Paul Cully is a rugby columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.
In a troubling sign, the current top six teams have dominated the competition and the finals for the past four years.
Ireland, Italy and France will play in Australia in July. Australia should prepare for stern challenges.
The Waratahs showed vast improvement on their terrible effort against the Hurricanes – and it still wasn’t enough against the Reds.
The 15-man game has plenty of talent coming through in the outside backs - not that you’d know that this week.
The guidelines that keep the television match official out of the game hurt the Brumbies on Saturday night.
Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has done it all in Australian rugby - except for coaching the national team.
Rugby league chiefs are keen to put their game in front of a world audience. Rugby already has substantial global reach, and it is going to get way bigger this year.
The Wallabies’ faith in Charlie Cale has been vindicated with the Brumbies’ rising star the form No.8 in Super Rugby Pacific.
A remarkable 50-24 victory over the Crusaders in Christchurch on Sunday saw the Brumbies jump to second place behind NSW. It’s still early days, but hugely encouraging.
Flyhalf Lawson Creighton is not an issue for the Waratahs, but if you think about them as a potential title-challenging side, there may be a gap.