Just need Bristol to do a number on Quins tomorrow and bottom 3 teams will have beaten top 3 teams all in the same round ????

JB at 12 maybe? (where he started, before prob Laumape selection got him switched to W/FB)
Then QT at 13 not RI, and BB at 15 with RM at 10

Dangerous runners from backfield
Players in position in midfield
Passer at 10 (not that BB isn’t a good passer, though RM maybe has an edge here?)

a bit of screaming at the tv when he dummied and went inside 🤢 might have made it 17-3

I wondered about that first try too as first tv replay angle from behind SA looked suspect and i thought deserved another look, was it forward off Arendse, was it off his head, etc.

However, second replay angle from behind NZ shows BB up with two hands trying to knock it back.

Who touched it and who didn’t isnt clear though, tough one to call from the armchair.

Disappointingly true

NH club tactics around multi-phase possession and manipulation of defence (not all, but think Leinster, Ulster, Glasgow, Quins, Northampton, La Rochelle, Toulouse) are increasingly visible in their Test team playbooks.

Pick&go and one-out passes off successive rucks are still imprinted in SA team psyches though, while NH teams playing second passes from rucks or out-the-back pass from first and second pods are making more line breaks.

Organised, disruptive defences contesting breakdowns quickly and aggressively (URC semi-finals, EC final …. all Irish losses) have proved effective at breaking the build-up of phases on attack. SA (only just) ticked this box vs Wales, NZ didn’t manage to vs Ireland.

However, neither SA nor NZ play a multi-phase defence-manipulation gameplan and i suspect it will be more of same-old, same-old … SA with a full court press defence and kick-chase attack relying on opposition errors to score, NZ attacking via the tight-loose ruck spaces but relying more on counter-attack into disoriented defences, where few teams can live with them, for their points.

Cant wait for it…

You ever heard of ‘la peña baiona’… ? Sung by Bayonne fans waiting for the teams to run on

Raises hairs on the back of your neck and from the comments it seems most other French clubs fans love it too

Great article Harry 👍

Harry … GSTQ may be the official anthem of the UK, but youre a rare man to be saying its Scotland’s national anthem.

Or simply fishing … 🙂

Youre not wrong billies, its a self-funding cycle

More matches in Eur make more money and club owners wont agree to fewer matches as they dont want to lose cash. Meanwhile SH unions agree to smaller comps with fewer teams, fewer matches, making less moolah.

I know SANZAAR vs EPCR is not a like for like comparison because distance, but MLR seems to be making a decent fist of long-distance, multi timezone comp (OK smaller than SR, but in a non-rugby country with ~ 2k crowds) … would be interesting to know how profitable it is.

Yep… in a ~40 week season, top division Euro-based players play 20-25 club games, allowing for rotation/injury/etc, while top SR players will get 11-12 franchise games over a similar length season

Outside of the 30-odd test playing squad, the other 150 premier players in Aus dont even have NRC to fall back on now.

25 years ago, Eur club leagues were basically same as Shute Sh or QP, and they organised/argued/fought/created amongst themselves full-season professional leagues and short cross-border comps. These now pull in plenty of the best, and next-best, players globally.

If SR isnt financially sustainable, and ARC/NRC has failed twice, is it time to consider the impossible “it’ll never work” option of state RUs and RA governing body pulling together a 5-10 year roadmap to exit SR and for Aus club rugby to become more than a sideshow, and be THE show?

Good one Harry Jones!

Given the consensus on importance of the coach to a RWC win, which team really has the edge? Foster/Rennie/Nienaber/Jones each have questions over their style, tactics, selections… what about Galthie? Farrell? Both IRE/FRA picking up momentum in last 12-18 months… something else to throw into the mix?

Great to read some analysis that centres on a topic unrelated to Wallabies, ABs, Boks or SR…
¡¡Gracias chico!! 👍

Relative to their national games, Arg/Jpn prob lost the most from their SR exit and gained the least during Covid isolations. Alongside them, while other top10 countries’ professional club comp schedules all took a hammering, these two had the least to fall back on. I would say their test teams’ performances are a lagging indicator of this, the lack of cohesion and coordination of the top 50 players in the country compared to any of the other top countries.

Have never seen leading WR as a particularly stressful job 😊 …

Yeah, fair argument to keep him at 15 and ABs have previous for dubious results when switching players out of position to accommodate the wealth of backline talent coming on, but didn’t JB play 12 at school? Am sure I’ve that read recently…

Canes had Laumape there while JB was breaking into the side so prob made sense to fit him in at 14/15 instead of losing him, but having lost Laumape and while AB midfield is still unsettled, an EOYT to give him a run or 2 at 2nd-five, while DMac/BB cover 15 might be worth a shot, 2 years out from RWC?

Not short of ‘cool’ names to say in your own teams though… Akira Ioane, Hoskins Sotutu, Karl Tu’inukuafe (which looks a mouthful but sounds very smooth when he says it himself) … not to mention Du Plessis Kirifi!! 😊

Can’t be the only one, though I remember Ronan O’Gara suggested some time ago switching direction and touring to SH in Nov and to NH in July instead, which made sense. Players traveling overseas at end of season isn’t ideal, rather go mid-season and then play tour matches in late spring, not almost winter.

Also, WR is a non-profit org and are quite toothless tbf. Certainly not able to rein in the LNR/Top14 & Premiership Rugby to follow a ‘global vision’ for new calendar. It has to be financially worthwhile for the leagues to change anything and i suspect URC with CVC/RocNation involved may become more difficult to influence too.

Not sure what a global final each year outside of RWC solves though?

Not shooting arrows at you, but WR’s remit is to grow the game globally. Seems would be better to support the regional test champs in Asia, Africa, Americas, etc rather than have more test matches where just top 10-12 play each other?

Some good ideas there, but is it a compelling case for going from 4 to 6? Not sure…
“More tests = more income” is the theory, though historic crowd attendances don’t support it. Of course, ticket sales aren’t the only revenue for national unions, but they’re a clear indicator of the game’s popularity/prosperity.
Sanzaar can point to average annual tournament attendance for the 8 years since Arg joined (2012-2019) of 395000 bums on seats, vs 7 years before they joined of 369000, as clear growth by adding 1 extra country. However, stadium & event managers will look at average crowd PER game since they have largely fixed costs for staging each game.
Since 2005 and before Tri-Nats became TRC, average crowds ranged between 44300/9 games (2009) and 51800/6 games (2007). In 2012, the first year with Arg, it was 44400/12 games. So far so good, but since then average attendance per game squeaked above 40000 only twice more, and in the last 4 years before Covid the average was 35400 a game.
Now you might say “Argentina brought the averages down”, but in that 4 year cycle actually attendances in Argentina are the ONLY country of all 4 showing any growth vs previous cycle.
This all means that test match popularity and profitability in AU, SA, NZ has declined by adding Argentina and extending TRC by 3 games a year. This excludes sponsorship and tv/digital income of course, but a post-Covid business case for adding even 1 more country, never mind two, is unfortunately not clear cut.
In fact, I’d suggest that more test matches are actually more of a problem than a solution. In fact, the various national unions might look at how the duty of care they (should) have for the solvency of amateur and prof CLUB rugby in each country is more relevant than Test rugby. If only Tests are profitable, then game will soon be hollowed out from the inside. Methods to ensure greater popularity/strength of the base of the pyramid are probably more important than keeping the elite end in comfort.
All data sourced from wikipedia, which may have its critics but i learned over 6 months researching for a global rugby calendar proposal (bit dated now, but see youtube if you’ve a spare 25mins) which data to trust and which not.

Yep i reckon its better as 1 game per year. Imagine the jeopardy/tension of winner takes all every time?

Yep though private investment/ownership in SA clubs is there and will grow, im sure. WP & Lions are ripe for picking.

And whether same will come in Aus/NZ may determine their ability to keep players/coaches local or continue to lose them to other leagues.

Its true, test rugby is the games achilles heel. So important to the games professional existence that its now a liability.

From 6-8 tests/year in amateur era, to 10-11 in early noughties, to 14-15 nowadays, the impact on club seasons and player availability is significant.

Have soccer & cricket done professionalism better? One has a single global format, is almost 100% about the money club game, & internationals are only for regional/world tournaments in 4 year cycles. The other has exploded into several different formats, with rule changes and test tours somewhat littering the calendar between the 3 separate world cups.

Should we be more soccer? ….. 😱

Yep, S12 format with 3 KOs instead of 2 is fine, but this format loses ‘competitive integrity’ by adding 3 “TBC” games. What for? (Ahem ….. $$$)
Everybody will be able to shoot holes in however those are scheduled.

Prefer 6-team SRAU/SRA in double RR & Finals. 5 home, 5 away + domestic final
Add 1 week break for scheduling/rest, before:
Each top3 and bottom3 qualify for SRTT Champions & Challenge cups (as per Euro Cup format) in single RR & Finals.
This means primary focus is domestic rugby (SRAU/SRA twice as long as TT) AND all 12 teams & all players have skin in the game right to end of tournament
– no more dead fixtures as all teams can still qualify for a post-season final,
– more competitive TT fixtures of best vs best and rest vs rest,
– balance of AU, PI and NZ teams in (you just have to have this, Euros does it same way whether or not Welsh/Scot/Ital clubs are overall weaker than Eng/Fr/Irish).

91 games for originally proposed format vs 94 games for above format over same 19 weeks (2 byes each team), so more games for TV, and 4 Finals instead of 1 (although tbf, 7 KOs in SR proposal), and most of all, clear format for all teams and supporters to follow.

Geoff youre doing it on purpose arent you?

Rocket surgeon?!!????????

Inclined to agree with you here Micko.

Seems that NRL and AFL are successful comps ‘in their own right’, i.e. true best-in-class quality, without a higher tier, not even internationals (no equivalent in AFL anyway). In first 10-15 years of professionalism, S12/S14 could also claim to be best rugby union comp in the world. Though with test calendars of 14-15 tests a year instead of ~10, SR morphed into a test rugby feeder comp. Plus Eur clubs needed bigger squads to cover losing their own test players, and SR competitiveness & quality took the hit.

For me, the 8-team NRC format seems the right vehicle to be the feeder/development comp, if clubs can be persuaded of its value to them. But for now Shute/Hospital/Dent/etc are the tail wagging the dog. The ‘too long’ club season of 22 weeks, means NRC hasn’t the room to breathe and grow. It’s also over-shadowed by the TRC/Bled schedule, meaning no test players are available. And SR became too big and is now more a millstone round RA’s neck sucking in more money while not paying back in player quality.

But NZ & SA have similar issues with club/provincial/super hierarchies too and i wonder if, just like SR in 1996 was a real innovation for rugby, a proper reinvention is needed now instead of tinkering with the SR model. Are 3 tiers of rugby below internationals too many to afford?

What if NRC/NPC/Currie Cup were the primary domestic comps in each country? Like Top14/Prem/Pro12 are in NH (well, before CVC money enticed SARU into URC….)
Instead of 8 or 10 games a year, what about a 20+ game domestic season + finals, with qualification into a short SH club championship like European Champions Cup & Challenge Cup comps?
– No duplication of costs for SR franchises AND state/provincial teams, just one tier of professional teams for all.
– Cheaper comps to run with less international travel, and more support from local businesses.
– Test players fully available for NPC/NRC/Currie Cup would dramatically improve quality and supporter engagement vs current levels.
– Fans can follow their local team, not a conglomeration of different cities/towns, and more easily get to away games vs local rivals.
– Development pathways are clear. Clubs are aligned with provincial/state unions already, just have to ensure Brisbane/Gold Coast and Sydney/Western Suburbs delineation is clear for AU.
– Format would still include Drua and Moana for PI inclusion but not Japan Top League.
– 20-odd domestic games + 6-7 SH club champs games + 14-15 tests = 42-43 week season

One thing that would likely need to be addressed is allowing private investment/ownership of clubs, to reduce reliance on national union funds. Clubs need to pay their own salaries and NRC/NPC/Currie Cup must be profitable. RA/NZR/SARU income from tests/broadcasters/sponsors should go to development in schools/universities, coaching, test player salaries, and national competition fixed costs.

Also, bring SARU back into the fold, once the zero savings made moving from SR into URC is worked out, and the ‘no off-season’ in Dec-Jan becomes unsustainable.

Workable?

Watched a twitter thread about how NPC sides are using it, pretty successful getting points out of it so can expect ABs to have a crack at it now and then. One was a nifty manipulation of short-side winger to open-side, then putting ball in behind him. Simple but effective.

Considering the Springbucks’ defensive rush from out to in, might be occasions when space is there for it though can’t imagine Rassienaber haven’t worked it into their system. Lets see what 2nd Pumas game brings, Miotti/Sanchez/Mallía are all proper ballers.

This is a great point and a huge opportunity for rugby to gain ‘social’ momentum in a new market.

Millions of teenagers playing high school football.
Several thousands still playing college football.
But how many pro players in NFL?

Imagine tapping into these numbers to play rugby as a alternative competitive sport? Massive opportunity.