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Use of the TMO is also hampered by the difficulty of communicating by earpiece in a very loud stadium. Often, TV viewers can hear the TMO's words better than the ref. Thus, the conversation has to be kept very simple. Perhaps they should go to the NFL system of having the on-field ref review the...

Great find, RedsHappy. A really fascinating article. So many things to highlight. He managed to turn his most famous saying about how to build a successful team into more of an essay - see point 4. In the context of a national rugby coach, I think the real parallels are in the need for a head...

Yes. Mowen probably needs to have a word to the ref early to assure him that, off an Argentinian knock-on, we will accept any situation where we possess the ball as "advantage", even if it's 10 m back from the knock-on. Just don't blow that whistle, please, sir.

Test match demoted to channel One due to election coverage on Ten = bad. But rugby in HD on free-to-air = good. Hope it's proper HD.

Absolutely. Especially since he went literally vertical in scoring some meat for Southern Districts on the weekend.

Nah. The NRL thrives on any kind of adverse publicity. It'll fill a couple of pages in the Tele for a day, and then they'll be back to hyperventilating about the coming match, or tut-tutting at the latest bashing/drug bust/coach sacking.

Don't forget that something like 29 of the squad were up for new contracts at the end of this year, so you can see why a mass cleanout was predicted. Agree with Richo that opening up development opportunities has been the way to go rather than signing broken-down warhorses.

In general - agree. But Folau's positioning and tackling from fullback for the Tahs was very solid, especially once he had a few games under his belt.

A big like for this comment. It frustrates me no end that the Wallabies have been poor at restarts, for example, for years, and yet the improvement has been minimal. Our best option seems to be to get a back like AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) or Izzy up to contest a short restart, but without the support required to back...

Yes, I agree, and I was surprised that Link was talking it up. Cheika handled this well early in the Tahs' season by bluntly stating that the team would stick with his game plan until they got it right, because it damn well would work once they got it right, even if it cost them some early...

Of course I agree that building a great team takes time, that we could not expect to have a world-beating team after a two-week preparation. It was a bit of a PR slip-up from Link to be building up that first test so much - one of his strengths over the past few years has been his adept...

Had he said that, would we have complained about him not aiming to win every game? You can't say it's going to take time to get better without implying that games are going to be lost whilst that happens.

I'm happy for Mogg to get one more chance, especially if he's given the opportunity to kick for the corners a bit more. Our line-out was the one area where we were clearly better than NZ last weekend - let's use it.

My understanding is that the land was originally given to the club for as long as rugby was played there. Therefore talk about its value for other development, eg housing, is moot - if it is not being used for rugby, it is of zero value to the club or the ARU.

Also well spotted on the JON influence Bruce - he's obviously still careful how he gets portrayed in the rugby press, even with Grumbles now elsewhere.

Interesting that this article doesn't come from one of the regular rugby writers at the SMH. Am I too cynical in thinking that the rugby journos didn't want to poison some important relationships?

Thank heavens. When Cheika speaks, he seems to have this bizarre interest in engaging with the questioner and actually explaining what he is thinking. It must make his media minders distinctly uncomfortable.

Perhaps just because the starting 10 would be a debutant, or to give both Cooper and To'omua a chance to show what they've got against the ABs before settling on one or the other. Or perhaps because Link would feel the hypocrisy of not selecting Cooper after banging the drum for him earlier this...

There's really not too much to whinge about with the Tahs these days, but I'm not sure they hit the right note with their marketing slogan for next year: "Believe. 2014". It says to me "We have nothing else - just believe". It might have been a better slogan for this year, looking skywards from...

The Brumbies were also very canny in giving away plenty of penalties outside of kicking range, but keeping it clean when in kicking range, so Alexander's and Mowen's stats here didn't necessarily lead to a lot of points conceded.