Last thing. If you are an arsenal fan. Stsy away from Lacazette. He s overrated and unprofessional.

Good article and some fair comments.

If Wengers goes tomorrow and Arsenal spends £300m on the market, that s no guarantee for success (Man U example) and nothing will stop the players from poorly performing if they dont like the new coach. These days they behave like spoilt bratts anyway.

If Wenger stays (and he will) and Totenham wins then it will be the absolute affront for the fans. They have been paying through the nose and been patient through the reconstruction of the club but that s also a failure of Wenger to adress 2 major issues:

1/ adressing shortfalls in his medical team. Arsenal has more injured players than anyone every year im the last 10 years. That has cost them the title in 2 or 3 occasions. What is Wenger doing about it ?

2/ absolute control and to your point building a team at his image. Idealistic, sleek, elegant but with no challenge or mungrel type players that can win you the title but also argue with you in front of everyone. (wenger hates that). Where are the street fighters a la Viera (who works for City) Bergkamp (employed by ajax), Keown, Adams, Sol Campbell.

Ferguson always had them and promoted them to captain and that s one of the reasons he got Man U to the titles. Bad boys who will take you there Cantona, Paul Ince, Pallister, Roy Keane and more recently Evra and Scholes and Rooney. Sometimes you have.to do what it takes to wim and it seems that Wenger is not prepared to enter thos conversation.

6 nations and 4 nations have become less relevant concepts as the world cup has established itself as the competition to win.

Rugby is a 10 to 12 nations game at best anyway so the RWC really starts in the quarters and the one group of death. My solution is to scrap the 6 nations, and 4 nations and end of season tours out of the calendar and have a international super 12 nations every year at best or every 2 years at worst.

Each nation play each other once and play cross a period of 4 months with semi finals and final system for the top 8 nations similar to the afl final system. No fall back option for any.

The pro is that the world cup is more or less played every year or 2 so that implies increased tv and marketing revenue for all Unions and IRB. The calendar is clearly defined (let s say June to september) and all the clubs and franchises can organize their players list accordingly if it overlaps on domestic comps. The historical trophies(bledisloe, grand slam and so on)can still be attributed based on the game results at the end of the comp.

The con is that starts to ressenble to the 7s comp but that s perhaps not so surprising. Also that s a lot of elite international games to be played and that could take players out of domestic comps altogether…

Australian rushmore :
Dunlop
Catchpole
Ella
Eales
Pocock

6 nations rushmore
Wilkinson
JP Rives
Jonathan Davies (the one that went to plzy league)
Keith Woods
Gary Armstrong

Southern hemisphere rushmore:
François pienaar
John Eales
Jonah Lomu
Ritchie Mccaw

Global rugby rushmore
The All Black team

The fact is that the A league was created by Lowy and his billionaire mates as they were banking on bringing the world cup and cream this event through the Aleague. Problem they stumbled against richer and more powerful forces. The a league without the world cup coming to australia is always going to find problems to balance its books.

Supporters need to concentrate on what they do best which is turning up at the game or watching it on tv and support their team.

They are the ones who stuffed the old soccer league before the Frank Lowy days. Let s not go back to faction infighting and power play.

Those who dont want to behave in a civil manner and boycott the games can stay home.

Italian, French, Greek and Turkish leagues have been plagued by thugs who just want to keep doing what they have been doing for years and not change. We do not want this in Australia, we know what lies behind this.

England Germany and of course the AFL and super rugby in Australia are the benchmarks for a healthy and safe crowd environmement. Let s raise to this level instead of boycotting games.

Such a beautiful article written with the elegance the man was.

Jonah Lomu single handedly changed the game with his combination of pace, power and silky skills which i had never seen on such a big man before. He was humble in Victory and gracious in defeat even whem he faced adversity with his dialysis treatment.

He is a hero of mine and may he now rest in peace.

I hope his family will be well taken care of in NZ.

Lassana Diarra (currently Marseille midfielder and former Arsenal, Real Madrid and Chelsea) who was playing in the French team Friday night has posted that he lost his cousin , killed in one of the attacks. Antoine Griezmann s sister was at the bataclan and managed to escape safely. Thoughts and condelesence to everyone impacted by the attacks.

Good decision. The day we stop is the day those people start winning in the scheme to instill fear in us.

Hi Birdy,
You have your opinion, i have mine. I dont think they differ greatly.

In saying that i will have to report the last part of your comment which is unecesary, and i doubt you would have made it if my name tag was john smith.

I will decide to go on another site unless this is an on invitation club only which i am not aware of. And certainly i wont be bullied by your type to do so. The header of the roar.com.au is sport and opinion dont forget that.

Ok Eaglejack. I did not write Folau was bad. I questionned how long he will last. Izzy is a terrific player and the best full back we’ve got IMO but my point was aside than capabities, there is also a culture of immediate benefits developped ny code hopping which does not sit well with me and does not fit with the game of Rugby Union philosophically speaking (as opposed to putting in the effort in the game long term). We have seen a lot players come and go in the wallabies team from league in the last 10 years and i hope Folau wont hop back to league when he does not get the deal he wants or what have you.

That come back just shows 3 things

1. Not everyone is SBW. League beasts arent necesarily adaptable to union. Both games are different and the way they are played and in culture. Benji Marshall didnt cut it in nz either and we ll see how long folau lasts.

2. It is the English rugby board who should be made accountable for putting talent ahead of culture. Burgess is taking one for the team for the overall failure of the team. He hasnt played really poorly during the rwc but the expectations were huge and he couldnt live up to the hype. he just did not have a spot in the team (at inside centre anyway).

3. NRL is suffering from the same.plague as the EPL or France s top 14. Commercially fantastic results commercially through the media deals. On and off field performances are dubbious. The players are propped up to some superstar status by the media. They all think they are better than what they really are.

Ah ah Marto good one.

Don’t compare French rugby and Bernard Laporte though, he is the first one to say the top 14 is a boring league and the standard is poor. As for Foley, he talked about him more up to the quarters and less after makong jokes that he likes to pick underdogs and make them champions… fair to say that Foley was a bit quieter passed the quarters.

Spiro, i would like to advocate for an alignment of global rugby calendar between north and south and a 10 nation rugby championship played throughout the year, every year in lieue of the world cup. The second tier nations can have their own and the top 2 teams of the second tier nations can get into the top group to the detriment of the bottom 2 of the top 10 nations group.

In regards to refereeing i would suggest that Nigel Owens entered the final with a view of letting the spirit pf the game prevail above the laws of the game in true southern style. However, by his standards he had a poor game. At the same time, noone was better suited than him so that s fine by me. Joubert has been unfairly treated and should somw of the law revisions you memtiomed effectively take place and should the same game shape take place as the Aus v Scotland one did there would be no drama as the WBs had 40 pts worth of tries in the bag v 8 for Scotland. Well needed revisions.

However, rugby is a game designed for all shapes and sizes and by opening the game too much we take the risk long term to create a clone of rugby league or 7s and we want to avoid that at all cost. Scrums, rucks, lineout and mauls are a beautiful part of the game which should be glorified, enhanced and for some im not most of the refs undertood. So we need more refs who were ex players.

Just to be clear that the only reason why Cooper has been signed by Toulon is that “they dont have a fly half for the next 10 games”. Ditto Bernard Laporte in his radio show on Monday.

Michalak and Giteau are out. That leaves them with Willie Du Plessis and Anthony Belleau who are second strings in Laporte’s mind. Halfpenny is also injured and whilst he s a full back he could play half.

Throughout the world cup Laporte was extremely impressed with Foley. If i was Cooper i would make sure that i perform in those next 10 games to secure my future at Toulon as next year he could be sent packing quick smart the same way O Connor was. In addition, Diego Dominguez, former Italy and Argentina fly half will be starting as new coach, it is Laporte s last season at the club, and wont take any prisonners in trying to fill La0porte s shoes. If QC tries too hard as he often does then he s setting himself up for failure.

Yep and Stirzaker 9 to take over from Genia when it s time to go.

I was at rebel sport on the week end and could only find a couple of sizes of the wallabies jumper a cap and a beany hanging around in the middle of the NRL section. The window was dressed up with soccer stuff amd all the best gondolas were taken by… NFL and NBA merchandise with the bigger presence given to the NFL. Scary that american teams get more exposure than a national team the day before the final but at the same time, their stuff is wearable…. As opposed to a $180 wallabies jumper that looks like a 1 day cricket top.

Thanks Harry. Good stats and well summarized. the wallabies will have to play the game of their life but they have proven since the start of the comp that they can do it

I would not be to worried about that Mango Jack. Marseillaise great national anthemn but the french still got smacked by 50 in the quarters.

Great stuff Andrew. What an eloquent post. The entire country is behind them like a scrum and they need to know it. Good on you i hope they get your letter.

Toulon is buit on a rugged terrain, the people will smile to ur face and plant a knife in ur back at the same time and this area plays rugged rugby. If they are behind with 10 minutes to go, you can expect a cop out 95% of the time. No excuses though and a deplorable attitude from the families.

Got to check that art exhibition in Bondi mext time i am around. Thanks for the heads up.

No worries 13th man

Thanks TP12. Spiro s article inspired me to.

Lindsay, i hesitated on this one as of course the anzac involves NZ but went with the comparative nonetheless. To me the All Blacks have a different spirit, a “pure rugby” way. Playing the game how it should be played and in an endless quest for perfection. The wallabies are like the underdogs of Australian sport and in Rugby generally speaking, they draw from a different energy in an attempt to achieve their goals.