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Coleman puts the injury list down to changes they have made to preseason training - looking for more explosive bursts of speed for shorter more intensive time periods followed by fast recovery in response to the way the game has become so episodic. I genuinely regret that change, I think its a...

The list of people out with injury before the first trial is totally depressing. I know some of them are still coming back from injuries last year, but pre-season must have been absolutely brutal! Tom Ross, Archer Holz, Will Harrison, Ned Hanigan all are out till at least round one, so they'll...

And those players who cannot change will not survive in the team long-term. Others will be brought in to take their place.

For Australia to play Japan there is zero upside. If we lose we are shit and our reputation is further damaged. if we win, Japan are shit because of Eddie and we get no benefit. And I can definitely do without the inevitable Eddie Jones press conferences, which would further damage our rugby...

We could start to answer this question by defining what our recent game plan is. But to do that we have to go back to Dave Rennie to get a coherent game plan. Jones game plan(s) were so all over the place I could not tell you how we played under him except to describe it as horrible. So the...

Be careful what you wish for? That is exactly what I wish for! Any player who isn't ready to change and learn isn't what is needed in the Wallabies. For all the blather that was spoken about Eddie being a master coach and that he knew what was wrong and knew how to fix it, you could see from...

You must have seats on the western side of the arena. On a sunny Sunday afternoon the eastern seats are an absolute nightmare.

I think this quote might have been one Hamish used when he fired Rennie. No?

While I agree that Swinton in form has to be considered for a start, I would prefer Hanigan at 6. For the last two years he has been pushed into the second row when his strengths are far more suited to 6. He has a huge motor that is not being utilised in tight and yet his play has been, to my...

If David Knox was the first name you can recall from the ABC coverage, then I guess you're a bit younger than me. You missed out on Catchpole and Hawthorne and the unforgettable Ella, Ella, Ella. That was the good stuff. You were also fortunate to miss some of the darkest days of Australian...

One of the great characters of the Waratahs!

We don't have a TV aerial on our roof and internal aerials are all crap. So its NBN all the way. Don't think I'm the only one and within 20 years I expect TV channels will stop broadcasting off towers and just have streaming. Whether that's good or bad for others I don't know - it's good for me...

When it comes to nostalgia, no one is more nostalgic than me. My Saturdays consisted of going out to play football (soccer) with my church team in the morning followed by recovery time in the afternoon. That consisted of sitting on the couch watching Shute Shield on ABC with Cyril Towers...

Agree. The Australian and New Zealand teams are in a different league to the other 10. France or the USA might snag one win against them over the entire season, but I reckon that will be it. I don't think any other team will beat either of them this year. Watching them both is exhilarating. I...

Not blessed with Campese/Horan/Ella type skills, he is one of those players who had to work to get everything out of his game that he could. Funnily enough, those type of people seem to make far better coaches than those who had huge talent. Just because he had NH playing skills, it doesn't...

Starting Slack-Smith at 7 in A Super Rugby game in 2024 seems just a mite premature don't you think? The whole point of having pathways is so young players can walk down them and gain experience along the way.

Sua'ali is probably more suited to 13 than wing - I was looking forward to a back three of Nawaqanitawase, Jorgensen, Pietsch working off him. It would have been a dynamite combination. But "such is life". One thing I won't miss is having to check the spelling three times before I post!

So, we play Ireland out of the window. That means no Skelton at least. Any other certainties not available? Does Ireland have people playing in European teams who are likely non-starters?

From what I saw yesterday we do have another gun. Until injury strikes we are unlikely to see more than a few minutes for her each tournament, but the depth on outside players has just gone up a notch or two. My biggest worry is if Caslick cops something. She is currently indispensable for that...

It does concern me though, for a different reason. The long term health of Super Rugby is closely tied to its financial viability. If a team like the Crusaders, who win repetitively, can't lock up a full paying front-of-jersey sponsor what chance a team like the Highlanders? Or any of the less...