Aupiki 2023 - good vibes, but who's stopping Manawa?

Calls for Borthwick’s dismissal have grown increasingly louder with each passing game as he has been shown to be tactically and selectively subpar. His position is now in the balance and I don’t believe he’ll be kept on unless England fix their defensive issues and beat at least one of Ireland, France or Scotland in the 6Ns, which on the latest showing looks increasingly unlikely.

Couple of returning players in Chessum and Mitchell coupled with a stronger bench, might give England fans a few reasons to remain optimistic.

Other than Mo'unga, name one overseas based player who would now make the ABs. (Excluding Whitelock, Smith etc... who have taken a fairly obvious decision to retire from international rugby)

In fact in the whole history of NZ players going to play overseas how many of them were in their prime and were not easily replaced in the All Blacks?

I can name only a handful going back 17 years - Nick Evans, Carly Hayman, possibly Piutau although NZ's production line of awesome backs hardly means he was missed, and now Mo'unga. So 4.

The overseas player drain does not really effect the ABs, it effects the standards of NZ rugby as a whole. The issue is the dozens of fringe ABs players going to ply their trade abroad lowering the quality of rugby in NZ. Making these players eligible for ABs selection won't make the ABs any stronger, but it will guarantee even more top players leave sooner, lowering the quality of the rugby even more.

The Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions may be seen as the biggest unions in SA, but the Cheetahs and Griquas and Pumas regularly beat them even with their best players, current double world cup winners playing against them. They don't play boring rugby either. They love running rugby and wants nothing more than to score as many tries as they can.

All those countries can do with a competition like that. More money would be flowing into the game and more players will be willing to stay or come back with bigger salary options available to them at home.

Look at SA. They were in a slump. Their best players played in leagues around the world because there was just no money or future in SA for them. Fast forward and in came Rassie. Leading from the front, he managed to get the changes he needed to affect change, a change that rocked the rugby world and now in 2024 have a team that is double WC champs. Not with players that played in SA, but with players playing their rugby in various leagues across the world.

Rugby was a dying brand, but he blew life into it being innovative, moving with the times and taking advantage of it. These same heroes are revered, plying their trade in SA or elsewhere. Every youngster have their heroes and they follow them regardless of where they are. Every kid wants to be a Bok. With all these successes, money started flowing in and the heroes started coming back to SA. Suddenly there was money in the sport again in the country.

Rassie's impact stretches far beyond just being a successful WC coach. He changed the sport forever in the country, and it's brought forth a wave of talent, the likes such as other countries can only dream off. A whole new generation of superstars are born, because these kids all want to play rugby and all of them wants to be Boks.

For years to come because of the eligibility rules being side swiped, the Boks will mostly rule the rugby world and until countries drop old foolish habits like their eligibility rules that limits them profusely, they will be stuck at the bottom, staring up at the stars they will never be able to reach. Not because they are not talented, but because they don't have the best available.

So yes, let's not sugarcoat it. Losing eligibility rules is a must for future success to growing the game in your own country. By limiting a players abilities to earn and learn from other leagues will destroy the game in your country. It's a slow poison administration that is effectively poisoning the sport in the country.

Do not cry when your team is subpar filled with amateur players trying to win against an international team like the Boks. The Boks doesn't stay stagnant with strategies that won them 2 WC's, they keep evolving. Rassie does not mind players going and playing in leagues across the world because they spend the money in evolving those players to future stars, money SARU saves and can reinvest in the school, university and club rugby, thus saving hundreds of millions. Young stars that can light up the world stage, already known by other fans and ready to switch and light up the World stage and bring more glory to their country, even though they are not playing in the country.

Fools like Donald is chasing fools gold and is strangling NZ rugby and is stopping them from evolving. Others will follow SA, seeing how they keep evolving and keep getting stronger, with a pool of stars getting bigger and bigger, where they can start to choose more and more teams that could compete and beat the best, even though they are seen as the 3rd or 4th or 5th stringers in SA. The Boks can put out at least 3 teams that can beat any team in the world and all 3 would be top 10 in the world. That is not bragging, just mere facts.

Ewen + Cheika + Eddie = 47%

Robbie + Dave + Joe = 53% [even if they lose to Ireland]

Smith deserved higher. His defensive errors you've highlighted were part of a failing defensive system and trying to clear up JVPs charged down kick. Both very forgivable. Yet in attack he created most of our tries single handedly and both his kicking from hand and tee were great.

Will Stuart was also better than 6.5.

A lot of these ratings are pretty harsh, I think individually most players were pretty solid. It's the cohesion in attack and defence which was lacking. I'd rate the players higher and give a 1 to Wiggles and JEA.