United Rugby Championship announced, beginning September 2021

Clegg · 23-04-2022 4:12pm

Describing what's happened to Connacht in that first half is a hate fest.

They've been dreadful since scoring their second try. Unforced errors all over the pitch but people want to give them an easy ride.

Akrasia · 23-04-2022 4:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118965944#Comment_118965944

I don't see how all 4 are in the top 8? The most the Lions can finish on as 45 and the 8th placed team right now (bulls) are on 43 with 3 games left to play

Shehal · 23-04-2022 4:21pm

Connacht could do with some tough love on here, its for their own good.

Clegg · 23-04-2022 4:30pm

Connacht concede a penalty near their line. Every single player turns their back on the Lions player with the ball in his hands. He takes a tap and runs past them when they aren't even looking.

Try

Akrasia · 23-04-2022 4:31pm

I was going to say something nice about Connacht but when I was typing it, they fell asleep and allowed Lions to run over the line completely undefended

An amateur error to make

Dubinusa · 23-04-2022 4:45pm

Connacht are poorly coached.

Shehal · 23-04-2022 4:51pm

Im actually sort of relieved Carty missed that kick, Connacht cant defend kick offs for **** so better to keep the ball away from their 22!

Akrasia · 23-04-2022 5:00pm

Well done to Connacht. Did more than Munster managed to do over there

Eod100 · 23-04-2022 5:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118965966#Comment_118965966

Both sets of players visibly sweating buckets so bit of a change in conditions than used to alright to be fair tho

Timing belt · 23-04-2022 5:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118966182#Comment_118966182

It was 19 degrees with low humidity…. What impacted players was altitude and that’s why the players were blowing

Eod100 · 23-04-2022 5:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118966224#Comment_118966224

Yup altitude mentioned too by commentators

phog · 26-04-2022 10:30am

More Fans Watching URC Than Ever Before As League Breaks Its Audience Record

More fans are watching the United Rugby Championship than ever before as the league has broken its record for largest total broadcast audience after its first 12 rounds.

Munster are the most-watched team in the URC so far with Leinster, Cell C Sharks, Connacht and DHL Stormers all following closely. The combined audience of over 1.7 million in R2 remains the highest round total for the season so far which smashed the previous record of 853,000 from 2017/18.

TaurenDruid · 26-04-2022 11:11am

They're not watching on the URC TV app, though... Imagine, at the start of the competition, sitting in on a URC board meeting. "How about an app that lets you stream matches live, that we charge for? It can carry all of the matches each round." "Great idea! Who should we get to develop it?" "There's this Irish company, RTÉ - their iPlayer app gets lots of attention!" "Must be good so - use them!"

Red Silurian · 26-04-2022 11:23am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978082#Comment_118978082

And the award for boards.ie comment of the season goes to...

Zeugnis · 26-04-2022 12:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118965164#Comment_118965164

Just watched the highlights. Glen Young's took Simone Gesi out as he was crossing the line with an arm around the neck. To call it a tackle would be a misrepresentation. As clear a pice of foul play as you'll see and extremely dangerous. Frank Murphy decided it was a yellow, for me it was a red. We know what can happen due to head contact and those tackles are rightly severely sanctioned, even where unintentional, but there's an anomaly when players are being treated more leniently for foul play which is not inadvertent. Whether this is a problem of the referee or the rule, I'm not sure.

Screenshot 2022-04-26 at 13.39.06.png

Clegg · 26-04-2022 1:03pm

A women's URC competition seems to be in the works. I think this is an excellent idea and is something that'll really boost the popularity of the women's game in Ireland. Women's rugby is gaining popularity and deserves a chance.

I don't know if anyone has seen it, but an Irish international women's player posted on twitter about her being back to work as a doctor the day after last weekends game against England. A lot of England's players responded, praising her and saying that the IRFU should really be looking at making the women's team fully professional.

https://twitter.com/patmccarry/status/1518899970191073280?t=y2ndcu1GZ6w1nSS1OowclQ&s=09

irelandrover · 26-04-2022 1:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978540#Comment_118978540

it would be great to see, but could the Rugby unions afford it?

to go from a few professional players per union to fully professional squads? there is no way that it could run on an amateur basis.

awec · 26-04-2022 1:18pm

I am very sceptical that it would be viable.

connemara man · 26-04-2022 1:19pm

It's a very much 5 year plan.

Like if it wasn't for international rugby the unions couldn't afford the current men's set up.

No club is really working in the black so talking money is a bit of a red herring for me.

How it all comes together and under what structure is what the talks are at the moment

salmocab · 26-04-2022 1:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118978597#Comment_118978597

It needs sponsorship to cover costs, there isn’t enough gates to come close to paying players so they need to sell to sponsors that will pay enough to fund X amount of players. It’s a very big ask I think, I’d say they’ll be aiming first to get enough contracts for the international side to be competitive and then look at expanding downwards

TaurenDruid · 26-04-2022 5:23pm

It makes tonnes more sense to my mind for women's 15s to get the support rather than the 7s game. We'll never be able to compete with a fully professional England while half our team disappear to play 7s in front of an audience of dozens, and our 15s stars are back at work the next day. I don't get why the IRFU crippled the 15s team this year in favour of a 7s tournament that receives no coverage and has no audience, versus the 15s team, that could fill the RDS. Well - Olympic funding, apparently. Still seems hugely short-sighted.

sydthebeat · 26-04-2022 6:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118980151#Comment_118980151

the point however is that the 7s, while receiving Olympic funding, doesnt have to be test level 15s players. at least, when there are cross over weekends, they certainly dont need to be those test level players.

For these cross over weekends, the sevens should be used as a pure development path for those players "below" 15s test standard. Surely its not that difficult to organise the salary conditions to reflect this?

interestingly there was 13 players named in the sevens squad for the Langford 7s, seven of which were from the 15s squad. Surely there are seven of the WNTS group that are available and able to step in for this weekend? The next series is Toulouse on 20th may which is loads of time for the 15s players to reacclimatise.

pickarooney · 26-04-2022 7:39pm

7s players have to travel around the world a lot, no? Very tricky to manage that with a full-time job.

timothydec77 · 26-04-2022 8:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118949439#Comment_118949439

The focus on Sevens is because the player dept is not big enough.

Men's in Developing nations focus on it too because its far easier to turn a natural athlete into a sevens. Especially if these athletes come to the sport late.

However 15s get far more buy in from fans.

The gate income from 7s is non existent in Ireland. The tv Income must be poor.

timothydec77 · 26-04-2022 8:00pm

26-04-2022 11:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118966119#Comment_118966119

Couldn't agree more with this. Andy Friend is a media darling who is a gregarious guy, and there have been flashes of good, attacking offloading rugby from Connacht, but there has been a lot more awful, poor defending, lapses in concentration and players switching off, or unable to tactically manage to close out a game.

I don't like him constantly taking shots at the squad in the press either, especially when it's pretty much an acknowledged fact that he's finished there at the end of the next season. He's passing the buck.

lawrencesummers · 27-04-2022 10:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118981753#Comment_118981753

Their biggest problem is Carthy, lots of people think he should be in the mix for Ireland but in reality he crucifixes them on a regular basis

pickarooney · 30-04-2022 5:57pm

Zebre with their first win of the season!

Clegg · 30-04-2022 7:25pm

Leinsters losing bonus point against Stormers guarantees that they'll finish the season in first place. They're on 62 points and the chasing pack on 56.

Jump_In_Jack · 30-04-2022 8:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118998887#Comment_118998887

Yeah, once they kept Stormers from getting the try bonus point the losing bonus point put them clear.

I was a bit surprised that the RTE pundits didn’t seem to grasp this fact.

Clare said Leinster just need one more point to guarantee top spot and Heaslip said yeah, and that he didn’t know why they were instructed from the sideline to put the ball out.

Jump_In_Jack · 30-04-2022 8:17pm

It is a decent result for Munster too, Leinster won’t be too bothered in the last round, and they stopped Stormers from getting a bonus point so Munster still hanging in there in 2nd place.

Neil3030 · 30-04-2022 9:44pm

Standings color-coded by pool, yellow dots indicate RCC qualification. You're welcome.

Neil3030 · 30-04-2022 9:58pm

And final round(s) of fixtures:

Weekend 6-8 May:

Cardiff v Zebre

Ospreys v Dragons

Weekend 13-15 May:

Dragons v Cardiff

Benetton v Zebre

Weekend 20-22 May:

Benetton v Cardiff

Ulster v Sharks

Ospreys v Bulls

Dragons v Lions

Connacht v Zebre

Scarlets v Stormers

Edinburgh v Glasgow

Leinster v Munster

Clegg · 30-04-2022 10:00pm

Tonight's results means that the top 8 is sorted. Scarlets can't catch Edinburgh. Neither the commentators nor the pundits mentioned this on Premier Sports which is a bit poor I think.

There's only 6 points between positions 2-8 so there could be many changes in the table depending on results.

But the one certainty is that the loser of Edinburgh Vs Glasgow will play Leinster at the RDS.

Neil3030 · 30-04-2022 10:02pm

So nothing really of note before that final round of games. I guess the one game of somewhat prominence is whether Ospreys can beat Dragons to close the gap on Scarlets for the automatic Welsh spot. That would then make Scarlets v Stormers must win for both sides; Scarlets looking for the RCC spot, Stormers looking for a home URC QF.

Akrasia · 01-05-2022 9:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118999505#Comment_118999505

Glasgow v Edinburgh is a massive game. The loser will be knocked out of the Heineken Cup next year and be forced to play leinster away in the URC QF

Blut2 · 01-05-2022 12:09pm

Not a single Welsh team in the top 8 / top half of the table is a pretty bad result for Welsh rugby.

Dubinusa · 01-05-2022 1:55pm

I reckon the league is very much stronger with these bok sides. There's plenty of competition now

Dubinusa · 01-05-2022 1:56pm

The regions are poor. All 4 are weak and lack depth. It's disappointing to see.

Former Former Former · 01-05-2022 3:41pm

Looks like only three of the final round of games will be dead rubbers for both sides, which isn't bad I guess.

Edinburgh v Glasgow is the big one, but it will be interesting to see how Scarlets and Ospreys fare, both at home to SA teams and whichever gets the better result will qualify for Europe.

Leinster sealing top spot is great but won't do much for ticket sales v Munster. If we're gearing up for a European final, the academy will be called upon which isn't a great look. It will be interesting to see what Munster do if they're prepping for the final...

Digifriendly · 02-05-2022 3:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118999519#Comment_118999519

No guarantee Ospreys will beat Bulls so Scarlets might lose to Stormers and still get into HC. Bulls also have a lot to play for.

Jump_In_Jack · 02-05-2022 9:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119004408#Comment_119004408

Ospreys should get a bonus point win against Dragons, which would put them level on league points with Scarlets, but 2 matches more won, going into the final round.

So in that case Scarlets would need to finish on more league points to qualify for the Heineken Cup. Pressure will be on Scarlets I’d say.

Ospreys will have 12 days off before the Friday 20th to prepare, and Home advantage, Bulls will have to travel long distance and they have a match Sat 14th against the Golden Lions, six day turnaround, though they might play their second team for that as Golden Lions are by far the weakest team in the Currie Cup by current standings.

Scarlets have the advantage of playing on the Saturday as well so they’ll know what they have to do by then.

Alternatively, if Ospreys get a bonus point win against both Dragons and Bulls it will put them out of reach of Scarlets.

Neil3030 · 03-05-2022 12:10am

Has any journo dug into the economics of the URC, specifically wrt the SA teams? Is it making them any more money? Surely RCC qualification will bring in decent funds.

lawrencesummers · 04-05-2022 10:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119000432#Comment_119000432

Is there not a major flaw here however unlikely that the loser of that game who doesnt make the champions cup next year could still go on and win all their knockout games and ultimately the league and then not be in the champions cup?

tvpc · 04-05-2022 11:08am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUqoDFqEmBU&ab_channel=Sportstats.co.za

lawrencesummers · 04-05-2022 11:09am

The players who didnt travel to SA could play which is a lot of front line players

lawrencesummers · 04-05-2022 11:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119002007#Comment_119002007

The players who didnt travel to SA could play which is a lot of front line players

irelandrover · 04-05-2022 11:50am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119013626#Comment_119013626

Winner of the championship will qualify for the champions cup.

lawrencesummers · 04-05-2022 12:42pm

In the th

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119013940#Comment_119013940

in the theoretical case of glasgow / edinburgh finishing 8th and then winning the league who would lose out to have them included?

irelandrover · 04-05-2022 12:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119014138#Comment_119014138

whoever was in seventh. the qualifiers in that case would be the championship winners, the winners of the regional leagues, and then the next three places in the league not already qualified.

United Rugby Championship announced, beginning September 2021

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