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So Strewth, I think you're citing Law 10.1 (d), which states: Blocking the ball. A player must not intentionally move or stand in a position that prevents an opponent from playing the ball. Sanction: Penalty kick Most of this time this one gets pinged after a kick, when a player deliberately...

If we couldn't secure Enever, 100%, but I don't think he'd move clubs to remain the 4th/5th lock, he'd need to be competing with Toolis for the bench spot rather than the backup spot.

I'd like to see a lock clear out to be honest. Toolis and Jeffries are contracted so they can stay, but let Cummins, Retallick and Day go. Bring in Parling, Enever and a youngster, maybe Kellaway.

That's an interesting choice. Not over the hill yet, but definitely on the downward spiral. Plus, with Exter reasonably entrenched in the top 4, he doesn't provide any immediate relief, what with the Semi finals being on the the 20th of May. On the other hand, he'd be better to have than both...

As long as we don't lose to Italy by more than 15, we're in the top 8. I'd love to win the last two games, but regardless of triple crown/6 Nations wins etc. It's been a successful tournament.

We can beat England. We won't, but we can. I think Barclay summed it up well in the post match interview, you can't play like in the first half against Wales and expect to win. To win, we'd need to keep the defense to the high standard, and we'd need to maintain or even improve our reasonably...

Eddie's done exactly what he needed to do. The focus is now shifted away from how rubbish England were for 70 minutes, where they showed no ingenuity, no intelligence and in the end, no balls until Italy imploded. Now rather than it being a comment on the match report, and in the analysis...

There doesn't need to be any Law Changes 1) Any team worth their salt will have their coach spend a little bit of time on it, and this will continue right up to the RWC 2) It's never going to work against teams like NZ. The intelligence and leadership of players like A & B Smith, Read...

It's not a new tactic, some Sevens teams have been doing it for the better part of a decade, and the Chris were doing it quite a bit a couple of years ago. Still, Brilliant stuff by Italy, albeit it isn't what you want to see every time two mismatched sides come up against each other a lá the...

Jonah is absolutely useless under the high ball, but doesn't have the ability to play anywhere in the backline but in the back 3. Any team worth their salt realise this and target his wing. He's now in his 3rd season with us, and he has not improved in this aspect one iota, which is either a...

Before we even talk about new signings, I think we have to genuinely consider non-survival. Ever since they were talking about dropping a team, only Hodge and Timani have extended their contracts, who are ARU players of interest. Assuming the boys whose extensions were announced with the final...

Well, the Currie Cup model would see the seasons overlapping with Club Rugby, so whichever Clubs chose to enter teams would recruit a number of quality players from other sides, but probably wouldn't be able to use them in the club competition because they would be required for the NRC...

Maybe switch to the Currie Cup model. The current NRC sides, plus 4-6 clubs or other representative sides all play each other once overlapping with the Super Season. After that, the best 7 or 8 sides join the Fijian team for the NRC in the slot it is currently in, and the rest of the sides...

Why isn't there a blanket ban on pro athletes smoking? Doesn't make sense for medical people to allow it at all for mine.

I like drinking my beer out of a glass. Regardless, the problem is that we, like most teams, were trying to run the 1 - 3 - 3 - 1 pod set up of forwards. Typically the widest players are two backrowers, in our best side, probably Mafi on one and McMahon on the other. With McMahon out, my choice...

Discretely throw is an excellent bad translation.

That's not unique to Australia. Tactical preferences notwithstanding, I think that any of the 5 fly halves used since the 2011 World Cup (Carter, Cruden, Slade, Barrett and Sopoanga) would have been the starting fly half for any other nation from the time of their ABs debut onwards. Maybe...

More: I suspect that Pro12 will hold off on expansion, and any other radical changes beyond speculation until the English make that decision, and they can make a serious behind the scenes pitch. The 99% likelihood is that you'd end up with what you'd described, an expanded, ring fenced...

I think the Pro12 would consider it, they're certainly struggling (albeit not quite as much) to compete with French and English wages, and pulling a lot of stuff out of nowhere (East Coast USA/Canada sides, German/Georgian sides etc.) My sneaky feeling is that when the last few holdouts in the...