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I'm only speculating but I wonder if Sua'ali'i could be groomed as the Wallabies' solution at 12. Either of Foketi or Kellaway at 13 would work.

I had given thought to that as well. Schmidt seems to be at almost opposite polarity when it comes to fitness, in particular gym work. I think he is more into pure aerobic fitness rather than things like carrying barge ropes around, and he is probably historically reliant on match fitness...

I'm not expecting them to reach those heights, but being competitive between now and the end of the year would be a good start. We did at least beat Argentina away on the same tour.

Yeah I agree, the '97 walloping in Pretoria was a turning point for our side back then, with any luck this is as well.

Yes, for sure I'm not defending it so much as just saying I think the erroneous decision making was a bit to do with the heat. I think Joe and co had probably thought they had seen enough in the first 30 minutes to have a bit of confidence that what they had been working on and training was...

I think the heat had a lot to do with it - given the 17 point lead I'd say the intent was to try to hold the lead with some fresh legs, not for it to go completely pear-shaped. The inexperience wasn't properly factored in.

OK I hadn't read up on it. Scrap that, super round the week before then the Bledisloe on actual ANZAC Day. Edit: have the standalone test on the nearest Saturday to ANZAC Day with a bye week.

Agree with your points but wouldn't they just have a bye?

That is a problem that has been inherited by the current board, they didn't cause it. Sure, there is some crossover in the personnel but this has been a systemic issue since 2003. As I said, they need time and money to be able to do anything, and really they can't do anything significant until...

I don't disagree with that, it should be more than a small surplus though, it should be substantial. I sense there are things going on behind the scenes along these lines but they need the money to commit to whatever the plans are, notwithstanding honouring current contractual obligations as well.

I don't think the current board would be categorised as outstanding, but I don't think they have been disastrous either. Australian Rugby is in a shambles and borderline broke, and consequently some tough decisions have/had to be made. Obviously the toughest of these so far was the Rebels, but...

Wouldn't that just be part of the desire to prioritise squad spots for Wallabies' eligible players now that there are less of them?

I don't think he should be getting a top up either, but it does say 'earlier this year' and that it's only small, so maybe it just happened to be at a time he was playing well and was a bit higher up on Joe's 'possibles' list. Wright should definitely be getting one though, and I'd say he will...

This is pretty spot on except I would argue that the era of greatness (or maybe consistently top 4 is a better way to describe it) covers the whole period from the early 80's - when Alan Jones took the reigns - all the way through to the end of the Rod Macqueen stint, which includes the 2003...

Sure things in Roma I reckon

As previously advised RA had taken on the Tahs and Rebels, the latter ceased to exist so RA had to move some Tahs players on to accomodate the contractual obligations of quite a few ex-Rebels players. The Brumbies came to the table a fair bit bit later in the process but presumably they were...

I’m aware of the swimming skew, also cycling to an extent and usually rowing. A country like France has its skewed to things like fencing. My point is about getting more people playing rugby, or more to the point sticking with it. Which ultimately comes down to being able to offer more...

Marce has it pretty much right funnily enough. I was referring to all athletes, not just rugby players, and meant to add ‘on a per capita basis’.

That would be because we have 4 football codes, those countries only have two.

It depends how you want to scrutinise it. We have much smaller populations than both but our athletes are clearly superior, and South Africa was an economic basket case. We can make it happen if we want to.