Jake White versus buffets, Champions Cup preview and Ilona Maher meets Bok rugby Twitter

Thala and Shaun go through each team, look at their chances, predict the final table and take a deep dive into some young guns the coaching hot seat and more

We look back at the weekends Champions Cup games which saw all of the South African teams bomb out of the tournament.  Thala’s true colours come through as his Bulls blue personality is exposed. We look at the weekends URC fixtures with the Lions in with a great opportunity to win their Derby while things are not looking great for the Sharks and the Stormers.

Kooks and Shaun open the 2025 podcasting year for the RugbyBits as they unpack the weekends Champions Cup action. We look into playing on two fronts as the URC, Champions Cup/Challenge Cup are front and center. We unpack how to fix it and ask for a better academy/youth system to be used to increase the squad depth and save the budget. We figure out the best plan for 2025 for Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and his terrible injury luck and Kooks applauds the Stormers with SHARKY still not convinced.  We look at what the Sharks, Bulls and Stormers need to qualify for the play off’s and talk some news.

Kooks and Thala look back on the World Rugby awards and whip out the score cards for each men’s international Tier 1 side for their year. We start by fanboying over Ellie Kildunne and discussing the controversial selections of Antoine Dupont and Jerome Daret. We then discuss what PSDT’s 2nd Player of the Year means for his legacy. We then try to grade each Tier 1 nation’s year. We look at everyone from excellent years for the Springboks and Argentina, to confusing years for England and New Zealand and call Wales and Japan to the headmasters office.

Shaun and Thala are joined by rugby journalist and broadcaster (and hot take artist) Caleb Mutombwa to review the weekend’s Autumn Nations Series. We start with the Springboks victory over England by debating who won the kicking game, the Boks taking turns to step Freddie Steward and which Boks players stocks rose and fell after this game. Caleb reports from the Steven Borthwick press conference and discusses whether the pressure on Borthwick is increasing, his selection failures and whether England are on the right track. We then look at many of the other Autumn Nations Series games over the weekend. We are in awe of the cinematic production of the haka at the Stade France in France’s victory over the All Blacks, the Wallabies extending Wales’ losing streak to 11, Italy overcoming a difficult Georgia opponent, what Ireland’s narrow victory over Argentina tells us about both teams and what Scotland can learn from playing sides like Portugal. Finally we react to the World Rugby Awards nominations which include nominations for three Springboks for men’s 15s Player of the Year, Antoine Dupont starring in the Men’s Sevens Player of the Year, a debate about the Men’s Breakthrough Player of the Year and why the Women’s 15s Player of the Year is Ellie Kildunne’s to lose. We also ask what will happen in Bok Twitter if Caelan Doris wins Player of the Year!