With NZ20 seeming imminent, what are the locations and stadia you hope that the franchise owners base the 6 teams in?

I think it would be good to get a pretty good geographical spread with one franchise per major association.

Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are a given with just how large the populations are there.

I'd quite like a Queenstown team as opposed to a Dunedin team. Queenstown over December/January is a very popular tourist destination and is a high-growth area. Imagine it in the peak of summer. I think it could also attract a lot of one-off international tourists from Australia and the subcontinent.

The Hawke's Bay area is deceptively large, and the summer vibes at McLean are noteworthy with a nice large venue of seats; I think this also benefits in spreading the franchises across the North Island.

Hamilton and Tauranga both have large enough populations to justify teams, but I think I'd give the final franchise to Tauranga as it has a large summer tourism appeal and Bay Oval is a great ground that would look like a good product on TV for a global audience. Tauranga has a rich cricket culture and would embrace having a team of their own.

So Auckland - Eden Park
Wellington- Basin Reserve/ Hnry Stadium
Christchurch- Hagley Oval
Queenstown- John Davies Oval
Napier- McLean Park
Tauranga- Bay Oval

What are your thoughts? Where would you like the teams to be based?
Obviously it's contingent on where the franchise owners themselves want to be based but I thought it was an interesting discussion to be had.

I've attempted to make a World Cup squad that has depth in all positions. I've got Brodie Retallick coming back here based on Rennie's hopeful comments. It was good to see so many great players miss out as it reveals how much depth we actually do have. How does your world cup squad differ?

Props (6)

Tamaiti Williams

Ethan De Groot

Xavier Numia

Tyrel Lomax

Fletcher Newell

Pasilio Tosi

Hookers (3)

Codie Taylor

Samisoni Taukei'aho

Asafo Aumua

Locks (4)

Brodie Retallick

Fabian Holland

Sam Darry

Patrick Tuipulotu

Loose Forwards (6)

Ardie Savea

Tupou Vaa'i

Peter Lakai

Wallace Sititi

Anton Segner

Shannon Frizell

Halfbacks (3)

Cam Roigard

Kyle Preston

Dylan Pledger

Flyhalves (3)

Ruben Love

Damian McKenzie

Richie Mo'unga

Midfield (4)

Jordie Barrett

Quinn Tupaea

Anton Lienert-Brown

Leicester Fainga'anuku

Outside Backs (4)

Will Jordan

Fehi Fineanganofo

Leroy Carter

Josh Moorby

It's a common talking point that we are fast approaching a mass retirement of many important players for us. Most seem like they'll push at least for the 2027 CWC but with Williamson's sudden retirement, you can't take that for granted.

Looking at the mainstays in the Blackcaps side

Henry Nicholls will be 36 at the conclusion of the CWC
Mitchell Santner will be 35
Daryl Mitchell will be 36
Matt Henry will be 35
Devon Conway will be 36
Tom Latham will be 35
Michael Bracewell will be 36
Will Young will be turning 35 the day after the CWC final
Tom Blundell will be 37
Lockie Ferguson will be 36
Ajaz Patel will be 39

Players like Seifert and Jamieson could easily retire/step away entirely from international cricketer

Who will push for the 2028 T20WC a full year after and will any go beyond this?

Interested to hear your thoughts.

With Damian McKenzie getting older, the Chiefs have a problem with no real backup flyhalf now with Jacomb being pinched by the Highlanders.

Damian McKenzie, 31, has now signed through to 2029 with the Chiefs and All Blacks but there is a 2028 sabbatical clause in his contract which could (and probably will) see him miss the 2028 super rugby season. I should note that it's entirely possible, however that he extends further to aim to play at the 2031 Rugby World Cup, but there is every chance that at the end of the 2029 calendar year he will head offshore or just retire from rugby.

The Chiefs have built their attack on McKenzie for years; at this level, he is a phenomenal player and arguably right up there for Super Rugby's best. With Jacomb's departure, as things stand the only flyhalf the Chiefs will have at their disposal in 2028 is Tepaea Cook-Savage, who's a good player, don't get me wrong but I don't think it's unfair to suggest that he is a step down from the main frontline 10s that will likely be sprinkled across the Kiwi teams in 2028.

Millar with the Blues
Love with the Hurricanes
Kemara/Reihana for the Crusaders
Jacomb for the Highlanders

These players are all out of reach for the Chiefs at the moment

So what to do?

Aj Alatimu who was in the wider training group this year will be 35 in 2028 and could be used as an experienced veteran. It's quite feasible a player from overseas will be called in for a year and ued in the way JOC was used for the Crusaders in 2025.

Lucas Cashmore who plays for Bay of Plenty would make sense to recruit back from the Hurricanes. He's likely off-contract this year and was a last minute retention for the Hurricanes with some of their young flyhalves going down. He's just 23 and while he'shad injury concens has shown flashes of potential being lethal for the Steamers in particular. He's a young player that McKenzie can groom along with Cook-Savage to replace him when he's gone.

Unfortunately, the southerners had the sense to get Mika Muliana a Highlanders contract, but the Chiefs scouts should be sniffing for any flyhalf. There aren't many young great flyhalves running around in New Zealand, and the Chiefs scouts must nab some of the best ones they can.. No one is going to be as good as McKenzie has been for the Chiefs; they're just not, but they need to be solid enough that we can still have title hopes going forward. Playing performances aside, we will also need to find a player that we can market around, though not necessarily a flyhalf. McKenzie has always been the whiz kid, the person they think of when they think of the Chiefs.

I think we ought to get Moorby and Segner capped, try out other alternate combinations and keep having lots of impact of the bench. Taukei'aho needs to start so that for Ireladn all 3 of our hookers willl have played around 100-120 minutes each so we can make an informed decision for the Irish.

1 De Groot

2 Taukei'aho

3 Lomax

4 Vaa'i

5 Darry

6 Segner

7 Savea

8 Sititi

9 Roigard

10 Love

11 Fineanganofo

12 Barrett

13 Proctor

14 Jordan

15 McKenzie

16 Aumua

17 Numia

18 Tosi

19 Tuipulotu

20 Lakai

21 Preston

22 Tupaea

23 Moorby

Ruben Love has had an amazing Super Rugby season and there is every reason to be really excited by him. He's fast, athletic a great distributor has improved a lot of the tee and he's definitely the future.

However, people have been quick to dismiss what was otherwise yet another very impressive campaign with the Chiefs. McKenzie racked up 132 points in just 11 games for the Chiefs and commanded the team with a great all-round game in pretty much all games barring the final.

Yes he had a shocker of a final but remember Love's semifinal wasn't all that flash either. Mckenzie was playing in atrocious conditions with a stuttering forward pack that had negative momentum. Still there was no denying it was a poor game by him.

All that being said, McKenzie has actually had quite an impressive time in the All Blacks jersey. I don't think we would have beaten Scotland last year without his masterclass off the bench nor would we have won so convincingly against Ireland in 2024. He's a smarter, more mature, maybe more complete footballer than he was as a young 26-year-old spark; he's experienced now but only 31 with plenty of gas left in the tank, unlike Beauden Barrett, who is clearly a fading commodity.

For me, McKenzie is a nice middle ground between the youthful energy of Ruben Love who is still untested at the international level and Beauden Barrett who is the veteran flyhalf Ruben Love is 25 and has played 179 minutes at the All Blacks level. Barrett is 35 and has played a whopping 144 games, a true great of the game but slowing down and very kick heavy which is the antithesis of the quick tempo game Rennie and I suspect most of us are yearning for.

McKenzie is 31 and is probably in his prime with an all-round gae, he's played 74 matches for the All Blacks so is experienced in his own right and has improved is game management skills. From what we know about this coaching group and how they want the All Blacks to play, McKenzie seems like a player who will thrive with his X-factor and attacking rugby skills alongside his good workrate on defence.

Now we do need to give Love some more time in the jersey, Barrett is pretty much a guarantee to leave after the World Cup and Mo'unga too who's still in the picture looks likely to retire at the world cup. McKenzie, however is signed through to 2029 so we have two post world cup years where Love can be the apprentice to McKenzie now as the 23 so by 2030 he can have 30+ caps and be ready to take the throne going forward.

In the age of stacking batters down as far down the order as possible, I thought I'd set myself the task of finding out what the best test XI is by batting average.
For batting positions, I've limited it to players who've covered more than 1000 test runs for New Zealand and that position. As the opening positions are interchangeable, I've also allowed openers to be runs scored at either 1 or 2

For batting positions 8-11, I've reduced the requirement to a more realistic 500 runs scored in a given position and to having taken at least 50 wickets each.

1 Glenn Turner 2828 runs as opener at 45.61
2 Bert Sutcliffe 1763 runs as opener at 45.20
3 Kane Williamson 8848 runs at No 3 at 57.45
4 Martin Crowe 4481 runs at No 4 at 49.39
5 Brendon McCullum 1887 runs at No 5 at 43.88
6 Jeremy Coney 1772 runs at No 6 at 45.43
7 Chris Cairns 1761 runs at No 7 at 44.02
8 Daniel Vettori 2227 runs at No 8 at 39.76
9 Ian Smith 797 runs at No 9 at 28.46**
10 Neil Wagner 594 runs at No 10 at 18.56
11 Trent Boult 644 runs at No 11 at 16.10 ***

A few points of note
included Mark Richardson, 2770 runs at 44.67 being very close to having taken an opening spot for either Sutcliffe or Turner
Rachin Ravindra, just 0.05 runs per innings away from taking the number 4 spot with 1283 runs at 49.34
Daryl Mitchell was even closer, just 0.03 runs per innings away from taking the number 5 spot from McCullum with 1535 runs at 43.85

Daniel Vettori's nearly 40 average batting at number 8 stands out on what a fabulous cricketer he was when you also consider that he is our greatest ever test spinner too.

**If we exclude Ian Smith, as he was a wicket-keeper batting well down the order than the next best option for 9 is Tim Southee with 1245 runs at 14.82. I've deigned to include Smith here though because you do have Boult, Wagner, Cairns, Vettori as genuine bowling options and players like Coney or Williamson are also options.

*** Boult is the only one to have taken 200 runs at No 11 let alone the 500 minimum set.

Just a little bit of a silly exercise but interesting nonetheless.