The Northern tour starts this weekend with Australia taking on Japan in the it’s not a grudge match match. I think I speak for every Wallabies supporter, it is a grudge match and if we are up by 50 with time up on their 22 I want to go for 7 only because we cannot go for 8.
Erasmus Wants the TRC and Six Nations to be Aligned
Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus hopes that the Rugby Championship and Six Nations schedule will be aligned in the future, and reveals what he will miss with the introduction of World Rugby’s proposed Nations Championship.
This is actually a good idea but let’s look at some of the detail. Rugby as we know is a winter sport. The Six Nations is played in February and March which as we know is winter in the north. The average temperature in London in February is a balmy 10 degrees during the day to a brisk 4 in the evening. In Brisbane the average day time temp is 29 with an evening temp of 21. Not what one would call ideal rugby weather. I remember when James Horwell played for the Reds, he said he would lose 7Kg during a game in February in Brisbane. It would make for terrible rugby as the ball gets very greasy with sweat and frankly someone might actually die from the heat.
Moving both to say April would be ideal. But also never forget the Saffas only care about their own interests.
Northern Squads
As we mover our thoughts to the north I thought it would be a good time to list the available northern squads. No available information on the Italians or the French.
WALES SQUAD
Player to watch Louis Rees-Zammit returning from NFL
Backs: Josh Adams, Jacob Beetham, Rio Dyer, Dan Edwards, Jarrod Evans, Kieran Hardy, Joe Hawkins, Louie Hennessey, Max Llewellyn, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Blair Murray, Louis Rees-Zammit, Tom Rogers, Callum Sheedy, Ben Thomas, Nick Tompkins, Tomos Williams
Forwards: Keiron Assiratti, Adam Beard, Liam Belcher, Rhys Carre, Ben Carter, Brodie Coghlan, Christian Coleman, Rhys Davies, Taulupe Faletau, James Fender, Archie Griffin, Dafydd Jenkins, Dewi Lake, Alex Mann, Jac Morgan (capt), Morgan Morse, Taine Plumtree, Nicky Smith, Danny Southworth, Gareth Thomas, Freddie Thomas, Aaron Wainwright
SCOTLAND SQUAD
Player to Watch Tom Jordan This kilted Kiwi can play.
Backs: Fergus Burke, Jamie Dobie, Darcy Graham, Adam Hastings, Rory Hutchinson, George Horne, Tom Jordan, Blair Kinghorn, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Rowe, Arron Reed, Finn Russell, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Ross Thompson, Sione Tuipulotu (capt), Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White
Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Magnus Bradbury, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Patrick Harrison, Nathan McBeth, Alexander Masibaka, Liam McConnell, Elliot Millar Mills, Harri Morris, Andy Onyeama-Christie, D’Arcy Rae, Dylan Richardson, Jamie Ritchie, Alex Samuel, Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland, Marshall Sykes, George Turner, Murphy Walker, Max Williamson
England’s training squad
Fun Fact Maro Itoje has played 93 test matches for England and averages 79 Minutes per game.
Forwards
Fin Baxter (Harlequins) Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers) Alex Coles (Northampton Saints) Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks) Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins) Theo Dan (Saracens) Ben Earl (Saracens) Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears) Jamie George (Saracens) Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers) Emeka Ilione (Leicester Tigers) Maro Itoje (Saracens) Nick Isiekwe (Saracens) Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks) Guy Pepper (Bath Rugby) Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints) Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks) Will Stuart (Bath Rugby) Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby)
Backs
Henry Arundell (Bath Rugby) Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints) Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs) George Ford (Sale Sharks) Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints) Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby) Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints) Cadan Murley (Harlequins) Max Ojomoh (Bath Rugby) Raffi Quirke (Sale Sharks) Adam Radwan (Leicester Tigers) Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks) Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs) Fin Smith (Northampton Saints) Marcus Smith (Harlequins) Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby) Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers)
Ireland Squad – November 2025:
The Big Question is are the Irish vastly experienced or just getting old.
Forwards (19):
Thomas Ahern (Shannon/Munster)(2) Ryan Baird (Dublin University/Leinster)(29) Finlay Bealham (Corinthians/Connacht)(51) Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster)(61) Jack Boyle (UCD/Leinster)(4) Thomas Clarkson (Dublin University/Leinster)(8) Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster)(51) Caelan Doris (St Mary’s College/Leinster)(51)(captain) Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster)(79) Iain Henderson (Academy/Ulster)(85) Rónan Kelleher (Lansdowne/Leinster)(39) Gus McCarthy (UCD/Leinster)(6) Paddy McCarthy (Dublin University/Leinster)* Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster)(75) Cian Prendergast (UCD/Connacht)(5) James Ryan (UCD/Leinster)(72) Dan Sheehan (Lansdowne/Leinster)(32) Nick Timoney (Banbridge/Ulster)(4) Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster)(73)
Backs (15):
Bundee Aki (Galwegians/Connacht)(65) Caolin Blade (Galwegians/Connacht)(3) Craig Casey (Shannon/Munster)(20) Jack Crowley (Cork Constitution/Munster)(26) Ciaran Frawley (UCD/Leinster)(9) Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster)(43) Mack Hansen (Corinthians/Connacht)(28) Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Leinster)(82) James Lowe (Leinster)(40) Stuart McCloskey (Bangor/Ulster)(21) Tommy O’Brien (UCD/Leinster)(2) Jamie Osborne (Naas/Leinster)(8) Sam Prendergast (Lansdowne/Leinster)(9) Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster)(67) Jacob Stockdale (Lurgan/Ulster)(39).
Crusaders boss Colin Mansbridge accuses NRL clubs of being ‘lazy’ after academy raided
From across the Ditch @ Stuff
The NRL officials probably did not think about this when R360 was mentioned. It is obviously their favorite double standard.
Crusaders boss Colin Mansbridge has come out swinging after a recent raid of the team’s academy.
Mansbridge accused NRL clubs of being “lazy” and relying on rugby union development pathways to stock their rosters with talented prospects.
He made the claim after one of the team’s highly touted backs, 19-year-old Tasman Mako Harry Inch, departed the Super Rugby champions’ academy for the Warriors.
The Warriors told Stuff nothing had been finalised last weekend, but Inch has informed the Crusaders he’s pursuing an opportunity with the Auckland-based club.
Saumaki Saumaki, a powerful loose forward out of Nelson College, has also departed the academy and will link up with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
“They [league clubs] unashamedly target rugby union development systems because they think they are so good,” Mansbridge said, adding expansion teams in Perth and Papua New Guinea would only see more rugby players targeted.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for young men and women now. And I think that other code does a very good job of relying on rugby union to be its development pathway. They don’t do any of it themselves, they’re really lazy in that area.”
When put to Warriors chief executive Cameron George, he refuted Mansbridge’s claim.
Saracens new star shines in clinical defeat of Sale Sharks,
Watch out for this kid he can play at only 19
Noah Caluori wrote his name in the history books in his debut performance for Saracens, as he scored a huge five tries, leading his team to a clinical 65 – 14 victory at the StoneX stadium
Hossman definitely back tomorrow.
