Secondrow shock change flagged in heavily rumoured Irish team to play France

The Azurri were up for it though. As expected. You can bet they were planning for this specific test for months. Let's not forget they were pipped by ENG, drew with FRA, & beat both SCO & WAL in the Six Nations in Feb/Mar this year.

A mess of a match, good win, considering.

Penney's Super Rugby win record was a low 23% before we signed him on. At the top was Razor at 84%. And true to form, Penney took us from a 7-peat to not even making the play-offs in ONE season. No excuses. LOSER. Thank God his contract is up next year. And hopefully Rangi might wanna throw his hat in for the job.

In the meantime, hopefully we can crack the top 6 this year in spite of Penney!??!

Why was Dmac rated a 6, did he not actually do any better or did he come on at fb or something?

Someone like TJ would be bitterly disappointed he didn't play on this end of year tour. He is still good enough to come on in that France game and ensure the team get the victory (with regards to how well Ratima had been playing). At the very least this is a 'sorry you didn't get that chance' offering, he's not here to get token farewell games, he will be playing to try and prove that he should have been on the pitch last week.

The other decision to play your best over the future is really personal though so can agree with your reasoning. Just sharing a slightly different perspective. I'll have to check the ratings and see how they went.

Will Jordan only a 7??? He had a wonderful performance.

I was really surprised that DuhDuh was replaced and not Jordan. DuhDuh had a great game and just underlined his class in a backline that was not firing on all cylinders.

Damian Willemse was missed. Hopefully he'll be back to full fitness and have an injury free 2025 (and '26 and '27 and so on until he decides to retire to spend time with his grandchildren).

RG was great. What an athlete.

Very happy that Hanekom made his debut at last. He gave a good account of himself and will hopefully grow into his role on the international stage.

All things considered, this was another frustrating Bok performance. Even though it was a comfortable win, it wasn't a commanding win. This Welsh team should've been put away by a far larger margin.

But I have faith in Dr Rassie. He knows more than I do. Bring on 2027 😁