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Starting with Deans.

Pocock sees the surgeon Monday, so he won't be playing. He will be out so Hooper will have to play 7, with Gill on the bench. I'd play Douglas because he works tighter even though his workrate needs to be better - the alternatives are all just as bad. I would tell him to play like a man demented...

We are supposedly the number two rugby nation. So we must have some talented players. We just played a test match where just three players - Sharpe, Ioane and Genia were roughly as good as their opposites. All the rest were soundly beaten, some embarrassingly so. I am excluding the bench...

Please clarify what fragments you saw. What was the rudimentary plan? Stand straight for the anthems?

Well, that was an interesting round. Apparently Bismark played 80 mins for 1 run, 1 offload and 0 YES 0 tackles. The tackle numbers are in for all the other saffers, so I don't think its due to slow numbers. Guess who made him captain.

Is he injured at the moment or is he just playing 2's behind Jono Jenkins?

Which all goes to show that Marto is a poor journalist. Good journalists frame questions in a way that force the interviewee outside the predetermined answer. That question was almost a "Dorothy Dixer" that allowed Deans off the hook.

Foley should be looking at Jantjes as well as having already been given Eberson. He can fit both in, and Jantjes has real talent. It won't do his Boks chances any harm because: Meyer will never choose him over Steyn (or whoever else is the reserve Bull 10) If by some fluke he does get picked...

I agree with the sentiment. But if you think that the thread has been pretty good up till now I reckon you have missed at least two thirds of the pages.

Hard to do ruck cleanouts without a fetcher there first. Looks like Hooper and McCutcheon will be the two sevens for the squad. That means we'll need some good back-up for injury in the EPS and we deliberately did not choose an up-and-coming fetcher in the development squad this year...

As one who has become accustomed to every Waratah announcement being at the level of major natural disaster, having an announcement that wasn't one is very likely to cause the heart to flutter a little. Once we get a new coach, whoever that is, then the real work of winning back the hearts and...

Disappointed but not surprised. Struggling to find a franchise that will give him a decent shot, now behind Pocock, Gill and Hooper who are all young and likely to be around for years, I guess it had to be. I think he will go very well in Europe if that's where he's going. In some ways he...

Yes, but Phipps? I'd have taken Sheehan, or even Kingi or McKibben before Phipps.

Ewan took the Tahs to two finals and one semi in five years. In a 12/14 team comp that's a record only beaten by the all-conquering Crusaders. He then took the Reds to an elimination final and a grand final win in three years. Most coaches would kill for such a record. There's a quote around...

Guilty as charged on both counts. The idea that running rugby has no meaning except to old farts is like saying that telex never existed. Just because it hasn't been seen for a few years only means that it might be extinct, not that it has no meaning. Someone should pull the old ABC tapes of...

White cannot be that unlucky. Phipps has been absolutely diabolical all year. It looks like White's shoulder injury, which is due to be operated on in a couple of weeks, is too severe to allow him to do anything more than hold tackle bags

I would refer you to the AFL program "On the couch". That program looks at issues, teams and management with an honesty that if the same was applied to rugby would blow the top off the game, much for its betterment. Its on every week, the people on it are senior ex-coaches and players and the...

Yes, but you have signed SKN. This is not a good look for your backs stocks.

Lynn doesn't really inspire but the rest of them look pretty good to me. Where is Wykes? The front row was excellent this year and the Force have never been short of backrowers. You'd underate them at your peril I reckon. The backs on the other hand.........

For the future its bloody terrifying. Good props coming through, locks, backrowers, lots of good 10's, centres...... For the sake of the Wallabies I hope Meyer makes a mess of it by continuing to play kick and chase. If the SA team ever learns how to run with the ball they will be absolutely...