New South Wales take out Next Gen Sevens title in a dramatic final round

But trying to graft a champion pear tree onto an apple tree and expecting a massive harvest may not necessarily bear fruit .

My suggestion- instead, refertilise and invigorate the roots of the apple tree, turning green shoots and young branches into a stronger apple tree.

How?

Create a number of rugby scholarships, say 50 of $10,000 each for promising young rugby players.

This would be used to cover the expenses of playing overseas in the French, English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, NZ or South African premierships after next year's Lion's tour, or for time off work for high performance placements or special skills training.

The British and Irish Lions tour will see RA with available cash, and rather than invest in just a few players like Nathan Cleary, I suggest we develop our current Super Rugby, Australian U 20s, U 19s players where we have seen very promising results.

I would also suggest targeting established combinations, such as Teddy Wilson and Jack Bowen, who played together at U 20s, Easts Shute Shield and are in the Waratahs squad, to be playing at the same club and look to build future Gregan/ Markham combos.

The Wallabies need also to increase their front row depth and quality as Taniella Tupou body has it's own issues.

As we've seen on Dave Rennie's last Spring Tour, and in the recent Rugby Championship game against South Africa, without a highly functioning scrum, a team is pushing it uphill.

And where better for props and forwards to refine their craft than the Northern Hemisphere or South Africa.

Will Skelton, the Arnold brothers, Scott Sio, Angus Scott Young, and Lukhan are someexamples of forwards who have stepped up and thrived O/S.

Cricketers do it(Mike Hussey), actors do it(Guy Pearce, Mel Gibson, the Hemsworths, Margo Robbie etc), why not rugby players.

Travel broadens the mind, you leave your past identity behind, and start life with a blank slate. And get exposure to new players, coaches and systems that advance maturity.

And if the BIL beat us convincingly, a stint O/S would be a great thing to wipe the mental slate clean.

Having said that, Joseph Sualli has got rugby back into the headlines, so we'll take that, but some good on field wins and signs of further growth such as Joe Scmidt has producedwill certainly aid our rugby game.

As long as you're concerns aren't safety related bring it on! It's great that theres more than one way to win a scrum.

Luck can easily be enough dear boy.

You have to really understand New Zealand rugby to know the difference. Consider SA's selection approach, Rassie wants to identify a bunch of players to continue to 2027 with. NZ only has the bunch of players it has, so Razor is treating it like we need to give these players that have come in (with only a third or maybe half the numbers of other top nations theres a smaller pool) the best possible chance to succeed in the short and long term.

Take idea of abandoning the only experience the group has, and they come up with a loss, that young group is going to need to identify where they need to improve. Where as if they have a bunch of leaders still on the park and still lose, at least Cane can tell them things like "our effort wasn't there", or in the case of Sam Whitelocks books, "we weren't making the right steps week to week in improving our weakness".

If you're suggesting other teams don't call it a "copout" so it's pretentious of NZ to do so, that's going to have to be a wait and see. Certainly holding onto practices and methods only the highest can achieve may be deterimental (there's no point having feedback from Cane or TJ if those guys weren't of the highest standard in the first place) but you'll soon understand that it is a requirement for any nation trying to punch above their weight like NZ does. You absolutely need to make the most out of any situation you can, that's where it's a copout to accept mediocracy (two things France and SA are notorious for).

You still don't seem to be comprehending what I've told you for a year now. NZ gunned for Ireland at the WC. Think about it.

Haha expect to see the same amount of Green blood being shed then!

No Jordie/Proctor next season of course, will be interesting to see Higgins/Proctor. It's too much to hope for (this applys to lots of players/combinations) but hope those two can remain injury free and have a good year.

Sure, they were two good sides who timed their WC runs brilliantly, and know how to do so better than all the opposition, but they were very limited teams (again, credit to them for making the Final of course) with very very game plans.

It's now swapped, NZ and SA are the teams playing football and Ireland and France are the limited teams (again, doesn't mean theyre poor, I think it makes them even more level/even now).

England hardly had a show in NZ, they where well beaten. The blew their WC chances by not relying on Ford to kick them to victory, but I still argue they are a better team for having thrown that style of rugby in the archives this season. Englands progress through the 6N is greatly overplayed. I watched all their games back to back and they only made very small gains. People don't give Wales, Scotland, and Italy enough credit, nor realise how less effective Ireland was without they sideways backline play, or France without Dupont.

So what's not fair about only suggesting the All Blacks will win one of the Ireland or France games?