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The big issue with Super Round in Perth is the kiwi time zone, especially if you have to play 3 games on Sunday (Eg 2 games Friday, 2 tests on ANZAC day, 3 games Sunday???)

Given Reece Hodge has 60+ tests I'm always a bit suprised his name doesn't come up a bit more in these conversations. I don't think he would be necessarily first choice starter, but he'd be making the 23 and improving the side

ANZAC Day game is being proposed to be in addition to the regular Bledisloe games

Rereading the article, it sounds like what is being proposed in 2026 is WA government paying for a Super Round on the same weekend as the Test in Perth (not sure how that works with ANZAC Day being a Saturday and with Wallaroos and Black Ferns on too), with Wallaby/All Blacks missing the week...

Always when released by the contracted team though right? Slipper is another The Tahs don't want to release Pietsch.

Gordon, at least, was well before Raiwalui and McKellar was appointed. Sounds like Schmidt had his eyes on him from the get-go.

Apparently the plan is to have it around the Super Round

Great piece by John Ferguson today showing the failures of our defensive structure, particularly Ikitau's issues on the weekend. https://www.theroar.com.au/2024/09/11/analysis-wallabies-defensive-frailties-evident-well-before-disastrous-second-half-surrender/ RA and Stan, I assume you are...

You want bad optics? Imagine if RA started permitting players to break their contracts to move to other Super Rugby sides, and Force/Reds/Brumbies players who just made their Wallaby debuts started doing it to move to the Tahs

The expected scenario has RA with substantially more money in the bank in 2028 then it has ever had doesn't it?

We already have Giteau rule. Almost everyone who could be selected qualifies under it. Our coaches just choose not to use it

C'mon. It's not the same. Rodda was off contract and threatening to leave Australia, Pietsch isn't. He's signed up for the Tahs for another year still

For what it's worth, this is what the Brumbies press release said about it https://brumbies.rugby/news/rugby-australia-and-act-brumbies-agree-to-integrated-ownership-model-202478

Both teams/entities are now owned and controlled by RA though right? Even if there's a board on top of Brumbies (is the chair RA appointed?)

Depending on your definition of "top" Reece Hodge, Tom Banks, Bernard Foley, Isaac Lucas (!?),

RA are responsible for the playing roster at both teams, which would include recruitment. The Brumbies and Waratahs pro teams aren't really separate independent franchises anymore. They both report up through Peter Horne now.

Do you need stars to make the test team better or do you just need players better than 16-23 that we put on the field last week?

Horne chaired the committee that included Waugh and Herbert, that found and then appointed Joe Schmidt. Waugh signed off on it all It was, at least, a better decision than the previous one.

Not quite to the same extent as McMahon, but Liam Gill has also been barely playing, not sure if he's been injured but hasn't played at all in 2024. His team signed Jasper Weise recently, which may mean Gill doesn't have a spot in the roster with Kerevi and Folau already on the books as well

The Force haven't signed on for centralisation, and the Waratahs, with whom Pietsch actually has a contract, don't want him to leave (presumably). Until the Force hand over the keys, RA won't, and shouldn't, facilitate Super Rugby teams poaching of each others in-contract players. That way lies madness