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:D Any of those Fijians earmarked for the Scotland test team?

They'll never have the money to fund professional leagues or teams in super rugby. And they shouldn't have to! Their players should be spread throughout our teams instead of European clubs. As the competition expands we should allow (and encourage) their players to play in Super Rugby...

Leichhardt Oval for the Stars, AAMI Park for the Rising, NIB Stadium for the Spirit, Brisbane City will surely play at Ballymore, Canberra will play at the Vikings ground. That just leaves the Rams and the two country teams, who haven't announced where they're playing yet as far as I know.

Interesting to see the times for games. Thursday 7:30pm (I'm surprised it's not a little earlier), Saturday 5:30pm and Sunday 3pm. I wonder what the 4th time slot will be for the competition. Or maybe they'll have some games on at the same time given only 1 match per week will be televised.

The point is it quite clearly benefits the rich nations over poorer nations. And the rich nations surely have enough advantages as it is! Wealthy nations like Australia can sign promising young players from the islands and after 3 years take their pick. The islands get left with the players...

What? None of the Samoan and Tongan players qualify on residency. We're not talking about making eligibility only possible after 5 years of residency. It would be changing the 3 year residency period to 5 years. It wouldn't affect Samoa and Tonga at all. All their players qualify through birth...

It wouldn't allow him to vote but it would allow him to get a 5 year ancestry visa into the UK. If he then lived there for that period of time he'd be able to get citizenship after that. I think you should definitely be allowed to play for a country one of your parents was born in...

The problem is they benefit the rich countries. Do you think Henry Speight would consider himself more Australian than Fijian? If money and professional contracts were no different, and Fiji played in the Rugby Championship each year who do you think he'd want to play for? I just think it's...

They're great to watch and play such a quick game. Having a few of their top players involved in Super Rugby has really helped. Tanaka, Sau and Horie are class. Their captain Michael Leitch (NZ born, but has lived in Japan since high school and is a fluent Japanese speaker) is also a very...

If they have French passports then potentially yes.

Interestingly some players will be allowed to switch their rugby allegiance next year in anticipation of the Olympics. http://ur7s.com/news/ben-ryan-goes-inside-olympic-rugby-sevens-and-talks-qualification-eligibility-player-availability-and-just-about-everything-you-need-to-know- It would...

I'm happy for the Wallabies to take advantage of the current rules as they are but in essence I don't think Henry Speight should be eligible for Australia. He should be playing for Fiji. I'd change the residency rule to something like 7 years. At least 5. Or have a more simple citizens only...

For the record, I would have no problem with players being able to play for a 2nd nation in test rugby so long as there'd been a time period of 3 or 4 years since playing their last test match for the first nation. But only if that eligibility couldn't be gained by 3 year residency. I think...

You do realise Polynesian is an ethnicity? All of those guys are Polynesian. I'm sure they would all proudly call themselves Tongan or Samoan Australians (well the Fainga'a brothers are of both Tongan and Aboriginal descent). Scott Sio's Father David even played for Samoa. All the guys...

No. The supporters care more about their club than their national team. The club represents their local area and play in their town every 2nd week for half the year. While I'm sure people like to see local representation, they care more about their team performing well. If the foreign players...

Yeah no doubt it would be the biggest factor. I'm just saying you can't say the afternoon time slot is the only reason for the drop in viewers. I look forward to the day when Australian rugby can offer reliable HD broadcast through IPTV and make a big chunk of their revenue through annual...

The awful game in Melbourne and the fact it was a dead rubber might have meant a few less people tuning in as well. Can't say it's all to do with the afternoon time slot.

With that format one team will have an unfair advantage in each pool. The team that plays in both the 1st and 3rd match in the pool will get double the amount of days between their 2 matches compared to the other 2 sides.

Most teams probably wouldn't have a marquee player. But one team having a guy like Jonny Wilkinson or Brian O'Driscoll or whoever is hardly going to dominate because of it. And the publicity they generate (as well as hopefully increased attendances) will benefit the entire competition, not just...

I think they do. Those teams are all designated as 'tier 2' teams and high performance unions - same as Samoa. (Though it does seem ridiculous that Samoa are considered in a lower tier than Scotland and Italy).