'I'm sad for the board, I'm sad for the club and I'm sad for the fans'

You also got to remember that with that other discussion, the All Blacks are always looking into the future. They have to, they don’t have the resources to survive on blunt force concepts like ‘immediate selection’. So when they have two players, and one has signed on for a longer period and looks committed, they do put into perspective what that player will continue to provide if he is given the opportunity now, over the player who wont' be there in future. Bit irreverent in this case but I thought it worth pointing out.

When the All Blacks become just another team, then you can just pick on simple principles like ‘hes here and available’. New Zealand is a rep team, sure, it recognizes the best players from it’s catchment and rewards them with a cap, but it also does so much, means so much, is so much more than that.

All teams are going in and destroying the defence with the ‘clean out’ and all teams are hitting the ruck and then sealing the ball off by going off their feet.

Perhaps we see the laws change so players can no longer come in late and at speed to blast the defensive players off the ball and instead must bind to the opposition and their own players.

Secondly players must not leave their feet, like the scrum it shouldn't matter why they've gone to ground, the first team to do so is penalized.

Again, all teams are blasting the opposition off the ball and leaving their feet, it's risky stuff with necks being exposed.

Well played Lions and Wallabies, the final test hopefully more of the same.

The biggest stat though is that we kept the Chiefs scoreless for the whole 2nd half & basically put them on life support in the final 10 mins. And nutted their scrum for an easy three. That’s what “real” is bud. Hardly a “fluke”, right.

I looked at the replay because I saw two kids arguing and he also clearly does connect with the back of the head first, so maybe it was delayed reaction and was more luck that he wasn’t injured more.

I wouldn’t say this was a Mo’unga or Frizell situation where there talent only was unlocked after they signed abroad, when Schmidt and Ryan came in respectively. LF was on a good trajectory, and he just decided he has the perfect window of opportunity to go abroad while he’s not first choice, learn and live in France to come back better and have a good shot at the perfect age. I think he recongised that.

Agreed that our rotation has been off the the last decade, players have not been moved on when they should, but I wouldn’t include Rieko in that discussion, though I would accept he is more of a marketing than performance signing.

Also agree it is a strange condunrum that results from the misalligned seasons, where Lester is straight into NPC in the same season almost. When really the ‘start’ of his contract is next year. Is he even going to be on the payroll at the moment? Could it be used as a double dip to encourage players back, a ‘bonus international season’ of match fees.

But they also don’t want them to become anymore common. So perhaps everything is fine? Like I was alluding to with Toko, they would need multiple markers of their own in Top 14 for them to be able to gauge off. As I’ve said in previous articles I’d be comfortable to expand sabbaticals to 2 in every position (yes a huge change), so that the was a core group of 30 of the top players all aligned with the ABs and overseas at any one time. This would ensure there are good markers to correlate levels of performance amongst everyone. This is a very similar setup/size to South Africa. It is like the AB modem in a wider organism, the vets are shipped off much earlier, and the core of next cycle is brought through. No missing out on the JGPs or Aki’s, no the Antonio’s or young Patrick Tuifua’s to france, keeping the Chandler Cunningham-South’s or Roots brothers, evan this Dubious guy from the French team was playing rugby here in NZ and could have stayed with a more ground up focus on bringing players through, not paying them much etc lol

That’s what I like abuot the tour setup next year. I think there are too many games assigned to the ABs for it to happen though, but only haven’t a jersey awarded to the best available player again would be epic imo.