Pierre Mignoni convoqué pour son comportement face à Clermont

Schmidt is cunning enough to drop one of our best players Ikitau and play JAS at 13, where he will be all at sea.

Well, things are different now; there are endless other options for people.

There is access to every other sport on the planet at all times sitting in my pocket.

For the last two decades, NZR have carried on like rugby will always be the biggest love of the NZ public, rather than recognising they need to keep innovating to keep it relevant.

They are marketing and selling it like it’s culturally 1956.

It needs to become part of our communities culture if we are going to be any good at it.

Club rugby and NPC need to connect with people again.

I’m not all pessimistic about this. NPC games need to be at our clubs not stadiums, we need bouncy castles and games for the kids, it needs to be an event.

People won’t just show up out of provincial pride.

For club rugby, how are these games not packed out? It’s free, you can byo beers, it’s in the afternoon.

We just need someone with a bit of basic marketing nous and to promote it.

The provinces are going to have to come to the party, or the slow rot will just keep going.

(I would love Hamish’s thoughts on this but I’ve probably talked way too much guff about him to get a reply).

Congratulations for France's "business success." The biggest and richest country is losing money despite their huge market, has won one of the past 14 Six Nations and has bombed out of the past three world cups before the semis.

When a rugby system lacks alignment it is very difficult to win the big trophies. Imagine how good they'd be with their huge player numbers if they were able to properly manage player workloads.