Ban stands: Sonny Bill's plan to use loophole fails

Have an open ballot/lottery each week to fly fans out to fill the stadiums. They get to enter the draw if they pay their taxes and avoid crime which would encourage good social engagement from rugby supporters as responsible citizens. The school kids get in the draw if they are applying themselves at school and reaching their potential.

Or maybe there is some magic way to prioritise both domestic rugby and international rugby by having the same players playing for 12 months of the year...

From the EPCR perspective, I do think that the format/schedule issues can be fixed if there's a strong enough desire to remove some of the logistical challenges clubs are facing with these long and frequent trips across the hemispheres.

From the SA player workload perspective however, I'm not sure how players can participate safely and competitively at both the club and international levels. Perhaps - and as Rassie appears to be developing, SA develop a super squad with sufficient player numbers and rotation to allow players to compete across the full 12-month calendar.

Bottom line though, is the geographical isolation is always going to restrict SA's ability to having the best of both worlds.

They don't have enough talent to have a top tier domestic league of their own, and it won't support the union financially. Best case you could hope for would be the five extant franchises (including Cheetahs) and perhaps a team from Namimbia. Gives you a 6 team league, that's not enough. Plus again, it's just not financially sustainable either.

At the same time, it's not really great for them to be involved in either the European or the Pacific rugby set up. That said, as bad as the travel is, at least Europe makes more sense from a time zone perspective. I still think it's the least bad option. Also has done wonders for the URC.

I don't think though, that it makes very much sense to have 4 teams from the URC excluded from European qualification. Not to mention, being able to compete in the Champions Cup was a big draw for the South African clubs anyway.

So yeah, I don't really see a change that makes more sense than the less than ideal situation that already exists.

The headroom for growth is tremendous IF the people involved can work out a way to schedule the calendar such that each of the different comp priorities are managed and the compromises that will almost certainly be required are evenly shared. After all, it’s not like rugby couldn’t use some additional commercial gain!

The alternative option would leave every club, competition and union worse off, but logistics can be flexible and adaptable with the requisite level of detailed planning, time zones not so much…

Jamie, how about making an updated public apology paired with putting your hand up for the RC coaching job? Get the public on your side, show that you've grown, and show that you're mature enough to lead our NSMT. We know you're skilled and experienced enough, but you know that's not the issue here.

You say you've put your hand up and apologized, but the last time you apologized to the rugby community was when you tweeted "I'm sorry if I've offended anyone", which is the most obvious non-apology in the English language.

I wouldn't bet on them being outside the top 8 again, but unless this is breakout season for one of their young 10s it's hard to see them challenging the Blues, Chiefs, and Brumbies.

Tight tussle with similarly encumbered Hurricanes for 4th spot.

Rebels players reallocated among the remaining 4 teams will help this a bit, but with 2 of the remaining Aussie teams really struggling this year I don't think they will realise their full potential until they cut the Force too.

They still start slow, even in their RC wins. Would be genuinely top tier if they got going from the start.