SVNS : Les poules pour le SVNS Cape Town avec un nouveau format

Spain sink All Blacks Sevens again to qualify for first SVNS Series Final

Rodrigo N 17 minutes ago

I wonder the same. How NZ played for 3rd with 3 looses and 2 wins???... that´s incredible. Anyway, great to see Spain in the final, well deserved.

2 Go to comments

JW 19 minutes ago

All Blacks report card: Are Razor's troops heading in the right direction?

Yes, tactically, and with some skill improvement perhaps. And I don't think his ceiling there has been reached either, I'm just saying adding a physical dimension would be immediate and automatically improve his performance/contribution. No coaching need to organize a better structure (though this thing should still be a priority of course), no mental development in Jordie to understand how to play 12, and just as much time and effort that skill development would do. Guaranteed improvement.

I'm not sure SBW wouldn't have wanted to get to his 110 figure earlier in his rugby days. It certainly fits perfectly for the picture I describe. You think Jordie has bulked up from 102 to 105 (a number lighter than the much shorter SBW I shouldn't need to point out) already? I'm not sure what you mean with your league comment. Sam Burgess played center and he was 116kg, and mainly a prop I think but started as Lock. Typically though, and I guess this might be more recent, league players are lighter.

He is simply small for a center, I don't know how else to spell it to you Nick, and is better utilized elsewhere (which is how you would describe you'd like him to play) at that weight (102-105).

All Blacks report card: Are Razor's troops heading in the right direction?

JW 1 hour ago

With Taylor? Because one of the key problems they have is tracking performance, which is why I liked your idea of staff going with players. I was mainly concerned with the staff tracking the progress of the player, but I guess it might be just as useful to decline LOL

And I suppose when it's a 33 yo that goes, they might also have a thought to transitioning to coaching themselves, so that time spent overseas paired with a coach you know could help that transition too.

Otherwise just the other obvious point that Taylor is only really going to benefit fiscally (unless it's a less preferable league like Japan were it may help extend his playing window to include a WC etc) from such a move, so with you're Idea I just think it more beneficial for a player like Taylor to have already been overseas, around a similar age to Aumua, 27.

All Blacks report card: Are Razor's troops heading in the right direction?

JW 1 hour ago

Well I don't specifically want to monetize the players, but I do think if the contracting environment is going to change, in any respect, the first thing I'd like is somehow a stipulation on contract length. I think it must very hard for players to be constantly going through looking for a job like 2 years etc. A 3 year minimum so of thing, whether it can be done globally and if not just mandated by the competitions.

Of course this sort of thing is normally organic, so as I say, that and things like the value of a player to a Super Rugby team (in NZs instance its heavily toward possible national selection, just a 'factory') will naturally change the more the competition (of which SR must be one of the few) is profitable.

So the first thing you would see is a reduction in players leaving simply because their are less coming off contract (once the conrtact length is on average a year or two higher). Of course these dynamics already exist for a league like the Top 14, and hence we already see transfer fees take place. You just need more Top 14's to see it really gain momentum.

But as I randomly came up with in another post, a similar thing (rewarding clubs for player development) could be done internally (by a union/competition), by creating some sort of holding fund of contract payments, where it creates 'boosts' for the player if they are loyal, or for the club if they loss out on the investment. Don't ask me about law for these sort of things, but I've seen similar concepts before.

Matt Perry 1 hour ago

I don't think it's semantics - birthplace is just a poor way to assess these things. It's especially awkward with the close relationships and open borders within the UK and Ireland. Josh Adams is a foreign born player by that metric and the man is a native Welsh speaker.

Apart from that I agree with everything you've said there; Ireland is a team past their peak right now.

Ed the Duck 1 hour ago

Look you can spin on a pinhead about the semantics of this but the bigger picture is pretty clear. Ireland have hit a phenomenal peak (notice I used past tense here…) where they were challenging the very best in the world. To do that, they were boosted by a meaningful number of imports under WR regs (perfectly legal) and they wouldn’t have been the same team without them.

What’s even clearer still, is that they are now showing every sign of being on the wane with the departures of Lancaster (his influence was huge from his Leinster chair), sexton and Catt. With more due to head for the exits next year, and others pretty soon thereafter, it’s going to be a real challenge to get back to these levels.

All Blacks report card: Are Razor's troops heading in the right direction?

frandinand 1 hour ago

Most of us have the same problem Nick.

Matt Perry 1 hour ago

Either you don't know what that means, you've misread this discussion, or I'm missing something.

I don't think anyone was arguing that Ireland doesn't have foreign-born players. I just wanted to point out how silly it is to take the absolute number of overseas births, which lumps in Joe McCarthy and James Lowe together despite one being, y'know, Irish.

Ireland's squad has four or five* non-Irish players, not eight.

*I could go either way on Hansen.

Ed the Duck 1 hour ago

“three of Ireland’s most important players”.

Hoisted by your own p’tard…

Ed the Duck 1 hour ago

Possibly, but not exactly where it’s heading to be…