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That worked OK last year when Australians started first, but you'll score zero total points for round one if you do it this year.

The Seth Efricans are starting a week early, so the first team will have to be selected from those four franchises playing only, with Oz and NZ players on the bench so that they can take over next week. I assume that there will be extra changes allowed for week two to compensate but gaggers...

Bill Pulver explained on Rugby HQ last year that they are able to make changes for internal competitions without IRB approval. Once you get to International level the IRB must rule.

I know that people have had a go at proving the Shute will be dead and buried by the NRC but I just don't get it. Unless 3T sucks out all the money from the Shute teams (the only doomsday scenario I can see) then the competitions will not be in direct competition. Shute will be over in August...

I've seen no more than that. As a person who spends countless hours listening to acquaintances talk about two sports only (AFL and the English Premier League) I am acutely aware how little local interest there is in rugby. I have earlier on these pages suggested that the Black Falcons are no...

First time I saw Hoiles was a long time ago. If my memory is not playing tricks it was in the last GF that Randwick won in Shute. He virtually won that game himself and I marked him down then as a real talent. Athletic, great engine with a football brain to match. Right now the only thing...

Having just posted a long diatribe here, it occurs to me that this discussion has bugger all to do with the Brumbies 2014 thread. Perhaps a mod could transfer all the offending posts onto a more appropriate thread.

A backrow of Fardy, Palu and Hooper is similarly well balanced. Palu and Fardy in tight, Hooper to use his running game looser. Palu nearly won the JEM this year after only playing half the games everyone else did. Voted by the players who are likely to know better than us grandstanders...

Has anyone seen whether marquee players, who will not be eligible for the Wallabies, will be allowed to play in the NRC? If they are then it will needlessly block off spots for up-and-comers.

Lee posted in the Rebels 2014 thread: "And Randwick flanker Lala Lam has been training at hooker in lineouts and scrums since October also; not that there has been a lot of scrum practice. That Lam has been training at 2 seems a good move. Just another flanker making the transition. BUT...

I agree that Kepu, if he keeps his EOYT improvement going, is probably one of the three. Alexander is very doubtful, he does not have the strength to hold steady if his THL and BSF are not pushing as they should. Ryan is doubtful because he's not going to get much Super game time to allow him...

Everyone is naming teams of 23, blithely assuming everyone will be fit. Its a nice intellectual exercise discussing whether Fardy or MMM should be at 6, but that's all it is. If everyone in those 23's nominated is fit and available after a full Super season plus a RC then we will be the most...

There's at least three pages of it over on the Brumbies 2014 thread. Quite restrained though. Imagine if it had been Genia, Cooper, To'omua, Lilo, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) or Izzy. But then again not many of them were only getting match payments!

Given the fact that a lot of the Australian team was making a much smaller contribution than him and yet getting massively more money, you can hardly blame him for looking after his family first. His departure is a direct result of the "pay stars big bucks but cry poor when the team captain...

For someone who has no clue where he should be he popped up in the right position to score or put someone away a hell of a lot of times last season! Dagg's try-scoring feats were only average this year and he is surrounded by some of the best talent on the planet.

Its also testament to how much he has to offer in terms of skills, pace and support.

In order for you to be right, the Reds will have to have a totally major-injury free year. It would be the first one in my memory. A couple of years ago (2011?) the Tahs had half their squad with major injuries/surgery rehab by the end of the season. It would be interesting to review your...

KB (Kurtley Beale) tends to being a good defender when he is focused and on song. He drops this quality when his focus is on other things (like alcohol). No one was criticising his defence in 2011, he was considered one of the more reliable and effective defenders in the backline. But in 2012/13 his defence...

Now that's a great looking jersey. They will surely sell a lot of them. Shows just how important good design is when it comes to fashion, even for blokes. Contrast this with the abomination that is the Waratah charity jersey!

I don't think he'll want to commit to NZ any time soon. Clearly in front of him at 15 there would be Dagg, Piutau, Anscombe, Ben Smith plus three or four others. At 10 there is Carter, Cruden, Barrett, Anscombe plus three or four others. Of all those named only Carter is anywhere near the end of...