General Rugby Discussion 3

If the SA public bought into it the stadium would be packed, or near full similar to Currie cup , but blame it on optics and pretend all perfect so.

His ex wife will be pleased, stick an attachment order to his salary.

He can compare notes with Haouas who's due back to Montpelier next season.

The way you go on and have posted on this before will never see the game/sport grow. You can't just say let the next tier close the gap then we will play them. You have to help these sides/countries and it will be better for us in the medium and long term

But those countries and Georgia and many others need far more games, assistance in international games from 6 nations and rugby championship sides

They really don't. What they need in the main is competitions against themselves at both club and international level, then secondary against the more established clubs.

The World Cup and EPCR competitions can give their teams a chance at what you describe but on the secondary basis. Bringing them into a 6N/URC/T14/EP competition where they camp down at the bottom of the table for the season does no favours for either them or the competitions

You mean the Continental Shield? It lasted one season. Before interest from the clubs involved fell apart

You now have the Super Cup for the last 3 seasons but being a cup competition spread across numerous countries, with all countries only having one club, they lack regular matches or any real rival mentality

Yeah I'm not sure a Toulouse V Black Lion game being played regularly would be much good for either club

I know we went round it about the season recently, but in total agreement with you. I'd love to see a Euros comp in Lions years, between 6Ns and REC. Think it would be a great way to have more meaningful games and have something of value to play for.

Ideally the URC would add a club from Spain and one from Portugal, with a view to a second from each coming on stream in the future. People will say there are already too many countries involved in URC and there has been a lot of chopping and changing over the years but I think there is also a strong possibility of stagnation without some form of evolution.

The best way for other countries to develop the game is with a pro club and grow from there. Ultimately, they have nowhere to go but URC. It would take a few years but I'm sure a well resourced (union owned and government backed) club in each country. Look at the Jaguars. I can also see two game tours to those countries being popular with travelling fans.

The Welsh look to have peaked in terms of their value so looking at new markets with big growth potential makes sense. Given the problems in the club scene in England and Wales, and some see them in a combined league as a solution, the URC needs to be looking at other markets. Wales will likely drop a pro team at some stage so that gives an opening for one team. If they are jump ship, URC definitely needs something to fill the void.

Yes that's exactly what the biggest league needs, more teams, perhaps we should expand and double to 32 teams just for good measure?

I suppose the question is, could Ireland stand to be the only Tier 1 nation that's willing to walk away from a cut of 200m every 2 years?

What might it mean to suddenly be down what... Let's say 10m-20m a year (averaging it out) compared to other unions?

The gesture would be noble, but extremely damaging.

You said

Ideally the URC would add a club from Spain and one from Portugal, with a view to a second from each coming on stream in the future

My point is, why would we stop at 2 from each country, why not double our numbers and expand to 32 teams from across Europe and further afield?

Telegraph reporting, pinch of salt needed there. The blowback from fans would be so big I don't think they would.

They could, the IRFU are far from broke, I doubt we would be the only T1 nation to walk away as these things always happen in 2's at least.

Presumably they would need to walk away from the nations championship completely. If two Tier 1 nations walked away from the NC would they make 10-20m doing a double-3-game-series together? I think they would

And which games exactly would you cut from the already crowded schedule to allow for this?

Or are you just planning to cram in an extra 2-4 games a year to schedules that already compromise player welfare from playing too many games as things stand?

And where is the funding going to come from to send South African (in particular, but also Irish/Scottish etc) teams on expensive tours to Spain and Portugal? Because theres no way TV revenue or gate receipts from those countries will cover that and fund the local teams themselves.

How are soccer fans reacting to the take over of the game by Middle Eastern petrocrats? The stuff going on with Man City is a harbinger of a grim future for the game in England, and generally teams and tournaments becoming holding companies and marketing tools for billionaires and kleptocrats has to undermine fans attachments longer term. But maybe not. If soccer can just soak up that money without any loss of legitimacy or popularity, rugby can't be far behind.