I will be interested to see how sth Africa goes moving forward. I might be off the mark here but many of those players that now ply their trade overseas have played for the Boks for a long time, and would have played together in super rugby sides. And so have a pretty good cohesion from this past experience. This would not really be the case if you selected an in form international Wallabies team. I think south Africa may be in the same boat soon enough when senior players move on. They will be trying to gel together players from all over the shop with a fairly short turn around who have not played for the same club ever. This is where Ireland succeeds they come together quickly as they have played so much rugby together.

I reckon your dead on here Jacko, also lets not forget… we actually haven’t started loosing as yet. And another thing…. all this whitelock is a tough bugger and we need that otherwise we are doomed…… ah pretty sure he was on the field when we were loseing to Aregentina, Ireland, France and the rest. I mean he’s an absolute legend of the game and one of the AB’s best ever, but you can’t have i both ways them boys were all about when the records were tumbling and everyone was saying they were past it. Now a few years on and they are saying we need them back, unless I’m seriously mistaken thats not how time works.

I can’t recall the young 22 year old Whitelock being such a hard bastard back then. perhaps we just have younger players who need a bit more time, Josh Lord comes across as a guy who will get there, Fabian Holland too.

Great breakdown Geoff, I always enjoy reading through whilst sipping a monday morning Coffee. I was super impressed with the Hurricanes, to make so many changes and still play with such cohesion says a lot about the coaching group and senior players. to be fair a lot of that group was brought in under Jason Holland so that is not to say it is all the current coaching group. Still there must be something to Clarke Laidlaw as success really seems to follow him about.

Good call on the Catherine of wales business to all those writing endless speculative pieces you would hope they have their heads down right now, or better yet have the courage to come out and apologies. Though I disagree with your assumption that the palace could have helped matters by being more forthcoming with what is going on with her health. This assertation that good information can head of hurtful speculation is just not the world we live in.

Interesting I didn’t even think about the eligibility business

I’m with you Jacko, and Dan below. he is a big athletic and aggressive lock. Young too. I would not be surprised at all to see him in the AB’s this year. There was a young guy playing for the blues this weekend just been Beehre who looked pretty good too.
One other I would add also from the highlanders who i thought looked the goods was Connor Garden Bachop – he is quick and elusive and seemed to have a bit of ball playing about him.

Fruitpicker, a good read thanks.
if the players looking to sue the RFU for damages due to playing rugby loose their case do you think this will change the trajectory of professional rugby as a spectacle?
That if it is decided that the RFU are not liable then will they walk back to some degree the amount of emphasis on tackling low?
And another quick question, the title of the article regarding calling fans bluff, what do you think it would take from a fans action point of view to change the reliance on TMO’s?

Spot on analysis i reckon. the game was a bloody tough watch where core elements of what make up rugby were simply non existent. this is papered over by the fact the game was close at the end and so many rugby commentators are based in the UK. but really taken on balance very poor rugby. though the weather was pretty bad.
I’m interested in how fresh this boks squad is going in to the final, they have played against a lot of high quality opposition this tournament, do you think they have much gas in the tank Spiro? will this make a difference or do you get you for a world cup final no matter what?

you can’t help but feel that England and France particularly have really underperformed during world cups given their player resources and rugby culture etc. France really should have one by now. There is a bloke “N H fan” or something like that who writes a bit on here some interesting and well thought out stuff about the strength of the game in the north and how super rugby is dead etc. But 9 out of 10 world cups suggests despite overwhelming player numbers and finance something is not lining up. a lot of these players have big game experience in the European cup etc, which are pretty intense atmospheres. Are there any other reasons you think that northern hemisphere nations are so terribly represented in the world cups? Too many clubs and meaning a lack of cohesion?

ha ha ha simples mate as per above.

The gesture from Ione is something he does after every try. Sexton and O’Mahoney are ones to give opponents a bit of lip, as are plenty of the AB’s, and I’m sure they gave the NZ boys plenty when they were down in NZ and won the series last time round. I’d not get too worried about such things. I think that interaction between Joe Schmidt and Sexton’s son is where it is at. You could also see with Bundee at the end there these teams know and respect each other. these interactions show a far clearer picture of the relationship of the two sides, fierce competition and respect. When the final whistle was blown both sides were very complimentary of each other with a good deal of the NZ players and coaching staff at pains to point out what a player Jonny has been.

4 cracking games of rugby. was it just me, and i certainly am not being negative here, but did you notice a drop off in the second half of the Sth Africa France game? the first half was absolutely frantic with what felt like a lot of ball in play time. but i really thought the guys looked out on their feet in the second half. the arrival to set piece seemed to slow and play seemed way less frantic. I reckon south africa goes into this game as heavy favorites but i wonder how much that France victory took out of them.

Yeah there are a few good vets pling their trade in the NPC at the moment which is sure to be helping younger players. Also, it should be said, some good Aussies to boot. The young bloke playing at 9 for Auckland has looked good, as has the Tasman hooker. and Harbour have a good rangy loooking lock running about who I think is an Aussie too.

Yep I agree. It’s probably also worth noting that this is the most even i think the comp has been in years, that is to say this year might well be the exception that proves the rule rather than a pointer towards a trend in this direction. who knows.
I am not really certain where the pathway development side relies, with the super rugby teams or the NPC teams, is there overlap here. I know super rugby sides have development teams also.

I do like to sit down to a good Geoff Parks weekend wrap up on my Monday morning.
Just one thing I do think that this year NPC has shown a bit of a way forward, seems like talent is pretty evenly spread. Other than Manawatu and Southland the other teams are all in with a shot. I have noticed players from many of the larger catchments playing for smaller provinces, Northland have a few and they are looking really good this year.

I don’t get this “Earlier this year Brisbane Broncos star Payne Haas was linked to a huge deal to join rugby union. Except, it wasn’t RA who was chasing Haas rather the NRL star.” so Aus rugby weren’t chasing Hass but were infact chasing Chricton, for not very much money? that sounds odd, surely they were chasing Payne Haas?

Also I see some comments below regarding NRL buying union being a good idea. How would this work, they buy union and then continue to promote it and run it against their own product. The only realistic scenario would be for them to buy then close it down. And so RA gets x amount of dollars but there is no rugby in Australia?

Hamish is finding out that, finally, that words are cheap, results are what matter in professional sports. There is only so long the marketing guy can paper over these cracks. Interesting that he brings up Dave Rennies win rate, I’d be staying well clear of that at the moment.

Yeah mate it could definitely be streamlined, though perhaps the Brook example above is a bit too streamline ha ha ha. On a side note what a cool story shows how much rugby has changed. I love them anecdotes from the old days of rugby, and Robin Brook no less the man was a legend.

Does this strike anybody else as an absolutely insane way to allocate resources for a sport that is desperately tryin to expand. I don’t get even get the use of lawyers etc. how many hours and how much money has been spent on this whole expedition, its not like its that hard. get one independent review panel of say 12 people that have a decent understanding of the game and come from diverse background take a quick look at the tape a they can go, yeah looks like 4 weeks. You’ve got the Wallaroos coming out and saying they aint getting sh*t from RA ( I know this is an entirely different bucket of money) but I bet anyone, honestly i mean anyone, could come up with better ways to spend money than this. You could wake me up after 2 hours of sleep on the back of a 2 day bender and i could give you at least 8 ways that these funds could be allocated more appropriately for the betterment of rugby. This whole kerfuffle with lawyers and QC’s all of this business’ its honestly just a bunch of people looking to make money by making the whole thing way more complicated than it needs to be. IT’S A TACKLE IN RUGBY! yeah it weas high, yeah he’s done it before… 4-6 weeks.. done. Seriously its like popping down to the dairy to grab 2 L of milk and rocking up to the counter with a negotiator when it comes time to pay. then walking away with the milk and only paying a buck 90 and congratulating yourself on following a fair and equitable process in which due process can clearly seen to be adhered to. Pay your 2 bucks / cop your 4 weeks …… then get back to playing some rugby. In the case of the English it looks like less time in the court room more time practicing catching and passing a rugby ball would be of tremendous benefit.

the wallabies have shipped 74 points in their 2 games under Eddie, they are letting through an average of 37 point per match, and they are playing the AB’s this weekend. So you say okay lets talk about the defense coach… oh he has no experience. alright maybe some questions need to be asked. Oh it’s inappropriate to point out these facts. Cool don’t worry about it then Mr. jones please do continue on. Might want to run it by Mr. Mclennan, thought he said he wanted people talking about rugby again. Well people are talking. I get that if you take the line of thought that Laurie is under the employ of Australian rugby and so should not be commenting on other employees that’s fine. So let me ask it then. What the f*ck is goin on with the defense? while we are at it what the f*ck is going on with he kicking?

I thought Hary brought up an interesting point, that Lawrie agreed with, regarding the lack of comms, or noise, from the Wallabies. This is an important feature in a good kicking strategy, getting info from others in the backline as to where the space is. If you don’t have a that communications identifying space and it is all just left up to one bloke to kick then perhaps this is where the issues are coming from. A lot of them guys haven’t played a huge amount of rugby together so perhaps this will improve naturally with time.
Cracking podcast with Lawrie Fisher also, really intelligent guy clearly who knows a tonne about the game. You don’t realise how much these guys know until you hear them in a long form interview like that.

I agree with Taukeiaho comment, however given the lack of impact we got from the bench last week i wonder if that is why they have him coming off the bench. if you are looking for a big impact in the last 20 mins out of our hookers available Taukeiaho is most likely to give you that lift i expect.
I’d prefer to see Finau off the bench too, i think your thoughts are dead on here… for what its worth 😁

Interesting read. You compare the NZ system and French system, but it might be more accurate in terms of player numbers are resources to compare the Ireland and NZ system. Ireland also have a very good U20 squad (and obviously senior side) what does the Irish system do better than the Kiwi’s at the moment do you think? Also I wonder about comparing the U20’s and drawing direct conclusions to how effective systems are based solely on results here. The NZ team last year was regarded as one of the better ones that had been produced recently, beating Australia 69-12 last year. But this years Australian crop look really good and NZ’s perhaps not so good. It seems a good year of players can come through and change results dramatically. Id contend that last years NZ squad would have done pretty well at a world cup if it had been held.
I’m sure here you will state that if you look at the success of the NH senior sides compared to that currently of the SH sides then their development must be superior, to which I and many others would say…. just hold off perhaps on scribing either France or Ireland’s name on old Bill just yet…. 😂 😂

I agree Tony, but sometime with them one off pick n goes you gotta wonder are all of tackles not head highs?

Great article Lindsay, I’m over the maul too, as soon as its formed the ref is immediately looking for any chance to blow a penalty against the defending side. I notice now they are also penalizing lifting a leg. I remember this being an acceptable way of defusing a maul, but now its considered dangerous. I can’t for the life of me recall ever seeing an injury from this? to me it looks like an attempt to further wrap the mall in armor to make it even more indefensible than it already was.