I think there is a dynamic which is fairly evident when you consider on the one hand the unsuccessful lions' tours:

NZ 1993
Oz 2001
NZ 2005

and on the other hand the successful tours

Oz 1989
SA 1997

In the unsuccessful cases, there was a split squad with the dirt trackers or second team having a miserable time and infecting the whole atmosphere of the party with their misery. Interestingly, this was noted in the preparation work of the coaching staff on the 2001 and 2005 tours, but they were still unable to achieve the desired balance.

I was therefore delighted to hear Slugga put his hand up on Radio Nuffamtun after our recent heroic triumph over the forces of darkness and actually say out loud that they were going to be paying more attention to coaching the squad members who were not regularly being included in the weekly 22, as well as younger players.

I believe that we have had a split squad in this season, last season and in the season before that. There is no way that i can prove this and I wouldn't wish to do so in public even if I could. I also think we have had "honesty sessions" in each of those seasons, with a view to clearing the air and indeed had the second one of the current season a couple of weeks before the recent bout of neighbourly fisticuffs down the road.

I am particularly pleased that Slugga said what he did, because the things he was talking about were directly addressing the points aired at that last session - i.e. the coaches said they would listen and it really looks as though they have done so without trying to sweep it under the carpet. A massive boost all round

The meeja have seen English/Saffy splits, English/Kiwi splits and goodness knows what else, but from the dribbles of information I’ve heard, it sounds more like a repeating split between the ins and the outs at that time, the haves and have nots, and I think that this is almost inevitable in a professional rugby squad these days unless management anticipates it and - far more importantly- takes steps to avoid it. In part the have-nots are just plain miserable; they all started playing because they loved it, there they are as pro rugby players and they're not even getting a game - it's not really living the dream after all; not only that, but the coach won't even make eye contact on the way in to work, they don't train properly because the coaches are too busy with the 1st XV, they aren't getting anywhere, they aren't getting younger, it's scary out there and they can't even put themselves in the shop window if they're not playing and their hoped-for careers are dribbling away .

Misery loves company and hey presto, it's yet another season with a split squad.

It has to stop; the club just can't go on lurching along like this season after season. As I was trying to point out in my recent spoof poll, having the same thing happen three years in a row is called a pattern, not a coincidence; to say management had nothing to do with it is tantamount to saying management is irrelevant.

No doubt all of us have different opinions as to the precise cause, be it some over-influential players, some of the have-nots who have a particular influence, too many foreign players, the odd coach who is too autocratic, an owner who allows some players too close, a bad culture which has gradually spread through the club since the days when the top guns became less and less approachable at their table in Auntie Ruth's and cliques became the norm, bad recruitment, or the price of beer in the club watering-holes

I’ve said for my part I wouldn't take the management of the club seriously again until I could see them actually doing something which was worth taking seriously , so I’m delighted to see signs that we may actually be willing to admit to some uncomfortable realities and even better, to start addressing them in a proactive way .

There’s going to have to be more along the same lines; there are players who have been brought in with promises, then found "the love" was already allocated (Cortese, if you recall, in his Argentinean interview last year said he'd been brought in to shadow Wally, learn from him and take over after RWC 2007 - well he found out about Messrs Richmond and Hartley a bit too late, didn't he), there is lost trust to be earned again, and the problem is going to become more acute, not less, as and when we succeed in raising the standard of the squad. In short the coaches are going to be forced to work out ways to rotate the squad within reason or the same splits will recur and it'll be deja vu all over again.

In the meantime, there may be (are) a number of other things to address, but well done the coaches for acknowledging a particularly virulent problem, facing it and making practical moves to turn it around (not intended to be patronising- in the position we were in before Satdee, the sands were shifting under their feet and it's not easy to change for the better in that situation).

There are still plenty of other things to do though. I suspect James Sinclair will need KB to get the long-handled chequebook out yet.