The intriguing latest Springboks medical bulletin on Siya Kolisi

I don’t know enough about provincial and grass roots rugby in nz to have any informed opinion but my guess, and it is a guess, says they probably do…???

1. Yes, I mean blown up as scuppered. They would scuppered any NPC/NRC level competition that included multiple Sydney or Brisbane "clubs" if those "clubs" were not Shute Shield or Hospital Cup clubs. They did that with the last NRC, by effectively organising a Shute Shield boycot in Sydney. No-one gave a shit. Less so in Brisbane, but similar.

2. Yes, the 2 Sydney and Brisbane based teams play in some sort Super comp. My preference is in Japan, but assuming they don't want us, then together with 5 NZ teams, Drua and MP in an 18 week competition with a bye each round. The 6,8 or 10 round comp would be underneath and after that and include all of the players from the Super comp unless they were playing a test that week. Ideally 2 rounds, but probably 1.

3. Yes, have as many rounds as possible in both the Super comp and the NPC/NRC comps to lengthen the season. And yes, play the NZ NPC top 4 somehow in some crossover arrangement. Or simply just add our teams to the NZ NPC?

4. They'd have to massively improve the marketing of SR, but that is possible if they have a higher standard facilitated by fewer Australian teams (2). Re the lower level, I live in hope

Love is not a place kicker and is more of a fullback wing

Fainga’anuku is a wing and sometimes 13 but has been playing 13 for Toulon

He would be useful to have back

Frizell would be as well but he is well covered now

Mounga is the only one who would be a shoe in

If you mean age then Carter was 33.5 in 2015 and really only just made it form and injury wise as he wasn’t in great shape or form prior

Mounga will be 33 and McKenzie 32

I don’t even need to name the amount of SA backs who are and have been older

At both SR level and NPC/NRC level.

It has to be properly planned and managed in a way that minimises the type of parochial anger that can arise from nowhere revolving around State, region, club or old school tie.

There things do happen and have happened

Razor fixed the forward pack . Now they actually do there job . Fix the centre paring too and B Barret and dmac could look too good and we wouldn’t be having these conversations about mounga .

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.