General Rugby Discussion

molloyjh

Sweet Jesus that's terrible.

CatFromHue

I'd say it's a editorial mistake

molloyjh

CatFromHue wrote: »

I'd say it's a editorial mistake

Probably, but who the hell proofs this stuff?

CatFromHue

I don't know but there does tend to be a big difference in the online version and the paper version.

Not just in stories covered but in tone too. I think last week's article by Francis in the paper had a sub heading of "Leinster must win" or something like that but the online one was much more aggressive with something like "if Leinster don't win then the Leinster we know is dead".

sydthebeat

molloyjh wrote: »

Probably, but who the hell proofs this stuff?

irishbucsfan

sydthebeat wrote: »

It's like the saying goes, if you sit one monkey at one typewriter for roughly 15 minutes he will eventually produce a Tony Ward article.

Zzippy

irishbucsfan wrote: »

It's like the saying goes, if you sit one monkey at one typewriter for roughly 15 minutes he will eventually produce a Tony Ward article.

20 seconds for a Franno farce?

b.gud

Not a full citation but Huget has received an official warning
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-union/30913041

Swiwi.

In other news Huget has been ruled out this weekend after being injured in the process of receiving a slap over the wrist with a wet bus ticket.

thomond2006

Sean Maitland has signed for London Irish. Has he played much for Glasgow this year?

Journeyman_1

thomond2006 wrote: »

Sean Maitland has signed for London Irish. Has he played much for Glasgow this year?

I thought he had started whenever he was fit! Must be a fairly hefty pay increase to leave a team that is challenging the league, for one that is nowhere close!

Winters

http://m.scotsman.com/sport/rugby/latest/dan-parks-content-to-be-back-home-in-glasgow-1-3621543

An interview with Dan Parks back in December. I was wondering what he was up to these days so it turns out he is back living in Glasgow and looking to get into coaching.

irishbucsfan

Winters wrote: »

http://m.scotsman.com/sport/rugby/latest/dan-parks-content-to-be-back-home-in-glasgow-1-3621543

An interview with Dan Parks back in December. I was wondering what he was up to these days so it turns out he is back living in Glasgow and looking to get into coaching.

He was an analyst for Sky last weekend and he was very good I thought.

.ak

thomond2006 wrote: »

Sean Maitland has signed for London Irish. Has he played much for Glasgow this year?

That's a surprise. Glasgow are really looking good, especially in their back play, and you'd imagine he'd want to stay close to the Scottish setup there. He's a top level winger, I'd have him at Leinster in a heartbeat, not sure his agent got him the best deal there...

molloyjh

What will that mean for his Scotland career, if anything, I wonder. He spends 3 seasons in Scotland and basically leaves the first chance he gets. He may be qualified through his grandparents but I'd take a Richardt Strauss over him any day based on that.

DGRulz

Was looking at the thread on Reddit on it. Someone pointed out that it might be of benefit to both Glasgow and the SRU not to have to take the majority of players from Glasgows first team. Townsend might have a SH player lined up to replace him too.

thomond2006

molloyjh wrote: »

What will that mean for his Scotland career, if anything, I wonder. He spends 3 seasons in Scotland and basically leaves the first chance he gets. He may be qualified through his grandparents but I'd take a Richardt Strauss over him any day based on that.

I'm reminded of Riki Flutey but then Maitland qualified through heritage, not residency.

molloyjh

thomond2006 wrote: »

I'm reminded of Riki Flutey but then Maitland qualified through heritage, not residency.

Yeah, but in real terms there isn't any difference at all IMO. Maitland just didn't have to wait the 3 years for his cap.

Yeah_Right

Didn't Parks qualify through residency and then as soon as he was capped, moved to Wales?

thomond2006

Yeah_Right wrote: »

Didn't Parks qualify through residency and then as soon as he was capped, moved to Wales?

He was playing for Scotland for a number of years before moving to Cardiff.

washman3

Journeyman_1 wrote: »

I thought he had started whenever he was fit! Must be a fairly hefty pay increase to leave a team that is challenging the league, for one that is nowhere close!

Welcome to the real world of professional sport...;)
Do you honestly believe he would turn down a bigger wage in order to win a medal in a Mickey Mouse league..!!

molloyjh

washman3 wrote: »

Welcome to the real world of professional sport...;)
Do you honestly believe he would turn down a bigger wage in order to win a medal in a Mickey Mouse league..!!

A possible medal in the Pro12 and a certainty of Champions Cup rugby beats the hell out of what LI could hope to offer in rugby terms. And surely that too would hurt his international ambitions. I'd like to think that for most rugby players it isn't all about the money and that the game itself has its part to play...

washman3

molloyjh wrote: »

A possible medal in the Pro12 and a certainty of Champions Cup rugby beats the hell out of what LI could hope to offer in rugby terms. And surely that too would hurt his international ambitions. I'd like to think that for most rugby players it isn't all about the money and that the game itself has its part to play...

Same reason a player would leave Glasgow Celtic to join an English championship team like Reading. Guaranteed Scottish League medal and 90% certain to play Champions league.
The landscape is changing rapidly, anyone that thinks it's not about money is extremely naïve. No Steven Gerrards anymore..;)

its_phil

washman3 wrote: »

Welcome to the real world of professional sport...;)
Do you honestly believe he would turn down a bigger wage in order to win a medal in a Mickey Mouse league..!!

Really wouldn't call the Pro12 a "Mickey Mouse" league anymore, the quality has drastically improved with CC places earned on merit

molloyjh

washman3 wrote: »

Same reason a player would leave Glasgow Celtic to join an English championship team like Reading. Guaranteed Scottish League medal and 90% certain to play Champions league.
The landscape is changing rapidly, anyone that thinks it's not about money is extremely naïve. No Steven Gerrards anymore..;)

Well that's completely untrue. Sexton is returning to Ireland for less money. Heaslip and SOB stayed in Ireland for less money. I'm sure there's a load of rugby players who have had big offers and turned them down. Claiming it is all about money for all players is highly cynical IMO.

thomond2006

Somebody's jumping on the Aviva Premiership bandwagon.

washman3

its_phil wrote: »

Really wouldn't call the Pro12 a "Mickey Mouse" league anymore, the quality has drastically improved with CC places earned on merit

5 of the 6 places will usually be predicted by most before the competition begins. The games played over the Christmas period were absolutely dire, a time when the league a bigger tv audience and bigger attendances.
Saracens showed us last weekend where the Pro12 is really at.

washman3

thomond2006 wrote: »

Somebody's jumping on the Aviva Premiership bandwagon.

Maybe Christian Cullen is his agent...;)

its_phil

washman3 wrote: »

5 of the 6 places will usually be predicted by most before the competition begins. The games played over the Christmas period were absolutely dire, a time when the league a bigger tv audience and bigger attendances.
Saracens showed us last weekend where the Pro12 is really at.

Leicester, Bath, Saracens, Northampton. There are 4/6 sides who will be guarenteed qualification every year going forward. Swings and roundabouts with Saracens showing Pro12 where it is really at. Ulster should have beaten them last year with 15 men.

The Lost Sheep

washman3 wrote: »

5 of the 6 places will usually be predicted by most before the competition begins. The games played over the Christmas period were absolutely dire, a time when the league a bigger tv audience and bigger attendances.
Saracens showed us last weekend where the Pro12 is really at.

Same can be said about the premiership/ Fair point on the Christmas games and something does need to be done about it.

washman3

molloyjh wrote: »

Well that's completely untrue. Sexton is returning to Ireland for less money. Heaslip and SOB stayed in Ireland for less money. I'm sure there's a load of rugby players who have had big offers and turned them down. Claiming it is all about money for all players is highly cynical IMO.

Nobody really knows what Sextons new deal is.!! There are strong rumours of a Denis O'Brien influence. The reason he's returning is that he simply cannot hack it in France.
After next weekend there is a strong possibility that no PRO12 team will be in the CC quarter finals. enough said.

thomond2006

washman3 wrote: »

Nobody really knows what Sextons new deal is.!! There are strong rumours of a Denis O'Brien influence. The reason he's returning is that he simply cannot hack it in France.
After next weekend there is a strong possibility that no PRO12 team will be in the CC quarter finals. enough said.

Good God

its_phil

washman3 wrote: »

Nobody really knows what Sextons new deal is.!! There are strong rumours of a Denis O'Brien influence. The reason he's returning is that he simply cannot hack it in France.
After next weekend there is a strong possibility that no PRO12 team will be in the CC quarter finals. enough said.

There's been no English winner of CC since Wasps and for years they contributed SFA to the knockout stages. Even Top14 only contributed one team to knockouts a couple years back. Like I said, swings and roundabouts.

On Sexton, that is just hilarious seen as Racing wanted him to stay.

shuffol

Can't knock a guy if his top priority is money either, we don't know what the personal situation or post rugby prospects of different players are.

It's different to soccer where players are earning up to 50 times the salary of rugby players and barring stupidity they're almost guaranteed financial security for the rest of their lives anyway.

irishbucsfan

thomond2006 wrote: »

Somebody's jumping on the Aviva Premiership bandwagon.

Just FYI, we have heated seats and there's a full dinner service.

sydneybound

In Aviva Prem news Leicester have hit a record mark of 15,230 season tickets sold for next year. This is great news for them considering they'll be paying a fair whack for the stadium improvements this summer.

http://www.premiershiprugby.com/news/34594.php

While they will set an attendance record for an LV Cup game this weekend with a soldout crowd of 24,000 against Northampton.

http://www.leicestertigers.com/news/21681.php

Thats a nice bit of money floating around Leicester rugby.

molloyjh

washman3 wrote: »

The reason he's returning is that he simply cannot hack it in France.

Wow! :eek:

That really is utter nonsense. It has absolutely no bearing whatsoever in reality.

washman3 wrote: »

After next weekend there is a strong possibility that no PRO12 team will be in the CC quarter finals. enough said.

And as it stands there could yet be a Pro12 winner of the competition. In the last 10 years the stats are:

Pro12: 5 HECs
Top 14: 4 HECs
AP: 1 HEC

thomond2006

Aviva Premiership bandwagon, pigeon bandwagon....when will it end?

irishbucsfan

The Premiership teams really aren't massively more competitive than the Pro 12's. They're pretty equivalent to one another.

The difference is that the Premiership is a league run by private clubs, the Pro 12 is run by national Unions. The last 3 years have shown us those groups have completely different agendas. The leagues are run to different ends, so the leagues themselves as products are different and this leads to things like the Pro 12 schedule being handcrafted by the Unions etc. It doesn't mean the teams themselves are more competitive, and the recent history of European competition has shown that.

awec

washman3 wrote: »

Nobody really knows what Sextons new deal is.!! There are strong rumours of a Denis O'Brien influence. The reason he's returning is that he simply cannot hack it in France.
After next weekend there is a strong possibility that no PRO12 team will be in the CC quarter finals. enough said.

That's enough of your trolling now.

b.gud

Folau wants to play 13... thoughts?

It would certainly be interesting to watch but I wonder would it be similar to what we saw with Payne at 13 for Ulster this year, in that you take some of the attacking spark from the team

errlloyd

I think I'd sooner play La Roux at 13.

Podge_irl

errlloyd wrote: »

I think I'd sooner play La Roux at 13.

Ollie?

.ak

b.gud wrote: »

Folau wants to play 13... thoughts?

It would certainly be interesting to watch but I wonder would it be similar to what we saw with Payne at 13 for Ulster this year, in that you take some of the attacking spark from the team

He has all the attributes, it's whether or not he's got the smarts to play there. A lot of back three players want to move into midfield because they get their hands on the ball a lot more, so it's generally for selfish reasons in that regard, it's down to the coach to see where they best fit. He should be given the opportunity anyway, we won't know until he tries it. We are talking about an ex-league, ex-aussie rules player who decided to give union a bash and is now one of the best FB's in the world. The guy is an absolute freak athlete and seems to have the brains and guile to go along with it. Give him a go I say.

mfceiling

Podge_irl wrote: »

Ollie?

Definitely would bring the "bosh merchant" tag to a whole new meaning...

Pudsy33

He'd be wasted there. He is the best high ball specialist on the planet. He certainly has the pace and power but perhaps not the distribution. Seems like moving for the sake of it.

Swiwi.

Folau would need to learn to pass. And defend the 13 channel. Not convinced.

irishbucsfan

Folau's folly.

There, I said it.

Kiwi_knock

There is little chance of him playing 13 this year. The Tahs already have Ashley-Cooper at 13, and there is no chance of him getting ahead of Kuridrani for Australia. Cheika will not be experimenting in a World Cup year, especially when there is no real alternatives for the 15 shirt at the Tahs.

He will get a chance at the 13 shirt after the World Cup if he stays in Australia due to the mass exodus.