Calum Clark retires from playing to take up unique new Saracens role

I think this is a completely separate matter from my opinion of him as he player - my two favourite england players (Freeman and Martin) both also seem quite low IQ, and it doesn’t affect their abilities on the pitch in the slightest.

But I really enjoyed Smith's mispronounciation of “Golem", his misunderstanding of the cameramans “Gollum" joke, his poor guitar playing, and the faux profundity of his observation that its good to ask your family about their lives.

Looks like a decent lineup, although i’m feeling a bit anxious about England’s stocks at lock, as Borthwick only seems to have faith in Itoje, Chessum, and Martin atm. I’d have liked to see Arthur Clark and Joe Owen either in the full England squad, or the A starting XV, and am not fully convinced by Tizard and Lockett.

JOC was a great pick up for the Crusaders.

Both Rivez and Taha have a lot of potential and some mentoring from a player like JOC could bring their game management, tactical kicking and dealing with the pressure of being the driver of a Super Rugby team at a young age as he has been through it and made a few mistakes in his younger years.

This old school view that NZR has about not selecting any players from overseas is an 80s amateur view.

The ABs don't need to pick the whole squad from overseas but if the had 2-3 players that had already put in some time in Super Rugby it benifits both the ABs and the next level of talent that can build skills in Super Rugby rather than be lost to Japan, the UK or France.

NZR is losing sponsors and players are leaving for the extra dollars earlier in their careers now.

Professional careers are short and the NZR sabbaticals don't cut it anymore for the top elite AB players.

The Japanese League One teams want the big ticket international players for longer contracts to develop more Japan eligible players by playing with these top tier international players for their future and to make a quality depth pool of players for the Japan national team to be higher ranked internationally.

NZR need to get a professional attitude as the current lip service they give makes them look like a 3 ring circus and the ABs slide further from the top the longer this short sighted amateur thinking forms their decisions on key areas which holts professionalism moving forward for rugby in NZ.

I haven’t heard of any Welshman publicly say they have been insulted. As it is one of 100s of podcasts and every other one has been tripping over themselves to NOT appear arrogant/condescending from any angle, then I would say ‘the degree of arrogance’ is tiny and only reported to get clicks.

In fact the snippet itself is just p1sstaking, not arrogance and in that context it was poor.

See the story about Gareth Edwards from Wales to show how its done:

Journo: Sir Gareth would the great Wales team of the 70s beat the current Welsh team?

Edwards: Well, you know…..I think they would…but it would be a very tight affair..

Journo: Why such a close match Sir Gareth?

Edwards: Well five of the team are dead and the rest are over eighty…..

Theres more than a few of us asking the same question. Narawa had one test where he played OK but not brilliantly on a day when noone played well….then got dropped.

What we can say is that SA have a better foundation now to develop tight forwards with a superior core skill set than they ever did in SR. It didn’t happen by accident, it’s because Rassie put SA in a position to do it by picking from overseas, and with SA moving into NH comps after that.

What would Razor argue? Does he really want an overseas policy just to get Richie back? Or does he see it as opening a door between Japan and NZ? I think there is more substance to his thinking than you give him credit for,

The dual playmaker has never worked for the ABs against the top tier nations, BB crowds 10s when he plays FB and dmac runs around like a headless chook at FB.

Playing players out of position just to get the ‘best’ players on the field didn't work out in the 2019 or 2023 RWC for the ABs

Start playing specialists in specialist positions, when you don't develop these players they head off shore younger and younger

High performance in NZ has been on a downhill slide since at least 2017

But that’s the beauty of a dynamic situation, watching who can improve and how fast they can do it…

What I am pointing out is that NZ are making it tougher for themselves than they need to, and a system that once bred continuity is now standing in the way.