And England, Scotland, Ireland, Japan. All have international talent bolstering their club competitions. We need to stop with the parochialism (and the wighering).

What an exiting headline was chosen! Returning to the SCG after 36 years!
Worst stadium in Australia to watch rugby!
I’d normally be excited to attend a home Wallabies game, but may leave this one to see on TV. Bummer.
Only Tahs home game I’m not going live this year is the one they are contractually obliged to play at the SCG.

I like the analysis quite a lot, well done, worth testing it for empirical confirmation.

I played as a prop, coached (kids), coached scrum (teens) and refereed (when not busy coaching). When I played, scrum wasn’t such a mess. Refereeing the scrums in later years was a pain (I stopped some years ago), as hard as I tried, I found it confounding to make sense which team was at fault.

The three suggestions, plus making faults in scrums short-arm (if possible to determine) without multiple resets (unless clearly malicious or unsafe) would take scrums back to the original intent – a fair contest for the ball, with a mild advantage to the non-ofending team.

At present, scrums and the multiple resets are very boring to watch and waste a lot of the game time (this coming from someone who loved scrummaging and dislikes league).

Agree with Dean, it’s my team too except for JOC swap with Kuridrani.

Kuridrani can come in off the bench for either center player (depending on the game and form), with JOC going to inside if Kerevi is subbed (which is the least likely). He could even go to the wing (e.g. replace Hodge) if Kerevi and JOC are well in the game.

I’m a senior executive and take a train every day. When living in London, crossed the CEO of a top five bank (who was my client) a number of times on the tube.

Disagree Bankwest is a bust for rugby. We have not been getting big crowds in any venue. Western Sydney is lost to rugby, and playing in the Eastern Suburbs won’t win it back. The stadium itself is excellent for rugby, much better than any other venue in Sydney (although I have a soft spot for Pittwater). It’s close to a well connected train station, with decent eating venues around it. Unless you are a Eastern Suburds toff, it’s a much better experience all around.

Agree Tomua and Pockock played well, was also happy with Dempsey. Considering it was a B team without combinations and few star players, it was an ok performance.

Banks needed to have a breakout performance and didn’t deliver, disappointing. Bernie also didn’t make a case to be on the 15,and with Tomua a much more versatile option for the bench, doubt he’ll be in the 23. LSL also doesn’t convince me, think he might be good in a few years but not for now.

There is a strong focus on the homophobic aspect of the post, but it is also offending to atheists. Whereas “hell” is irrelevant, I don’t appreciate being lumped in with thieves and liars as if my lack of faith is something criminal.

I value tolerance, many of my family and best friends are deeply religious, we get along very well as we respect our differences, they don’t affect us nor impede us from enjoying each other’s company. I don’t proselitise them about my views, they don’t prositise me.

The question isn’t about religious freedom. Israel is free to have his beliefs. The problem is that, for a top athlete being paid $4M, his public image is necessarily part of the deal. Much like someone sponsored by Coke can’t go around promoting Pepsi, Folau can’t publicly promote view contrary to the organisation that is paying him the big bucks. He can express his beliefs in private, and if the organisation’s view are unacceptable to him, he’s welcome to leave. There are organisations that I wouldn’t work for, due to their beliefs.

Finally, by Folau’s logic, he himself is going to his “hell” for being a liar and an idolater. He stated publicly that he would walk away from his contract if his actions were damaging the game. Well, they are, just walk away. Become a pastor, if this is your calling.

Brett, thank you for the good analysis. The point I disagree with is the same most commenters have highlighted. I think that not sacking Cheika has the same loosing effect as sacking him.

I was a very big Cheika fan. I think he was brilliant in leading the Tahs to the title and to getting the Wallabies to the RWC final.

My concern with him is that he tactically is a one trick poney. Once the opposition figures out his game plan, he doesn’t have the nous or the flexibility to instill a new one, much less to prepare the team with options they can vary during the game. Look at the Tahs in the year after winning the Super title – base was still there, but the other teams had the Tahs figured. Look at the Wallabies now. Cheika is an excellent motivator (his greatest asset), but once he loses the change room, he doesn’t have much else to offer. Unfortunately it’s time for him to go. I’m sure he’ll find another team he can lead to the heights as he’s done before, but it’s not going to happen with the Wallabies.

I dislike White and Eddie. I would invest in Wessels. He’s still green, but I don’t think next year will be a great year for us no matter what, and perhaps he pulls a rabbitt out of the hat. Put him on an 11 month contract, as some have suggested, with an option for four more years. Set reasonable KPIs (next year won’t be great).

I think another problem we have is with Hooper as captain. Contrary to some, he’s a starter for me in any team, one of the best players all around and I see the combination of him with Pockock as good, as long as we have a mongrel as blindside. But he’s not a great captain, neither for the Tahs or the Wallabies. Too many poor decisions, leads by example but others don’t seem to follow, I don’t see the tactical leadership skills in him. At times he needed to change how the team was playing, could not pull it off. He can be part of the leadership group, but we need someone with a better understanding of the game to lead.

In terms of selection, I disagree with what some commentators are posting. I think that under any coach, the 40 would be roughly the same. Agree that Cheika insists in some players out of loyalty (Phipps is past his best, burned Hanningan by including him too soon, etc), but I think that name by name most of the group is the best we can field.

Some of the long lists published are a mix of has-beens, raw young talent, neer do gooders. I would take some out of the 40 and add a few, but the real problem is direction off the field and leadership in the field.

White is the box kick king, I lost count of how many times we and the Brumbies lost the ball because of one of his horrible box kicks. Perhaps he’s matured in the UK, but I was happy to see him leave.

Pra frente Brasil ????????!
Still amateur, but growing fast. We’ll get there, give us time.

Having a team in Western Sydney would be great. I was very sad when they canned the Rams from the NRC, used to go to all their games. I think a lot of western Sydney goes to league due to lack of options for real rugby. Hope it comes through.

Dad to see the Rams go 🙁

Very good article, of the excessive coverage this has received, it’s the first I can pretty much agree with.

I’m one going to hell according to Izzy’s religion (for being atheist), but also heading that way based on my wife’s religion (which is very mainstream BTW). We have gay friends and very religiously conservative friends.

Strongly support freedom of religion, free speech. I don’t feel personally offended by Folau’s post.

But top professional athletes aren’t hired just to play but also to act as brand embassadors, so shouldn’t be posting publicly controvertial material while under contract. Don’t need to say anything that they are personally opposed to, but also shouldn’t be saying things that will harm the brand.

Also agree we should stop equating sports prowess with intelectual intelligence. Both are magnific and can even come together on rare occasion, but they are different and separate things.

Good luck Kurtley, rooting for you guys.

I hope you are right and the team comes together.

See you on Saturday!

I arrived a bit late, missed the first few minutes.

Score doesn’t really reflect the game, it was relatively even while the main teams were on the field (14×5 until mid Q3), then blew out when the subs came in. By the end of Q3, only our 14 (Alex Newsome?) and the Rebels 9 (playing as a wing) were still on the field. Tahs extended squad was much better than Rebels extended squad, clearly, even before the send-offs.

Main event definitely was scrappy, many handling errors. This was a major problem last year, hope it gets better by the SR games. Tahs defense seemed more solid than last year (another major problem), but not sure how sharp Rebels attack was to test it.

Stand-out for me was also Rona at 13, liked him both in attack and defense. He’s a good addition to the squad if he maintains the form, rounds off the back line.

That high-kick for Folau to finish off was attempted by both Bernie and KB, though the try came from a KB one. One of the sub’s try came from Mason doing a similar kick to I think Bryce, pretty neat.

Latu still looks unfit. I like him a lot, hope he can ratchet up a gear to get back to the form he was showing early last year.

I saw most of the Rams NRC home games, Mason was on fire in a couple, weak in others. I think he has potential but is still far from SR starter level and also needs to gain consistency. Was OK yesterday.

I’m on the pessimistic end of the spectrum, don’t have high hopes for the Tahs for this season, just hoping it isn’t as ugly as last year. Hope they prove me wrong.

As for the Rebels, it’s unfair to expect much of them this year – too much change, more a group playing together than a team. Hope they use this year to gel, have high expectations of them next year.

Nice article, agree our greatest weakness has been defence.

I like Cheika, but one criticism I have of him is that he doesn’t have a plan B. After 2014, when the other teams figured out how to beat his system, the Tahs had no response.

I see the same pattern with the Wallabies – in the first year (WC) the other teams hadn’t figured out the Cheika way, so he took that team far. Afterwards, they figured him out and it became much harder. No flexibility neither in the game nor across multiple games.

I do grant we’ve blooded a large amount of new players, but the strategy didn’t adapt to the new players at hand and their capabilities, it stayed the same.

I hope Cheika finds some creativity, I really think it’s what’s missing for him to be a great coach.

Oh, before I forget, in advance, bah-humbug to the haters. Now back to my holidays – another caipirinha please.

Bret, I’m a SMH subscriber. I see Tom, but also Paul Scully, Eamonn Tierman, Daniel Gilhooly, Melissa Woods, Justin Chadwick with names on articles in the Rugby Heaven site.

Content can be syndicated, not that hard to have a Brett McKay article published there as well. RA should offer the content you produce to other media.

I just find it too under-covered. You get articles about fringe sports that have a very low following (just because they are olympic sports), but no coverage for NRC. Its is still small, but not that small anymore.

Ken, I’m with TWAS on this one – two NRC clubs aligned with each SR franchise, with NSW Country feeding and being fed by the Brumbies, and the Spirit aligning with Melbourne. More than that, I think the SR clubs should be obliged to encourage their contracted players to play for a NRC club if not in Wallaby duty (with some control for an even distribution between the NRC clubs and a degree of liberty for starting positions).

As to the clubs, they should each just align with one of the two local NRC clubs. I’m an Eastwood supporter, can very easily identify with the Rams. I actually don’t see why people find it so difficult to understand. The club where I coached in England, Cobham, was a feeder club to the Harlequins, which ran promotions (kids got discounted tickets), tournaments, clinics and looked at the feeder clubs for their academy.

Agree that you can’t have perfect player alignment (there might be three great hookers in the feeder clubs), no need to have it be automatic. Just make it the natural pathway. Going back to the Cobham example, a couple of my Cobham boys ended up in the London Irish academy.

In terms of timing, I think its so very simple as well – SR and top clubs competition happen in parallel in the first half of the year (roughly), NRC and Wallabies happen in parallel in the second half.

Clubs can certainly remain active in the second half of the year, just knowing their top players will be in the NRC. Rams had a few all day events in TG, with lower grades playing in the morning leading up to the NRC match. I couldn’t go to watch the whole day (wife gets mad), but did arrive early to catch a bit of the later preliminaries.

On that, I think clubs should play opening matches before Tahs games, and NRC teams should play opening matches before Wallabies games.

I think the Premier clubs just need to stop the foot dragging and moaning (particularly the eastern suburb ones) and just align and get on with it. A pure club competition isn’t going to fly, NRC is a great middle tier.

Indeed Brett, this was a great game to watch (and I’m not a supporter of either team). Well done to both teams.

I didn’t make the comment that the NRC games are better to watch, but do subscribe to it. An average NRC game this season (I watched all the Rams games) was more fun to watch than an average Tahs game this season (I witnessed all home games live) . Neither team did extremely well this year, but the NRC games were great to watch.

Hope the next season is even better.

RA needs to invest in the marketing to get more crowds onto the fields, as the product is certainly there.

Mainstream media (e.g. SMH, etc) needs to shed their biases and provide proper coverage.

Agree with many in that the NRC final was the game of the weekend. Great rugby, very entertaining. Better than most of the test matches.

Agree with what others have said. These ratings lack value, as some will vote based on their biases instead of the players performance. Some results are just ridiculous.

That was a great game, down to the wire!

Brett, just out of curiosity, how many of these players played for the Western Force, how many are local club players?

I can’t understand why one of the NRC games isn’t opening for the Babás game. Rams could be playing Canberra there, would add great visibility.

I was there, don’t agree. See-saw game, up to the 70th minute Rams were one try down. Then the floodgates opened.