'There was definitely a part of me that felt the ship had sailed'

Just to diffuse your strawman argument: I never claimed that NZ were not preparing for the game against Ireland. I claimed that NZ have 3 massive games to prepare for. Ireland has one.

Ireland have a certain amount of team to prepare with NZ as the major game. If NZ have similar time but with 3 major games. That means that NZ will have less time to focus on the Dublin match than Ireland will as they will have to divide a lot of that prep time between England and France also. Do you understand this?

That's similar to what we saw in the QF with Ireland having to prepare for Scotland and NZ two weekends in a row with NZ having only Uruguay 9 days before and France 4 weeks before.

NZ have lost three RC matches for the first time ever. Its a good NZ team. But other teams have caught up and passed NZ out. You will be facing 2-3 teams that have passed NZ out in the next few weeks.

So all in all, the success from Glasgow should be cherished as it may well be considerably longer than another decade between this title and the next one!

This js what NZ handed Ireland, the motivation to prepare more for, better for, beating NZ in upcoming matches and in particular to train to eliminate them from the 2027 RWC.

NZ supporters seem to be like cult members, bots applauding their teams actioan even when they hurt NZ.

In that match NZ had already beaten Ireland. Why hand Ireland extra motivation to hurt NZ in future?

And what about the question of basic respect between rugby nations?

The one thing that surprised me is that the organisers haven't followed the lead of RWC 2015 and tried to locate European teams' matches closer to their home support - e.g. by having Wales play their games in Exeter, Scotland in Sunderland or York, or France and Italy in Brighton.

I imagine that reflects the expected nature of the audiences: the aim is probably to attract local crowds more than it is to reach an overseas audience.

It will be interesting to see how the main ticket presale goes. Yesterday's Mastercard presale seemed busy despite the initial snafu that meant the link to the ticket queue was broken. There was a long wait in the queue, at any rate, though there wasn't any sign of the presale tickets selling out.

You’re obsessed with age.

They also have more fluidity and timing/understanding on playing with, and controlling, the ball. They look far more comfortable with ball in hand which is what I see as the most influential area of the game.

Sure, they have a lot more weakness than even your good list highlights, and which I would also want further improvement in too, but I see big strides in the shape of the attack on these ones. So overall an improvement on a team that should have won the Rugby World Cup.

SA are much the same, though sure, they started from a low base and also have many of the same shortcomings when it comes to capitilizing on these improvements.

Both teams will be happy with the forced player development they've gone through. I agree they don't have the same strike power but I'd largely put that down to the 9 and 10 still growing into their role and could change very quickly.

I actually agree with everything you say their other than you've forgotten that 10 was a lot worse at the start of the last cycle.

If the Nations Championship is the construct of the SANZAAR and 6NR member nations for their own benefit, why would they compromise that with weakened teams?

But I will say that it commercial returns are your concern, as you've outlined, I'm not sure a PIs game (which would be tricky, in the current rugby environment), or a some kind of SR selection trumps genuine international matches..

Hopefully Cameron is selected next year. He will add the finese to the No.8 role which is lacking with Wiese.