Siya Kolisi in race to be fit for World Cup after knee surgery

I presume you don’t have a view on Leinster’s age grade numbers but if I was to hazard a guess, it would be several factors higher than Ulsters.

All in all, it’s a real sad indictment on the irfu, as the controlling body of ALL provinces in Ireland.

Seriously, a few years ago (11/2022) RugbyPass has shown us the Baabaas preparation with Scott Robertson and Ronan O’Gara to meet the All Blacks. Less than a week, players from three continents and they gathered a basis of gameplay and won. Simply.

When you say more will come from European leagues and pro d2, do you mean they will move there from SRA to further develop, or that talent will naturally migrate there irrespective of SRA for other, probably economic, reasons?

Yes, the Lions looked like the undercooked and slightly disjointed team that they were but I’m sure that will change over the next few weeks.

He is clearly a better 10 at this stage of his development than Love, Jacombs, or Perofeta. He has been exceptional in three high pressure knockout matches and the semi-final vs the Blues and Grand Final vs the Chiefs have been immensely physical at test level intensity. And Reihana has more than just held his own against Barrett and McKenzie in those matches. His goal kicking was exceptional as Reihana was 3/3 of the tee vs Blues and 4/5 vs the Chiefs with his only miss being a 55m attempt.

In a squad of 35, with 15 backs, there is room for three specialist 10s, along with three 9s, 4 midfielders, 3 wings, and 2 fullbacks (where I would expect Ruben Love to be selected to backup the world class Will Jordan).