RugbyBits – Details, episodes & analysis

Kooks and Thala review the weekends rugby, including Round 3 of the Six Nations and the Lions beating the Sharks in the URC.

We start in Twickenham where Ireland shock England 21-42. While Jamison Gibson-Park, Stu McCloskey and Rob Baloucoune impressed, we discuss the selection and game plan issues England suddenly have, McCloskey chasing down Marcus Smith and how did Fin Baxter do in the royal box with Kate Middleton.

We look at Finn Russell and Scotland stealing a win in Cardiff against a much improved Wales, France in 3rd gear crushing to a bonus point win over Italy where Thomas Ramos did the brilliant and the daft and Emmanuel Meafou was impressive.

We also react to the first Springbok alignment camp squad for the year with surprise inclusions including Frans Malherbe and some talented Baby Bok players, and finally where the Lions victory and Morne van den Berg’s performance leave both them and the Sharks in the hunt for URC playoff places.

Kooks and Thala chat through a busy time in world rugby right now.

We start with the South African derbies in the URC, with the Sharks and Bulls bagging vital wins. We discuss how the Stormers have fallen off the top of the log, what has changed for the Sharks, are the Bulls back or were the Lions horrible and Willie le Roux clap backs on Twitter.

We then preview the upcoming Six Nations by discussion our one question or take for every team (except Scotland), look at the upcoming France v Ireland clash on THURSDAY and make our predictions for who will win it all.

Finally, we react to the Rugby World Cup fixture release, which sees Australia open the World Cup against Hong Kong China, South Africa face Italy and no midweek matches.

We also rant about Super Rugby Pacific’s new law variations and react to the unfortunate retirement for Uini Atonio.

Shaun and Thala review the first weekend of November test matches, which include a big Springbok win over Japan in Wembley.

We rave about the performances of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Cheslin Kolbe. We debate how the Boks replace Ox Nche who is out for the rest of the November tour and how Thomas du Toit could be an important player for the Springboks next clash against France.

We then move to New Zealand’s defeat of Ireland in the United States. We discuss impressive performances from Fabian Holland, Quinn Tupaea and Leicester Fainga’anuku, whether Razor Robertson has stumbled upon his best backline and how do the All Blacks replace Scott and Jordie Barrett. We debate if the end of Ireland’s run near the top of international rugby is near, is the squad aging out or is the team just rusty.

Then we move to Twickenham for England beating Australia. We debate Tommy Freeman’s move to centre and why England are looking scary two years from a World Cup.

We finally finish on Scotland thrashing the USA, Antoine Dupont extending his contract with Toulouse with 2031 and Shaun and Thala debate whether the experiment of bringing rugby to the USA will ever work and Shaun comes up with a crazy plan to save rugby there!

Kooks and Thala try to divide the 16 URC teams into four tiers to determine who are the contenders from the pretenders.

We debate whether the Stormers are championship contenders after their unbeaten start and nilling the Scarlets. Does Johan Ackerman have cause for concern about the Bulls defence? How to even analyze the unpredictable Sharks and how much cause for concern should Lions fans have. We also discuss other teams tough to rank - like Glasgow, Ulster, Benetton and which of the Welsh sides will make a challenge.

We then look at other news around the rugby world, including Bath looking unbeatable, Carter Gordon returning to the Wallabies, the All Blacks upcoming Grand Slam tour and the major rugby unions refusing to support R360.

Shaun and Thala chat about the final round of the Rugby Championship, which the Springboks won after their victory over Argentina in Twickenham.

We conduct a team by team review by giving each team a rating out of 10, discussing who their MVP and breakthrough players were and what they still have to work on. Listen as we discuss why Jasper Wiese might be the Bok MVP, the impacts made by Ethan Hooker, Leroy Carter and Max Jorgensen, why Len Ikitau might be the best back in the Rugby Championship and the stats Santi Carreras and Marcos Kremer topped.

We then review Round 2 of the United Rugby Championship, which saw the Stormers keep their impressive form with Wandi Simelane and Vernon Matongo impressing, the Bulls overcoming Leinster and the impact of Willie le Roux, the Sharks being lucky to escape with a draw against the Dragons and the Lions staring into the abyss after their loss to Zebre.

We also look at Bath’s impressive victory in the rain against Sale, Bordeaux and Lyon entertaining us in the Top 14, we reflect on the unfortunate diagnosis on Lewis Moody and our First Phase we discuss players we will never sell our stocks on, which includes a discussion on Ruan Pienaar and Howard Mnisi

Shaun and Thala review the weekend's rugby and look forward to the last round of the Rugby Championship.

We start by discussing the record-breaking performance of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu against Argentina that earned comparisons to Dan Carter. We discuss how the Springboks have become a more balanced side, the chaotic test in Durban and what to look forward to in the clash in Twickenham this weekend.

The All Blacks retain the Bledisloe Cup for another year and we discuss the impact Cam Roigard made to the side and why this weekend's game is a must win for the Wallabies.

We celebrate England capping off a historic dominant run with winning the World Cup at a packed Twickenham and how that will inspire improvement in the women's game and Sophie de Goede winning World Rugby Player of the Year.

We then wrap up by discussing the first round of the United Rugby Championship, which included the Stormers nilling Leinster, James Slipper retiring from international rugby this weekend, Chile qualifying for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, a chaotic draw between Northampton and Exeter in England and Steve Diamond being sacked by Newcastle Red Bulls with Gregor Townsend coming in as a part-time consultant.

Kooks and Thala preview a gigantic weekend of rugby, including the 2025 Rugby World Cup final, Round 5 of the Rugby Championship, Bledisloe Cup and the start of the United Rugby Championship.

We start with the World Cup final by discussing the impressive performance by Canada in knocking out the defending champions, New Zealand and England sweating it out against France. We debate whether England can slow down Canada, can Canada match up front against England and key players such as World Rugby Player of the Year nominees Sophie de Goede and Meg Jones.

We then look at a largely unchanged Springbok side ready to host Argentina in Durban. We ponder if this is currently the best 23 that Rassie has and the Bok's continual shift in approach. We consider why Argentina is dangerous, having picked a 6-2 bench and what South Africa should do against a team that does not mind winning away from home.

We then look at the Bledisloe Cup match in Eden Park. Kooks finds out the starting time for Saturday's game and we discuss whether the Wallabies can break the streak, in spite of the many injuries.

We then congratulate the Griquas for winning the Currie Cup final as the Lions yet again lose it at the death. This leads us to preview URC Weekend 1 with the Stormers hosting a strong Leinster team being the highlight.

There is much more in this week's podcast - including multiple rants about World Rugby, the announced system for WXV, the beginning of the PREM competition, and Samoa and Chile's World Cup qualification match up.

Shaun and Thala review the weekend’s rugby, which saw South Africa men inflict a record defeat on New Zealand and the South African women be competitive against the world champion Black Ferns in their World Cup quarterfinal.

We start in Wellington where the Springboks ran riot in the last 20 minutes to run in 6 tries against the All Blacks. Jasper Wiese impressed in his comeback from suspension and Damian Willemse roared back to form with a Player of the Match game. We discussed what was different between this game and previous Bok games, why this means for selections and where the All Blacks go from here.

At the Rugby Word Cup quarterfinals, the Springbok Women impressed after staying level with the Black Ferns at halftime, but the Black Ferns ran away with the game in the 2nd half. We discussed the innovative game plan that the Boks played, the mauls from scrums and 15 player lineouts and the significance of this performance for the future of rugby in South Africa.

In other quarterfinals, we saw a game of the year as France steal the game against Ireland. It was a game that had everything - from worldie tries, big performances from Aofie Wafer and Charlotte Escuerdo and biting allegations. We look forward to the semi finals that see New Zealand play Canada and England face France.

Finally, we look at Australia falling short against Argentina, the Lions and Griquas winning the Currie Cup and we reflect on the death of former Springbok Bevan Fortuin.

Shaun and Thala run through the teams and preview a massive weekend in South African rugby with the Springbok men facing the All Blacks and the Springbok Women facing the Black Ferns in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal.

We run through the team and discuss the new lock pairing, how to fix the lineout issues, what we excited about and what we are scared about with the new backline, how Damien Willemse is now the older experienced leader of the backline and the All Blacks dropping Rieko Ioane for speedy Leroy Carter.

We then preview the World Cup quarterfinal and debate how the Boks can pull an upset on the Black Ferns, react to Swys de Bruin picking a 7/1 bench and discuss the importance of Zintle Mpupha and Byrhandré Dolf to the team. We pick out some Black Ferns danger players including Stacey Waaka and Jorja Miller.

We finish off by previewing the Wallabies and Pumas 2nd test, the Currie Cup semifinals and the update on Asenathi Ntlabakanye’s doping charge.

ooks and Thala review Round 2 of the Rugby Championship and the last round of group games from the women's Rugby World Cup.We start in Eden Park where the All Blacks extended the streak after an impressive performance on Ardie Savea's 100th test. Kooks and Thala debate on what is currently ailing the Boks, including lineout and defensive issues, the surprising team picked for the upcoming test in Wellington and where does this leave the Boks in the middle of the World Cup cycle. We also discuss Australia's last-gasp victory against Argentina.We then look at the Springbok women's loss against France in the last group stage game of the Rugby World Cup. We discuss wheter Swys de Bruin was right in resting some of his first choice players, how impressive France looked and what do the Boks need to do to beat New Zealand in the quarterfinals. We debate whether Nadine Roos should play fullback or scrumhalf and who the danger women for the Black Ferns are. We also quickly preview the other quarterfinal matches and whether upsets are likely.Finally, we look forward to the Currie Cup semi-finals, Kooks finds out about the Super Rugby competition in Australia, Thomas Ramos doing Thomas Ramos things in the Top 14 and Fiji's surprise victory over Wales in the World Cup (again).