Owen Farrell set to return for an increasingly desperate Racing 92

Not sure that's true. Looking at the Wikipedia entry for capped Springbok players, 10 were capped in 2024, while 12 were capped in 2022.

Admittedly, only 6 in 2021 and 2 in 2023, but those were B&I Lions tour and RWC years, respectively, when the focus was on winning big tournaments rather than expanding squad depth.

As for the quality of new caps, 2024 saw some promising talent being unearthed. Bit disingenuous to say that none of the new players are likely to become regular starters.

He won back to back world cups with a pretty much unchanged group of players. He won’t be able to do that again. Much of the evidence is that the next generation of players aren’t very good, but even if they are, they haven’t been introduced to the test arena in time to rack up the necessary experience for 2027.

the success of one singular school has very little to do with the success of a nation!

As you say Ireland havebeen great at both scoring from, and defending the 5m lineout, but it’s mostly the product of excellent tech and coaching rather than brute strength and size. With the coming of the 7-1 that may change.

The kicking game is also far more varied and unpredictable in its outcomes with no escorts allowed for high kicks and the 50/22 turnover potential.

Thanks for the post!

As to the point at hand, it was widely known at the time that Ireland were keen for a solution that enabled TB to be available for Ireland but that he was not prepared to return to Leinster, making an offer is not the same as informal discussions. Players have agents for exactly that purpose and being released at a young age and left with genuine uncertainty over your career is likely to leave a lasting scar I imagine. There was NO OPTION for him to be a reserve Leinster player. He did NOT leave under his own volition, as you previously asserted, in order to be a first team player elsewhere and he is most definitely not an example of the Leinster academy feeding the other provinces!

Enjoy your day…

Edit: it’s also rather sad to upvote your own post but not too surprising I guess

“it’s like saying WR racially segregates by stopping islanders playing for Japan, or any other country they become a part of. They’re essentially saying “no, you’re not japanese until you’ve spent 5 years there””

it isn’t like that at all. Japan aren’t saying you become japanese after 5 years of living there, they are saying that you only became japanese by having japanese “blood”.

“in case you haven’t noted, Moana and Fiji are for players developed locally”

Think JH was confused between Moana Pasifika and the racially segregated “Pasifika and First Nations XV” that is going to play the Lions this summer. Not sure why you’re bringing up Fiji, a team no one has mentioned because they clearly bear no relation to the topic at hand.

“saying you can’t have a Maori team is the same as saying you can’t call yourself Maori”

no it isn’t. A person can call themselves white, but you can’t have a whites only team.

Linout is atill by far the biggest single platform for try-scoring, with 55% having lineout as the starter.

The bench is having a big say in how the game is played as ppl discover how many forwards they can squeeze on to it.

The RWC cycle is ofc the acid test for club-country coop as the national side tends to wnat more time with the players then.

Not sure if Top 14 will be as compliant as it was for the home WC in 2023 though. That home WC had far more allure!