Magners League - remaining 6 rounds

damianmcr

Ulster CEO has said they want 2 HC's over the next 10yrs:D

Podge_irl

The French would never join a European league so it's a non-starter. Heineken have a veto over any competition involving three or more unions as well apparently.

durkadurka

There at four unions in the magners

Podge_irl

durkadurka wrote: »

There at four unions in the magners

Have a veto, doesn't mean they have to use it. They'd definitely put a stop to any European competition though.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Podge_irl wrote: »

The French would never join a European league so it's a non-starter. Heineken have a veto over any competition involving three or more unions as well apparently.

Heineken veto would run out when their sponsorship of the ERC runs out which I think is when the current ERC participation ran out in 2013 or 2014

Personally I believe that this talk about a a European league is posturing ahead of various that are coming up in the next few years.

There is a Celtic League participation agreement, an ERC participation agreement and something between the RFU and premier rugby all due for renegotiation in the next five years.

ambid

jolley123 wrote: »

The cause of this debate is the mis-interpretation of Profitius' comment.

He stated that the ML is more important than the HC.

Obviously this comment was taken out of context by a few posters.
Is the ML a more prestigious competition? NO
Would teams rather the HC cup over the ML cup? YES
Is it tougher to win the Heineken Cup? YES
Which one is taken more seriously? Heineken

But what I gathered Profitius meant was that the ML is more important to the Irish sides due to the fact that it allows the provinces to develop talent. Is he saying that the team that wins the ML is better than the team that wins the Heineken?NO. He's saying that the irish provinces rely more on the Magners than they do the Heineken. It's the foundation.

So in short, it's more important to win the Heineken, but it's more important to have the Magners. IMO this debate reflects poorly on this thread. It looks like those arguing that winning the ML is more important are trying to justify Munsters failure on a European level. And then it looks like those arguing against that are just Leinster fans trying to put down Munster's good work. Everyone knows Munster would much rather be chasing the HC rather than the Amlin/Magners. It would be best if the topic was put to bed.

I don't understand your post jolley. I thought this was a valid and reasonable debate about the quality and merit of the ML relative to the HEC. The debate was conducted respectfully; points were made, challenged, and clarified; and I didn't see any boring Munster vs. Leinster crap.

I don't understand why you think a reasonable debate on the quality of the ML this refects poorly on a ML thread, or why you think that debate should be put to bed. If you're not interested in the debate you can always open another thread, but I don't understand your post as I thought the debate was reasoned, respectful, and relevant to the thread.

jolley123

ambid wrote: »

I don't understand your post jolley. I thought this was a valid and reasonable debate about the quality and merit of the ML relative to the HEC. The debate was conducted respectfully; points were made, challenged, and clarified; and I didn't see any boring Munster vs. Leinster crap.

I don't understand why you think a reasonable debate on the quality of the ML this refects poorly on a ML thread, or why you think that debate should be put to bed. If you're not interested in the debate you can always open another thread, but I don't understand your post as I thought the debate was reasoned, respectful, and relevant to the thread.

Well the first 3/4 of my post was simply me trying to clarify what the original point of the debate was. You're right, a discussion had formed with valid points. But the discussions stemmed from a mis-interpretation of the original post. People were arguing against a post that hadn't been made, and then people further mis-interpreted those arguments and TBH it just read like a bunch of posts repeating the same thing just differently worded. Everyone had the same opinion(Heineken bigger and more important to win, Magners more important to have.)

It is an interesting topic, but I felt it would be best served having its own thread. This isn't a Magners League thread, it's a thread devoted to the discussion of the matches that are leading up to the knockouts. But I'm not a MOD so I'm not going to say what should be discussed where, hence I said In my opinion.

In regards to the MvL crap, well here's an example of where I felt the topic was going and where a lot of the posts had already gone in more subtle fashion.

Kaka10 wrote: »

Is this a joke? The Magners more important than the Heineken Cup? I am LOLing, I wonder why there has been such a change in attitude amongst the Munster fans. The Heineken Cup is much harder to win, invovles better teams and results in more money and prestige, it is the much more valuable trophy.

ambid

jolley123 wrote: »

Well the first 3/4 of my post was simply me trying to clarify what the original point of the debate was. You're right, a discussion had formed with valid points. But the discussions stemmed from a mis-interpretation of the original post. People were arguing against a post that hadn't been made, and then people further mis-interpreted those arguments and TBH it just read like a bunch of posts repeating the same thing just differently worded. Everyone had the same opinion(Heineken bigger and more important to win, Magners more important to have.)

It is an interesting topic, but I felt it would be best served having its own thread. This isn't a Magners League thread, it's a thread devoted to the discussion of the matches that are leading up to the knockouts. But I'm not a MOD so I'm not going to say what should be discussed where, hence I said In my opinion.

In regards to the MvL crap, well here's an example of where I felt the topic was going and where a lot of the posts had already gone in more subtle fashion.

Fair enough. Having re-read the last few pages I see where you're coming from. Thanks.

durkadurka

Dragons v Cardiff today at 4.05 pm. Pretty crucial in the scheme of things.

Go dragons!

molloyjh

durkadurka wrote: »

Dragons v Cardiff today at 4.05 pm. Pretty crucial in the scheme of things.

Go dragons!

In Rodney Parade you'd have to back the Dragons really. Hope they do it. Talk about a really crappy time to have it though.

durkadurka

Bank holiday in the uk due to the wedding etc afaik

copacetic

durkadurka wrote: »

Bank holiday in the uk due to the wedding etc afaik

Is it on Tv? not coming up on S4c or setanta

durkadurka

7-3 now, pen parks, try steffan jones,

durkadurka

copacetic wrote: »

Is it on Tv? not coming up on S4c or setanta

BBC wales apparently

available here

12-3 now to Dragons

durkadurka

ooooh 12-3 now, go dragons, try Brew

jolley123

12-3
The ref, apparently, from what I've heard anyway, only has one arm!

durkadurka

jolley123 wrote: »

12-3
The ref, apparently, from what I've heard anyway, only has one arm!

How is he supposed to be even handed then?

thomond2006

Dragons 12-3 Cardiff, 15 minutes gone.

durkadurka

15-3

Christ what a swing. Blues 2m from the line with pressure on, turnover, ball ran a bit and an unreal kick to bring the ball back into the Blue half.

thomond2006

15-3 now

durkadurka

15-3,

2 missed kicks from parks

LeeroyJones

Try Blues by Warburton.... Dragons down to 14, missed who got binned, anyone see it?

15-10 converted

durkadurka

ht 15-10

copacetic

durkadurka wrote: »

BBC wales apparently

Yep, BBC 2 Wales. English comms. Tuning info here for people with sky http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/info/sat_frequencies.shtml

durkadurka

15-15 try rush

thomond2006

Try Dragons!

damianmcr

22-15

Dragons try and conversion.

thomond2006

Converted by Tovey: 22-15. 13 minutes to go.

durkadurka

go dragons!!!!

jolley123

Cardiff are so one-dimensional. Rush and Roberts all day.

durkadurka

how many mins remaining?

jolley123

4

copacetic

2.5 mins left. Peno on halfway to dragons

Going for goal.

Edit - gets it. No bonus point for Cardiff if it stays like this.

ongarite

Looks like Dragons have this game won. And they have with a fantastic long penalty.

Rush has been terrible for the Blues. Tries to be a wrecking ball but has been knocked back or spilled the ball for most of the game.

copacetic

30s left. Cardiff line out on own 5 metre line. Lose the ball. Dragons drop goal. All over

ongarite

So what does that mean for the table?

jolley123

Do Ulster go ahead of Ospreys if they're on the same points because of wins??

copacetic

ongarite wrote: »

So what does that mean for the table?

From the race for second point of view. It really just means Leinster need any kind of win now for 2nd. Bonus points don't come into it now. Tight for 3rd and 4th now.

damianmcr

Yes

ongarite

Looks like the Ospreys still have a chance of getting 4th spot too.

durkadurka

any win will do now for Leinster to get home semi.

Ulster need 1 point to be sure of QF, they need to win to be sure not to go to Thomond.

With ulster having to go to dragons, the home semi looks to be in the bag for leinster.

Ospreys back in with a chance with aironi away in last game.

thomond2006

Leinster vs Glasgow
Dragons vs Ulster
Scarlets vs Blues
Aironi vs Ospreys
Treviso vs Edinburgh
Munster vs Connacht

You have to make Ospreys favourites now. You'd fancy Scarlets at home as they are back in the race now and have it all to play for.

All Cardiff have to do is win to guarantee a spot since they have won two more games than Ospreys.

CatFromHue

are the welsh teams trying not to qualify for the play offs??

durkadurka

I think no one fancies a trip to thomond!

Scarlets are out of it IMO . Ospreys will surely win in aironi.

profitius

Cardiff not getting a bonus point could be crucial. It looks like the Ospreys will sneak back in to the top 4.

P_1

Think we'll have semi final lineup of Munster-Ospreys and Leinster-Ulster.

Can't see Ulster beating the Dragons, I reckon the Scarlets will beat the Blues but with no bonus points scored and Aironi-Ospreys can only realistically go the one way.

Can see the table ending up

1. Munster 83
2. Leinster 70
3. Ulster 64
4. Ospreys 63
5. Scarlets 61
6. Blues 60

durkadurka

Any win for cardiff will see them through due to more wins.

I'm worried about ulster going to Rodney parade tbh. Dragons are bloody hard to beat there.

thomond2006

Unless Ospreys get a bonus point win away to Aironi (quite possible), Ulster don't have to get anything at Rodney Parade. I wonder if they would prefer Munster or Leinster in the playoffs.