Five All Blacks released by Foster ahead of Bledisloe series

And for me, the gain in the player welfare equation is certainly obvious and I wonder how you could have missed it. Or maybe you’re more a Polemist than a real Analyst?

The third Test is 19 July, round one of Top 14 2025-26 first weekend of September. Probably a month of pre-season in August with three warm-up games. Where is the off-season for players to recover properly?

In the NFL they have 7 months.

Yeah right!

The NFL is also distributing contracts worth $210.000.000+ for 4 years… In Top 14, Dupont was paid a yearly €480.000 (brut) by Toulouse while F. Russell was offered £1.000.000 with Bath. Consequently, I really fail to see how anything NFL is relevant with rugby, but you already know that.

Beside, La Section Paloise already started its pre-season (today) and the number of warm-up games would range from 0 - 2 (mostly 1). For the bulk, after five weeks, the restart is next week as their last game was on 7 June. The break is shorter than 6 weeks for their staff and those players who were not involved in their last game.

Last season ranking. Club -> date restart (break weeks)

08. Pau (SP) -> 9 July (~ 4w)

00. Montauban (USM Sapiac) -> 14 July (> Pro D2)

07. La Rochelle (SR) -> 14 July (~ 5w)

12. Paris (SF) -> 15 July (~ 5w)

11. Lyon (LOU) -> 15 July (~ 5w)

10. Racing 92 -> 15 July (~ 5w)

13. Perpignan (USAP) -> 16 July (~ 5w)

09. Montpellier (MHR) -> 16 July (~ 5w)

06. Clermont (ASM) -> 21 July (~ 5w)

05. Castres (CO) -> 21 July (~ 5w)

04. Bayonne (AB) -> 28 July (~ 5w)

03. Toulon (RCT) -> 28 July (~ 5w)

02. Bordeaux (UBB) -> 6 August (~ 5w)

01. Toulouse (ST) -> 4-11 August (~ 5-6w)

If Attissogbe (from Pau) is also playing the 19 July test (very doubtful), he will be back from holliday on 1 September (6 weeks later). No matter what, he is going to miss several rounds of Top 14.

(…) three-Test series in NZ is not ‘friendly’. It is a serious opportunity to prove you can beat one of the best nations in history in their own backyard.

You can also repeat it a million time but it won’t change the fact that those summer tests are the lowest priority on the FFR agenda. It’s a shame, it’s not going to change - even if they rename the window something else, but it’s for good reasons in my humble opinion.

Then there’s a raft of 1.97/98 options like Ah Kuoi, Walker-Leawere, Gallagher, Shalfoon, etc, ????

Win, lose or draw. They have me for life those lucky things!!!

I still wear my jersey to bed every night. Listening to my Paul O’Connell motivational tapes. 👊

“I'll play for you ALL DAY!!!”