Yeah mate it could definitely be streamlined, though perhaps the Brook example above is a bit too streamline ha ha ha. On a side note what a cool story shows how much rugby has changed. I love them anecdotes from the old days of rugby, and Robin Brook no less the man was a legend.

Does this strike anybody else as an absolutely insane way to allocate resources for a sport that is desperately tryin to expand. I don’t get even get the use of lawyers etc. how many hours and how much money has been spent on this whole expedition, its not like its that hard. get one independent review panel of say 12 people that have a decent understanding of the game and come from diverse background take a quick look at the tape a they can go, yeah looks like 4 weeks. You’ve got the Wallaroos coming out and saying they aint getting sh*t from RA ( I know this is an entirely different bucket of money) but I bet anyone, honestly i mean anyone, could come up with better ways to spend money than this. You could wake me up after 2 hours of sleep on the back of a 2 day bender and i could give you at least 8 ways that these funds could be allocated more appropriately for the betterment of rugby. This whole kerfuffle with lawyers and QC’s all of this business’ its honestly just a bunch of people looking to make money by making the whole thing way more complicated than it needs to be. IT’S A TACKLE IN RUGBY! yeah it weas high, yeah he’s done it before… 4-6 weeks.. done. Seriously its like popping down to the dairy to grab 2 L of milk and rocking up to the counter with a negotiator when it comes time to pay. then walking away with the milk and only paying a buck 90 and congratulating yourself on following a fair and equitable process in which due process can clearly seen to be adhered to. Pay your 2 bucks / cop your 4 weeks …… then get back to playing some rugby. In the case of the English it looks like less time in the court room more time practicing catching and passing a rugby ball would be of tremendous benefit.

the wallabies have shipped 74 points in their 2 games under Eddie, they are letting through an average of 37 point per match, and they are playing the AB’s this weekend. So you say okay lets talk about the defense coach… oh he has no experience. alright maybe some questions need to be asked. Oh it’s inappropriate to point out these facts. Cool don’t worry about it then Mr. jones please do continue on. Might want to run it by Mr. Mclennan, thought he said he wanted people talking about rugby again. Well people are talking. I get that if you take the line of thought that Laurie is under the employ of Australian rugby and so should not be commenting on other employees that’s fine. So let me ask it then. What the f*ck is goin on with the defense? while we are at it what the f*ck is going on with he kicking?

I thought Hary brought up an interesting point, that Lawrie agreed with, regarding the lack of comms, or noise, from the Wallabies. This is an important feature in a good kicking strategy, getting info from others in the backline as to where the space is. If you don’t have a that communications identifying space and it is all just left up to one bloke to kick then perhaps this is where the issues are coming from. A lot of them guys haven’t played a huge amount of rugby together so perhaps this will improve naturally with time.
Cracking podcast with Lawrie Fisher also, really intelligent guy clearly who knows a tonne about the game. You don’t realise how much these guys know until you hear them in a long form interview like that.

I agree with Taukeiaho comment, however given the lack of impact we got from the bench last week i wonder if that is why they have him coming off the bench. if you are looking for a big impact in the last 20 mins out of our hookers available Taukeiaho is most likely to give you that lift i expect.
I’d prefer to see Finau off the bench too, i think your thoughts are dead on here… for what its worth 😁

Interesting read. You compare the NZ system and French system, but it might be more accurate in terms of player numbers are resources to compare the Ireland and NZ system. Ireland also have a very good U20 squad (and obviously senior side) what does the Irish system do better than the Kiwi’s at the moment do you think? Also I wonder about comparing the U20’s and drawing direct conclusions to how effective systems are based solely on results here. The NZ team last year was regarded as one of the better ones that had been produced recently, beating Australia 69-12 last year. But this years Australian crop look really good and NZ’s perhaps not so good. It seems a good year of players can come through and change results dramatically. Id contend that last years NZ squad would have done pretty well at a world cup if it had been held.
I’m sure here you will state that if you look at the success of the NH senior sides compared to that currently of the SH sides then their development must be superior, to which I and many others would say…. just hold off perhaps on scribing either France or Ireland’s name on old Bill just yet…. 😂 😂

I agree Tony, but sometime with them one off pick n goes you gotta wonder are all of tackles not head highs?

Great article Lindsay, I’m over the maul too, as soon as its formed the ref is immediately looking for any chance to blow a penalty against the defending side. I notice now they are also penalizing lifting a leg. I remember this being an acceptable way of defusing a maul, but now its considered dangerous. I can’t for the life of me recall ever seeing an injury from this? to me it looks like an attempt to further wrap the mall in armor to make it even more indefensible than it already was.

Great article Jim. I am am not so sold on Frost. If you are watching him during games he misses a fair few tackles and is rarely dominant in this area. He’s a serious athlete and is brilliant at the lineout etc and i guess it depends on who you are running with him as the other lock. but if you watch him during a game i just don’t know if he has that mongrel.

Might be something to this TWAS, Donaldson has had some issues for them last few games, highlighted by the Moana game the other day. I think the Tahs also have the current Australian U20’s fly half on their books and he looks really good.

it seems the one position they are actually quite strong in i don’t get it. they are in need of some more props i reckon.

I was really hoping that nobody else noticed what was going on with Jacobsons hands in that interview, it got bloody uncomfortable. He had a hell of a game the AB’s are surely looking at him for a number 6 option. with the Irish set to play a highly attritional ball in play game style a defensive number 6 would be a good option.

Great read JD really well laid out. Interesting point about Robertson early in the piece being the first AB coach to have come through in the pro era.
One point on the positive side i don’t think was touched on is that players earning big bucks overseas and representing the AB’s would have a big chunk of their wage paid for by said overseas club. Also you get exposure to another player in that position in the super club. One issue i think the All Blacks run in to is that your only really seeing 5 players in most positions each week. Allowing AB’s to be selected from overseas clubs would help broaden your talent pool.

Brett how do you think the looming private equity input will figure into this on both sides of the Tasman. If PE firms are investing big dollars in Wallabies or All Blacks brand then they are gonna be pretty reluctant to see super rugby become independently run and possibly impact on either of the national sides.

Who knows what is going on int he backgrounds, or what the actual ins and outs of Marinos’s job actually were. I, like most, probably can’t comment on if he was good at his job or not. But given the timing and the number of CEO’s they are chomping through not to mention other senior positions which look to be getting changed put so regularly this seems to be anything but a steady ship. that is something that private equity firms will certainly take note of. when you’re investing large sums of money you want stability of leadership.

In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, this whole distraction thing is bullshit. if the AB’s don’t win the world cup, and this is a very good possibility considering the strength of the other teams, then it will have nothing to do with them having a new coach next year. Hopefully a review would not be so shallow as to find a new coach distraction at fault. I mean a new coach is a strong possibility for pretty much every team there.
But get your point re possible scapegoat.

I can certainly understand both sides of the debate, but if we could get a few of our players paid top buck, by say Japanese club, and have them available for the AB’s whilst having other young talent playing in super rugby I could see how that could work. Say Richie Mo plays in Japan which now features in a super rugby play off system so he is still playing a high level. He’s collecting the bulk of his wage from said super rugby (Japan) club. whilst Taha Kemara, who is a serious young talent, is starting for the crusaders. You’ve now effectively increased your potential All Black number 10’s without having to spend anything.

Like you i am no sports administrator so just spit balling I guess, and I am sure I’m not the only one thinking this.

Yeah i get what your saying here ATW he’s perhaps best to stay quiet on these things until he becomes AB’s coach. Still one of the appeals of Razor is that he is pretty approachable and answers questions to i guess that’s what you get.

Not certain there are any tensions building, certainly there was no evidence of this provided in the article following the opening sentence. “The new Coach has different ideas than the current coach” isn’t quite so attention grabbing I guess.

Mate this echoes my thoughts exactly. particularly around the bleeting about the refereeing. the Brums missed 40 tackles in this much, looking up some of the individual tackle completion rates is pretty damming reading. the Crusaders vs Chiefs match the same night, probably one of the games of the season so far, the 2 teams didn’t miss 40 tackles between them. These are the 2 form teams of the comp and if this writer honestly thinks the Brums are in the same class he is absolutely dreaming.
I saw highlights of that kings match, and I like you, thought this kid could really be something, but he hasn’t been great for the canes thus far, though admittedly he is still young and i do think he is getting better with each match. also i notice that with Jordie in at 12 he does a lot of the playmaking.

No mention of the 40 missed tackles…. might have had something to do with it.

That’s one view of it Paul. Another could be that if an Aussie teams losses its always the refs fault.

Yeah man I can understand some of the chat but if you want to really analyze any game you can pick a bunch of things the ref missed. But i agree with you i think both sides were pretty poor in that area. My comment was a bit of a swipe at Kristy who took a shot at the ref over the Brumbies loss to the Canes in another article, and then when the Aussie side wins there is suddenly no mention of reffing issues.

How about that an Aussie win and no mention of the ref. It’s like them Dominion voting machines, they only malfunction when you loose I guess.
On a slightly more serious note good on the Tahs they have a much better team than their position on the table would suggest, i think if they can take a bit of confidence from the win they could be a bit of a threat ion the competition. They have a big forward pack and plenty of spark in the backline.

I’d put $2 on them not having thought of this at all…..