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I also think it's because the difference between a great lineout and a dour one, is ~95% of wins Vs. ~70%. That's ~11 lineout wins Vs. ~9 if we take the high end of your range. Those two possessions, while they would be useful, are not generally going to be game changing. While scrums may have...

Hmmm, I agree that it will be tried in TRC, but unless it's a complete disaster, I don't know that it will tell us that much. If it's anywhere from a slightly not as good performance, to quite a good performance, other factors can be blamed or lauded for the game. If it's a raging success, there...

I think AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) would be on one wing over JOC (James O'Connor). People speak of JOC (James O'Connor) always performing at Test level, but AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) is Mr Consistent as well, and has been doing it far more recently. Both are probably not in the best form of their lives at the moment, but AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) has more runs on the board recently, and unless...

Does anyone have any actual footage of the incident? Stills aren't really all that helpful in this case. In terms of taking it back when tackled, I think of it much like getting tackled back into your own in-goal making it a 5 metre scrum. Getting tackled back into the 22 would be "taken back"...

Also, the Argentian team will, I imagine, bring a much more Northern Hemisphere style to their game, since the bulk of their players will have been playing North of the Wall. It will be interesting to see how that fares against some of the more traditionally free flowing rugby seen in the south...

Yep, there's some serious quality there. Depth will be the big question I imagine, but I'm sure they're thinking pretty seriously about it. Either way, I'm pretty excited to see the new Argentinian and Japanese teams trotted out.

Honest question- how much 15 has JOC (James O'Connor) played internationally/first class? Can't recall any games, but my memory is terrible, so it's not saying much.

My feeling is that the Tahs are giving their best games to the SFS in anticipation of their move there next year. No point appeasing ANZ with good games and butchering your potential takings, so send a bit of a crap game (attendance wise) there to fulfill your obligations and take the hit.

RE Cheika and team culture. I feel like he seems pretty confident about being able to impose his desired team culture on the squad, so wouldn't think he'd be too worried about Gits from that angle. As for Giteau's waning abilities before he left, I actually applauded him being left out of the...

Absolutely. My comment probably came off a bit over the top, but I didn't mean to say that the NH has better rugby than the SH. I think that's almost categorically untrue. My point I suppose is that people are saying that although Giteau was considered arguably the best player in Europe last...

If the European competitions are that bad, and guys like Giteau would be absolutely useless in Wallabies gold, then we're a shoe in to get out top of our group right? I mean, how could England or Wales beat us? Their whole teams are playing in these slow, inferior competitions that sucks skill...

So what are the positions that there are clear gaps in? In my mind: THP: Pretty obvious with Keps leaving, there's a bit of a gaping hole Reserve 9: Not sure who's likely to be in this position, Faleali'i? Wing: There is some young talent, but none particularly stand out, at least as a...

I couldn't find a match thread for this game, and am always interested in the thoughts of the people on this fine forum :)

There is also another side of this, where late developing "big boppers" aren't given the opportunities to upskill and play with high level teams. It's probably more a problem for locks, but there are all these lanky uncoordinated kids who run around in the Cs-Ds because they're not skilled...

Hmm, I've given it some thought and this whole thing could work in our favour come world cup time. The Kiwis will all be so irate about Cheika, they'll be too distracted to play their best, and the Wallabies will waltz up to take Bill ;)

I wouldn't be able to deal with To'omua being vice captain. How could you have someone with a man bun leading the team? Even if it is only for the last 20 minutes. Cut off the bun and then we have a deal.

Oh absolutely, I probably didn't make that clear. In my mind if one of the two are injured, it should be a tough battle between Gill and Hodgson to get on the plane, though they likely won't play much. If both are injured, it would be a truly devastating blow, but the fact that there are other...

I don't know about anyone else, but for mine Gill and co. are pretty much out of the running. I think Gill is a great player, but I think in a position in which we have the luxury of having two proven world class test performers, it would be a massive mistake to omit either of them in favour of...

Yep, that's pretty absurd if you ask me. Each of the teams should be doing their utmost to win the competition and fans, so that they can become financially viable and make Australian rugby interesting and exciting. Also, it's that old school thinking of putting all your eggs in one basket, what...

Mate, you have absolutely lost it trying to attach this to some sort of match fixing conspiracy. Match fixing generally involves one team trying to lose, and there have been no accusations of that. If you're trying to say that Cheika fixed the match by trying to win, then the All Blacks must be...