Sam Burgess tears into Haskell after controversial Royal Wedding attendance

Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

JW 12 minutes ago

Yeah that’s question I was wondering, and even over season to season within one particular league. I raised a pertinent factor in your question in my post and it highlights that we can’t even get a feel for it looking at a players ‘involvements’, because as with Beaudens case, he trained all week and hurt his hand or w/e and he’ll show is not playing last week, when actually his load was quite high, and this even applies to the likes of Jordie filling in, he would have trained with the same intensity all week just in case he was called in late.

This is the sorta stuff Galthie was talking about having needed to go through with his premium players (so avoiding it and ruling them out altogether is probably his preferable solution). Hopefully WR comes up with something as Galthie has thrown other less important players to the wolves simply instead.

Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

JW 21 minutes ago

What do you mean? The article tells you, the injury data is more accurate based on ‘involvements’, as in they find more correlation with why injuries happen when you look at how many games theyved prepped for rather than how much of those games they played.

I clarified this topic in my post but heres a quick copy paste

Training load management is the primary focus in load management among elite rugby teams because training activities are more easily modified when compared to match demands, and training load is reported to account for 84-95% of total physical load in rugby

From WRs Player Welfare section https://www.world.rugby/the-game/player-welfare/medical/player-load/coaches-guidance

Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

JW 33 minutes ago

What’s that going to achieve?

Steve Hansen: The Boks are 'rolling the dice and so far they’ve got away with it'

SK 35 minutes ago

I reckon the 6-2 is no longer a dice roll for the Boks. Its more of a norm now with players capable of playing multiple positions. The dice roll is now the 7-1. Thats when it really becomes a gamble

'Would be great': Ronan O'Gara backs rugby to ape football-style rule change

Over the sideline 46 minutes ago

This is crazy. Stuff us fans yet again eh. I don’t get why some can name teams on a Tuesday but others a Thursday.

2 Go to comments

Tk 1 hour ago

New All Blacks locks squeezing captain Barrett out of contention

Foster shot himself in the foot by naming Sam Cane as AB captain too early then clearly felt he couldn't reverse course. Razor was close to doing the same. The best team needs to be on the pitch then match day captain named from there.

1 Go to comments

Hammer Head 1 hour ago

The stat in which the Springboks outperformed everyone fivefold in July

NZ moved up no? 3rd to 2nd?

Erasmus invites 3 U20 stars into Bok squad as multiple RWC winners miss out

BH 2 hours ago

What a privilege to keep world class players like De Klerk and Mapimpi out of the squad.

29 Go to comments

PB 3 hours ago

Steve Hansen: The Boks are 'rolling the dice and so far they’ve got away with it'

Sure they will, they are home matches and a proud record. That said the Boks under Rassie have shown they can win away from home, even in NZ.

They will fancy their chances at Eden Park, and will roll out a very powerful team.

Steve Hansen: The Boks are 'rolling the dice and so far they’ve got away with it'

PB 3 hours ago

Steve Hansen is a relic. Had the benefit of a generational talented squad.

He is right about the Boks physical dominance, but they have added a few strings to their bow! Fast and skilled backs that can open a team up from anywhere, and a fitness level that enables them to play almost any game plan

'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

NH 3 hours ago

That penalty in the first 30 seconds BA was criminal and a huge psychological blow imo. Under rennie the wallabies had the same tendency to try and play 1 too many phases when under pressure off a start/restart. I remember swinton losing the ball in contact off restarts 3 times in one game vs france maybe. I also remember a bledisloe a good 5 years back in NZ that I was really pumped for and it felt like the wallabies were gonna give it a fair shake. And then the kickoff went out on the full and in my mind that was the game.

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NH 3 hours ago

'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

17 Go to comments

Jmann 3 hours ago

Steve Hansen: The Boks are 'rolling the dice and so far they’ve got away with it'

ABs will start as favourites to win both games in NZ and reclaim their spot as #1

The stat in which the Springboks outperformed everyone fivefold in July

Cantab 3 hours ago

ABs did lose 4 tests last year and dropped down rankings. Now on the improve and looking to supplant the Boks at the top.

Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

JW 3 hours ago

Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.

Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’, needing to include even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.

No doubt it is one of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of any one clubs amount of players in their International camps, where they rotate in other clubs players through the week (those not chosen in the 23 on Tues/Wed must be rotated out with players from another club for the remaining weeks prep). The number of ‘invisible’ games against a players season tally or predicted workload suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?

So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23 were eligible.

The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season, but ultimately if they don’t want it to change they can just play 11 months in the season instead.

'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

NH 3 hours ago

Carlo has been very good this year Miz, but I thought Mcreights on ball presence defensively in the first half was critical to stopping some of the barnstorming momentum the lions had and was simply worldclass/irreplaceable. Carlo is more physical in the tackle and carry, but he is not as effective at the breakdown. We can get physicality elsewhere, unfortunately we can’t get breakdwon presence from many other players at the moment. From what I could tell, the lions went to a ‘pocock’ like tactic in the 2nd half of putting about 4 blokes into any ruck fraser attended to stop him, knowing they could get quick ball at the next ruck that he won’t be at.

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Wit Kant 3 hours ago

The stat in which the Springboks outperformed everyone fivefold in July

Guess we can apply that same theory to the all backs. Lose 4 test, drop down the rankings.

The stat in which the Springboks outperformed everyone fivefold in July

Wit Kant 3 hours ago

Probably because theres about 40 players that can do the job equally well.