Les poules et les matchs de France 7 pour le Dubaï SVNS

If RM or BB were playing I’d have NZ as clear favourites (not necessarily by a landslide though…). As things stand I’d say NZ by a few but could go either way with Ireland at home.

I agree re your assessment of England as better than they are given credit for. Surely you can see that your above assessment is for the birds?

France have beaten NZ by 14-15 times in the last two matches. Ireland beat NZ in Durban with a lot of first team players missing almost all of which will start tomorrow.

Yet you maintain that doling out heavy defeats to Ireland and France in Dublin and Paris will be a sign that things are on the up?

I agree the NZ forwards are very good. But this Irish pack, dominated SA in Durban (not in the scrum but everywhere else).

In short, good luck with that prediction but this is 2024 not 1984!

If he could have chosen a rule change to directly benefit SA more than any other team this would have been it. They are already the masters of this game plan without their chasers having free access to contest.

Have to agree, Tamaiti is potentially a risk in this game while the downfall of DeGroot is a little mysterious. In saying that, Tosi and Tu'ungafasi were excellent last week so there is good back up on the bench.

Firstly the squad churn razor has been managing has left him very short at 10, with RM out of reach and no clear successor coming through. Did they make mistake allowing FB to leave, who knows but you probably need to trust the judgement that razor knew him inside out already.

Secondly the assessment undervalues England as opposition. They started the 6N well winning in Rome (not a given these days), pipped wales (Eng/wal is always a war!) but came unstuck against Scotland in full flow. But they then beat Ireland (NZ should know how tough this can be…) and came very close to winning a competitive game in France.

So, while I don’t necessarily disagree with the assessment, it probably misses the nuance of trajectory and direction of travel. If NZ win well against Ireland and France, rather than the slightly scruffy wins they had against England, then I would be pretty confident that razor is beginning to get his feet properly under the table and good things may lie ahead. But they still need to figure out a way ($$$s…) to get RM back home…

Ireland are better in almost every aspect of the game and have a more experienced and cohesive team. With Furlong and Sheehan out we have a good chance to disrupt their scrum for sure.

We can beat them obviously but the odds are not in our favour. I think 20% odds is more accurate, especially with no Taylor or Barrett.

Your argument is called a strawman argument. You are claiming sh1t happens on the field by both sides so whats the big deal?

Sledging during the match is part of International rugby. Always has been since I've been watching. When the whistle blows you shake hands. You don't mock beaten opponents and mock their fans. That's what arrogant teams do.

And that's what the needle is about. We dislike arrogant teams.