Russian captain to play first Premiership game since war outbreak

Top marks though on wet bag Keir and the anti-monarchy stance.

Discuss.

Their history is not my history though.

So experimenting and unearthing players on this tour who would not have played at all had the big guns gone along, doesn’t contribute to building depth?

So giving players who have been capped before the opportunity to build on their number of caps doesn’t contribute to building depth?

So giving youngsters, debutants and players with a low number of caps the opportunity to play against a top ranked team like NZ doesn’t contribute to building depth?

You can try coloured blocks if you like, but you’re failing just by using simple English.

Any other team in the world would call the above building depth - because by your simple argument that it only counts if the players get picked again (which mind you some who played on this series certainly will) - it would be impossible to know who does and who doesn’t play again in the future.

Come on Nick. I know you’re an educated man, but that doesn’t permit you to treat your readers like they’re complete morons, surely?

Of course, personally, as a French fan, I’m firmly convinced Antoine Dupont is the GOAT, and the team as a whole are heroes, and if Antoine and Romain are fit, France A are world beaters.

I fully expect Kiwis and Saffas to hold a completely different view and to back their boys up to the hilt. Would they be fans if they didn’t! They may say whatever they like about past WCs, playing on SH soil and so on, as for the future, it’s up to their teams to back them up!

As far as “top dog international is best”, of course I enjoy it. But I’d rather keep the fantastic Top14 entertaining me almost year round and have a bit less tdi, than have theTop14 damaged for the sake of two or three games more of tdi gone in a flash. There’s always the WC, and soon there’ll be the world club cup, which as a supporter of Stade Toulousain, the greatest club in the world, of course!! I find an interesting prospect.

As NZ don’t reap the benefits of the Top14 it seems only natural they shouldn’t care so much about it, but perhaps the club WC will spark more a little more interest in foreign club opposition.

Not like England A for example, who won a Test series in Argy 2-0 and have unearthed a number of players who will gain impetus from a winning tour and will play for the Red Rose again in future.

I cannot make it any clearer without the use of coloured blocks!👶

What would you offer them to make cooperation more attractive for them?

Their way or the highway is a little more likely…