Ireland call up two second rows as Ryan and Baird ruled out

It sounds like ppl were given room to wriggle out of a sense of responsibility, and that's how it felt at the time.

As you say the geopolitics are now working against NZ. If the URC expands to include English sides it will become the biggest, and in time prob the best league in the world. It could have as many as six diff natiosn all competing in one comp.

I reckon the ABs deserved to win on Saturday even though England should have put the game away at the end. NZ were the better attacking team.

Then again, with private equity at the table, literally anything could happen!!

Personally I’d be very disappointed if SA & Italy were cast adrift.

That said, I just don’t see how NZ gets back to any kind of dominant position. Sure they can compete well but the structural issues around the geopolitics of world rugby have moved against them and they’ve got their work cut out just to stay in and around the top 3. I say this as someone who predicted they would prevail over England at Twickenham last Saturday but even then, their handling errors and poor execution in attack left a lot of points out on the pitch. I genuinely can’t recall seeing an All Black team rack up so many last pass errors in one game.

Of those you mention, I recall the one who interested me most was Elliott Dixon. Whatever happened to him? He looked like he could be the next Kaino!

Dual playmakers were always a thing, you maybe didn't notice because guys like Nonu and the two Smiths were so multi-faceted. The ppl who replaced them could not multi-task as well, esp versus [legal] rush D!

Would also agree EDG has to be the #1 loosehead. Ppl keep touting Tamaiti to me but he still has an awful lot to learn!

I don't see becoming the norm again. The ABs prob will continue to improve but will they do it as quickly as other nations like France of SA? Big question!

Be real. England is third or even fourth ranked team in the 6N behind Ireland, France and poss Scotland too. Borthwick is only coaching at just over 50% right now. The ultimate test it is not.

Then you have the dual playmaker system that never worked , but they kept using it . why ? cause some men cant admit when they're wrong . thats the All Blacks between 2016-2023 . wrong coaches with the wrong vision , going in the wrong direction . now it appears the world caught up . but like I said the world never caught up . then you add the obvious flawed referee calls that happen to go against us more often then for us now . the worst of which that never gets called is when the opposition use rush defence but have players offside . this has been going for years , but who cares ? .

anyway its almost 10 and i need to get some shut eye .

Go the might All Blacks !!!!

I would be thinking De Groot will be coming straight back in as loosehead against Ireland.

Did you catch the NZ XV Munster game NB? Not bad for a scratch side. The Irish commentators made my big hope Holland MOTM.

If that is true I'd be dead aganst it. I think the South Africans have provided huge filip to the European game and I doubt England would do the same. They would prob also insist on all 10 of their clubs being included which would make URC very unwieldy.