Also Cooper is out, so they may miss his unpreditability, sometimes anyway… or maybe not. But they might miss his ACCURATE, long passes. Does anyone pass better?

And if JOC has grown up, he needs to get back home pronto. They’ll likely have an injury vacancy at some pt.

And as an asside, pity Digby Ioane went off the rails… & to France. Looked a real footy player to me.

The Oz scrum has long been derided by the English press, even though they’ve been ranked 2/3 in the world some some yrs now. Seems to me much of this opinion was based, in recent times at least, on the Oz scrum in 3rd test v The Lions. However, they held ok in the 1st 2 tests. Except for 1/2 the Oz backline, incl their kicker, going off injured in the 1st test, it would all likely have been a very different series outcome. Still, them’s the breaks.

I expect their front row battles in this yr’s Champ’ship to be more even, not least because they have 2 semi finalists in the S15 this yr. Don’t get that far with pusseys up front methinks.

Anyway, be interesting to see how they go, esp as they’ll need a good showing (who won’t?) with the WC a yr off.