‘I saw on Facebook…’: All Black Josh Lord reflects on ‘frustrating’ run

I think you're suggesting fans come from around the region right? Nothing wrong with that but twice now I've seen (at roar and Miz here) only refer to the city as being where the fans come from (nothing wrong with that either from my perspective, or their crowd sizes which I think are great).

Cane is well off the pace in the on field action and Savea is looking less and less effective and pedestrian. The loose forwards are so essential to dominating the game and

The shift of Sotutu to play for England is going to cost Razor dearly as he will be in his prime compared to Savea in decline.

It is a mess

Don't get me wrong, I would much prefer what France has, but you don't need to make stuff up to paint this pciture.

The current form is pretty popular. It's hard to say really, as although everything is increasing, at what rate? How is it increasing to France and Japan is the dilemma here. How do you not know this?

Australias situation is going to be harder to diagnose, they have other deals that are one off and going to muddy the numbers but they already got a huge 40mil windfall from WR and another 100million for the next RWC deal.

It's fair to ask where and how should this investment be spent, but not to say there is non or nowhere to use it, Super Rugby can obviously truck on but where is that going to lead those two countries in a couple of decades time? The URC countries (you can include England in that picture I suppose) are in the same predicament SR is, just because they are happy about their improvement, and NZ and Aus aren't, is irrelevant.

Most of the global season is already in place, theyve been working on it for decades. Sounds like you're talking something more drastic.

Another very interesting point that I agree is important is this relation and balance to grow, especially your developing countries, the markets. I do and don't agree with your view, I think the big countries want a broader and compelling base for it for sure, but I think a few are very much still in the category of their national team driving the success and progress of the game locally. In those situations you might find it more relevant to have and extra, third, tournament for them. I'm unsure if this is essentially what World Cup qualifying is for them now (I would have thought that was doubled up with the two 'windows' we currently have).

I think the amateur values were just as strong in the south but for some reason there wasn't the same hindrance in making things more professional. Perhaps that was the Rugby League threat in the south at the time but I'd more say it was the history in the north, with previous such attempts stopping the gradual addition of the more well thought and tested aspects of professional sports, from progressing the game their. I think I've mentioned it in the previous articles, they really were ready here.

This was supposed to be a reply to the thread below.

The only problem is that Robertson is showing every sign of being cut from the same cloth, and if he doesn't start showing some signs of creativity public tolerance will quickly wear thin.