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Easts will only need 25% possession to get them home. The forwards can have a day off.

Not since the very first edition of Super Rugby have we seen the Crusaders amongst the cellar dwellers by round 9. Will home ground advantage pay off? Will the travel impact the visiting team? Will the Crusaders be stone motherless last by next week? Have I been alien-transferred to an alternate...

Mark down 2024 as one of the best ever. Beat the Crusaders twice in the normal season rounds. Has any Australian team done that before? At the game the atmosphere was electric. Neither team played like they were in the bottom four. Two weeks ago the Crusaders beat the Chiefs convincingly and...

This may be slightly overdone. The Crusaders in their first year were pretty awful as I recall.

Once again following the trouncing by the Brumbies the only three players to have been demoted or dropped are Fergus Lee-Warner, Teddy Wilson and Mark Nawaqanitawase. I have supported Coleman up till now but this is a bridge too far. Clearly the Wilson brothers, Jack Bowen and Mosese Tuipulotu...

He's apparently done the same injury to his foot again that took him out of 2023.

Word from SMH is that Vailani badly injured his knee on Friday and is gone for the season. Porecki doesn't seem to be right yet, I guess the tradie from Shute is now our bench hooker. We are in diabolical trouble.

We do tend to lift (2020 onwards excepted) when the game is in Sydney. But I think I am right in saying that we have only won once in Canberra in the last ten years or so and we are usually on the end of an almighty thrashing. So I disagree that we usually lift for this fixture. In 2014, the...

An experienced coach with a good win rate costs big dollars. There aren't many of them about, especially when you are on the bones of your arse financially. Inexperienced coach with potential is about all we can afford. We need to choose wisely and hope our front row can stay fit and able...

Six rounds in to a fifteen round comp is way too early to be throwing in the towel! Eight rounds at 4-5 points each is available to take; win most of that and you will get to top 4 and at least a home quarter final. They won't be playing the Drua at home in a mudbath every week.

Of the four props that were selected for the Tahs you might postulate that Barratt had the best game. He was certainly top 2. But AFL converted is right, he got thoroughly worked over in the scrum in the first 20. While he was good around the park, a props first duty is the scrum and the rest is...

If its true that Bell is out, putting Jack Barrett up against Taniela Tupou is absolutely insane. Pick an old scrummaging loosehead from Shute for this week. I thought last week the hooker we pulled out from Shute held his end up, we need a similar loosehead replacement.

If one of these teams wins their next five games with a few bonus points added in the table could be transformed. Maybe not likely, but possible.

Last chance saloon for both teams I think to make the top four. Mathematically that's untrue, but realistically both teams need to show some real form starting Friday. Both teams have senior players out - Tahs mainly front row, Rebels mainly backrow. Tipping on who shows up and who doesn't...

That's three close losses in the first five rounds. We all knew we had a hard draw, but its pretty heartbreaking to lose all three. Nothing to do but get back on the horse. Amongst the dross and claims by others that we were hopeless, to get that close to the Drua in that heat and humidity at...

Who do you drop to put him on? The worst performer in that starting pack IMO is Gleeson. And the Drua are big boys who need stopping quickly so maybe that's why they are still selecting him to start.

This is the A side and nothing depends on the result. Bowen is young and very talented. If this was the Super side playing I would agree with you but its not. He gets to try things, get experience, learn what works in a situation that has nothing hanging on the result. If they get pumped by 50...

And two thirds of the list is front rowers! 6/9. Hard to cover that with the squad limits.

Hugh Renton is a massive loss. I thought he outplayed the Tah backrow comprehensively last week.

I don't want to promote false hope! But in 2014 we went W-L alternate for the first six or seven rounds. Lost to the Brumbies in Canberra. Didn't lose another game. We are still in early season mode, gradually putting our game plan together because last year we didn't have one all year. We have...