Report: Maro Itoje to stay put in Saracens, with announcement imminent

A few phone calls would have done the trick.

1) Temaiti

2) George Bell

3) Lomax

4) barret

5) Vai’i

6) Samipeni

7) Ardie

8) Wallace

16) Aumua

17) Ofa

18) Tosi

19) Tuipolotu

20) Lakai

I had wanted Lakai to start and Ardie on the pine but Samipeni and Wallace might be a wee bit too green for that just yet.

George should be ready by now and Razor needs to pick up his sack and justify that selection, show us what the kids made of.

Codie can have another week for brain damage recovery.

I don't know whether Lenny will stay ta 12, but he looked emgergised by the combo with JAS and that mattered. It brought the best out of him.

Kerevi is the key isn't he? Joe is being pretty coy about revealing his real thoughts on Kev, but we know he's not picking him!

I think Jordie is a diff beast [and skill-set] in that 6'5 frame!

Sua’ali’i's debut was not as spectacular as that of Jarrett, and your stats. Nick, paint a realistic picture of his game. But stats. can also be overplayed. They can't show the total picture of such as how the player dealt with pressure, how he passed or kicked, his attitudes and reactions to situations during the game. To my eye, he was always calm, very even tempered in all situations, and never showed any signs of arrogance, or getting ahead of himself.

As a coach of schoolboys long ago now, I always looked for the signs that a player had special qualities, across the whole range, skills, mental strength, ability to a team player etc. Sometimes one could pick them very young, U 13 being when boys played their first rugby in Ireland in those days... mini rugby was starting, a few weeks only late season. 12 of the players I coached went on to wear an Irish jersey at a variety of levels, right up to 4 at full Int. level. of all those players, only one I picked as a future Int. at the U13 level.

In relation to Sua’ali’i', I saw so many indications that he can develop into a very good WB, and one hopes, a great one. Now I did not see him at U13 level, but I see from one comment he had a agent already as 12 year old. So he looked very good very early. May he remain serious long term injury free.

Wake up man.