L'Ecosse se prépare à affronter l'Irlande en quart de finale

I'd love to SR to become a bit part and enable aus to have true state sides that play in it. Brumbies would be the All-Brumbie(Aussie, Kangaroo?) 3rd team made of everyone outside the two states. 50k crowds at a dozen games would be epic.

Watching those next two scrums I thought to myself "why is the scrumhalf so lethargic at putting the ball in and picking it up?" but when I reviewed the first scrum he also just seemed to 'give' the ball to be hooked. You would have thought you'd learn from that first one, even on the fly at test level in the context around the lack of experienced game time.

That first scrum was very well done to be fair, can't be the easiest to repeat but I wonder if it was a head space issue after going back so quickly? Should have kept the priority on fast ball and not holding the shove.

Can't wait to read a few good ideas on where the game can go in Wales. From the surface they are in a much better position than the Australian sides as surely they could simple move two into the English Championship?

Rennie's win ratio was 38% and Schmidt after the weekend will be 46%. Cheika and McKenzie 50%. Remind me again how kiwis have improved us so much while we have sold our soul to kiwis.....

That is Felix Jones's system dude, nothing to do with Joe.

That's not funny Nickers. You think he should just be happy falling by the wayside? I don't think he has the desire to add bulk but I'd love to see that switch like Narawa has. Narawa should have been the 15 holding Jordans jersey this year (after Pero got injured) too.

The lower quality professional level has to seep into the young viewership, those just starting school rugby now, along with the knockon affect of each immediate group, stars to professional, pro to emerging etc, and then it would have to cycle through 2 or 3 times before suddenly you notice you're rugby isn't as good as what it used to be.

This ideology only works for the best of the best of course. If you're someone on the outside, like an Australian player, and you come into the New Zealand game you only get better and as thats the best league, it filters into the Australian psyche just as well. Much the same idea for nations like Scotland, England, even Ireland, you probably get better from having players playing in France, because the level is so much higher. Risk is also reduced for a nation like South Africa as well, as they play in the URC and EPCR and thats what the audience watch their own stars play in. It wouldn't matter as much if that wasn't for a South African team.

So when you say Rassie has proven it can work, no, he hasn't. All he has shown is that a true master mind can deal with the difficulties of juggling players around, who all have different 'peak' points in their season, and get them to perform. And his players are freaks and he's only allowed the best of the best to go overseas. Not one All Black has come back from a sabbatical in is good nick/form as he left, yet. Cane was alright but he was injured and in NZ for most the Super season, Ardie was well off the pace when he came back.

Those benefits don't really exist for New Zealand. I would be far more happy if a billionaire South African drew a couple of stars, even just young ones, over to play in the URC, because we know their wouldn't be that drop in standard. Perhaps Jake should look there? I would have thought one of the main reasons we haven't already seen that is because SA teams don't need to pay to get players in though.