United Rugby Championship announced, beginning September 2021

I watched the Top14 yesterday on Premier Sports via NowTv Sports extra package. Streams really well, no issues. For the Top14 though the commentary is absolutely abysmal!

In what way was it bad?

I remember the Eir commentators used to constantly talk as if they were being paid per word, used to drive me insane when I was trying to hear the ref talking! Was it similar to that?

Don't think I'd mind that to be honest, less talking from commentators is better in my own opinion

Stormers players jumping ship before the league even starts PSDT and another player off to Japan.

I know some people are really opposed to the SA teams but I think something had to be done to improve the standard. They bring loads of TV money which teams need to use to strengthen their squads.

The pro 14 teams would struggle in the French or English league. I think even leinster would struggle if they had to play big teams every week. As it stands they can rest the big players and play 50+ players a year because they can afford to try young guys and still get bonus point wins because the opposition is poor

Definitely a few welsh fans, still pining to be in the prem, banging on about rivalries that don't actually exist

The URC/Pro 14 whatever you want to call it could give the Welsh regions £100m each per season and the fans would still want an Anglo/Welsh league.

I think you're underestimating the impact of the lower quality pro 14 matches on squad development and knock on impacts.

Leinster gets to use 50+ players a season which gives them the chance to develop young players like Osbourne and the O'Brien production line. In turn they can rest players like Fardy and only use them in big games. If they played in the Prem they would have to play more of the big players more often to just compete. They would play fewer young and academy players and they wouldn't have the same throughput of academy players. The academy wouldn't be as attractive to young players and they would be more inclined to leave for first team game time and Leinster would have to rely on more fully formed Irish qualified and NIQ players. The whole setup works as well as it does because they have so many matches where they can rest the entire first team (except players who need game time) and still expect a bonus point win.

I think you're underestimating the knock on effects of the potential to rotate the squad and develop players. The accumulative impact over a few years would be big.

I thin they would benefit from some tougher matches though. It has been shown that they struggle with the physicality of the bigger teams in Europe because they are used to beating muss less physical teams week in, week out.

Premiership teams do rest their players for some games.

Leinster would be able to rest plenty of players against the likes of Worcester, Newcastle, London Irish, plus which relatively big team has decided to be terrible that year e.g. Leicester recently.

They'd immediately join Saracens & Exeter above the rest

This is great, will be happy top watch him again. I wondered would he have went to Cheetahs had known they were getting cut

Bit of a mess going on in SA the Union apparently just threatened the stormers with an ultimatum which if not met will mean they'll be replaced in the URC by the cheetahs who today also.agreed to loan players to the sharks for the URC, not exactly much joint up thinking going on there. Seems the cheetahs knew very little about the proposal if they agreed the deal with the sharks!

I think it's great to see South African teams coming into our league, sadly though I think it's being implemented incorrectly. Most of the big name South Africans are playing in England, France and Japan. I think in the first Lions test there were 6 URC players in the SA starting XV for example