Raymond Rhule va mettre fin à sa carrière

No. They’re not.

Interesting interview done with him not too long ago about his needing to overcome the stigma attached with his appearance. The boy is no slouch

I think we mustn’t underestimate the Bok setup and how they get the best out of their stocks. The sum of the parts and all that.

I think you could quite easily argue that many of the so called “golden generation” front rowers had the quality extracted out of them by Rassie. Pretty “average” before.

The two front rows that go to the World Cup in 2027 will be up for it and well prepared.

This article is very ignorant in that is ignores the previous years where JB was used very successfully as a playmaker, and weirdly assumes that JB and Reiko are actually being asked to play those roles being described.

In 2022/23 JB was a revelation at 12, then in 2024 was completely mediocre - hmmm I wonder what changed in that time. Maybe a new coach who has decided that midfielders entire role in the game will be to take crash balls and tackle.

Havili is also 30 years old, this would be a retrograde move in line with selecting Sam Cane in 2024. Please just stop begging to bring these guys back that have proving for years that they are not international standard. He is a solid SR player but absolute journeyman at international level.

France is one to keep an eye out for. I think we’ll see them exerting their own Boks style pressure to great affect in this years six nations. Big pack.

If anything the AB props coming through look even bigger than the young Bokke which is saying something. And Xavier Numia hasn't played yet!

The Boks will do it again, the scrum didn’t become less important or less a part of their DNA because they’ve got a few old props.

Worst case scenario: other teams are slightly more competitive against the Boks. Maybe that will slow down the slow yet seemingly certain march towards the neutering of the scrum.

Given the amount of time coaches spend on influencing ref's percpetions at scrum-time in the pre-game meetings, I suspect it is the latter!

Discuss.

I’ve decided to cheer for England against Ireland this year. As much as it pains me to bring myself to do this, it would be fantastic if England could beat Ireland again this year.

Go England (against Ireland only)!