2014 Autumn Internationals

Kiwi_knock

Colin Slade and James Parsons have been called up to the NZ squad to replace Cory Jane and Nathan Harris. It is handy having all your backup players already in Europe.

Swiwi.

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

Colin Slade and James Parsons have been called up to the NZ squad to replace Cory Jane and Nathan Harris. It is handy having all your backup players already in Europe.

My conspiracy theory re the BaaBaas was right so

Sanjuro

Quick question merely out of curiosity. Why is it England and Wales are playing 4 games, and Ireland only 3? Why aren't we playing NZ?

sydthebeat

i see the AB maoris destroyed the Japanese by 61 - 21.
Emery with 2 tries and west finished up on 26 points with one try, 3 pens and 6 convs.

its_phil

Sanjuro wrote: »

Quick question merely out of curiosity. Why is it England and Wales are playing 4 games, and Ireland only 3? Why aren't we playing NZ?

Falls outside IRB test window and combination of managing player time so they can pick up again soon after with the provinces. Think Thornley had an article last week discussing it.

If we had four this year, I'm not sure there would be any players left to play with the way they are dropping off like flies right now.

thomond2006

It's really annoying how so many matches clash. England/NZ clashes with Wales/Oz while Ireland/SA, France/Fiji and Scotland/Argentina are all on at the same time.

Sanjuro

its_phil wrote: »

Falls outside IRB test window and combination of managing player time so they can pick up again soon after with the provinces. Think Thornley had an article last week discussing it.

If we had four this year, I'm not sure there would be any players left to play with the way they are dropping off like flies right now.

Yeah, that's a fair point. I was just wondering how it was decided who plays who and what not. Thanks for the reply.

who_me

its_phil wrote: »

Falls outside IRB test window and combination of managing player time so they can pick up again soon after with the provinces. Think Thornley had an article last week discussing it.

If we had four this year, I'm not sure there would be any players left to play with the way they are dropping off like flies right now.

We often seem to opt for 3 - I don't recall many recent years where we went for 4 AIs. England and Wales seem to do it more often. Money over player welfare, or does that sound too cynical & unfair?

former legend

who_me wrote: »

We often seem to opt for 3 - I don't recall many recent years where we went for 4 AIs. England and Wales seem to do it more often. Money over player welfare, or does that sound too cynical & unfair?

No, that's bang on the money, if you'll excuse the pun. Another full house at Twickenham or Cardiff is just too tempting to resist.

sydneybound

Twickenham generates between £8-9 million when full. This will be achieved for three of those matches, the Samoa match will make less but still a lot. This is where the RFU make major money and who can blame them for having an extra match. Also to note Lancaster asked the RFU to play the top three teams in preparation to the World Cup. They spent heavily on the Pennyhill facilities for the senior team so need to get a return on their investment. Also they are doing much better work then the IRFU of getting women into the game. They hope to increase the number of female players from 10,000 to 25,000 in the next three years. In the men's game they are also making major inroads in participation levels in non rugby union areas, this again should be commended.

Tickets have been seeling very well for Wales. The All Blacks game will be sold out while the Australia & South Africa matches have sold well but they won't be a sell out which is to be expected. Fiji has been the suprise and sold well this time round as family tickets have been offered by the WRU.

The Baa Baas match sold in the region of 55,000 tickets at the weekend, given the last match was so good next year the same fixture will sell in excess of 60,000 - 70,000 tickets.

Eat My Point

They are definitely better at promoting and encouraging the womans game in the UK. However I would take any participation numbers from the England with a grain of salt, from my own experience it seems every club has several teams so older players who should really have retired and become supporters of the first team instead drop to the 3rd or 4th team and keep playing but don't really train anymore. It's good that they keep people playing the game but because all the various teams play at the same time it means that nobody ends up supporting/watching. The first team at the club I play for in the UK play at a high level but there's always only a handful of people watching us at any ground we go to. Compared to the junior club I was playing for in Ireland where there were only 2 teams so anyone that was past playing became a supporter and the 2s would always play before the 1s so both teams could support each other and it meant for a much better atmosphere in the club and at the games.

English Lurker

I believe the current agreement between PRL and the RFU gives England an out of window AI game every other season. The PRL get a slice of the pie in terms of profits from it. Not sure how much it amounts to.

Have to say, you'd have thought an extra AI would allow the IRFU to increase each province's budget by an extra 500k or so at a conservative guess.

UnitedWeStand

thomond2006 wrote: »

It's really annoying how so many matches clash. England/NZ clashes with Wales/Oz while Ireland/SA, France/Fiji and Scotland/Argentina are all on at the same time.

At a guess, I would put this down to the fact that that Sky has the rights to England, France and the Ireland games , while the BBC has rights to the Scottish and Welsh ones. They're the two big boys who would be vying for time slots.

vienne86

English Lurker wrote: »

I believe the current agreement between PRL and the RFU gives England an out of window AI game every other season. The PRL get a slice of the pie in terms of profits from it. Not sure how much it amounts to.

Have to say, you'd have thought an extra AI would allow the IRFU to increase each province's budget by an extra 500k or so at a conservative guess.

I just don't think Ireland could manage another game in the series, with the size of our pool of players, player welfare etc.

b.gud

Wales team announced
https://twitter.com/WelshRugbyUnion/status/529604302978174976/photo/1

Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes Williams to get booked?

thomond2006

It's a bit of a joke that they pick Lydiate considering he hasn't played since the end of September.

ArmaniJeanss

who_me wrote: »

Money over player welfare, or does that sound too cynical & unfair?

vienne86 wrote: »

I just don't think Ireland could manage another game in the series, with the size of our pool of players, player welfare etc.

But to win a world cup aren't we likely going to have to beat Italy, France, Argentina, Australia* and NZ on 5 consecutive weekends?
So it would seem reasonable to at least practice with 4 games now and see how the players respond.

* Or SouthAfrica/Eng/Wales.

CatFromHue

Biggar picked ahead of a fit Priestland.

I wonder who's going to goal kick as Bigger has 26/28 in the Rabo and 9/13 in Europe. I think Halfpenny has only taken 1 kick in the Top14 and is 10/13 in Europe.

molloyjh

CatFromHue wrote: »

Biggar picked ahead of a fit Priestland.

I wonder who's going to goal kick as Bigger has 26/28 in the Rabo and 9/13 in Europe. I think Halfpenny has only taken 1 kick in the Top14 and is 10/13 in Europe.

That's undoubtedly the right selection. Priestland is vastly overrated. He was utter muck in the RDS in September. When he's good he can be very good, but he can be got at very easily too.

It'll be interesting to see who takes the place kicks alright.

peteroregan

CatFromHue wrote: »

Biggar picked ahead of a fit Priestland.

I wonder who's going to goal kick as Bigger has 26/28 in the Rabo and 9/13 in Europe. I think Halfpenny has only taken 1 kick in the Top14 and is 10/13 in Europe.

Why would you wonder who's going to take the kicks.
Halfpenny will take the kicks. It's not even up for debate.
Paddy power probably won't even give you odds on him being the kicker.

former legend

b.gud wrote: »

Wales team announced
https://twitter.com/WelshRugbyUnion/status/529604302978174976/photo/1

Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes Williams to get booked?

North @ 13, very interesting.

sydthebeat

thats a poor enough looking welsh forward line, a waning one imho

youd have to question Lydiates match fitness, also warburton who has only played 120 mins of rugby in 5 weeks.

The back line is decent enough, good 9 + 10 at last. Doc + North versus Kirandrani + Leali / AAC will be very interesting and either way i dont think crash bang wallop will be good enough to get consistent forward momentum.

cant wait to see Checks team line out, but PP has aussie - 3 which i think might be just a tad conservative.

former legend

While he was unlikely to feature against Ireland to begin with, Ruan Pienaar has now been ruled out of the entire Autumn series.

Jano Vermaak has been called up.

shuffol

It's unfortunate for Wales that when for the first time in a while they've a tasty looking halfback partnership their pack is at a bit of a low ebb. Hard to believe they don't have a better option than Phillips on the bench.

peteroregan

former legend wrote: »

While he was unlikely to feature against Ireland to begin with, Ruan Pienaar has now been ruled out of the entire Autumn series.

Jano Vermaak has been called up.

My inlaws and their friends are South African and i can tell you from watching the last 8 to 10 south african international tests with them that this is not a negative.
They can't stand his game and spend most of the time swearing at him.

marc96

peteroregan wrote: »

My inlaws and they're friends are South African and i can tell you from watching the last 8 to 10 south african internationals with them that this is not a negative.
They can't stand his game and spend most of the time swearing at him.

Pienaar should be out the squad ages ago,Vermaak is a decent replacement but Sarel should have been called up.

Digifriendly

Rugby fans in NI need reminded that if they do not have Sky Sports the only way to view Ireland's AI's is to receive Saorview as these matches will be geo-blocked on RTE via Sky and RTE via Freeview in the north.

thomond2006

Digifriendly wrote: »

Rugby fans in NI need reminded that if they do not have Sky Sports the only way to view Ireland's AI's is to receive Saorview as these matches will be geo-blocked on RTE via Sky and RTE via Freeview in the north.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more of an outcry in support of NI fans getting shafted. I suppose the papers here don't give a monkeys.

b.gud

Mod: Info deleted

Please read the charter about posting links to streams etc

MATCH-DAY STREAMS

DO NOT post illegal match-day streams. Furthermore, current legislation in Ireland makes it illegal to host information on how to by-pass copyrighted material, as all media coverage would be control by others, threads/posts asking for information on how to circumvent geo-locking or encryption services will be deleted or locked.

vienne86

thomond2006 wrote: »

I'm surprised there hasn't been more of an outcry in support of NI fans getting shafted. I suppose the papers here don't give a monkeys.

There was a bit of fuss when this was first announced. Personally I think it is disgraceful. I even wrote to the IRFU about it and received a platitude filled letter in return. ......."done in the best interests of the game......." - my arse.

awec

They did it for the money and because they know that the fallout for doing it to NI is something they can just ignore anyway.

sydneybound

The RFU sell all their international rights to Sky so to be fair the IRFU left the rights to RTE (which most of the island has access too)and Sky to show it everywhere else. Sometimes I think people on here are overly critical on a national governing body trying to generate income.

Most people I know in the North of Ireland have RTE already so when I asked them about the games on Sky they said it didn't effect them.

former legend

sydneybound wrote: »

Most people I know in the North of Ireland have RTE already so when I asked them about the games on Sky they said it didn't effect them.

Just on this; RTE broadcast over the UK network in the North but this will be blocked.

Many people will be able to get the Saorview signal from the Republic, especially around the border, but not everyone.

b.gud

b.gud wrote: »

Mod: Info deleted

Please read the charter about posting links to streams etc

Apologies mods thought the links I posted were OK cos they were all legal sites.

Lesson learned.

Swiwi.

b.gud wrote: »

Apologies mods thought the links I posted were OK cos they were all legal sites.

Lesson learned.

b.moregud
b.better
...

ssaye2

Craig Ray @craigray11 · 3h 3 hours ago

Losty Dublin

Maybe I missed mention of same but are we having our usual match preview threads for this years games?

awec

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Maybe I missed mention of same but are we having our usual match preview threads for this years games?

We can. Who wants to sign up to do them?

Losty Dublin

Awec wrote:

We can. Who wants to sign up to do them?

These are this weekend games. I can either do one of the main ones, I could take on both Scotland and Italy's games though we could give them to a cub poster to learn their trade

• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 Wales Australia Millennium Stadium
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 England New Zealand Twickenham
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 Italy Samoa Stadio Cino e Lillo Del Duca
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 Scotland Argentina Murrayfield
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 Ireland South Africa Aviva Stadium
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 France Fiji Stade Velodrome

Quint2010

Has anyone gotten their tickets for the Australia match yet?

sydthebeat

Quint2010 wrote: »

Has anyone gotten their tickets for the Australia match yet?

Yes, a few weeks ago at this stage

Quint2010

sydthebeat wrote: »

Yes, a few weeks ago at this stage

OK thanks. Still havent got mine. Must get onto them.

Bridge93

What are people calls for the weekend games?

South Africa to beat Ireland by 7/8
NZ to beat England by 10
Australia to beat Wales by 2/3
Italy to beat Samoa by a score
France to beat Fiji by a lot
Fancy Scotland to pip Argentina too

awec

Losty Dublin wrote: »

These are this weekend games. I can either do one of the main ones, I could take on both Scotland and Italy's games though we could give them to a cub poster to learn their trade

• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 Wales Australia Millennium Stadium
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 England New Zealand Twickenham
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 Italy Samoa Stadio Cino e Lillo Del Duca
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 Scotland Argentina Murrayfield
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 Ireland South Africa Aviva Stadium
• TOUR 08 NOV 2014 France Fiji Stade Velodrome

I'll create a sticky. You're on for Ireland v SA.

awec

awec wrote: »

I'll create a sticky. You're on for Ireland v SA.

Sign up to write up here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057321170

Judgement Day

You've got to love George Hook's knowledge of the game as he's just stated on Newstalk that 'bad news for Ireland, the Springboks have just named to same team that hockeyed the All Blacks'....which game would that be - the 14-10 game in Wellington which the ABs won or the dead rubber game in Johannesburg which the Boks won 27-25? :rolleyes:

Losty Dublin

Judgement Day wrote: »

You've got to love George Hook's knowledge of the game as he's just stated on Newstalk that 'bad news for Ireland, the Springboks have just named to same team that hockeyed the All Blacks'....which game would that be - the 14-10 game in Wellington which the ABs won or the dead rubber game in Johannesburg which the Boks won 27-25? :rolleyes:

Sure didn't we beat the All Blacks last year.*








In the spread.

twinytwo

What's with god save the queen being played for the barbarians games? I understand its an English club and all but they have some neck inviting players from the likes of south Africa and Scotland and expecting them to stand for that.

Taco Corp

twinytwo wrote: »

What's with god save the queen being played for the barbarians games? I understand its an English club and all but they have some neck inviting players from the likes of south Africa and Scotland and expecting them to stand for that.

yeah, that one is probably because of tradition. not saying I agree with it

sydthebeat

twinytwo wrote: »

What's with god save the queen being played for the barbarians games? I understand its an English club and all but they have some neck inviting players from the likes of south Africa and Scotland and expecting them to stand for that.

i dunno, but it was my first though that theyd play the national anthem of the host nation, and thus the majority of fans ... ???