Nasi Manu to captain Tonga in first match back from cancer battle

Something’s going to be dented after today. Egos.

I see a 5/3 split against England. Not sure Jordan will be picked for that one. I suspect we’ll see Polly, Grant Williams and Lukhanyo Am off the bench for that one.

Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.

Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.

Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.

And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.

And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.

Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.

I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.

Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.

There’s so much good we could be reading.

Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:

1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.

No prior experience needed.

Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).

Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

🙄

This is game one. New season for England. Playing a NZ team galvanized in South Africa and taking lessons along the way.

The only thing England has learnt since July is how to use Microsoft Teams better with Felix working from home and dialing in to coaching sessions.

Oh, and senior players getting better at managing their money after getting cash bonuses after another successful 50% season.

Oh. And learning a new defensive structure and conditioning regiment.

Oh and a new 9/10 combination.

But they’ll be fine. No need to worry. Allianz Stadium is a fortress.

😁

And more important than that, we won’t hear the end of it from the North 😆.

I much prefer articles from the likes of Andy Goode, sir Clive and that other wannabe European clown Williams bitching and moaning. Makes my soul happy.

Oh and Gatland. Love listening to him complain. Gooseflesh.

Selfishly, I’d probably want England to win today so that they get that blinder out the way and roll into the game against SA depleted (yet over confident) with their best game of the year out the way. The other way around and they might have to dig deep and respond to their critics against SA.

England tends to play better when no one expects them to win. And worse when everyone expects them to win. Like today…

But I want NZ to win because I want them to go in confident against Ireland and maybe get some revenge for the South.

I haven’t been able to sleep for days. So conflicted. Tormented.

It's probably a more solid defensive combo though if you compare them to the next in line: DMAC, ALB & Proctor. But I'd bet the second this second group are better equipped to find the space amongst the chaos Smith is talking about.