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Lolesio, Feauai-Sautia, Debreczeni, Tua, Sapsford, also Simone was born in Auckland.

Don't know enough about the rest of squad but here's a NZ born heavy backline for 2023. White, Sapsford, Lolesio, Feauai-Sautia, Ikitau, Wright, Debreczeni. Subs: Lonergan, Creighton, Meredith.

I among many was quite disappointed when Rennie hired Taylor as defence coach given his very poor record with Scotland. Les Kiss and Steve Tandy were far better options, Kiss was an outstanding defense coach for 5 years at Waratahs, then became defensive coach with Ireland from 2009-2015...

Good article on them here: https://www.theroar.com.au/2011/10/07/les-gives-ireland-kiss-of-life-while-muggletons-future-is-muddled/

Two words - John Muggleton. The Wallabies decline started when he left after 2007. Look at Australia's results during the Connelly tenure, barely any blowouts, mostly pretty tight low-scoring margins even when losing, that's what effect a former rugby league clinical defense coach has for ya.

Would McKellar work beneath Razor? I highly doubt he would've committed to the Wallabies full-time if there wasn't some kind of incentive or soft guarantee he'll get promoted to head coach later down the track. He had a nice gig at the Brumbies, it wouldn't of been easy for him to give that up...

Crusaders haven't necessarily had the best players during Razor's time, they are just a lot greater than the sum of their parts. The only certain starting All Blacks at the moment are Whitelock and Mo'unga. It's Blues and Chiefs that make up much of their best XV these days.

It often used to be the case, but it's becoming a thing of the past, it appears (at least what I've noticed with elite rugby) the most effective coaches getting are younger, the trend is moving towards individuals who are closer to the player's age - see Rassie Erasmus 2019, Scott Robertson...

I recall that one of the biggest criticisms under Michael Cheika was his selection of small unbalanced loose forward trio's. Ironically, Robbie Deans faced a fair bit of criticism during his last few seasons for his 'bigger is better' selections as he wanted to play grinding defensive rugby...

Coaches tend to achieve best success in their early 50's or late 40's, it's that crucial period where they've accumulated enough life/coaching experiences and still remain pretty sharp health wise. It's usually all downhill from their late 50's/early 60's, as one would expect.

I don't think bringing back Jones would be the right move. He's an old-school coach from a different generation & his methods have obviously become outdated & unsuitable for the current generation of players. Also, Jones turns 63 this month, most coaches start to decline once they approach...

Agree & Tom Hooper over Hanigan. I also think McReight might struggle to get a look in when Gamble becomes eligible. Gamble, Samu, Hooper are enough for the World Cup squad. They are all better options than McReight at 7 against the more physical test sides.

It reflects how the less involved Deans is with the actual hands-on coaching of teams, the more beneficial his influence is. Much like Hansen, Deans is a great big picture guy - team direction, vision, and a very large emphasis on the holistic approach to managing rugby players. This is why...

Rennie's gameplan doesn't suit utilize him properly though, remember Nick Bishop's analysis which showed locks & loose forwards were getting more ball on attack than O'Connor was at 10? It's a stark difference to the Red's attacking system under McKay where the intention is for O'Connor to get...

You know I was going to retaliate to this but having just seen Rennie's squad I agree on the assumption he'd still be picking O'Conner. I still rate him, and I think Rennie's foolish to keep leaving him out, even though he's past his best. Beale's two years older ironically... Any coach who's...

Perhaps Wallabies could link Quade back up with his favourite attack coach again? "We had this amount of opportunities gone begging on Saturday.... inevitably...that's gonna cost ya!" "Quade now you release opportunity for Patty McCabe to crashball it up the middle once again"... "oh God...

Gilmore is a defence coach. Best candidate is Peter Hewat, he's coaching the Black Rams, Japan Top League finishes in April, plenty of time to join Wallabies.

https://www.theroar.com.au/2023/01/04/analysis-the-case-for-shifting-frost-to-backrow-and-why-it-could-lead-to-rennie-finding-missing-piece-of-puzzle/

Best Wallabies captain in recent times, an outstanding leader. He as a senior leader would've likely handled the McKenzie/Beale fallout with class, while backing his coach to the bitter end & wouldn't have fostered the toxic player power culture that Hooper (c) and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) (co-captain) led in that...