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

His main interest seemed to be recommend Egg Chasers to everyone. He got extremely agitated when I said I hadn’t listened to their podcast.

Apparently it was required listening in order to understand anything about SA rugby!

Maybe the same guy?

But I think the second Test in Wellington has really shown how that selection policy has devalued the series.

And JW also added some great stats in the forum to the last article showing how England picked a number of 2000+ minute players on their tour last July.

It's not like they’ve lost an empire…

Hanekom needs international game-time. It’s a pity that he’s injured so often. Louw brings versatility, as does Roos. Kwagga can do the job but, yeah, he’s far more effective off the bench - might be the most effective impact player in the world in recent times. Van Staden has been quietly building his reputation but I don’t see him at 8.

Personally I want to see Trokkie get an opportunity.

2023 RWC media gushing aside, I always maintained, that the Portuguese lacked quality forwards to be competitive against the top teams.

And unfortunately, forwards win matches, and to have a crop of elite ones, you need the numbers, the large talent pool. Portugal don’t have that.

There’s only so much you can do on having another country (France) running your development program at Pro D2 club level.

To get a larger player pool, you need more popularity and money, both of which are intertwined.

Not a lot of room for progress unless the underlying numbers change.

Which also makes sense now that scrumhalves are more protected. The French use this to great effect with AD. At times he was a 9,5 playing between 9 and 10 on strike moves.

Beautiful to watch.