Luatua effectively gives up on the All Blacks

I don't see how they compete with the ABs in their own backyard with such players missing.

This Bok lineup has 10 of the 23 in the Rugbypass Top 100, as follows:

Cheslin Kolbe 2

Ox Nche 10

Kurt-Lee Arendse 19

Damian de Allende 22

Malcolm Marx 36

Siya Kolisi 39

Kwagga Smith 40

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 47

Jesse Kriel 63

Manie Libbok 87

And the BaaBaas have .. 2 players of their 23 in the top 100:

Mark Telea 37

Sam Cane 81

I get it that there are some great players on the list, including veterans, up-and-comers, and some that have been unlucky in their national selection processes. It is a strong team, and being over 50% from NZ (12 out of the 23) with a highly accomplished NZ coach, there is a good chance that they will have a successful NZ-based team DNA.

Having said that you can’t help wondering what this team could have looked like in the absence of the calendar conflict with international tours.

“While scrums are a small part of the game in terms of time spent in them, they have disproportionate impact. Dominant scrums win games; feeble ones lose them.”

Strength at the breakdown wins games. Good kicking wins games. Good handling wins games. Strong defence wins games. Good lineouts win games. Ultimately, I think that of all these things, the scrum is probably the least important, because it demonstrably doesn’t correlate very well with winning games. I don’t think Rugbypass will allow me to link articles, but if you google “HG Rugby Crowning the Best Scrum in Club Rugby” you’ll get a pretty convincing analysis that ranks Toulouse and Bordeaux outside of the 10 best club sides in the scrum - and ranks Leinster outside of the top 30.

“Or there’s Joe Marler’s epic performance in the Bristol v Quins 2021 Premiership Semi-Final, in which he finally left the pitch 15 minutes into extra time having signed off with a try saving tackle.”

Yeah - that’s a good example actually, but it kind of disproves your point. Marler played 95 minutes, which is unheard of for a prop.

“Maybe we need a dedicated Hall of Fame with entry only for props, and voted for only by props.”

Well we have the World Rugby XV of the year. Its only been going for a few years, but in time it’ll be a pretty good record of who are perceived as best props - although the lack of interest most people have in scrums means that perception of who the best props are doesn’t always match reality (e.g. Tadgh Furlong was great in 2018 - but was he really the best tighthead in the world in 2021, 2022, & 2023?).