TBH I don’t really have one as I haven’t seen too much of him. He had a great debut against Scotland and certainly offers more in the lineout than Brussouw or others.

He certainly looks one for the future but seemed a surprise to me that Brussouw got left out although many feel he’s no longer as effective as he was.

It was more that he and Paige were being held up by many as only being in to satisfy the quota. The quota is surely unfair on the black players too as people will doubt whether they’ve been selected on merit – even if they have.

Kolisi is above average as a Superrugby level player. Struggled with form and injuries this year, and certainly not up to scratch at the moment as an international. Defnitely in as a quota player, as Brussouw has been playing some of the rugby of his life.

What the politicians pushing the whole quota thing in SA don’t realise is that it’s not a racial thing, it’s a cultural thing. Afrikaners are passionate about their rugby, and by a freak coincidence are big boys too. South African blacks traditionally play / follow football. The few black rugby players are generally from privileged backgrounds, hence their exposure to rugby.

I understood that it’s a lot to do with school; black kids generally don’t go to schools which play rugby. I’m no social engineering expert, but I would suggest that the government starts there rather than negatively impacting on their most successful sports team just because they can.

Perhaps the quotas are being imposed because this development hasn’t been done voluntarily?

SARU can’t make schools teach rugby. That’s the governments job. imposing arbitrary quotas is lazy and divisive. I wonder how some of the players added due to the quota feel knowing that they aren’t there on merit?
Why hasn’t the football team been given a quota?

They can go into schools, arrange summer camps, get the community interested in rugby. Maybe they do this already and the black communities just ignore their efforts?

The Ospreys seem to be in my local school every few weeks.

Edit : I’ve just done some googling and within two pages there are reports of the Ospreys visiting the local hospital and a Gower school. I did the same search for the Bulls, Griquas and the Sharks and found that the Bulls visited a car plant. Some good community work there.

I toured SA in 1997 and even back then as part of the tour the SARU made sure that a third of our matches were played in ‘development zones,’ townships to you and me. It was a great experience but football is the preferred sport.

I think the problem is government interfering in sport, they would be best to leave it to the union.

So I am posting this even though it makes us look ridiculous, what where they thinking ? England “send off” concert at the O2 with headline act “Take That”. billboards up around London. That will strike fear into the opposition, I mean we are not even going anywhere it’s a home tourmament 😳

Not least because Burrell isn’t even in the squad….

Watching Ulster Ospreys and BBC NI had a piece about the Nevin Spence centre opened recently at Ravenhill. Can’t believe it’s three years since he died.

Yes that’s the one. Poor game, hope for better viewing today.

There were some interesting performances in the second half. Brendan Leonard looked sharp, Rory Thornton and Dan Baker were good for the Ospreys, and the Ulster 12 and Trimble looked good. Sam Davies isn’t good enough when he’s playing outside a non-world class scrum half. (A bit like his father, only ever looked good when the players inside him were good.)

Yeah, I agree about Davies – they need to stick with him BUTTTTT not for too much longer. I find that if a player doesn’t fulfil his promise within a couple of seasons they turn into James Hook. 😆

Beck – make a great break then take 2 months out..

I think both sides are still deep in hard training, so not surprised by that.