Reds re-sign young 126kg prop who broke Taniela Tupou’s bench press record

Nah, like I said, it's relatively unrelated to this discussion about Internationals and yours of including SR sides in the comparison. Only players who need minutes under their belt get released back, yes. Techincally, Super Rugby is equivalent of EPCR of course, but either way, if a player like Sam Darry jumps into that one thousand minute club after adding "EPCR" minutes because he came in for some NPC, or players like Finlay Christie who goes well over when including them, they will still be relatively fresh for any International minutes they do get (well hopefully, Nick might suggest otherwise). I think you're more likely to find the same pressure that's on those English Premiership players in Moana Pasifika or Drua players, who have NPC minutes "asked" of them in the down time (this year they mostly just came back towards the end though).

Each year for nearly a decade now they've been getting poorer and poorer. That always used to be the topic when teams toured the South and when it was also referenced when the AB's North the whole country basically laughed at that concept. There's no laughing now.

I saw this topic in a JD article on the other site and thought of Darwin (it compared Hawke's Bay to la Rochelle), I think league got a similar number their the other month.

France doesn't have the same sort of high and low population density right? I wonder how many fans would come from the Perignon region itself (half the size of Wellingtons with a fraction less pop). Obviously going to be easier to get more fans the denser/more contralised the population, maybe that's why they have smaller grounds.

Following the RWC 3 or so players had the SR season off, one of those didn't play rugby at all. Generally their are always complaints about the lack of All Blacks, with them having to be rested for 4+ weeks of the comp and having minutes heavily restricted.

I'd suggest it's just a far more competitive league, so those that are allowed to play do, because every game is must win. They also don't have the funds to hold onto those back up or fringe players, so the Alex Nankivill's, Ioane's, Morgans aren't there to take over and not drop as many games when rotating. Already there is starting to become a similar sort of problem that has been outlined with the club scene in the North, where teams do choose one game to raise the white flag basically, and it turns into a rather poor product.

NZ has always led in this area of course, but it might be interesting if these stats show the north is getting better at it (it's obviously a trade off that most fans don't want). All the current injuries though are just par for the course (you especially have had it predicted to you about one of them so shouldn't be suprised), it's the way the teams have always done it. Just look at the Crusaders this year, Waikato are going in without a XV worth of players for their knockout game. This has existed forever, and goes back to the pre Professionalism attitude of training like it's a game I think, it's one of the (few) area's I've wondered if the game really has right here.

When you're B guys are like Julien Marchand or Thomas Ramos, you aren't really going to have a problem in that respect Nick. You're right though, thats more like what SR used to be like decades ago. I hope the league really is building something sustainable, we see the phenomenon every other year here with the Warriors, and it's clear the URC has gone back to sparsness in it's crowds.

The Lebanon example is no different to New Zealand and Australian players going off to play for a UK country for example. At least I think that timeline is the best migratory example.

I am also baffled by Dombrandt’s inclusion over Tom Willis. England have lacked go forward in the tight and Willis has brought that in buckets at club level, for both Wasps and Saracens. Give him the opportunity at Test level. Dombrandt is a slightly different kind of 8, seemingly more comfortable in the wider channels, and there’s a place for those players, but more importantly to me he’s had enough chances to impress in an England shirt but hasn’t taken them.

England need to win 3/4 of their autumn campaign to call it a success, and I am not sure this squad will get us there.