Les 5 chiffres à retenir de la cinquième journée de Top 14

Sometimes it is very hard to get a business to see more than what's directly in front of them. I'm not sure how their model works but trying to get 20 odd bossiness' to all buy in on the idea that rugby could surpass football in their country is probably going to be very difficult when their owners don't really care and are happy spending their own money.

What's the problem with France pulling out? Right now they've obviously agreed to reciprocal tours, but that is not asked of every nation. They could simply not tour at all in July, which is where you'd see it going. Will they pull out of the World Test championship though? Would every second year be OK? Why are they talking about 2027, do they have plans to correct the situation following that?

They got asked for a please explain after Gathie said they wouldn't bring the top players. They obviously couldn't continue to do that after such a blatant admittion. Now theyre only going to be down those from the Final. It's much closer to the balance were they get away with it so to speak. The players will no doubt be asking themselves which games they really want to play in though, so it be taken out of LNRs hands if there is indeed no end in sight to their predicament.

Is it felt that there would be more of a contest if the game was split into 3 levels? NZ had three levels of 12 then went to two of 14 and although theres a bigger margin between top and bottom generally speaking people are more happy with extra variation of constricting to two leauges.

Personally I could see 3 being better in France.

That would just allow for the NPC to have a bigger window, so probably a win win.

But yes, they would also need enough players to fill out Vancouver and San Fran, maybe Hawaii teams, if they wanted to entice the Japanese onboard. Below that needs to be a feeder comp for a large part of that calendar as well(maybe following?).

Nah, agreed though, it was weird (not that you'd believe the media) reaction that had me thinking there must have been some verbal confirmation at the WC that they wouldn't rest players next year. It seems like Galthie obviously wasn't across these talks (much like how Joe wasn't across those between Jospeh and Waugh) and put his foot in it when he said the best players won't be coming.

SR is locked into will 28' or something like that. Not that both parties can't mutually agree to pay out the broadcasters (might not be a problem in Aus case).

We lost half our games against Argentina and SA. We simply can't afford to be content with what we've seen from the current set of loose forwards against the top teams.

To their credit, Papali'i, Savea, Finau, and Jacobson are the only loose forwards who have won against a top 5 team this year. None of the other loose forwards in the group have beaten a top 5 team this year.

Obviously it is more relevant on tours to like NZ or SA in those circumstances (SA/Arg especially given the timezones) as a) AB games would demand a high compensation (the french would have paid more for those broadcast rights), and b) that penalty, along with the prestige factor you highlight, might actually be enough to sway them to lessen the value of the LNR rather than the France tour.

In that last example, I'll be naughty and say that NZR would prefer a payout than having the top players tour.

It took Frizell 6 years to produce a motm performance for the AB's and he was a real mixed bag for most of his career. It's folly to write off Sotutu at 26 when he hasn't played for the AB's in 3 years.

Sititi has looked great against the Wallabies but our loose forwards got dominated in the collisions when he played against SA.

It's easy to look at a NZ tour and say well theres not much chance here anyway. But were they giving up tour wins in Argetina and Australia back in those days? Seems a bit double standard to have changed their attitude and send a good squad to NZ now.