General Rugby Discussion II

Former Former

Former Former wrote: »

Aren't they supposed to be playing in the rugby championship?

Squidgy Black

If it's true they'll probably get an exemption for the players who are in SA, and base themselves out of London or somewhere for the period of the tournament.

Probably not as feasible for the Cheetahs/Kings as they would be looking at doing it for an entire season if SA didn't open their borders back up as opposed to just a month or two for the national squad.

bilston

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Hold on, I thought all travel out of SA was banned until 2021. Hence the reason the Cheetahs and Kings won't be playing in the Pro 14.

Might be exemptions for international sports teams. As long as they go into some sort of bubble.

bilston

Deleted User wrote: »

That's pretty huge news tbh.

Could you imagine South Africa in the Six Nations every year?

I think it's pretty inevitable now...more a question of when, not if.

The logistics of a 7 Nations tournament would need to be sussed out, but financially it would be huge. The SA TV money would be significant.

That world tournament thing is looking more and more likely

awec

When the 5 nations became 6, didn't the Italians join on some associate member type thing, where they weren't given the same powers as the other 5 unions?

Or am I mixing that up with something else?

The Lost Sheep

awec wrote: »

When the 5 nations became 6, didn't the Italians join on some associate member type thing, where they weren't given the same powers as the other 5 unions?

Or am I mixing that up with something else?

That was in pro14 i thought and Italians were paying 2 million(??) to play in league and then things changed again when south africans joined

Leinstertomas

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Pity. I'd been looking forward to Japan getting a few hidings.

Why would you want that? (just out of interest not saying you should support them)

Dave_The_Sheep

Leinstertomas wrote: »

Why would you want that? (just out of interest not saying you should support them)

Bitterness and spite.

swiwi_

OK...

Squidgy Black

swiwi_ wrote: »

OK...

Plenty of stories from NHL players going over the Russia and the same sort of thing, teams owned by Mafia bosses and bags of cash etc. Mental stuff.

Interested Observer

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Plenty of stories from NHL players going over the Russia and the same sort of thing, teams owned by Mafia bosses and bags of cash etc. Mental stuff.

There was a 30 for 30 podcast about two WNBA players who went to play in Russia for a team owned by a mafia boss. The guy got murdered while they were playing over there. Mad stuff.

Interested Observer

Interested Observer wrote: »

There was a 30 for 30 podcast about two WNBA players who went to play in Russia for a team owned by a mafia boss. The guy got murdered while they were playing over there. Mad stuff.

Fair fecks to him for shaking it off and coming back to do the podcast.

sydthebeat

swiwi_ wrote: »

OK...

Legend!!!

Eod100

Next season's Champions Cup format confirmed: https://www.the42.ie/champions-cup-format-202021-5193118-Sep2020/?utm_source=shortlink

salmocab

Eod100 wrote: »

Next season's Champions Cup format confirmed: https://www.the42.ie/champions-cup-format-202021-5193118-Sep2020/?utm_source=shortlink

What a complicated pile of crap.

sydthebeat

Eod100 wrote: »

Next season's Champions Cup format confirmed: https://www.the42.ie/champions-cup-format-202021-5193118-Sep2020/?utm_source=shortlink

sounds like an almighty mess

2 x 12 team pools
only 4 games for each team in the pool stages
yet tier one plays tier 4 twice

so by my reading of that, each team onlys plays 3 other teams.... two of them once, and one of them twice.

how in gods name can that end up as a meritocratic league??

seems like they wanted to get as many teams into the competition, but at the same time wanted to cut the number of games down to a minimum, with the least amount of inter team mixing.

is that reading correct?

Podge_irl

sydthebeat wrote: »

sounds like an almighty mess

2 x 12 team pools
only 4 games for each team in the pool stages
yet tier one plays tier 4 twice

so by my reading of that, each team onlys plays 3 other teams.... two of them once, and one of them twice.

how in gods name can that end up as a meritocratic league??

seems like they wanted to get as many teams into the competition, but at the same time wanted to cut the number of games down to a minimum, with the least amount of inter team mixing.

is that reading correct?

No. Three tier 1 teams and three tier 4 teams in each pool. Tier 1 team plays the two Tier 4 teams from the other leagues home and away.

Basically, the 3 tier 1 teams will all qualify easily and the last place will be a fight between the other 6.

awec

Seems set up to give the top teams an easier ride?

salmocab

awec wrote: »

Seems set up to give the top teams an easier ride?

Seems setup to ram extra teams in unnecessarily. It looks like a mess of a tournament and only actually saves one match day. This to placate clubs that would have not qualified normally.

Why bother with that group stage at all

twinytwo

What a steaming pile of ****e. Suppose it was only a matter of time before they ruined Europe as well.

Buer

awec wrote: »

Seems set up to give the top teams an easier ride?

In theory. In reality, the tier 4 teams from the T14 are Montpellier and Toulouse (assuming they're going on final position when the league was halted) . The tier 1 teams are Bordeaux and Lyon.

Leinster could end up having their games against Toulouse and Harlequins. Or Montpellier and Gloucester. Not terrible but very far from handy fixtures.

sydthebeat

I see owen farrell has eventually gotten sent off for a high shot to the head....

irishbucsfan

Awful tackle. Real dumb-dumb stuff

pc7

The more angles you see the worse it gets. He didn’t even try pretend to tackle, brutal stuff

Interested Observer

It's hard to even call it a tackle. One arm, no wrap, it's a clothesline.

ongarite

He has done that type of tackle many times before and got away with a yellow.
Would a ban mean he could miss Leinster QF or would it be for Premiership only?

The Lost Sheep

ongarite wrote: »

He has done that type of tackle many times before and got away with a yellow.
Would a ban mean he could miss Leinster QF or would it be for Premiership only?

bans in rugby are not limited to any competition. They are time based so if he gets a ban he would miss the game

Larbre34

The boy has got a screw loose, can't stop himself from weighing in with that appalling technique. He'll seriously injure somebody or worse.