How France star Antoine Dupont was very nearly lost to football

He's also already got Mo'unga I'd say, what he'd be asking of Robinson (or whoever takes over) is that the rules are bent to all his inclusion without first representing Canterbury. Razor will need a lot of good will spirit heading his own way if he selects Mo'unga to start in July against France.

When a Dupont-less, understrength B-team French outfit heads over to Aotearoa in July for a highly anticipated series down under, nothing less than a 3-0 sweep will suffice for the All Blacks. 

You aren't very good at sneaking a look at what's in the Xmas hamper around you Henry? If Toulouse somehow fluff one of their knockout games they will be able to tour (only players in the Final are excluded) and it will basically be Dupont's Toulouse versus all of New Zealand in July. They will be VERY hard to beat.

The old Christmas excitement gets the best of everybody. Personally I think Razor would be saving up backline wish for some creativity and spark till next Xmas. Mostly he'll wanting to stay in the good books and for fans to pay attention next year.

It seems like the idea of Ardie Savea moving to openside flanker is no longer on the table, and World Breakthrough 15’s Player of the Year Wallace Sititi seems to have locked down the number six jersey.

Ardie was selected as an openside flanker against France, two games ago. Dalton Papali'i is the incumbent though and while the jersey number is largely irrelevant, he might still want somebody to stand out in the 6 jersey next year.

It would be my own wish that Ardie is asked to be selected at 7 again, and play like a 7, though. I really hope that no one stands out in the 6 jersey for Razor though, so he's forced to think creatviely and move Scott Barrett there lol

I don't think there is a real godfather of Argie rugby itself as over time many countries have had a huge influence.

There was this period when the Saffas toured as "Gazelles", I remember watching Morné du Plessis as a "gazelle"...

Tactically, it is about what is best for them. If they don't have any player that can kick the ball, then obviously they want to avoid that. The same way that if they don't have hieight or strength in the lineout, they don't want to make the ball go dead. I'd imagine they just simply are well off the place in terms of athletes, so couldn't make that game plan, or any really, work.

Oh, and the other thing I want to reply with is, isn't it so hard to track these teams from week to week, especially over competitions, when they under go so much change? Taking a quick look at their last 4 games, it looks like they rotated for their away CC fixture. I remember watching that Leinster game, and I think Nick even half reported on it, as well, despite what Tom said below about obviously not having the depth or power of those two top European sides (English sides strength is going to have to be their cohesion for the immediate future) they battled squarely with them well into the second half ddin't they.

That said, Lam no doubt harbors many found memories from the early Auckland Blues domination days. That side found such a confidence that allowed them to play well above their individual parts that I'm sure he felt better being a part of.

On the topic, romance for me is the French game were they love immobile forwards and electric backs that keep the two games, of forwards and backs, completely seperate, and the enthusiasms British (and maybe to a lesser extent Irish, they had a different fire for me) had for the power mini games. In a look to the future you definitely want that to be cherished as the All Black rugby talked about here wouldn't have had the appeal without that counterpoint. More immediately I can see the game homogenizing, but more long term some notes I had were that the different domestic rules for the game shouldn't vary too far from the International rules, but each area has their own needs to change the game and WR need to balance those all out when it comes to show piece tournaments, so we don't see what happened in 23 with all the criticism of the referring for example. The game needs to unite but it also needs to fight various different battles that will try to rip it apart.