Nicky Thomas returns to Ospreys

In all honesty Fassi and Jordan are very similar sort of players so good to both see them contributing to some good rugby.

Thats always the case tho isnt it? Selection is only an opinion. Taylor is 33 and plenty of front rowers are playing great rugby at 33. Its 36 at the next WC that starts stretching the friendship and makes me think he wont be there. Bell is a very different hooker to the other 2. More a Cole than a Samisoni/Aumua

Clayton did a 'Razor' by not giving him minutes during the season and was then required to rely on him the final due to injury. An attitude that heavily influenced the result as he did make a number of unusual formation and lineout call errors.

Look I agree that there were a lot of extenuating circumstances that do provide some optimism it will be better next year. Hooker is one such example, if Taylor had not taken that years Super Rugby as a sabbatical, would he have over played him as much in the black jersey. Of course we hope not, but there is just as much evidence now that he would, than what we might previously have thought, that he'd be super keen to bring Aumua's block busting form into the international arena.

What he should do next year imo is use the whole point of this years sabbatical and rotate them all around so that Taylor can continue until 2027.

While I strongly believe every country should have a local as coach, so they are real international games not just mercenary games, I also would like to see Schmidt devote the rest of his life to looking after his son, as he said he would. Being on a million dollars a year plus for many years he should be financially loaded and doesn't need the money.

He needs to let Australia work it's rugby problems out for itself. Dave Rennie recognised this.

For me it is more about what Nickers describes, there was huge opportunity to break from that norm you outline as the traditional AB style, and Razor may have just changed a tad too much over the years to try and take advantage of that.

I guess that is my take, there was more upside in doing it the other way than what he did. He was compensating for his own teams lack of experience by ensuring the playing group had it. Which by itself was a fine choice, I just think in the actual circumstances that played out their were better options.

Look I do give Razor and team credit for making the team much more threatening on attack this year. The deer in headlights Jordie that turned up in the WC final wasn't quite as bad this year. He had options, just a lot of the time the teams execution wasn't there like this Leinster teams is. That is what we saw, I highly doubt that Cullen did much more than try and get Jordie to slot into their team roles ASAP. It only highlights, as I have done repeatedly this year, that the ABs attack structure could still do with a bit more finesse (or complete adandonment back to a adhoc style).

Instead he brought a 'dynasty' perspective with him.