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What we can surely say is (a) this was highly sensitive, confidential data that normally the small number of senior parties involved would feel duty bound to protect as such, and (b) it's been leaked purposefully, unlikely that it was accidentally found in an ARU garbage bin. What that purpose...

Agree, strongly. A reliable, consistently accurate long kicking capability from hand is just so invaluable in top rugby especially when aligned with many other really good 10 or 15 core skills which Greene possesses. He's only 19 from memory.

Btw boys, and Scott Allen will I think agree, keep an eye out for S Greene at Wests this year. Wonderful potential at 10 or 15, almost single-handedly won the QLD GPS rugby title for BGS vs Nudgee last year. I'm sure he could appear in Red in a few years.

USARugger - as I've said elsewhere, agree totally re Shipps. You're so right re his body height into contact, especially near the try line, great leg drive, getting the final attack angle right, and low body height into defensive contact was a very compelling feature of his 2012 skill-set. Such...

^ USARugger Link is clearly moving away from all but an advisory and support role to RG in terms of 2014 squad planning, who's staying, leaving, etc. He made this clear when questions arose re DI's 2014 dramas. All matters 2014 are principally with RG now, which is logical given Link's avowed...

The big question that lurks behind all of these 2014 recruitment requirements and possibilities is that of the calibre of R Graham as team designer and then skilful recruiter of key talent, both upcoming and proven, and both from within and without QLD. Let's face it, his late 2010 to mid-2012...

I know this is one week premature, but to add to Jets' point above re the Stormers geez they seem a team fixed in a kind of archaic stone template set with epoxy that cannot be changed no matter what the opposition. This article captures it well...

Unless some of the current top 6 fall into a bad heap in this final stretch, BPs to date and to come could make a major difference to the final top 6. Unlike the Blues and Chiefs, the Reds are not accumulating many 4 try BPs, and to stay confident of a top 6 position (if not top 2, then position...

.........and waratahjesus' contributions to same ;)

The ARU knew all of this about Deans, certainly during and after the RWC. They have been content to pro-actively endorse, and re-endorse, him, stating recently (Hawker, Chairman) 'we are very happy with Deans'.

OK, fair enough: 'The Rebels are kinda like other Aus provinces have been when not performing, they're by no means alone in this type of history." Couldn't agree more. But: could sponsors, TV companies, and fans care less about that truth? There's no useful "let's really get better" mileage or...

I don't think I've ever seen an elite rugby team that would so obviously benefit from a much better coaching team (not just head coach, but back/attack and forwards etc) than the 2012/13 Rebels. You don't get rich dining out on impressive excuses: 'sick of losing', 'getting so many close...

I can see it now, as the more precise logistics and organizational fine print emerges in 2015, buried on page 37, section 18(b)(i), 6 point font: "John O'Neill Media Events Management Limited (registered in the Cayman Islands) will be paid (in advance) a game co-ordination and origination fee...

Not quite as simple as you suggest. Have a read of both HRH R McCaw's autobio and Henry's (btw, the latter better than the former IMO). Richie could not be clearer that he made it plain to the NZRU before the choice of post-2007 coach that Deans was both autocratic in temperament and had not...

Agree. And, just as an aside in a different vein altogether, I think it's actually open to reasonable debate as to whether Genia or Horwill is the better Reds' captain. We often forget how outstanding was the former as captain when the team was less developed and Horwill was out for a lot of 2010.

Just what I consider an important factual item btw to supplement your point above Cyclo: according to multiple reports, this latest KB (Kurtley Beale) transgression was not solely regarding alcohol. Additionally, KB (Kurtley Beale) 'didn't wake up in time' and knowingly missed a pre-booked appointment with the counsellor that...

What will be 'interesting' is what line of action the ARU now takes. Hard principle or pre-BIL pragmatism and the permitting of get-outs and excuses all round. No one surely took the recent KB (Kurtley Beale) 'punishment and rehab' process seriously or as truly genuine when the ARU let the media know that KB (Kurtley Beale)...

Purely that it could be so that Genia feels a high degree of personal as well as professional loyalty to Quade. This may have intensified in that since RWC 2011 Quade has received a barrage of all manner of criticism and, lately, widespread speculation that RD may not pick him for the BIL in any...

Agree FL. The Chiefs' defence in recent games has looked awful. It's almost as though the Chiefs' new motto is along the lines of 'oh well, as long as we score lots more tries than the big bundle of tries our opposition will score'.