The 'fantastic' Steve Diamond verdict on Newcastle beating Saracens

And if you think Razor's naive, maybe tune in to Aaron Smith and Ardie Savea who both agree with him.

“The country that’s proven that it works, that it helps, is South Africa. The majority of their team’s playing [offshore] and they come together and win the World Cup. I don’t think it’s going to change drastically, but I just think that something needs to evolve and grow.

“Maybe it’s the new coaching group and new management that’s coming in and bringing fresh ideas, that could be it.”

“It’s scary how much the world’s evolving and the game’s evolving in different countries. I think that’s the best thing about being out of New Zealand – I’m playing against guys from South Africa; Pacific Island boys that are from Tonga, Samoa; the Japanese brothers; Aussie brothers.

“I’m playing against a different variety of players, different styles, which has been refreshing and awesome. Where in New Zealand, you’re just playing against the New Zealand teams and Aussie teams.”

That's Ardie speaking from Japan.

It's boring just playing other teams from NZ and Aussie who all play essentially the same way.

You should try some mind-opening exercises like Ardie! Take off the blinkers.

IMO Mounga has always been ahead of the other two and that won't change. And ofc Razor know hi so much better.

Of the other you mention I'd like to see Perofeta given and extended rub at 10 for the Blues with a view to giving him a shot there for the ABs.

Good point about combos, and I'd be surprised not to see Jordie-Proctor bing given a chance in 2025.

With regards to play style there are a few different theories but I subscribe to the idea that enough teams have just figured out a defensive system to shut us down, and that system works much better when we play off nine. There are a few other considerations but the main one that has me excited actually is that for the first time that I know of it would seem we are fully taking World Cup cycle planning seriously, in the past we treated the year before and the year of the only necessary planning years but now all the talk from the coaches is on the four year cycle. Farrell for all his pros is also apparently a teeny bit paranoid, allegedly the main reason Ireland didn’t feature much in the six nations documentary until the end was because he didn’t want cameras at their training and was similarly paranoid during the World Cup training. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s working on a new style or an evolution to bring that next level edge to be unveiled in a few years time.

On the 2022 summer tour he made a slight tweak to the attack in that we would continuously attack the blindside or the side where we were two phases ago to reduce the amount of work the forwards had to do but because the Irish forwards are selected mainly on athleticism and the ruck speed is so quick this regularly caught opposition forwards napping and gave us easy gainline while the backs set into shape. Just a tiny tweak like that took us from six nations runner ups unable to mix it physically with big teams to winning a series in NZ beating SA and a grand slam, it’s obviously not the only change but it’s something I’ve noticed we’ve stopped going to as much. Everything looks much less drilled and precise the rugby is much more off the cuff.

I think Prendergast can organise much better than Crowley and that could be the key today or it might not hoping for a good game either way.

Hell, I wouldn't even say the Halfback position has been nailed down by anyone yet either. Despite being first choice, Roigard is ultimately being held back by Ratima, who works better as a starter instead of a bench player. Roigard on the other hand can do both. Hotham works well off the bench, but is guilty of slightly overplaying his hand at points, costing his teams guaranteed tries. So which path do you go down? One who's reliable but completely inefficient at points, or one who can work miracles but cost you points all the same?

Robertson always goes on about combinations, a big part of why he pairs Ratima up with Chiefs teammate McKenzie, but I'm not so sure this Roigard/ Barrett pairing is clicking. A shame the Hurricanes brought in a few new Five-Eights for next year instead of giving Love a chance. Would've made for a good combination given they play together. But alas, it's not all that surprising given Razor wouldn't pair Jordie with Proctor in the ABs, despite it being a combination that has worked wonders for the Canes over the years.

The "small country" argument doesn't wash. In the mid 80s and 90s they were the only team to challenge the England France duopoly, won three championships. But they neglected their systems and haven't come close since. When Steve Anderson come to them with a long term plan they chose a quick fix instead so he went to Ireland and the rest is history.

The good news is that they've woken up and smelt the coffee. They want to prioritise Scottish talent instead of papering over the cracks with foreigners. They've hired Dave Nuciafora and they're trying to improve the alignment for their system. It's a welcome change.

"The South African Rugby Union (SARU) has confirmed it will withdraw teams from Super Rugby in favour of playing in Europe's PRO14 league, blaming New Zealand for its exit from the competition.

"SARU said its move was forced by New Zealand's "unilateral" decision to organise its own domestic competition, or possibly a trans-Tasman competition involving Australian and other teams for next year.

"That appeared to be because of uncertainty over whether a traditional Super Rugby tournament could go ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Still, SARU said it considered it a slight to not be consulted."

So there's the story, from Oz. But yeah, I'm just rubbing it in that it worked out very well for SA - and world rugby as a whole in fact - to go N-S, and any NZ whinges must blame their RU, not anyone else.

I know Damien McKenzie was the best 10 this year but didn't see who his 9 was? Roigard wouldn't have had enough games for it, surely.

I'd heard about Razors naive comments about SAs riches in the media, and can only think if he wants a team like Rassie he should build it like Rassie did. Razors experienced group is contracted locally, so all he needs to worry about now is selecting and trying out some of these "new generation 10's" he has at his disposal!

Can't say that at the begging of the year I thought the word to best describe Razors coaching this year, would be "scared".

Oh, PS doesn't Webber look good in pink, tried watching his last game (dodgy stream) and he showed that example of a small wippit able to get out of any situation many times (guess that's as regular as box kicks for a top 14 breakdown), thought he looked sharper than he had in NZ (and I had him ranked #2 last year, with Roigard as the rookie).

In fact a whole Scottish backline wouldn’t look out of place

A weak Welsh side doesn’t help when you think of some of the greats in previous sides

Not sure about McCarthy- don’t rate him that highly

Feels like there should be 1-2 more Scots but bizarrely they always get shunned

Could easily swap the wings with Graham and Lowe but these two are excellent