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Yeah, but not on a flight to Europe.

Football Australia - watch them squander the positivity of the last few weeks with petty infighting...

Yes. That's very rational.

There's been a lot of talk about how Eddie's coaching has developed over the past 2 decades, but it looks to me like he's building into the RWC in exactly the same way as 2003: 2003, first Bledisloe: big loss at home (50-21). 2003, second Bledisloe: close loss in NZ (21-17). 2003, RWC...

I'm a big supporter of a proper 3rd tier comp like the NRC, but the timing of this Aust A game is really unfortunate for club finals - it really plays into the narrative that RA doesn't care about the club comps.

Standard stuff when there's no Test match coming up for a couple of weeks.

From plenty of interviews with past players, if you want to know why you're not in the squad, give Eddie a call and he'll give it to you straight.

Because the only Waratahs squad players who play a full season of Shute Shield are likely to be the young, fringe squad players. You're not going to win the Medal if you're playing in Super most weeks. So almost by definition, you need to be overlooked by the Tahs to win the Medal.

I think I've figured out the role of Suli Vunivalu in the squad. If Eddie needs to bring someone in, it'll be "Suli, run the length of the field, 100% effort, 3 reps", and boom, new player 48 hr later.

The A-League ranks 29th in world soccer comps, from a quick Google. The rugby equivalent would be the Shute Shield or Hospital Cup. It "works" for the Socceroos or Matildas because every other national team has players playing all over the world - no cohesion from the junior level, as Ben Darwin...

I'm going with the idea that Donaldson is one of the "last five" players picked for the squad, primarily there to train hard and keep up morale, Eddie's mentioned that on some of his interviews about the squad. Apparently popular, good trainer, etc.

That is supposed to be the case - World Rugby has to assess any injuries before replacement is permitted.

Yeah, I don't want to see Eddie going down the path of bullshit "strategic" injuries to change players in the squad. Leave that to Rassie.

I agree, and I was thinking the same about the NZ announcement, which looks like someone grabbed a picture of a PowerPoint slide at a boring conference. The actual names take up less than half the image. OK Marketing, we know we're paying you too much, but try making things simpler and clearer.

It's a great setup for NSW Rugby. They might have all the responsibility for junior development etc, but when it fails, everyone blames Rugby Australia. NSW Rugby is often invisible. I'd suggest that, overall, the teams that RA has the greatest direct control over - 7s, U20s, Australia A -...

Have you met the NSWRU and Shute Shield?

This is good:

Before Jorgensen arrived?

Well, colour me shocked, but Mat Rogers on Stan's Rugby Heaven show was surprisingly interesting to listen to.

I was as keen as anyone for rugby jerseys to go back to having collars, but now I'm having second thoughts. Watching the Boks and the ABs play in their new jerseys, it just seemed a bit weird for them to be playing a high-intensity, hugely physical game in polo shirts...