Top 14 : les Lyonnais Couilloud, Berdeu et Guillard blessés

And that’s the view from the optimistic corner. Other, more realistic opinions are available…

Rob 21 minutes ago

It helps that we were beating everyone else in the world over the last 2-3 years, proves my point cheers 😂

'It's taken 50 years to be compared with somebody': Gareth Edwards on Antoine Dupont

JC 31 minutes ago

A fine player indeed and a top 10 all time great scrum half, but not a hope is he in these two lads league.

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JC 34 minutes ago

They should cut their loses with Goodman too. He proved a costly appointment at leinster too and put their attacking strike plays and tactical running lines back years to before Lancaster arrived. Mike Catt was an astute tactician and reader of the game. We should have forked out and held on to him.

All Blacks report card: Are Razor's troops heading in the right direction?

JD Kiwi 1 hour ago

Good post TT. So much to lose, so little to gain.

All Blacks report card: Are Razor's troops heading in the right direction?

JD Kiwi 1 hour ago

You keep saying that SR isn't fit for purpose. Yet we're producing better young forwards now than we've seen since the 2008-2011 under 20s. In our geographically isolated position it's the best system available to use.

JC 1 hour ago

They are the second best team in the world over the last couple of seasons in terms of points accumulated from performances and results. They’ve beat every top side in world over that period at least twice. Now whether they are the second best team at this moment, in terms of opinion, is subjective at this time, however in terms of results in accumulating points they certainly are, as the data is there for everyone to see.

All Blacks report card: Are Razor's troops heading in the right direction?

Spew_81 1 hour ago

Thanks. Any ideas of what they could do to get more out of J Barrett at 12?

All Blacks report card: Are Razor's troops heading in the right direction?

JD Kiwi 1 hour ago

Some people seem to be living in cloud cuckoo land on this one. As you say, encouraging people to go overseas won't magically improve depth if there aren't enough players of the right quality in the first place. South Africa have three times as many players as us at all levels, that's where the depth comes from.

Likewise those who advocate for some sort of restriction. Currently NZR has a strong, no nonsense position. Loosen it and more people will leave and it'll have to be loosened further and further. It took South Africa a year to go from X caps to no restriction as more players left. Keeping the worms in the opened can isn't going

So where's the benefit? With Leicester returning and Frizzel inferior to Sititi Mo'unga is the only player we're talking about and he'll be back June 2026 at the latest. Are we seriously going to blow up our system to get one player back early?

So little benefit and so much cost. Weakening the domestic comp. Kiwi kids not being able to go and watch the best players every week. Young kiwi players not learning from them. Japanese based players not playing in November. European based getting overworked, not getting an off season or missing the heart of the test season.

All for one player for a very short period. That's not being "courageous" it's being foolish.

JC 1 hour ago

Name the 5?

JC 1 hour ago

They are team in transition but still in the top 4 and able to hold their position in the top 4, while in transition. The all blacks are in a similar position but are slightly ahead in their own phase. Ireland are way ahead still of the following pack, post top 4. It is hardly a reason to worry yet. We’ve a small pool to pick from, but with excellent coaching at underage level hence there is a steady stream of talent coming through always. The structures are in place with excellent planning from the IRFU. No need to get excited, patience will be needed and the 6 nations will give time for experimentation.

JW 1 hour ago

15/5

JW 1 hour ago

They have 5 JC.

Can Will Jordan avoid the All Blacks curse of turning 27?

JW 1 hour ago

He does rely on it Icefarrow. The real reason he is so good is because of his vision and anticipation, yes, but thats no good to anyone if you no longer have the speed and acceleration you think you do.

To be clear, like with the last game when he failed to skin the Italian fallback, what he sees in his head no longer matches with the reality of declining speed. A player doesn't automatically alter his instincts as he slows down, they have been trained since a youngster know what he can do with his body. If the body losses that, the mind doesn't, which is why they find it so difficult to adapt imo.

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JW 1 hour ago

Can Will Jordan avoid the All Blacks curse of turning 27?

That wasn't the reason for the point of this article though, getting dropped.

He was dropped because his handling vanished, even when he lost weight and gained speed again he still kept dropping the ball.

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Phillip 1 hour ago

'Knocked the big dog off': How Joseph Suaalii has impacted the Wallabies off the pitch

“As a rugby league player, he was awesome. I used to love watching him play, especially in the State of Origins, etc.,”. Did no one tell Andy he played 7 minutes of just one game before he almost took off Reece Walsh's' head?? 😅

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JW 1 hour ago

Well said

JW 1 hour ago

Common! You mean you didn't look at the referring in the last two games and think you got away with one? Haha oh lordy!

JC 1 hour ago

Three is a fifth of the starting line up, sorry i have to do the math for you…….

JW 1 hour ago

If by including 10th you mean by the current 5th placed team, I agree Finn!

TBH I didn't look past the top 10 ladder so maybe those teams are in the fight for 5th as well? I just can see Italy all the way down in 10th beating a lot of those teams above (well they have).

I don't if SA can be caught next year, how many games you think they have to lose?