Marler and Launchbury withdrawn from England squad

They make a potentially wrong decision at 21-22 then have to sit out the next 5 years. Rotting away and missing their physical peak.

Also some of SA’s most influential players have been playing in Japan. JL1 is a great competition but it’s nowhere near the intensity of the URC, let alone Super Rugby. At least 10 of the Springboks top team have been playing/are playing in JL1 - has that made PSDT or Malcom Marx any less physical? I would argue DeAllende and Kriel have actually gotten better.

NZ rugby and coaches just fell behind. It crept in during the BIL tour in 2017, and they didn’t really recover until 2023. The game changed and they didn’t adapt. It has changed again now and if we fail to adapt it will have nothing to do with Super Rugby, and everything to do with myopic ABs coaches and management trying to play last decade’s game.

The Aussies won’t be concerned about him as a last line of defence.

So game 1 was a dead rubber, because the Chief are gong through regardless. Had they won that game then game 3 becomes a dead rubber too because both of those teams know they will advance to the semi finals regardless.

It was very poorly thought out. The desperation for revenue from a third finals game in round 1 compromised the integrity of the finals.

Better off to copy the Top 14 format where 1 and 2 go through to semis, and 3-6 play a quarter final round to get into the semis.

You’ve probably got the edge in the midfield thanks to form and injury, we’d take the halfs and backfield. Tight fives can be taken out of the game, will be tough to swing that advantage to the backline but lets see, whats the weather like?