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Shame about Laurie Fisher, always liked him. Larkham has not shown any prowess as a 'backs coach' unless his Irish experience is different to what he showed in Australia, just because he was a good player himself doesn't mean he is going to be a good backs coach - hopefully he can prove me...

I think both Petaia and Mark N (Nawaqanitawase) performed really well - yes there were defensive lapses by both but that likely comes from a lack of combination with their inside men and maybe communication. Petaia hasn't been playing a lot of wing so that contributes too but really pleased to see him remain...

England have the best women's setup - been pro for the entire squad and coaches since 2019. NZ have just gone pro this year and from Wayne Smith's comments it sounds like some of the Black Ferns still have jobs. Smith was only appointed this year after a scathing review of the coaching culture...

Is there a policy of neutral grounds for semi finals (Wests playing UQ at GPS, and GPS playing Brothers at Wests) or is it just availability of fields with Ballymore out?

What has happened at Sunnybank? Like you said they had all that pokie money funding but their numbers through juniors have dropped away too. Is it just change of personnel? Where are all their local players going?

I noticed the number of players from Fountain Gate Secondary so looked it up - they have a Rebels aligned rugby academy which sounds pretty good. https://www.fountaingatesc.vic.edu.au/teaching-learning/programs/rugby-academy/

Lynagh flying over is interesting given he hasn't played for Reds since the trials. Got the impression they were keeping him in development.

Are the players with weak skills being asked to improve though? You would expect that the coaching team have identified areas for improvement and given those players the specific requirements - what needs to be improved, how it can be improved, when it will be improved by; and set up the skills...

Vunivalu looked lost so often - can't fault him for trying to get involved but too often just didn't seem to know where to position himself. You've got to think that the coaches would have had set plays to get him involved but couldn't see it. He likes to hit rucks that he doesn't need to be...

Agreed, I thought he was certainly hard to stop when he had a head of steam but defensively he was a liability and at test level that will be exposed. I'm surprise that the Reds coaching staff or even teammates haven't sorted that out - we tell juniors to communicate to their team mates when...

Vuni might be good on attack but his defensive positioning is poor - keeps coming in and leaving the opposition winger unmarked.

With the 10 replacement issue, I find it odd that the Reds haven't seemed to give game time to possible backups to JOC (James O'Connor) so that in the case of injury (as has happened) the replacements have some top level experience. Perhaps I missed it but hasn't he been coming on as a replacement outside back...

I thought Creighton looked a lot more assured this week and made some nice passes - seemed to be setting up well. He is looking good for the future. Tate was ridiculous around the scrum, not sure if he has been told to try to get in the way of the opposing 9 or decided it himself, seemed very odd.

Looking at the Rebels, Gordon aside, how about Joe Powell? He's on the bench behind Tuttle again. That's quite a fall considering his experience. Clearly the Rebels coaches are not rating him this season.

In the commentary last night I think that they mentioned that a Rebels bench player had just arrived from NZ and hadn't played rugby for 3 months. Not sure who they were referring to but I was surprised that they didn't have someone in Oz in their broader training group or linked to a...

Sorovi apparently playing on Saturday for Rebels A team according to Rebels website: 'Recruit Moses Sorovi adds some experience at the halves pairing with Mason Gordon, while local Endeavour Hills star Lebron Naea combines with Divad Palu at Centre."

So what are the alternatives to JOC (James O'Connor) at 10? I can't see Stewart being the right choice, even though he played in the trials. On the Reds website he is listed as a centre and the only other flyhalf other than O'Connor is Lynagh, which would be putting a lot of pressure on a very young guy. I...

According to that link, albeit 11 years old, Terrace don't offer rugby scholarships. Clearly that stance changed in the years since, because I have met people whose sons were on scholarships at Terrace to play rugby and were not allowed to play for their clubs.

Brumbies lineup looks good but haven't heard of Rory Scott at 7 before, the rest of the starting lineup are well established. Anyone know much about him?

Was that a full strength Georgian team? I think quite a few of them play in France so not sure if the French clubs don't let them play like some of the Island players. If it was a strong Georgian team then that is quite an achievement by Portugal. What is their player pool like?