Does it matter how many you use on the rule or that you use the rule. Thor qualifies for Oz under the same rules as Aki and VDM. Lynagh uses heritage rules just like Hansen and Sione. Instead of giving out about what others are doing ask what RA are doing wrong. Why are kids from Oz now feeling the future is OS not at home. Why has the Oz underage system struggle to keep up. Why is the national team not producing on the test stage. Why give out about Lions players not being the right kind of people instead of asking why RA couldn’t afford to sign up players post the Lions because they had no cash. You are upset Aki came over to Ireland 10 years ago. Ireland signed Nankivell last year but he is not going to play for Ireland because the Irish underage system is now producing.

NL won’t be the last injury before the Lions for either team. Brumbies finishing top 2 is very important if they want to atleast make the Final. While Force will be disappointed they need to finish strong in Fiji.

Like with most things WR do it’s only looking at test rugby. WR focused on the Pacific Cup for the 3 PI teams while Samoa and Tonga’s u20s went backwards. WR is finally going back up to 16 teams in 2026 but there in none this year meaning the USA at u20s may play Canada and that’s it. Not running the u20s Trophy this year and promoting the top 4 is bad news for teams. You would assume it will be Fiji, USA, Japan and either Portugal or Uruaguay as the 4 teams to go up. But it does fix the issues as to why nations like Samoa, Fiji and the USA have dropped out of the top division previously.

Thank for proving some can search the Internet. When he scored his 3 tries for an NZ school when he made it big on the YouTube who was paying for him to fly over from Oz.

No it says more about people from certain countries and what it means to be from a country. Georgians always pick Georgia. Argentine anearly always pick Argentina (the Italian thing is complicated and is like people in NZ and Oz still feeling Tongan etc). The number of residency players in Europe is dropping massively and most are from before the rules changed. To quote Rassie when asked about Klyne “we are against the rule but we will use the rules like everyone else*. Get RA and NZR to stop pushing to and succeeding in changing eligibility rules.

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Either that a joke or you have your facts wrong. He specifically was not picked for the NZ schoolboys team because he was heading to Oz as an adult. He only moved to NZ when he was spotted playing for the u15 Tongan side. Yes I know the difference between adults and kids and I feel kids being lured to other countries is worse than adults making choices. WR agrees and changed the rule to say that playing for an u20 side could not be used to tie a player to a country as they were too young to make the call and that the call was often made due to financial pressures applied to 18-20 year olds. So is Thor a product of Tnga, NZ or as you claim Australia and on what grounds.

Issue for SR has always been the cost of entering a team. If you had to create a team just to play in a longer version of the Champions Cup it would also cost alot more as squads and facilities etc would be a much higher standard. If S12 was a competition the top teams qualified for then an NRC part funded by WR would have been created just like the URC started. That would have allowed RA to have an 8 team NRC with the eventual 5 SR sides plus the 3 PIs. It would have reduced the cost of setting up Rebels and Force and would have allowed there to be 24 professional teams in SR as the bottom half of each league would have gone into a second competition. 8 team Currie Cup, 10 team NPC and 8 team NRC. Nations also would have been free to add teams if they wanted to their own league. RA having to add a team at massive cost they couldnt afford because if they didn’t they didn’t know when it would happen. We are seeing MP slowly growing but racking up loads of debt to do it. A team like North Harbour who had a ready to go fan base and players could easily have been professional alongside the Blues as could BOP, Cheetahs, Griquas etc. It also would have force RA to grow their domestic value rather be held up by SA and NZ bigger commercial deals. If SA were still giving RA 10m a year as part of the sharing deal then Rebels would still be around. Each European URC team gets over £1m extra from the league compared to before the SA sides joined and travel to SA is covered. That money gone from Brumbies and Tahs is why they are now controlled by RA. By the end of S12 the limited professional places available for promising youngsters had cause players to move to Europe which made setting up teams alot more expensive than in 1996.

Or the other side of the coin is that teams beat Oz by winning the breakdown because they give away penalties and cards the longer you hold the ball against them. Yes Bobbi V is great but it’s not like there has been any game v an T1 side apart from Wales where Oz has dominated the breakdown or attack or defense. But they have in cards and penalties conceded.

Remind me again which league had to cut 3 teams due to decline in player standards as they felt they nolonger had the quaility of player for the teams. Have your head in the sand if you want but in 5-6 years when the older players retire you might find the pathways take longer than a year to fix. It is funny for you to believe that a nation who has one of the youngest teams and deepest squads who have made the u20s final for the last 4 years winning 3 have a pathways issue because 25% of 14 teams arent French. Or Leinster has an issue because of 10% of their squad aren’t from Leinster. Imagine the French only have 150 players starting in the T14 each week not 200 but Oz has 60 players so better pathways.

So The SH picks up schools kids and that’s OK. France tried that and RA had a meltdown as did certain fans. So let me get this straight, the SH take kids as teens from other countries yet in 15 years the u20 has gone from 7 SH v 5 NH with SH dominating titles to now where it’s 4 SH v 8 NH and NH dominating titles. But Europe has the pathways problems. It’s not like the euro u20s is stacked full of OS imports. You do realise that Oz has more residency players than even Scotland who is on par with NZ.

True but he will have been clear in private to RA and the Tahs and will have pulled rank. Joe doesn’t care about the WC even if he says he does. It’s about winning against the Lions. If he plays 13 at SR level he is easier to read, part of JAS success in 2024 was there is no tapes to review. Whatever the reason Joe is a puppet master.

Yes I realise how much the Lions mess up the 4 home nations. It usually results in NZ and SA underachieving at WC after the tour. SA in 2023 was the exception. France are most likely to win a 6N following a Lions. Lions tour cause players to stay on longer at test level than retire after a WC so can’t build a team over a 4 year cycle. Players in the NH have two seasons every 4 years, this WC cycle it’s Sept 2024 to July 2026 and Sept 2026 to July 2028. Ireland and England lose nearly a whole team to the Lions while they must send another team off to another country. England could miss out on a top seed at the WC because of the Lions. All so that 3 unions can take all the cash and run their Union into the ground for 11 years knowing the Lions will bail them out. I am sure if every 12 years the European nations got 50m to invest in their pathways they would have much better pathways. In hope either 2029 is the last Lions or it goes other places. Lions Tour of France would be massive as would a tour of the Americas post the “massive* 2031 WC. Imagine if the WRU got the second and third chances financial like RA

Maybe Joe wants him at FB. I can’t remember if I read anything from Joe about him being upset about it. It wouldn’t suprise if Joe is happy to have him at FB as he did fine in the centre and may learn more at 15 by observing from that little bit back. Also better to cover two position than one.

Him, bernie and Chessum all can.

Hard to believe could play u20s this year. Man of the tournament u20s last year as England won the 6N and u20 WC. Man of the match v Oz A in a 37-18 win all before the age of 20.

Issue is it’s probably Bernie who will be by him who will jackal away if you do that.

Does Oz have the best backrow. Pollock does fine against other backrows. How did Sititi do v the Oz backrow.

The challange for the Lions is can they play the simple game plan, for Oz it’s about depth. WBs 1-15 will feel they are as good as the 15 that take the field but as you move through the squad the gap between the Lions player and WB gets bigger. All comes down to injuries. WBs are the one team every nation has beaten in the last 3 years so each Lion will be confident. I don’t see the locks as a weakness for their nations they have dealt with the Oz locks just fine.

Miles has been playing T14 since he was 18 or 19. Most of the kids are good enough to play top level they are just stuck in SS/HC so miss out on the full professional experience until 21.

Or is it McKellar though. I doubt if Joe and RA wanted him at centre McKellar woukd be able to say no.

Great result for the Reds. For Tahs same old, same old. From September to January looking amazing with great hope for SR only for it to end in tears. Realistically they should go and hire some OS coach as their next coach who won’t care where players went to school or what club they are but will tell them where they really are as a team. Considering they players they have this season has been poor.

Big improvement in Ireland in the late 90s early 00s was kids were playing rugby as teens. John Hayes only found rugby in college, today if you don’t start at 12/13 you are unlikely to be professional. Spsinish Union has copied Georgia and Italy by fixing their underage system. Their u18s held up really good in the u18 6Ns and off the back of it many will go into professional academies in France. The USA gets to play Canada at u18 and and u20s and if they are lucky a few more T2 u20s. Georgia and Spain u20s for the second year in a row playing with the big boys. I get that college sports is important in the USA but it isn’t going to match what Georgian, Spainish, Fijian and Japanese kids are getting 18-22.

Olly how many of these Southern hemisphere players only got a contract based on their heritage. Plenty players SRU could have signed instead of Sione but didn’t. The simple problem is nationality isn’t as important in some places as others. The Georgians all pick Georgia, the PIs pick who pays most. The top Fijian players players pick Fiji only because they can in Europe. If they were in NZ or Oz they would be representing those countries like they use too. If the SRU hadn’t paid the expensive surgery for Duhan he wouldn’t be a professional rugby player.

ARN does it every tournament. Australia use the residency rule more than the 6Ns sides. South American teams are the best followed by SA and Georgia. If you don’t like bloodlines then Samoa and Tonga would drop about 10 places in World Rankings overnight.