Courtney Lawes set to be joined by 129kg Premiership rival - report

Has Wales finally found a spine ?

SA used the disguised winger strat well this year with some very good mobile offloaders being left alone to run down the flanks, wonder if they're get tested this year. The All Blacks used a fairly aggressive rush.

I was quite surprised when for some reason I took particular note in the NFL finals that both lines are actually holding in place until the ball is received on restarts. Some several seconds after play has commenced!

As New Zealand showed versus England last year, Bath v Leinster this week, and Leinsters own attack of years gone past, it's all pretty well balanced in this department.

For sure the fitness and speed of the forwards (and even cover backs, strength in the tackle of 9's etc) have improved greatly in recent times to cope with running long distances and in time to cover the attack. The question I want to see play out is if a team like the All Blacks can click and create multiple phases of overlaps like they did against South Africa in the Rugby Championship leading up to the World Cup, can these best defenses cope?

SA blamed a lack of conditioning that day, having half the team playing their first international for the year. A team like La Rochelle isn't really a good marker, they are not a strong team and you can see the deperation to capitalize on the overlap playing out in these videos. Perhaps a misplay, or he's holding onto his cards, by O'Gara not rginding them down instead with that 7-1 bench.

Otherwise though not going past the 15 is not very well enforced, and I wonder how easily some extra requirements on back three positioning would be. With say a 3 men behind the 10m, 22m, half way lines rule.

The problem with trying to work your way through the middle is the condensed D which is designed to only cover two thirds of teh pitch. That means you're nearly always running into double tackles and big jackals.

But the points about Ireland's set plays are valid although I'm not sure how repeatable they are!

The bad thing for England is that Leinster have been practising it for the better part of two seasons and will still be supplying 11 or 12 player to the starting lineup.

Joe's pattern didn't work v the Boks in the first two rounds of the RC 2024 but Aussie were still feeling their forwards at that stage.

The Boks [and Leisnter] succeed because they habitually split 6-2 or even 7-1 [though Leinster were 5-3 for this game] and can bring a succession of fit, mobile tight forward, so there is no weakness in the middle of the field as the front five tire.