Hurricanes re-sign rising star Peter Lakai for three more seasons

It's a very old squad, and you wonder how long the likes of JGP, Lowe, Aki, Murray, Henshaw, Ringrose, Healy - all players in their early to mid 30's will be able to continue to perform.

When you have a 35-year-old in Murray replacing JGP for the AB game is very telling and that a 37 Cian Healy is still playing at this level, which means as he only plays limited minutes running down World Class talent Porter into the ground.

That Argentina was able to chase Ireland down and be in a position to draw or win in the last play of the game was telling. A couple of years ago, Argentina would have been blown off the park but now...

So yip, I think by the 2027 WC Ireland will very much have fallen back into the pack - will still have a great pack but will not be among the favourites for the WC.

If SA and NZ could have chosen a knock out match to face France and Ireland it would be the QFs. Their players had massive experience over two RWCs of winning KO matches including two world cups. Ireland and France had a combined total of zero experience. Yes SA and NZ had to be beaten on the way but France and Ireland's best shot was in a semi with a QF won and all teams with a hard match in their legs.

Imagine that semi final line up? Takem away by World Rugby for non transparent reasons.

Spare a thought for Scotland having World Champs and World no1s in their group and they would have had to play NZ in a QF had they staggered through. They were ranked #5 but were ranked #9 just after RWC 2019 so they were eliminated from 2023 more or less based on their 2023 performance.

I don't believe this was a competence issue. The SF lineup was almost NZ/WAL and SA/ENG. That's how important the seedings are. Ireland, France and Scotland put admirable efforts into major improvements only to end up in farce pools. Not good enough.

Look at Ethan DG, Fletcher N, Samson T at Hooker, Holland at lock (our own 125Kg/6 eight monster) and the likes of Lakai feeding through - We are building into World Class starting 8 and a bench with impact.

Then loose forwards - to pick from Lakai, Savea, Setiti, Finau, Papalii, Jacobson and one to watch out long term for Ollie Hoskins.

Half-backs - WC Roigard has backups, including Ratima, Hothan, and then the usual backline talent.

Yes - we lost to France by one point (I actually expected them to lose to both Ireland and France), but consider the AB's schedule - Japan, England, Ireland and then France in consecutive weeks - 3 games in a row against tough and physical opponents, which in large part is as tough as a QF, SF and Final at a WC.

I still have question marks around Robertson and his coaching team - compare them to what Schmidt has done with the Wallabies, but you can see that this AB team is building towards something special.

The missing link in large part, is still at 10 - if Mo'unga does not return in 2026, pretty clear that BB and McKenzie are not the long term solutions however will just have to hope NZ rugby will do what it has always done and feed through some talent.

For the center's, I think Borthwick definitely needs to explore some additional options. Mentioned on a another thread that Dingwall should be given a run out with Lawrence, but hadn't considered Beard, which sounds like a very viable option.

Willis absolutely has to be given a bench spot. We have some flexibility with Earl and Underhill if they both start, so there's every chance Willis will make an appearance against Japan. His ball carrying and the general chaos he causes should have been used against SA.

Hearing a lot about Clark and think in the absence of Chessum, Borthwick should start thinking about backup options. Not sure if he can, but if Clark can cover 6, then that would boost his chances, but think it might be unlikely he gets the nod against Japan.

For Pollock, think it's a bit too soon and there's plenty of other experienced options. Only other name not listed is Ted Hill.

I'd suggest you allocate more time on your DD next time.

Kind regards