Shaun and Thala are joined by Distracted Sports’ Tony O’Sullivan to debate selections and to get a Kiwi take on Saturday’s Rugby World Cup Final between South Africa and New Zealand. Tony shares the stress he has thinking about Ox Nche, why Dane Coles and Willie le Roux have similar roles in the team, the luxury of rotating between Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick and why Fletcher Newell might be the star of the final. Listen also for Tony’s unexpected review of the RugbyBits intro music too!

Shaun and Thala are joined by Jamie Wall of Radio New Zealand to preview the All Blacks for the Rugby World Cup final.  Jamie discusses why some of the changes in selection for the All Blacks in 2022 happened more through chance than by design. The influence of Joe Schmidt and Jason (not James, Thala) Ryan as coaches. Why Rieko Ioane gets a bad wrap for his defence at 13. The influence of rugby league in how the All Blacks attack and what the All Blacks will try to do against the...

Thala leads the team along with Kooks and Shaun as they unpack just how the Springboks wangled their way into the RWC2023 Final.   We look at how brilliant England were but were just not able to hold on. Clutch Handre and other great substitutes that lifted the Springbok game.   A look at the All Blacks and their big in over Argentina plus we already are looking ahead to the Final and pick some key players and head to heads to watch

Shaun and and Kooks welcome back Charlie Morgan to the RugbyBits Podcast as we take a look through the Match Day 23’s announced. We deep dive the plan needed for sides to win and a look at key players and what to expect from England

We take a look at the scintillating rugby on display this weekend as RWC2023 puts on a show in the best Quarter Final display in the tournaments history. We go over each game and touch on the Fiji comeback, Argentina cook as Nico Sanchez seals the game. the All Blacks fending off Ireland after what felt like a lifetime and the Springboks beating France as Cheslin Kobe, Eben etzebeth, Bongi Mbonambi, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel shine

Jared, Shaun and Thala preview the weekend’s Rugby World Cup quarterfinals now that all the teams have been announced. We start with Wales v Argentina by asking who is the bigger loss between Taulupe Faletau and Pablo Matera. Jared ponders how Argentina’s high possession game plan will go against Wales being happy to defend. We pick out players to watch including Jac Morgan, Juan Martin Gonzalez and Tommy Reffell. We then look at Ireland v New Zealand and discuss how much can be taken from...

Shaun and Thala are joined by the Roar Rugby Podcast’s Harry Jones to look at the Springboks before their Rugby World Cup quarterfinal clash with France in our RugbyBits n Pieces episode. We first discuss some of the selection dilemmas that the Springbok coaches might still be pondering - does Libbok or Pollard start, what is the composition of the bench, Vermeulen or Wiese, is there a role for Lukhanyo Am in this group and might Cobus Reinach start. We then go into depth where the Boks...

Kooks, Shaun and Thala were joined by Actu Rugby journalist - and two timed failed guest of our podcast :( - Thomas Corbet to preview the Springbok opponents in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal, France. Thomas revealed why there is less concern in France about Antoine Dupont’s injury and whether he will start in the quarterfinal. We discussed what could be learned from the 2022 France v South Africa match, what weaknesses each team can expose in their player opponents, why Damian Penaud is...

Kooks, Shaun and Thala wrap up an exciting final round of group stage games of the Rugby World Cup. There was no other place to start but Portugal’s victory over Fiji. We talk about the impressive Nicolas Martins, how Mike Tadjer’s kick stole the show and whether Fiji can bounce back from this loss for their quarterfinals. We then review the other Week 5 match ups. We welcome Pool D to the World Cup party after Argentina defeat Japan in an entertaining game and Samoa run England close....

Shaun and Jared take the first half of the RugbyBits Pod as they review the Springbok win over Tonga. Jared discusses Deon Fourie and the rest of the team while Shaun gives an unpopular opinion on Luke Pearce. We talk injuries and what’s to come in the Quarter Final’s. Thala joins Shaun in the second half as we look at all of the results from the last week of RWC2023. We discuss the All Blacks and how they destroyed Italy as well as Fiji Georgia. A look into the final week with some...

Jared and Shaun take a dive into how the Springboks will get their 5 points on Sunday as they take on Tonga. The Springboks will be looking to avoid the 2007 scare and seemingly have named a team to do so. We look at key points for each player and talk about Siya Kolisi in his 50th test captaining the Boks. We look at the bench and take a deep dive into Canan Moodie, Grant Esterhuizen and Handre Pollard.

Kooks and Thala review the 3rd week of the Rugby World Cup, focusing on a breathless encounter between Ireland and South Africa. We dissect the Irish victory over the Springboks. We discuss how Ireland won the breakdown battle and the brutal defence shown by both sides. We then get to the Manie Libbok and Handré Pollard debate and we discuss what each could bring to the Boks, how to accommodate both and what consequences that would have on the Springbok bench. We turn our attention to...

Shaun and Thala record a special RugbyBits n Pieces preview for week 3 of the Rugby World Cup which has a lot of tasty clashes in store.  We start with looking back at Italy’s comeback win against Uruguay with Tomasso Allan and Lorenzo Cannone impressing the most. We also gush about Manuel Ardao and the 4 turnovers he made for Uruguay. We look at the other games to come up this weekend. We are worried that France may get a bonus point in record time in their game against Namibia. We are...

Shaun and Thala record a preview of the the biggest Rugby World Cup pool game (ever?) between the world champions and the world number 1s. The boys admit that they do not know anything about rugby, since Nienaber and Erasmus have flipped the script on everyone with the 7:1 bench. We talk about how the bench will be used, the 3 fetchers on the bench and the importance of slowing down Irish ruck ball and how rugby may change if the 7:1 split works for the Boks. We then look at an Irish team...

Kooks and Shaun take a deep dive into the Springbok win over Romania, how Deon Fourie and Marco van Staden handled the hooker duties and just how to deal with losing Malcolm Marx and not having an out and out hooker come in. Shaun looks into how best to unleash Andre Esterhuizen and gets talked down twice by Kooks after going on a rant about the performance this weekend. We go through the other results and look ahead to Ireland

Thala, Jared and Kooks are joined by Sam Roberts (Gallagher Premiership commentator, contributor to RugbyPass and Mr Rugby Journeys on Twitter) to preview the upcoming Rugby World Cup. We go pool by pool and predict which teams come out of each pool. Is this the biggest opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup ever? Can the loser of France v New Zealand still go far? Can Scotland sneak past either the world number 1 or the defending RWC champions? Will Thala’s Georgia and Fiji Pool C...

In this RugbyBits and Pieces Rugby World Cup prediction episode, Kooks and Thala get their hot takes out as they discuss who should be on Fraud Watch and which games should come with an Upset Alert. Thala discusses why he is watching Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland closely, Kooks has a plot twist for his fraud watch pick and Thala continues his beef with Will Skelton. Join as we also determine if England, Wales or Australia losing is an upset or not.

Kooks and Thala come together to record a RugbyBits and Pieces pod where they make predictions on the upcoming Rugby World Cup. Today they make predictions on the Player of the Tournament, the Top Try Scorer and Top Points Scorer. Do you take Antoine Dupont or the field for Player of the Tournament? Is it set up for Siya Kolisi to have his crowning moment? What could Player of the Tournament do for Jonny Sexton’s legacy? We discuss whether Will Jordan or Damian Penaud is a better bet for...

Springboks and Fiji have a historic weekend at Twickenham, De Allende v Esterhuizen and are Samoa World Cup quarterfinals contenders? Shaun and Thala reflect on the final weekend of Rugby World Cup warm up matches. We start with the Springboks’ record breaking victory over the All Blacks in Twickenham. We look at what the differences were between this victory and the loss in the Rugby Championship, we split some hairs on what the Boks did not do well in the game and discuss whether the All...

Jared and Shaun wrap up the weekends action as they review the epic win by the Springboks and why, regardless of the opposition, it was so important. We look ahead to the All Black clash on Friday discussing the selections and specifically Canan Moodie at 13. Keith Earls gets props from the team and Shaun still feels he would have been a great 13. We dive into the further demise of England after their loss to Ireland and the Billy Vunipola red card.

Thala and Shaun take the reigns while Kooks is globe trotting trying to find Jared for a pint in the UK. We take down the polarizing task of picking the best players in the world right now with some hilarious moments. Both Thala and Shaun struggle through some of the forwards and are in fine form when it is time for the backs with four wild cards being selected to round off the 50.

The full squad is here to react to one of the most shocking Springbok Rugby World Cup squad announcements in a while. We react to the panic we all experienced seeing Lukhanyo Am, Handré Pollard and Lood de Jager omitted from the squad. We talk about whether Manie Libbok and Jesse Kriel can step up in their place. Shaun discusses the risks of playing Deon Fourie as our 3rd choice hooker. Jared looks at whether Canan Moodie can deputize at 13. We then break down some of the crazy things...

We take a deep dive into the test rugby from the weekend along with a look at the Springboks and their win in Argentina. How Bongi Mbonambi did as captain, Manie Libbok and his desire and drive to always get better and fix his wrongs, Lukhanyo Am injury and Jesse Kriel continues to perform despite many being blind to it.

Thala, Kooks and Shaun tackle episode three in our new RugbyBits & Pieces segment where we look at each and every RWC2023 team and highlight why they will or will not win the tournament. There are plenty of serious and funny reasons why as we look at strength and weaknesses along with pool opponents. Enjoy

Kooks, Shaun and Thala come together to review round 3 of the Rugby Championships. We start with deep analysis on the new addition to the Springboks - the song Sister Bokkina and we talk about other rugby songs in First Phase. We then move to an underwhelming Springbok victory over Argentina 22-21. We discuss if there’s reason to panic, which Springboks stocks have risen and fallen, including how important Handré Pollard has become and whether he can integrate into the new attacking...