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Pat Lam has really brought Connacht on and they're far more competitive than they have been historically. Additionally they've more players involved in Ireland squads. He's been shrewed in the foreign players he's brought and this has brought on the Irish players there. Overall I'm very happy...

Sadly there is no spirit within the game to give others a leg up in the modern era. Down south the unions are focused on their own financial survival and have no apetite for long term planning. Instead they've taken to prospecting for a huge windfall of legend that's out there somewhere...

Next season will show if the performance of the top 3 Irish provinces has been an abhoration or if it's a sign of an underlying trend. Personally I think Munster will improve next year and should make at least the QFs. Leinster have so much talent that it's difficult not to see them make it no...

Poor results today for both Ulster and Munster. Leisnter had a good result albeit against a struggling Castre. At most there will only be one Irish province in the QF of the European Rugby Cup and I can't say I've change my opion of the quality of the Irish sides this year which I have expressed...

Elite European club rugby is played through those months but the 6 nations still happens in Feb/March. The European club rugby season is too long to not have an overlap between the the International and club seasons. The European club rugby season is not going to get any shorter. No one's...

Wouldn't one year top-ups also mean one year contracts for anyone on a top up? I mean who in their right mind would sign a 2 year contract on the strength of a one year top-up? That's a lot of uncertainty for teams and a lot of talent that's on the market every single year.

If there's going to be a breakaway in the coming years it's most likely to be the English and French clubs breaking away from their national unions. The power of the unions in the NH was broken earlier this year and it seems hardly anyone in the SH noticed the biggest change in rugby since...

I think one of the things in Burgess' favour is that England don't have a settled midfield. No one is really nailed on and the one player who might be, Tuilagi, seems to pick up a lot of injuries. It'll be much easier for him to get game time with England than if he had the added task of trying...

Schmidt really has set the bar high and he was going to be a tough act to follow for anyone. I agree with you again, for me it's not about matching what Joe did, it's about looking at what MOC has done well and that's really hard to see. The team look clueless in attack, supposedly his area of...

That really is a major part of the problem at Leinster. It's fostered a we need our best 15 guys on the field to win mentality that wasn't there under Cheika or Schmidt. Yes guys like Healy and SOB would have been missed in the past but we'd be talking about Leinster winning despite those guys...

If Leinster were developing players at the rate we were a few years ago Boss wouldn't be in the 23 for a big game and probably on the bench in Pro12 games when players were rested.

Matt O'Connor really is a bad fit for Leinster. Cheika and Schmidt might be hard acts to follow but I can't see a single area where he's even maintained standards let alone improved anything. As I said earlier in the thread I'm not really pleased with where any of the Irish provinces are...

The thing that struck me about the loss was how poor Munster were. It could have been a Pro12 game in the first 40. When they did pick it up it was too little too late. Congrats to Clermont on a historic win they really look hungry and up for this year's competition. Munster will need to up...

The GAA were the first organisation in Ireland to approach sports in a professional way. Their administration is more professional than any other in Ireland. They do everything for players short of paying them directly. My dad often tells stories of growing up in the 40s when kids who played...

I think upgrades to the GAA stadiums, funded by the government, is a given for them to have given permission for the stadiums to be used.

The RWC is probably the biggest sporting event that Ireland would have the capacity to cope with. Rugby on it's own doesn't have enough stadia but coupled with the GAA there would be plenty of venues between north and south to handle it.

I wouldn't see it as diluting the product, I'd look at it as an investment in the future of the game.

I wouldn't agree with reducing the number of teams in the RWC, I'd rather see a plan to expand the number of competing nations. With that in mind a second tier RWC could work by getting teams ready to step up to an expanded RWC. Moving teams down from the RWC to the 2nd tier competition...

As a neutal it's one of the big points of difference between the ABs and Aus over the last 10 or more years. Aussies always seem to want to change the rules while NZ adapt and change the game.

Sarries reveal another part of their master plan to change rugby so that it serves their needs above all others. This time they want to employ referees so they can tell them what to do for the good for the game.* http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-union/30196682 *for "the game" see Saracens.