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To keep you guys happy Joe Schmidt is now starting his team sheet with 7/15 (Mc)Wright. Yes, he's not very good at spelling.

Dismal certainly knows how to hurt me. Imagine not being included as one of the few Waratahs fans.

Sam Walker. Yes, did his ACL.

I don't think we really do. You can analyze the play and work out the various points where something went wrong without knowing what they were coached to do. It's pretty safe to assume that no one is told to make a complete misread in defence, commit to no one and leave a hole where you were.

Watching it back it's amazing how our defensive line is advancing until Clarke straightens his line and then when we're actually trying to make a tackle we are backpedaling and on our heels. Our players are ultimately in a terrible position to make a tackle. Then a phase later Frost should fill...

The first try wasn't Jeremy Williams making a mistake, it was Angus Bell. Bell and to a lesser degree Frost committed to the forward pod when that was well covered and should have stayed in the defensive line. Even just watching those first couple of minutes it is notable how often one of our...

3. Fraser McReight 2. Tom Wright 1. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto

Remember all those years that the Rugby Championship has opened with back to back tests against the All Blacks and everyone complains about the scheduling and us having to play our two hardest games first and the competition effectively being over for us already? I don't think the scheduling...

I think he's been better than "the same player he always has been" in that for the Wallabies this has been pretty bad in the past. This year I think it's been solid to good which is more than we saw from Nic White. McDermott for quite good reasons is being viewed as a bench option at the...

I think it's also the fact that they don't really get paid much to play for their country, have to fly back and forth across the world at their own cost and lose out on their lucrative club salary in the meantime.

It certainly seems a little harsh on Gordon and Donaldson to drop out of the 23 altogether given we were only down 24-20 when both left the field against Argentina. I wonder when Schmidt will settle on a combination?

I met him at the Wales test in Sydney a couple of months ago. He is pretty handsome.

A couple of things that are worth mentioning with Slipper - he plays a position where for two thirds of his test career we are selecting four each and every test (and Slipper has played on both sides of the scrum which has increased his ability to be selected). We also play more tests each...

Baxter played when there was only one prop reserve so his ability to get through 80 minutes was pretty beneficial for his career. This is also an era where we went through a lot of props and most of them didn't really stick around long at test level. Baxter debuted in August 2003 and then...

I'm certainly not suggesting he was ever a potential professional rugby player and was thus lost to us. He was always going to be a basketballer. This thread is just the one that makes sense to mention him and I know a reasonable amount about his basketball but nothing about his rugby so I...

Roman Siulepa is a name worth mentioning. I believe he is currently finishing high school and got ditched by the Tasmanian Jack Jumpers in the NBL because they didn't think he was committed enough to basketball because he wanted to play his final three games of high school rugby. Do any...

You need players of his standard rounding out the squad though. He's capable of playing when required but isn't good enough to be in the best 23 of a good Super Rugby side.

I still don't think this is backed up in reality. When the Rebels folded RA was on the hook for the 2025 contracts for 20+ players that were already signed. At that stage, the only team they had any control over was the Waratahs (because of the transfer to RA at the end of 2023). So RA had the...

While we're now forced into a change in the calendar because NZ and SA moved first I think it's well and truly due. Things have got fairly stale and we need to add more variation across the cycle.

I would say navigating the collapse of the Rebels without it bringing down Rugby Australia is probably the key item. Mostly it's the absence of drama emanating from head office. The disasters have all been on-field.