Champions Cup : François Cros incertain pour affronter l'Ulster

Likewise those who advocate for some sort of restriction. Currently NZR has a strong, no nonsense position. Loosen it and more people will leave and it'll have to be loosened further and further. It took South Africa a year to go from X caps to no restriction as more players left. Keeping the worms in the opened can isn't going

So where's the benefit? With Leicester returning and Frizzel inferior to Sititi Mo'unga is the only player we're talking about and he'll be back June 2026 at the latest. Are we seriously going to blow up our system to get one player back early?

So little benefit and so much cost. Weakening the domestic comp. Kiwi kids not being able to go and watch the best players every week. Young kiwi players not learning from them. Japanese based players not playing in November. European based getting overworked, not getting an off season or missing the heart of the test season.

All for one player for a very short period. That's not being "courageous" it's being foolish.

To be clear, like with the last game when he failed to skin the Italian fallback, what he sees in his head no longer matches with the reality of declining speed. A player doesn't automatically alter his instincts as he slows down, they have been trained since a youngster know what he can do with his body. If the body losses that, the mind doesn't, which is why they find it so difficult to adapt imo.

He was dropped because his handling vanished, even when he lost weight and gained speed again he still kept dropping the ball.

TBH I didn't look past the top 10 ladder so maybe those teams are in the fight for 5th as well? I just can see Italy all the way down in 10th beating a lot of those teams above (well they have).

I don't if SA can be caught next year, how many games you think they have to lose?

FTFY

The 8 number indicates far less involvement from their overseas contingent so is not a very accurate reflection.