URC 2022 Thread

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120172375#Comment_120172375

It's buried in the middle of an article that's behind a paywall. If he's doing it for clicks, he's doing it wrong.

As noted above, what he actually says is that the 3 regions could face administration if the new deal isn't signed. This is hardly worth having a go at the guy?

Jump_In_Jack

Two-thirds the way through, quick stock take,

Top 3 teams from Ireland and South Africa plus Glasgow and Benetton make up the top 8.

Zebre (5) still without a win are rock bottom.

Holding the two places above Zebre consistently so far this season are Dragons (18) and Scarlets (22), neither have much more expected of them with their respective remaining fixtures. They’re scheduled to play each other in the final round, could end up being a playoff battle decider for second last place.

Ospreys and Lions tied on 24.

Despite Ospreys being severely depleted due to supplying over a third of the Welsh squad playing Zebre today they will be hoping to climb to 28/29 points, and Lions have a match in hand.

Cardiff (29), Connacht (30) and Edinburgh (31) making up the pack chasing a spot in the top 8.

Sharks (33) in 8th place have 2 games in hand and are likely to climb.

Benetton (34) in 7th place, have only 1 home match remaining, against Lions, so may see them slip to the bottom half.

Jump_In_Jack

Ospreys scored 14 points in the opening 10 minutes, they’ll surely win with a TBP now.

Jump_In_Jack

Interesting that TG4 have the Sharks V Stormers match, 12PM Saturday, nice appetiser before the Wales V Ireland 6 Nations opener!

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120173782#Comment_120173782

Not ageing well at the minute

Dubinusa

It's surprising that Benetton are so much better than Zebre. Zebre are very poor, which is disappointing. Dragons are also poor. Why would JJ have moved there?

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120174011#Comment_120174011

Went from 0-14 to 24-14 to 24-28, mad game, all over now, both teams have gotten the TBP, Ospreys just got over the line For the win.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120174064#Comment_120174064

3 year deal, that was a good deal for him, no matter how bad they are.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120174064#Comment_120174064

Very possibly because the alternative was retirement...

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120174081#Comment_120174081

Zebre still winless. It must be tough supporting them.

Ciaran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120174643#Comment_120174643

They've been within one score in half of their home games, which might be even more annoying! They arguably came closer to beating Leinster than anyone this season too in the first game.

stephen_n

EPCR player of the year nominees out. 10 from the URC, 1 from England and 4 from France. Fairly representative of how the tournament has played out so far.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120186072#Comment_120186072

Full list:

2023 EPCR PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOMINEES

Grégory ALLDRITT (Stade Rochelais)

Gavin COOMBES (Munster Rugby)

Caelan DORIS (Leinster Rugby)

Elliot DALY (Saracens)

Antoine DUPONT (Stade Toulousain)

Eben ETZEBETH (Cell C Sharks)

Jaden HENDRIKSE (Cell C Sharks)

Siya KOLISI (Cell C Sharks)

Makazole MAPIMPI (Cell C Sharks)

Julien MARCHAND (Stade Toulousain)

Emmanuel MEAFOU (Stade Toulousain)

Jamie OSBORNE (Leinster Rugby)

Garry RINGROSE (Leinster Rugby)

Justin TIPURIC (Ospreys)

Josh VAN DER FLIER (Leinster Rugby)

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120186280#Comment_120186280

That's some achievement from Jamie Osborne, fair play, just turned 21 in November.

He should frame that list, look at the names on it, to be in that company, that's fantastic.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120186716#Comment_120186716

Yeah, but it's a strange enough list at this juncture tbh. Basically based on 4 games. He had a MotM against Gloucester away, and was good in the Aviva v Racing, but got 9 mins off the bench in Le Havre and didn't play in the home game v Gloucester.

I'm not taking anything away from him, but it's a strange list at this point.

Cookiemunster

Yeah it's pointless at this stage as you won't make the final shortlist if your team doesn't make the semi finals.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120186745#Comment_120186745

Iirc, Dupont was on the long-list after 60 mins of rugby at this stage a couple of seasons ago (during Covid admittedly).

Delighted to see Coombes in there too tho, put him some huge shifts in the 4 games.

phog

I hope this uploads - it's the current (expanded) table.

What is interesting when comparing Munster's performances is that we have the conceded the 2nd least tries scored and the least conversions against us, that may mean we're forcing the opposition to score out on the wing making the conversions more difficult or the opposition has crap kickers when they play us 😁

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120192290#Comment_120192290

Interesting stuff. Makes the defence in the Benetton game look all the more of an anomaly, where we got cut up through the middle a bit as well.

Dubinusa

What's happening in Wales is shocking. The union over there is a shambles. Players have no clue as to their status for next year. It's apparent that the current structure over in Wales is shambolic. There needs to be changes made.

Cookiemunster

That would be why there's a vote in March to totally reorganise the WRU structures.

Strand1970

WRU in talks with Ealing to merge with one of the Welsh teams (dragons) and play out of London. RFU wouldn't be happy with a URC team in London. I wonder could they stop it happening under UK law.

Neil3030

If Ealing and Dragons don't become the Eagons, and use Ghostbusters branding, then what's the bloody point!

stephen_n

Surely D’railing no?

pickarooney

Dragonfinders

icdg

No law specifically against it, a number of Welsh clubs play in the English system instead of the Welsh in football and the Welsh FA can’t (or won’t) do anything legal about it. Different sport I know, but the principle is there.

Whether there is anything in World Rugby or the RFU’s regulations to stop it is a different matter.

Lost Ormond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245555#Comment_120245555

How could UK law stop it? World Rugby is different and RFU would likely have to give permission

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120247225#Comment_120247225

The welsh clubs that do play in England did so before any welsh national league was set up, which was only in the 1990s. before that there was only north/south welsh leagues

PMC83

Another week, another story about a region going under. You'd worry for Welsh Rugby at this stage, seems like the entire organization could hit the wall, which wouldn't be great for the game anywhere

Blut2

It sounds a bit crazy at first glance, and the English RFU will obviously hate it, but it wouldn't be the worst for the URC. London probably has enough fans in it who'd love to see Leinster, the Stormers etc visit that the team might actually be decently supported.

pickarooney

The existing London teams don't seem to attract many fans. A third rate outfit conjured up from the remains of two clubs with no presence in London is unlikely to bring them in.

Neil3030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120248157#Comment_120248157

That was my thinking as well.

Nobody goes to see London Welsh, but they aren't playing Munster, Ulster, etc.

Huge SA diaspora in London too.

Digifriendly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120248197#Comment_120248197

Lots of Irish/Scots/Welsh/Italian/S. African ex pats in London who will attend these games.

Blut2

The LA Rams in the NFL would probably be the kind of scenario they're hoping for. They just recently moved to LA, and have very little local support as a result, but every week get great attendances because LA is 1) a transplant hub full of people from other parts of the US and b) a good place to visit. So its usually tens of thousands of away fans in the stadium.

The Dragon Finders would obviously be far smaller scale, but probably aiming for a similar model initially at least.

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120252772#Comment_120252772

I don't see it happening. Welsh fans in Wales don't bother going to see even the better teams. Why would Welsh fans in England go see the worst team in the league?

The LA Rams are one of only 32 pro Am Football teams in the world and I think they won the Superbowl recently. There's really nothing worth comparing with Dragons in London.

Blut2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120253701#Comment_120253701

They're one of multiple NFL teams in the same city (the Chargers are based there too) and only just relocated to the city in 2016, from previously being 2000 odd miles away. Their first year they were one of the worst teams in the league, going 4-12, and still filled their stadium to 89% of capacity on average over the season.

Its a much bigger sport, but its about as close a comparison as there is for the Dragons moving to a megacity and relying on fans there being more interested in the high profile away teams visiting than the poor quality home team, as we're likely to get.

pickarooney

They were originally from LA, though, right?

And it's the NFL, the biggest sport in a huge sport-mad country, in a megalopolis.

Rugby is a niche sport, even the best team in the London area, multiple European champions, only get 12000 fans at their matches.

If it was soccer, and London didn't have 20 professional teams already, and it was a decent team, it might be a useful comparison.

Strand1970

LA rams not a fair comparison to Ealing. Rams stadium alone cost over 5 billion dollars vs 2k capacity Ealing stadium. A fair comparison would be Arsenal moving to Dublin. I reckon Ealing moving to URC would work. It would be a London club in the URC, the Welsh connection would be nothing. I honestly think the URC is growing and marketing is on the money and will attract fans in London.

hold my beer

Zebre v Connacht is some game. 34 -38 at the minute

Irish teams go to Italy in the URC this year and for some reason completely forget how to defend.

Neil3030

43k in Loftus for Bulls v Stormers.

That's the biggest of the SA derbies isn't it?

Dubinusa

Sharks beat the Lions. At this stage it looks like the Lions are the weaker S.A team.

Former Former Former

The Stormers winning is a big boost for Munster's hopes of a home QF.

Also means that Leinster v Stormers on March 24 could decide who tops the table.

Burkie1203

Red card for Benetton 10 for eye gouging

mollser

That music before the leinster teams arrive on the pitch wtf🤔

Jump_In_Jack

Has it been a Bonus Point before half time for Munster, Connacht and Leinster this weekend?

Jump_In_Jack

So Munster got 58 points, Connacht got 57, the top two highest scores by any team in the URC this season, and Leinster are on 26 at half time.

Leinster under pressure to score at least 5 tries in the second half, would be some set of results if they did. Pity Ulster seem to be struggling for the last couple of months, it’s like Munster swapped form with them when they last played, Munster are flying and Ulster have stalled.

phog

https://twitter.com/argusondragons/status/1627980278516924422?t=VfTlLwc8AFJuoR3sWXuXPg&s=19

The player strike could hit the URC now

hold my beer

The URC highlights videos are great. Haven't paid that much attention to it in the past.

https://www.unitedrugby.com/latest/news/weekend-recap-how-the-round-14-matches-played-out

Jump_In_Jack

There’s a possibility that the way things are shaping up, Connacht could reach 7th, Munster 5th, Ulster 3rd and Leinster 1st, which would mean all 4 provinces spread out across all 4 quarter-finals. Wouldn’t that be something. If they all won, we could have an all-Irish semi-finals stage with both semis in Ireland, and the final in Dublin. That’d be mad if it happened.

And if Munster could pass Glasgow and get to 4th we’d have 3 of the quarters in Ireland!

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/_AlexBywater/status/1630867889895907328?t=XIm8kq780I52P2jjmHpowA&s=19

some exodus