Fracture du pouce pour Fickou, absent en début de Tournoi

Suddenly, in certain positions, teams like the Reds and Tahs have real quality depth. Given RA's inability to effectively match off-shore salaries (I understand they have already told Topou that they can't match his existing contract), we will see a fair few players depart for Japan, France, etc post Lions.

I’m proud to consider him a good friend too. We last had lunch in Paris prior to one of the RWC semifinals. I can strongly support his passion for Aussie rugby.

Why are there so many foreigners writing stuff to keep Australian rugby down ? Are they all so terrified we might succeed if we regain our self confidence and engender some Aussie spirit ?

Who gives away a penalty for not rolling away from a ruck a few minutes in to a must win World Cup game when captain, on the Welsh tryline ? An entitled Tah called Porecki that's who.

Tupou will find karma will be chasing him playing for the Tahs .....

In the long term they will want to keep those Victorian pathways open even if it means semi-pro rugby in VA, and maybe a spot in the Mitre 10.

And then of course Australia must ditch all its kiwi coaches.

Be careful about summoning the Djinn Bull!😅

If the Aussie SR sides can gain some early momentum v the NZ sides, it will stand them in good stead for the Lions, and I expect throw up some ready-made combos along the way.

An all NSW front row of Bell-Porecki-Nella would be accepted by all bar OJohn!

I like Uru and I hope he gets a shot if they go with Will Skelton at 5.

Happy New Year to you too!

It goes without saying that 4 good-ish teams feeding into the Wallabies is a lot better than 5 poor-ish ones.

It should work, at least better than what we've had.

Guys like URU mean we actually have forward depth,...at least in the back 5.

I think that the serious gaps now are only in back-up props and 5/8. This next SRP season might find a few contenders for these gaps, especially.

Let's hope so, because even though there are about 100 guys playing worldwide with SR experience, there are no clear contenders any more at 1,3 and 10.

To think we had laumpe with the speed and power . But they got rid of him just to make room for Jordie . Can’t think of one season I’ve seen Jordie play centre and said wow … 🤦‍♂️

Fewer teams is the obvious, logical answer in the short-term. to build positive momentum. Alternatively Schmidt can focus on key combinations of players across the teams he can choose from. I’m sure he is more than capable doing this strategically and well.

The medium term would be to do what Rassie does, and communicate with and work with domestic teams to work towards a common good and shared outcomes (see Vermeulen’s role as part of the process). I believe the ABs were quite good at that too once upon a time. Get the 3,4,5 teams on the same page as to the Wallaby plan.

The alignment camps the boks have so regularly (including remote meets) are vital given that the tope 30-45 boks are spread across teams across the globe!

The long term is to get more of Australia’s gifted athletes towards rugby. And that means money. I have no idea how much Aussie rules players earn, for example, but I assume there’s an incentive driving the supply of athletes there compared to rugby. And I assume it’s fame and fortune not available in Wallaby Rugby.

And then of course Australia must ditch all its kiwi coaches. 🥷🏻

Discuss. 🙊