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Sure, but what I'm saying is that all sports in Sydney, but particularly rugby and the NRC, are competing with "doing practically anything else that doesn't carry risk of imminent bodily harm". That's the level of apathy we're dealing with.

I don't think VFL is a fair comparison for the NRC, either today or 20 years from now. The reason I say this is because Melbourne is populated by possibly the most committed sports fans in the western world. Melbourne gets more fans through AFL turnstiles every week than London gets to see...

Jonah Placid's got some serious explosiveness. That right foot step to set up the try is on par with the best of Quade Cooper. Devastating to see him go off injured from the same play. Really hope he doesn't go the way of Toua, et al.

I wouldn't read too much into that part of the article. There's no direct quote from Hunt on what his current weight and target weight are. It appears that the writer just looked up Hunt's listed weight on the Suns website (91 kg) and subtracted that from some arbitrary "mid-90s" target to get...

Spectacular crossfield kick by the loudspeaker for Patty Dellit to score in the corner.

Tala Gray substituted not long ago. He had another very strong game with ball in hand. Needs to get picked up by a Super team that isn't NSW in my opinion. He's far too talented to play 10 minutes in a Super season, but he doesn't fit the balance of the Tahs backrow. They already have an...

If it really is the case that he'd rather be doing something else than play NRC, that's pretty disappointing, because that "something else" is 6 months of pre-season. I've never known anyone to prefer daily fitness sessions with no end in sight to actually playing and competing in real rugby...

I thought Volavola was one of the highlights at 10 tonight. He started off poorly with a few loose passes, but grew into the game nicely. Off the top of my head I remember him serving up a couple of linebreaks on a platter for his outside centre, he generally took the ball quickly to the line...

Has anyone else seen this? A bit of an odd one for me. The Rebels defence was shocking for most of the year. Is he really the best man for the job?

I'm not sure I agree with your assessment that he was shifted to 7 because he was too good to drop. Fitzpatrick is now long gone and Roach is still playing 7 with the coach preferring Pearce at hooker. I think the more likely inference here is that Roach's hooker-specific skills aren't up to par...

Yeah, and I wouldn't call him the form openside either. There's no doubt he's a huge talent just because of his physical attributes. His play is seriously reminiscent of Michael Hooper in that regard. But his fundamental skill level in both positions is seriously lacking at the moment and...

I have no strong opinion on your idea of inter-comp games, but it's a bit disingenuous to use Falealii as a barometer for country rugby talent. He's an experienced ITM Cup player who was developed entirely by New Zealand rugby. He only came over to Australia this year and by all accounts has...

Nice to see that you're being reasonable about this discussion. Given that the last few pages of this thread have been getting increasingly off topic, and given that I seem to be arguing against empty rhetoric, I will remove myself from the debate. Feel free to have the last word. I would...

Unless you're on the ARU board, you don't need to apologise for anything, because your opinion of what's realistic holds the same amount of value as my own. You'll have to explain this one, because I think it will confound a lot of people who aren't exclusively concerned with the interests of...

I don't see how you can say this. A rugby club is a business like any other and businesses make decisions based on profits and shareholder value. If the business didn't think that having better players was profitable, they wouldn't bother investing any money on development pathways. The fact...

The ARU gave NSW $1 million last year. They gave Vic $570k. I'm all for trying to improve the weaker states to the point where everyone is able to contribute equally to a Wallabies squad, but NSW and Qld clubs are hurting right now and it's because they don't get enough compensation for what...

Because they rely on Sydney and Brisbane club rugby for their very existence, and at the moment they're sucking these competitions dry and giving nothing back. The attitude in Canberra, Victoria and WA seems to be that the northern states are in possession of some magical eternal wells of rugby...

May I ask where you got the positional information from? At first I thought it was very revealing seeing Sánchez the lone five-eighth and Hernández at fullback, but Lobo being listed as a back row implies that this list was compiled by someone rather far from the Argentine coaching brains...

I could be mistaken, but my understanding is that it comes under the purview of collapsing. If the referee adjudicates that the manner in which the scrum was wheeled was likely to cause a collapse, he will award a penalty. My explanation in that post was probably a bit flawed. If the scrum...

Apologies. You and Pfitzy were trying to educate me on what's physically possible. I was just trying to make it clear that I don't have any serious deficiencies on this subject, given that I live under those constraints every day as you do. :p This is where we disagree. I think it's pretty...