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, Shaun and Thala wrap up round 7 of the URC, which saw the Sharks beat the Stormers for the first time, the Bulls win in Connacht and the Lions narrowly losing to Munster. We start at Kings Park and reflect on the crazy finish and how the Stormers almost stole it, how great Kolisi, Esterhuizen and Fassi were and whether Kooks is selling his Dobbo stocks. We move to the Bulls beating Connacht and the big story of the game is Jake White’s comments about Canan Moodie gaining weight. Shaun shares his theory about where those comments come from. We lament a missed chance for the Lions to pick up a big victory over Munster, but rave about Henco van Wyk’s ridiculous solo try. We then preview the Champions Cup and try to predict which teams won’t make the last 16. Find out why Kooks and Thala think the Bulls are well placed, why the Sharks first two weeks are super important and why the Stormers are in danger of being knocked out. In the Challenge Cup we think the Lions and Cheetahs have a good chance of getting to the knockouts. Finally we wrap with other rugby news, including Fiji men and Australia women winning the Dubai Sevens and the seismic transfer of Ilona Maher coming to Bristol Bears and why it’s not part of a World Rugby conspiracy (at least this time).

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!

We are joined by Charlie Morgan as we preview the big England v South Africa test.  We look into the coaching merry-go-round with Steve Borthwick’s assistants, the defensive set up, what Freddie Steward is picked for and a lot more. Kooks, Thala and Shaun then go through the Springbok squad and pick their pressure points ahead of the big clash

Kooks and Shaun take a deep dive into the Springboks’ win over Scotland, we take a look at each player, decide which 9 we want to start against England and Shaun explains how the Scotland minds stopped them from winning We look at a brilliant All Black win and ask again why Razor failed to use his bench. Have Ireland lost all the players that get the team fired up? England were next to be upset as the Wallabies secured their best win under Joe Schmidt. We look at the midfield and focus on Joseph Sua’ali’i We glance over the French and Los Puma’s wins and talk up Antoine Dupont ahead of the All Black clash.

Thala, Shaun and Kooks have a look at magnificent Mark and how the All Blacks beat England.  We start off with our first phase of which Scotland player you would start for the Springboks and we pay tribute to Joe Marler who retired from test rugby but not before helping give the fans what they really want when watching the Haka. With the Autumn Nations Series well underway we look at England and how they got undone by New Zealand, we unpack the bizarre running meters by the Scotland backs and Thala issues a Q&A ahead of Round 2.

Kooks and Thala come again for Part 2 of their Autumn Nations Series preview and they focus more on the players in this round. Kooks and Thala discuss whether Pieter-Steph du Toit has the World Rugby Player of the Year award in the bag, which Springboks and Ireland players could contest and what the size of meltdown would be if Antoine Dupont wins it without playing a test this year. We then discuss which best players in a position in a world title fights are happening in November - we look forward to Sione Tuipulotu measuring himself up against Damian de Allende and the triple threat match between Ardie Savea, Caelan Doris and Gregory Alldritt. We finally look at some of the news from the rugby world, including Munster firing Graham Rowntree, Joe Marler sparking yet another Haka debate and the additions to the Springboks squad.