Le Racing 92 piste l'Irlandais Jack Conan

His main fail has been selection - he's been very pragmatic with his selections and strategy which is a valid tactic, but I think it has just lead to a continuation of the frailties of the Foster era. The Arg loss and Aus comebacks this year were very familiar to previous season upsets - essentially mental skills breakdown at the end of the games. That's something he can shed with better selections.

In terms of developing depth - he has developed Vaai and Williams into international-level players, introduced new test-ready players in pivotal positions with Sititi and Ratima, and appears to be developing guys like Proctor and Tosi well.

Hopefully we see a more progressive selection policy for the EOYT guys like Lakai, and Numia in as well as some true bolters

Now the Irish know what it's like to experience extreme disappointment at a WC, made worse by not being able to handle some sledging.

Beauden? You're living in yesteryear! I was referring to Scott, he has been the All Blacks best lock for a long time now, Beauden is basically a replica of le Roux, not an upgrade. The consensus is that the bok front row were outplayed by the All Blacks, so you could choose any of them in a joint team. Scott and Ardie wouldn't be based on those two performances. Sititi would be the 8, then the backline would be Ratima, Dmac, Clarke, Jordie, Ioane, Kolbe, Fassi, with Jordan pushing out Fassi as he came back from injury.

You've got a warped opinion, from everyone claiming to be to climbing the pedestal over NZ no doubt, on All Black and SR DO. There is plenty of talent in SR and all of them that got a chance showed up South Africa's.

A lot of what he did, good and bad, was injury enforced however. He pretty much had to play Beauden. They lost Arg1 so didn't rotate for 2 etc. He was left only with Sititi, and Cane

You can't drop Ardie because it's in the sabbatical that people return to hold the same position they left at. Could he have been subsequently dropped or was it also in the contract that they're allowed a few tests to get back up to speed (which he did)?

I'd imagine the concepts (from the author) are much bigger than those questions, yours are more contentious than what I picture his as, Barrett>Dmac, Fakatava>TJ, Love>Jordan, Proctor>Ioane, Sotutu>Ardie, etc etc would be what I imagine is his head driving he pen. Easier to dismiss that extreme argument of changing house than the questions you raise imo, though I'm definitely in agreement with your point that there will be a lot of good reasons for making the tight calls they did make.

I make that same point with Darry in most of my other comments, it was just this one which was supposed to give an overall picture change that I didn't delve into why I'm only happy with about 70% of the choices in how the players were used.

I think you describe the reason for this consistency/continuation/cohesion yourself. Foster got the team humming by the end, it only makes sense to build on that. As I said in the reply to Jen, sure, the way it was looking under Foster most of those players looked ready to retire and Razor to bring in a whole new ear, but also, those first few years of Foster are not something you should be insinuating Razor has the chance to replicate after such a good 2023. So I say hell NO to that idea! You probably just need to adjust to this new picture (unless you're now in agreement with me), and imagine it is 2011 heading into 2015 again. Razor should be looking to build and keep performance high, and this what he was trying to achieve when not giving Darry and the bench much opportunity. It should be his execution that is being criticized, not the idea he wasted an opportunity to see who can sink or swim by losing some big games.