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Australian Rugby is not improved by contracting. It never has been. We all know about the problems with the top-down model of making everything about the Wallabies, and it's amazing that club rugby, the NRC, and Super Rugby have all been pushed into concessions and restrictions over the last...

Lord knows we know a 9 who can kick, pass, and tackle.

The only positions where we lack talent are 6 and 8 (though we lack depth at LHP and OC). Even with that issue, we make up for a lot of what we lose with the tremendous talent of the other players: Tupou, Kepu, and Ala'alatoa have tremendous running games; Sio, TPN, and Coleman are all great at...

I was a big fan of David Bennett at 7 with Uni Norths this year, a very well-rounded player. Can poach, tackle, run, offload, even jump in the lineout.

Jake White can only adjust his tactics so much to suit the players. His gameplan is built around not being in your half, having at least three men behind the defensive line at all times, and stealing the ball from the opposition set piece. If the team can pull this off, then you can do whatever...

How did I miss that? I hope we've retained the deliniation between the commercial and sporting elements, and still keeping recruitment and contracts separate from coaching and game-day selections.

Simone is raw talent, the guy has all the skills and has all the physical gifts. All he needs is some more game sense and he'll be a shoe-in for the starting 12 jersey. Ikitau is kind-of the opposite. Not saying anything about his skills or physicality, but it's clear his primary talent is the...

Taliauli has shown his defensive ability, both in his tackling and his positioning. However, he's been aided out wide by the sideline (which he is very good at forcing opponents over), which is rarely an option for a 13. Definitely think he could cover 13 in an emergency, but I'd still start...

On Taliauli, people have seen how brilliant he is for about a decade now. Back in u16s: At the schoolboys comp the next year: Taken by League's u20s system, but then returned for 7s: Since then, a few of us have seen a lot of promise in Taliauli. I think this season has done...

As an aside, I think it's a load of rubbish to think about Wallabies issues at the Brumbies. If it was that important to have Slipper starting every week at Super level, you'd think Rugby Australia would have had a word to Brad Thorn or something. If you want to argue about the value to...

Dutton in the Crimes reporting that the Brumbies are "on the verge of finalising a deal to sign out-of-favour former Queensland skipper James Slipper, with the Walabies veteran desparete to resurrect his career in Canberra."

Canberra's an AFL town waiting for an AFL team. I know a ton of people who didn't attend the Wallabies-Argentina game last year because they wanted to watch the GWS semi final on TV, and a ton of people headed up the Hume to watch it live. Probably between two and four thousand potential...

Lots of competition for the 12 jersey next year. JJH tearing it up in the NRC (though there are always issues with using that comp as a benchmark), Simone with all the potential in the world, and Wright with all the hype behind him.

Major tests (All Blacks, South Africa, England, Lions) will generally have higher numbers because people are more willing to travel from further (and pay the amount asked) to see them. I'll make the trip to up Sydney for a Bledisloe, but not to see Scotland, and so on. At that point, there...

Guys on the pod mentioned last week that the strict schedule was one of Australia's demands when it came to making the Rugby Championship, because they didn't want to compete with the AFL or NRL finals. To which I would say just make sure that you're playing in Brisbane that weekend, but w/e...

Copying this here from another thread because I think it's relevant to this topic:

We get, on average, six test matches a year, and we continue to waste one of them on the Gold Coast every few years. How is this helping anyone in Australian Rugby besides the 5000 people on the Gold Coast who actually attend? Even Newcastle managed to get 20,000 out to watch the B team. Why...

Here's hoping to a second Giteau! I'm still not sure that letting guys like Mayhew and Dargaville go was good business, but the recruiting being done by Damien Hill is tremendous and I'm excited to see how it all goes next season.

With Hyne fit and signed on, I'd imagine he would be our 5th lock option (though primarily a backrower), so I seriously don't understand the signing. But Damien Hill hasn't let us down yet and I choose to have faith.

Agreed, I'd prefer it to be Hodge, and hope we finally decide if he's a 12 or a winger.