “Really Peter, long flight over here and you couldn’t come up with something fresher than that? It was about as witty as telling an Aussie to put another shrimp on the barbie.

I believe if Foster was to win the world cup he would effectively be granted a pass mark by most kiwis. He would not be celebrated, or wanted back, and he would retain vocal detractors for decades and constant references to ‘worst X since Foster’s ABs in 202Y’, BUT he would be seen as having been able to get the big prize which is not to be sneezed at. He cannot achieve the outcome of being regarded as an actual successful ABs coach even if they romped to the title. Many would say the world cup was won in spite of him rather than because of, but it would be generally agreed a tenure that finished with a world cup victory could not be considered an outright failure either.

I disagree. I have every faith Eddie would not listen to all players of all backgrounds equally.

Am I the only one who finds this go to defense of Eddie that he “works hard” a little weak? Surely that is the minimum expectation rather than a compelling argument he is world class. What players are going to be other than complimentary of the current coach. He was world class, but Brighton was eight years ago, his best run with England seven years ago, and a lot of mediocrity followed his trips to the WC finals in ’03 and ’19.

I’d like to see him try and think there is a chance he’ll be thinking he’s achieved what he needs to in league. However, just stating the reasons its a bad idea doesn’t make them less true. “We’ll give him a good run in” doesn’t really change the fundamental truth in the reasons why it probably won’t work. Also Benji is just one guy – transitioning into a world class 10 from years outside rugby has literally never happened ever – saying “well there were reasons it didn’t work for Benji” doesn’t change the fact no player in the history of the game has ever done it successfully at this sort of age. Just like no team as green as these Wallabies having ever succeeded at a world cup didn’t mean they definitely wouldn’t, but hey – whaddya know – they didn’t. I reckon they should give it a shot AND I reckon it clearly probably won’t work.

Because his body is bashed up and union play far fewer games so he could improve his health and extend his career. He could also then reskill himself to go and do and couple of seasons in Japan later on making much better money.

I thought the tunnel was what they used to redirect the money from grass roots to buying another league player…?

He’s 63 years old and convinced he’s the smartest guy in the room. He’s not going to change, he’s going to do what he always does: double down. Australian rugby has two choices: 1) stick with him exactly as he is, or 2) make the change.

McKellar would be great but he hasn’t even started his first season with Leicester yet. Knowing the man, he’d consider it dishonorable to walk out on them so soon. They’d also charge Aus rugby the earth as they’ve just let Borthwick go to England a few months ago.