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Really interesting model - how would it work? There's no enforceable relationship between player and country (unless they're centrally contracted, and there's nothing requiring players to sign such contracts) so it would have to be either: a) a system voluntarily set up by the club associations...

It's a real shame Samoa missed out this time around; maybe I'm not giving credit to their development systems, but it seems like this was/is a bit of a golden generation. Great summary.

It's a coin-toss for me. If tossing a coin involved Sean O'Brien mashing people's faces.

I agree: O'Brien was phenomenal tonight, and the balance of the Irish backrow is excellent. I also think some of what Sluggy said above is pretty bang on - the role of the 7 may be changing, so that it's more about having someone with the upper-body strength to control the breakdown (e.g. by...

My bad, change that to Russia (with half a game against the USA too). My point's still that those games don't really warrant a second place on a team of the tournament shortlist. Certainly not above Roberts, who has had very strong games against the boks, etc.

Surely Barnes has a way to go yet before he makes a shortlist, since he's only played one game against the USA. I'm sure he will though, class act.

I'd be feeling a whole lot better if Nick Evans was still around. But still, I'm sure CS will settle in to it now that he's got a bit of certainty in tenure; I actually rate him pretty high (although the loss of experience is huge).

Been in the backs for one day and he's already throwing no-look passes out of the back of his hand..

Also, what do you mean by that? NZ isn't full of undiscovered pots of gold, it's a small country.

$100 mill to host it + building stadiums (probably not an issue for England/France/Australia; but for NZ/smaller-UK-unions/Japan(?) it would be) + sundry costs for infrastructure upgrades etc. + not being able to get sponsorship money under the clean-stadiums policy. It all adds up. The New...

I think it highlights something quite important about the finances of the NZRU. They don't have any money. Like... none. Over the next few years we're going to see serious raids on junior ranks by Australian NRL teams, and increasing competition at the other end of a player's career from...

That's a big call from an island that has Hamilton on it (though I was born in New Plymouth... no hate here)

Incidentally, Hanmer springs is actually really nice. If you go much further south then you start getting towards Invercargill-ish territory, in which case, yes, hole. /Tourism pitch over/

Which puts mortlock in the company of the entire all blacks backline.

I enjoy Freier, but there are a couple of similarities between him and Growden (who is a reporter, not a rugby writer), the most frustrating of which is that neither of them gets into detailed analysis of strategy or game trends. Freier won't do it because he's too nice to say "the problem...

You wouldn't want that against a team with a backline though. I'm sure he can tackle anyone if they run right at him, but I doubt his lateral movement is particularly great. Someone like Carter/Sexton/even-Steyn-now-that-he-can-apparently-run would be drawing and putting people through that...

Hahahahaha. I'm sure he wouldn't answer it, but that would definitely end the debate.

Chrysander Botha is in there for sure. He's on the bench if Paul Williams is starting, but is there an argument that Williams is no longer 'emerging'? He's been pretty great for a while. It's kind of like saying that Rupeni Caucau was emerging in 2003 just because Fiji wasn't great (except not...

I agree he was mental this year. Burger running always reminds me of that Brockhoff quote: 'go through them like a madman in a glass factory with a crowbar'. He just wants to hurt fools. But I'm still a Kaino fan. Same impact, fewer penalties (I might be holding old-Schalk against now-Schalk...

etc. - Castro is a tighthead isn't he? - I really think Kaino is the best backrower in the world at the moment; I'm sure people will disagree, but I don't think anyone is hitting as hard on offence or defence as he is. SOB would probably be next cab off the rank in that regard. - Samo, I'll...