Big Hit. Congratulations. A wins a win, and we know all about that.

Apologies to all of you, but Wales are the best of all the Northern Hemisphere teams.

NZ Vs Wales Final. 2 Kiwi coaches.

The trade off for this concession to the ARU was that the new broadcast deal only included Super 15 games and Tri-nations tests with each Nation being able to negotiate its own deals for rights to their respective in-bound international test and domestic competitions. When these revenues are added to the bottom line, things look decidedly paltry for the ARU.

It has been estimated that with Currie Cup and in-bound tests, SA Rugby has been able to negotiate an extra $US58M, an increase in revenue of 46% on the old agreement. The NZRU, whose NPC is estimated to be worth $US20M, will increase revenue by 13%, even before in-bound test revenue is factored into this figure.

With no third-tier competition to hock, the ARU stands to only increase revenues by 7% or $US7M before in-bound test revenues are considered, not a great prospect given the poor TV ratings of this year’s tests.

What is clear from these estimates is the ARU has very little scope to earn significant revenue outside of what it receives from its share of the SANZAR deal. Although the ARU increased its earnings from sponsorships and gate receipts by almost $A9M from 2007 to 2008, this increase included the sugar hit provided by the first overseas Bledisloe.

Aside from Ireland. England are the only credible team on the other side of the draw.

Had they lost today and come second in their pool, they would be on our side of the ledger come playoffs.

That being the case the knockout would have involved the 4 previous winners who just happen to also be the 4 most likely winners this tournament.

Didn’t happen!

I was relishing the thought of our boys playing England next week.

Scots let me down!

The old agreement for all TV income was 38% for SA

SARU squeezed its partners in the 3N and Super 15 up to 48% in the latest deal.

This is television rights only!.
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Then they started their fibbly fumble routine and the Scots got back in the game. the 2nd half was a display of wannabe champions. Both teams were poor, the Scots were more than poor for a long while..

Jonny had a bad day at the office. Tough titties. His errors kept the Jocks in it and they should of held out, but for a brain explosion.

Sorry, I don’t know who it was, but one of the backs collected the ball and instead of clearing it downfield he did the up and under miracle .

The resulting play from that brain **** moved England from facing NZ in the first playoff, back to the easy road on the other side of the draw.

I was really up beat about playing England. Now we go back to Argentina. Tough guys, but they have something missing for me…. maybe hatred… nah that is too strong, but something close.