'Thank God for that': Warren Gatland's relief at Highlanders bench change

You had a good run, but hopefully world rugby gets better standards for refs and your slide to irrelevance will be quick and justified.

Some of them are changing their minds now however, but I would love to see who you would choose. I think Joe Schmidt is an excellent coach, who puts in everything for the team he is coaching. To him, there is no such thing as being biased.

Guess the man is wearing blinders. Rob Howley is howling mad describing Gatland as the best. What a load of 💩

It is easy to construe that he was told he wasn't going to be chosen at his current weight, but I'd say that his weight was just the reason he was given why he wasn't chosen over other players (who went on to be very good themselves).

Razor has constantly choked on this tour refusing to back unproven players. There is something mentally wrong with this thought process, it's been proven(!!), that I'm happy to fit it under the same umbrella.

Would have been more accurate baloney for me to say Farrell choked, rather than specifically target Ireland in general 😁

I know what you mean and see it too, he will be a late bloomer if he makes it for sure.

We are better than that and Cheika putting Foley at 12, where he had never played before, to get in Quade Coopers way when he gave Cooper a rare opportunity at 10 just showed what a nasty vindictive Tah coach he was.

I have critized Razor for picking players he knows occasionally?

I said I'm not surprised because of his style, he's more a grinder player like Cane, not going to show up on peoples radar until you see how bad the other choices are. This year players like Clarke have been on fire and just show a bit more.

Are you one of those posters continually taking it easy on Razor because he doesn't have his Crusaders stars available? Do you think the rugby world is going to up to him suddenly once Mo'unga returns? lol

Cheika was an OK coach but his 'go our and destroy the opposition' tactic worked for a while and then didn't.

Please give me a list of great Aussie coaches that I have missed.

But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).

You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.