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What is going on with the reserve hookers? First Fourie, than Heaven now Fonokalafi. Have there been injuries or is Coleman just not happy with them? Certainly doesn't seem to keen to put them on. Edit: completely missed no Vailanu

Reds/Les Kiss pretty bullish about keeping Petaia: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/rugby-union/he-s-important-to-us-why-reds-are-confident-petaia-won-t-be-lost-to-nrl-20240312-p5fbwg.html

Probably needs Australian teams to go 1 and 2 for that to happen, away finals are so bloody hard to win. If the Brumbies get over the Highlanders this weekend they still have a month before they face another New Zealand side so they have some time to find their form again. That could see Reds...

Crusaders will bounce back some when they get McNicholl in at fullback and a few players back from injury (Burke and/or Reihana in particular), but it's a while before they're available. I think they'll still make the eight, but how high they can get is probably decided in the next three weeks...

It was unlikely to ever be cited, it was definitely yellow card worthy but a Red would've been excessive without high contact or no wrap. There's not much for the citing to do with missed yellows, they only deal in bans which come from things at the red card threshold or beyond. I do wish we...

Yeah watching it on replay you can see Finau doesn't duck his head and lock in until after the ball is gone. Really bad look.

Interested to see if anyone is unable to back up/needs a rest for us. This will be our 2nd 6 day turn around in a row off the back of a very tough physical game. Smith has gotten through a mountain of work and Uru looked like he took a heavy knock at one point, with Blyth having had a few...

Easy solution, he can step in at lock for Cormac Daly who is unavailable.

For matches I really like rugbypass' match breakdown. They have good stats for both the teams and individual players including some stats you don't always see elsewhere (dominant tackles, per minute tackles/carries) and some decent visualizations. ESPN Scrum also has reasonable stats but I find...

Not too surprising to see the bidding for Perese heating up, I've had mixed opinions of him in the past particularly as a test level player, but he's really coming into his own this year. Positional play has improved significantly and he seems to be getting the brain explosions out of his game.

The guys on between two posts suggested O'Connor might be back for this one too. Anyone know if the Reds have a development game scheduled? If not you'd think Creighton and Ryan might be released for this too.

I don't expect Harry McLaughlin-Phillips to be held back by the Reds. There's depth with Creighton there as coverage and O'Connor due back any week now. Traditionally they only really hold onto nailed in starters. Also, I think it's the ideal development path for them - a few weeks getting these...

Voted tiramisu, but I'm disappointed there was no Crème Brûlée option.

Probably getting pretty off topic for the tahs thread, but I think there will be growing opportunity for tier 2 tour matches (with a decent chance at some World Rugby funding), though maybe not in the July window. Japan and Fiji (assuming they're the teams added to the RC) might be particularly...

I actually think the Welsh setup might be happy to be playing this game instead of a tour match - they can charge an appearance fee for this, something not possible for a test match. The Welsh are an ideal first option as they played a tour match against the chiefs back in 2016 so are clearly...

In all seriousness it would be good to see proper tour matches like this become more of a thing and not just for the Reds, but this has been an initiative of the QRU and looks to be pretty significantly backed by the state and city governments. Might be a while before the tahs are capable of...

No

I don't think the problem is that Pasifika people aren't interested, I think it's that they (or at least those in Auckland) have been relatively well served by the Blues in the past and unless Moana can get some serious juice on the field that's where their support will stay. This Hamilton game...

I can't speak to the geography of Auckland and the surrounds, but I think they need to find a way to differentiate themselves from being Blues light in Auckland. Only way I can really se them doing that is if they shift to one of the stadiums outside the city - yes, it'd be harder to get to for...

Yes