Injury forces Italy into squad change with ex captain Bigi called up

BB will be Beauden Barrett and think the that ball is wet and will slide with him on a dry night, still that sort of play is where he should be used, running it back from deep as Jordans replacement, and showing Jordan he’s still got a few skills to master!

I would already rank several in New Zealand better than Jordie

Yeah pfft!🙄

It was a really close game last time too though, and I think Cameron was clearly a big step down, so I would have had to say they were otherwise identical. Like you say though the picture on the field seemed a lot different, Kirifi and Lakai absolutely ripped into everything last time and I didn’t notice the same edge from them. Perhaps that is because the Brumbies also brought it, so they didn’t stand out (actually keeping Roigard on would have heavily affected the result/difference between the two games, but then Higgins was a bit of a magician).

They simply turn up a week later than they already are compared to the rest of the player, but if you’re suggesting it was FFR that dictated the dates, then why were you saying NZR only have themselves to blame?

They had the Canes when they came hot but the points gap to them was probably larger than was deserved. Which is still give the aussie sides some credit because were still some pretty good teams themselves, as good as those above them on the ladder, and it wasn’t certain who the best aussie team was for a long while.