Pro 16 Discussion

irelandrover

so probably 1 from each conference guaranteed a QF spot. Means that italian or scottish teams arent guaranteed a spot.

yerrahbah

Wonder how the European places will be decided

Will it be the 8 1/4 finalists?

Or the 8 teams who finish with the highest points?

icdg

Thinking more about the rebrand aspect, for all its faults (and being tied to x number of teams being a major one), “ProXX” was short and snappy, and I wonder if they’ve missed a trick by not just going for “Pro Rugby”. “United Rugby Championship” is a mouthful (without even a sponsor attached) and we already have “The Rugby Championship”. Of course, but you say, “It’ll be the URC to its friends” which would be alright if it wasn’t similar to a certain mixed martial arts promotion.

I wonder though are we going to see a model similar to Sanzaar where each country sells sponsorship separately? Particularly during the Rabobank era where the sponsorship was virtually worthless outside Ireland, I’ve thought it might be one for Celtic Rugby (or whatever we’re calling it now) to follow. Tellingly Rainbow Cup games in SA didn’t carry Guinness sponsorship (of course the SARU has an existing relationship with Castle, I don’t even know if Guinness is available in SA which might be a much simpler explanation) but it might point the way in this regard.

sydthebeat

Looks to be just a straight league... Excellent

https://comms.pro14rugby.org/5GVN-DMWK-4DE859121FDC7ACD1WCT8L7C31F2E20C19F424/cr.aspx

Conferences and wildcard system only used for champions cup qualification

yerrahbah

New website


http://unitedrugby.com/


1/4 finals picked from 8 teams with the most points

Champions cup spots are the top team from each pool, 1 IRL, 1 SCO/ITA, 1 WAL, 1 SA and the next 4 teams with the most overall league points.

Jump_In_Jack

Every team will play 18 games in the regular season comprising of:

6 Home AND away fixtures against their regional pool opponents (4 pools, IRL, SA, WAL, SCO/ITA)
12 Home OR away fixtures against the other 12 teams in the league
This means derby matches are unaffected, and every team plays each other at least once each season.

PMC83

Still nothing on the Tv side?

Red Silurian

So one of Benetton, Zebre, Glasgow or Edinburgh guaranteed to be back in the Champions Cup every year after coming through the easiest pool, while the Irish teams make a de-facto group of death every year?

Leinster will probably dominate as usual thanks to the IRFU money meaning the other Irish provinces have to travel for away knockouts

Somehow they've managed to make a competition worse than the Rainbow Cup

Jump_In_Jack

Sounds like no South African team in the Champions Cup next season,
"From the 2022/23, South African teams will be able to enter the Champions Cup if they have finished in the qualification places in the URC standings in 2021/22. Regional pool mechanic will ensure at least one team will qualify." i.e. each pool winner automatically qualifies for Champions Cup.

sydthebeat

Red Silurian wrote: »

1. So one of Benetton, Zebre, Glasgow or Edinburgh guaranteed to be back in the Champions Cup every year after coming through the easiest pool, while the Irish teams make a de-facto group of death every year?

2. Leinster will probably dominate as usual thanks to the IRFU money meaning the other Irish provinces have to travel for away knockouts

3. Somehow they've managed to make a competition worse than the Rainbow Cup

1. do you realise that since the inception of the cup there has never been a Heineken Cup without at least two of Italian and scots teams in it each year.....
so literally nothing changes other than one spot being guaranteed

2. Winning leads to bigger financial returns. Every team knows what they have to do to succeed.

3. absolutely illogical statement. either youve no idea how the rainbow cup was run, or you are attempting to take the crown of teh hyperbole king.

Tomtom364

Red Silurian wrote: »

So one of Benetton, Zebre, Glasgow or Edinburgh guaranteed to be back in the Champions Cup every year after coming through the easiest pool, while the Irish teams make a de-facto group of death every year?

Leinster will probably dominate as usual thanks to the IRFU money meaning 4 the other Irish provinces have to travel for away knockouts

Somehow they've managed to make a competition worse than the Rainbow Cup

sydthebeat wrote: »

1. do you realise that since the inception of the cup there has never been a Heineken Cup without at least two of Italian and scots teams in it each year.....
so literally nothing changes other than one spot being guaranteed

2. Winning leads to bigger financial returns. Every team knows what they have to do to succeed.

3. absolutely illogical statement. either youve no idea how the rainbow cup was run, or you are attempting to take the crown of teh hyperbole king.

4. The regional Pool has no link to the knock outs. Teams ranked 1-4 in the overall league have home advantage in the quarters. Its possible to be second to Leinster in the Regional Pool and still be second in the league overall

sydthebeat

appears this will be FTA on RTE and BBC according to R O Connor

Red Silurian

Tomtom364 wrote: »

4. The regional Pool has no link to the knock outs. Teams ranked 1-4 in the overall league have home advantage in the quarters. Its possible to be second to Leinster in the Regional Pool and still be second in the league overall

Jump_In_Jack wrote: »

Sounds like no South African team in the Champions Cup next season,
"From the 2022/23, South African teams will be able to enter the Champions Cup if they have finished in the qualification places in the URC standings in 2021/22. Regional pool mechanic will ensure at least one team will qualify." i.e. each pool winner automatically qualifies for Champions Cup.

This means that if one particular pool topping team finishes 9th then they get Champions Cup at the expense of a team that finished 8th overall. But the team that finishes 8th goes through to the playoffs and could potentially win the competition.

Meaning the competition winner could potentially be in the Challenge Cup

Tomtom364

Red Silurian wrote: »

This means that if one particular pool topping team finishes 9th then they get Champions Cup at the expense of a team that finished 8th overall. But the team that finishes 8th goes through to the playoffs and could potentially win the competition.

Meaning the competition winner could potentially be in the Challenge Cup

And that still has nothing to do with Evil Leister's Corporate IRFU money causing the other Irish provinces to play away in the knock out games... Like I was responding to...

SheepsClothing

As long as the competition itself is not based on pool standings, it's fine. The eight place team not qualifying for the Champions cup seems like a fringe case anyway. They could have made a much bigger mess of this imo.

Red Silurian

SheepsClothing wrote: »

As long as the competition itself is not based on pool standings, it's fine. The eight place team not qualifying for the Champions cup seems like a fringe case anyway. They could have made a much bigger mess of this imo.

Fair enough the 8th placed team is highly unlikely to go ahead and win the competition but the 9th (or potentially 12th) placed team getting Champions cup ahead of 8th is likely to be an issue down the line that I can see causing huge problems

awec

New thread for this topic is here.