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Theo Fourie is a solid pickup as a 3rd string hooker, he has probably been underutilised at the Rebels as the 4th string hooker. Should be coming into his own over the next couple of years too. Excited to see how he does. I think they've made the right call going with Grant's experience too...

Absolutely it was a mess and I made that same point about Vunivalu and the pressure on any potential replacement. I'm in no way defending what they put out on the weekend, just making the point that it takes time under a new coach (both head and defence) to get those systems in place, so it's...

He's definitely an interesting appointment, but defensive systems are probably the thing that takes the longest to bed down into a team, so I'm not quite ready to judge him yet, poor as we were on Sunday. That said I'm pretty sure most of the coaching staff are on single year contracts given...

Atko also up in arms about the players held back from club rugby: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/rugby-union/let-the-boys-play-boks-mauling-shows-match-fitness-an-issue-for-australia-20230710-p5dn78.html

If true it's terrible, absolutely no excuse. Just don't expect anyone to be up in arms about a 3rd hand report of what an unspecified coach of an unspecified team may have said.

I'm happy for them to be playing Aus A/Barbarians and think that's well worth the investment, I'm just not sure why we're cotton wooling them in the interim. I reckon they're just as much chance of picking up an injury going into an Australia A game without having played a game of rugby in over...

If he didn't throe the intercept to Mortlock you wouldn't have been smashed by England, you still would've been in the 3rd place playoff. The only difference is you would've lost the semi by 5 points instead of 12.

LHP always, don't think he's ever played THP professionally

I'd also prefer to keep Hoopert over Zander, though there is probably a chance we keep both and lose Ravai to retirement or elsewhere. Hopefully not though, I thought he really built into the season well and looked like he's still got at least a year or two to offer at this level.

Haven't seen anything on severity but it was reported as a shoulder injury in the post match reports. If it's the same one he's done in the past that might mean he's out for a while even for something relatively minor.

Not sure if this was directed at me but no, I'm not in favour of disbanding the program, nor have I ever been. I remain in favour of fully funding and professionalizing it.

I think it's pretty likely we see the top 4 we have now go through, though the top 3 could shuffle in order and Brothers are still not locked into 4th. I think the big question is going to be returning players - both Brothers (Aus A) and Souths (Under 20s) stand to gain quite a few important...

Hugely important win too, just about locks up participation in the WXV 1, which will be crucial top level rugby to keep the progress going.

Apparently he was run hard in training the week after the Quarter Final against the Chiefs and that's when he was injured. Can't imagine why they thought it would've been a smart idea so close to the tournament, it's not like he was in anyway lacking for match fitness.

In strictly results terms it'll probably be a pass to minor success if we beat Wales. I thought we were tactically poor in our pool games though, and that looked like coaching was an issue. There is definitely an argument that injuries and luck played a role, but even then it sounds like Grey...

Plenty of understandable Vunivalu hate and I agree he should be dropped, but it's worth noting our defence was a mess and was generally already in tatters by the time he was the last man beaten. If we can't get that right Nawaqanitawase will be on a hiding to nothing. Kellaway/Petaia might fair...

It's hard to follow, but I think the issue is that Eddie isn't big enough for test match rugby...

Not my preferred option but definitely better than it could have been. Very interested to see what Les Kiss can do with all of our potential and particularly how the recruiting goes. Certainly he's signed some big names in his past role, hopefully that wasn't just due to London Irish throwing...

Bonus episode of Socks Up dropped this week to round out the season. Includes a chat with Connor Vest at the end, sounds like his rehab is going really well which is great to hear.

At that point Gordon, I know he doesn't usually kick for the Rebels but he'd have to be the option there (and potentially before White for close range shots).