MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
As suggested above...
Pro who cares? Munster.
Prem; Wasps.
6N England
Brizzle to return from the depths.
As a Scot it will be the usual combination of false dawns and a surprise 6N victory. Interesting to see how Townsend goes.
Woohoo, good work Duckman
Who knows about the Pro 14 as I can't get my head around it 😆
I think that the Crusaders might win the Pro151. They're in it, right?
And Bristol - Charles Piutau in 2018-2019? Can we start the yearly rugby thread for that season this soon?
Pro 14 Munster
Prem Who cares?
6N England
Scotland will click in half the games blow up in one and struggle to a draw in one. They will play very like Warriors of 2 years ago
Who ever wins the Pro14 will go down in history as the only winners of that tournament.
Pro14 dunno, Ulster or Leinster or one of the Saffas?
Prem. Sarries
Europe. A French team
6N's England.
In other news, Lealiifano to Ulster. Paddy Jackson to miss the season as he is being prosecuted for rape (which he denies) not too much info available, seems like 4 guys are being prosecuted.
Watching currie cup games. The saffas are pretty abrasive. But not sure they'll cope with a wet November in Glasgow.
Malcolm jaer is a flyer.
No takers for Scarlets again? 🙂
Will be a surprise if England aren't the strongest in the 6N
Western Force out of Super Rugby. Surprising given the locations of the clubs remaining but not surprising given the funding/ ownership structures and legal complexities of each being booted out between the two
Could have been them or the Rebels really, I read an article a while back talking about how union was on the bones of it's bum with regards to players numbers/spectators etc.
Could have been them or the Rebels really, I read an article a while back talking about how union was on the bones of it's bum with regards to players numbers/spectators etc.
Yeah in Oz union is still looked on as a ra-ra sport for posh kids in stark contrast to the more blue collar League and Aussie Rules.
The public supports it when they perceive that the Wallabies and the Super Rugby sides are going well. Unfortunately that perception is based on whether they beat New Zealand or not. What's also unfortunate is that nobody beats NZ much and the Aussie SR teams went 0-26 against the NZ franchises this year. This misses the point that the Wallabies are generally very competitive in RWCs and are never as bad as some of their results can suggest.
I linked an article in last year's thread which had Union as around the 28th most popular sport in Australia by participation. I didn't meet anyone in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane who had even a passing interest in rugby let alone Union which was a shock given how successful we generally view the national team (unless playing Scotland of course 😉 ).
It made more sense to shelve the Rebels and keep rugby in Western Australia but I think it came down to the Rebels having the bigger threat of successful legal action/ more expensive buyout based upon the way they were set up and current ownership/ funding. That is the hidden subtext to "keeping the Rebels made more financial sense"
Glasgow and Edinburgh rebuilding a bit this year. I am hopeful(!) cockers will bring a bit of backbone to Edinburgh and we might see a bit mmnore from them
National team placed well - time to improve over last years tally. No lions hangover for us! but ickle jonny is out for a while - dunno if he will be back for the AIs
Rugby is crap. All the players are violent cheating scum and/or fat fools. Except Welsh ones. Or Scottish ones. Referees don't know what they're doing. Except Welsh ones.
None of you know what you're talking about, I've played in every level of the game and watched every match ever played, analysing and understanding every play perfectly. Everything I say is FACT. Your opinions are worthless and meaningless. I hate every player you like and love every player you hate.
Hopefully that's that done and you can actually discuss rugby.
Carry on.
Brizzle to return from the depths.
Hurrah!
I'm quite please that the SA teams have decided to fight for success rather than be rolled over, and it'll add interest to the pro26. I'll laugh hard if they end up richer than the supertouch teams.
Prem; Sarries
6N; England
Who is good in the top14? Are Toulon close to bucking their ideas up?
How do you guys rate Cockerill? Edinburgh have the budget and some decent players but play far below their potential. Is he the man to turn it around? Inject some steel perhaps?
No
Loved him as a player and as a coach, he did pretty well for my beloved tiggers. Still, somehow I don't think he's a great coach. I don't think he'll,get the absolute best from the team, something always just missing.
Love the look of tigers back line this season. Young, ford, tuhoomah (sp) tuilagi, may, veanu and thompstone. If they can just get a bit of ball and remain uninjured for 15mins....
Cockerill didn't do too badly with Toulon at the end of last season...
Give him a chance, he'll get them playing with a bit of gumption.
I thought he was a good coach, the DOR thing at Tigers came to him too quickly but he managed it well. I think in the end there was a lot more going on at Tigers. But as the DOR he had to take the hit. The Aaron Mauger experiment didn't work, as coaches they just didn't see thing the same way.
I think he's a good bloke but he'll always be someone people like to hate.
Yes, I'm a Tigers fan.
I've never been convinced that he's a great coach but isn't awful I guess. He does however like a moan at the referees and I shudder to think about his blood pressure with the standard of refereeing in the Pro14
Rugby is crap. All the players are violent cheating scum and/or fat fools. Except ENGLISH ones. Referees don't know what they're doing. Except NIGEL OWENS.
None of you know what you're talking about, I've played in every level of the game and watched every match ever played, analysing and understanding every play perfectly. Everything I say is FACT. Your opinions are worthless and meaningless. I hate every player you like and love every player you hate.
Exactly what I've been saying for years..... 😆
Actually I just re-watched the 1st Argentina v England test last night. What a game!
Best game of rugby I've seen this year. Not just because Argentina attacked constantly and England were forced to do likewise but there was a lot of terrific, hard hitting defence (despite the scoreline) - but mainly because Nigel Owens refereed with common sense, let it flow and didn't KEEP GOING TO THE TMO EVERY FIVE MINUTES!
People say "oh the Jaguares were rubbish so Argentina must be too" but that was a decent Argentina side, at home, against the hated English. For a mainly 2nd/3rd string side it was an exceptional win.
Agreed. I thought it was a great game!
Geez! The ABs have got over their Lions hangover.
40-6 up against the Wallabies, in Sydney, at half time!
Geez! The ABs have got over their Lions hangover.
I think its more about how shite Aus are playing.
I was going to write the same at half time, then the Aussies remembered how to run into space!
then the Aussies remembered how to run into space!
True but they didn't start doing that until they trailed 54-6! Which was a tad late.
To re-write the old joke:
Nobody was Australia's best player - because they kept passing to him.
Pro Munster...or maybe Leinster.
6n Ireland.
RIP Pinetree.
Watched SA v Argentina. Raymond poite had a pretty awful game. I thought in this age of assistant referees that they were there to assist. Every try seemed to have at least one reason to be disallowed and SA are the masters of the forward moving"flat pass".
[url= http://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12504/10998806/toby-flood-considers-germany-switch-after-england-exile ]Herr Tobias Flut [/url]
Anyone else excited about tomorrow night's World cup final?
Not entirely convinced putting Scarratt at 15 in replacement for Waterman is a great idea unless she is regularly hitting the line as she's devastating at OC. She is an extraordinary player.
and Rocky Clarke- 128 caps (local Wuss girl) is in her 4th (Fourth!) World cup final!
ITV from 7.15pm on Saturday (7:45pm KO).
You need to be watching Aus vs NZ now!
damm forgot it was free to air here...
and despite that can't "legally" stream it. Seen the scoreboard rattle around and Barret being the difference there
It would appear that rumours of the death of union in Oz, including those from me, are premature.What a game! And Dan who?
and the all blacks never looking stressed, whats that we need to score, we better score then.
The ausies had them rattled there. That last 30 mins was brilliant!
Stoner - yes, I'll be there 🙂
Available on You Tube for anyone that missed it - just watched the first 10... not often teams score a point a minute against the ABs.
What a great game!
THey should make the ABs start every match 17pts down!
Brilliant try to win it under the most severe pressure. Kurtley Beal owned SBW defensively. Mind you, Aaron Smith made a fool out of Hooper too.
Nigel Owens made a poor mistake IMO. He gave a penalty for the Aussie blindside coming back offside at a ruck and getting in the path of what was an obvious scoring pass. Accidental or not - surely it was a penalty try?
Agree with the posts on here. Best game I have watched for ages!
Really had my fingers crossed for the Wallabies, but sadly it wasn't meant to be.
The Kiwi scrum was on point today.
RWC Final time
finally got round to watching the 2nd bledisloe cup game between Aus and NZ. Astounding game. NZ look terrifying, and some of the gold play was great. But what disappointed me was Michael Hooper's appalling contempt for the refereeing. Owens had a good game, (yes he didnt call the intentional offside namastebuzz refers to - but it was followed 30s later with a AB try in favour - and maybe the head-dump of cooper could have earned a short yellow) but the speed of play and the decision making in spite of it was pretty bloody impressive. And I dont see any of Owens decisions even if they were wrong have a substantial negative impact on the game. The kiwi commentators were embarrassing in how often the made the wrong call compared to Owens on the pitch and were second guessing his calls before the explanation. And if you start looking for administrative offences youve already lost the game on the pitch really.
Between the commentators (on the you tube feed I saw) and hooper it really left a bad taste in the mouth for what was a fantastic high quality game of rugby and it's reffing.
yes he didnt call the intentional offside namastebuzz refers to - but it was followed 30s later with a AB try
Yeah but that doesn't matter - what if the ABs hadn't scored that try but had knocked on or something? Two wrongs don't make a right - or, in this case, a wrong and a right don't make a right.
I agree with much of what you say. Hooper's attitude was poor but maybe Nige should have put him in his place? In general Owen's reffing was good and it was still a great game.
Mind you, the Retallic non-try was a strange one too. Owens was on the spot and awarded the try. Then, as the kick was being lined up, he decided to go to the TMO. He started off asking "Is there any reason not to award....." and then changed to "Try - yes or no?" This seemed a bit odd as he'd awarded the try so why wasn't he asking if there was any reason he couldn't? As it turned out the replay looked like the ball had to have been grounded at some point but seeing as you couldn't see the actual grounding it wasn't given.
Get rid of the TMO - IMHO
I thinks owens was getting peeved with the ref's assistant on the TV camera side butting in with Foul Play calls hence why he later ignored both the deliberate offside (called by the RA) and the Cooper head drop (Called by the RA as well) because that RA had a track record of getting it wrong.
As you say the try/no-try call was the one spot where I think Owens let himself down. He blew and signalled what looked a try signal and then a short while later said that, no, he was blowing for a penalty from which no advantage had come. And so had not given a try on the pitch. Then he asks try no try? Inconsistent really.
I thinks owens was getting peeved with the ref's assistant
Yeah, good spot. I think you're right there.
I don't get the "I gave a penalty" excuse. He blew for a try, Retallick and the rest of his team celebrated, then Barrett lines up the conversion. Surely Owens would have put them, and the rest of the stadium, straight at some point before all that?
Anyway, doesn't detract from the fact that he's still the best ref in the business and it was still a great game. It's probably no coincidence that the two best games I've seen this year (Arg v Eng 1st test and Bledisloe 2) have both been reffed by Owens.
he's still the best ref in the business and it was still a great game.
too right.
Cardiff 7 Edinburgh 10 at haltime. Cardiff still shit, Edinburgh showing more heart than last season, Clancy still a clown.
Wuss stuffed by newcastle. Not many positives to be taken from losing by that kind of margin to a team you hoped to compete with.
Glaws beat Exeter in the last minute (ex bristol player Woodward with the winner.....) The chiefs didn't look like they could win unopposed tonight.
Wuss stuffed by newcastle
not got the enthusiasm to go to Wuss much this year.
Will probably spend more time at Hartpury College instead. It's closer, easier, cheaper and the team have more promise and future about them than the Wuss 🙁
the frenchies appear to have been working on a new secret weapon:
https://twitter.com/Hugo_galatioto/status/903853262155251712
Pah Matt Morgan can do that! 😆 Can he catch a high ball, pass or tackle because Morgan cant!! 😕
Cracking try!
I'm at Twickenham for the London double header.....safe to say that Sarries v Saints wasn't the most competitive half! 5/7 conversions missed too to make it look slightly closer 😯
Northampton are terrible, watching it on catch up.
Just been watching the local cup Derby between Ledbury and Malvern. Caught some of the shoeing sarries were dishing out on the TV in the clubhouse. Nice to have the season underway though
Ospreys win opener.
Didn't catch the Scarlets game yet but good win for them! Not such a great start for the SA sides
Didn't catch the Scarlets game yet but good win for them! Not such a great start for the SA sides
It was never going to be easy for the SA teams. Very short time to get preparations in place for fixtures thousands of miles away, get used to NH reffing, strip-mined of players..
If they can work out how to move away from Super Rugby setpieces, or use them effectively in the Pro14, they could be good.
Will probably spend more time at Hartpury College instead. It's closer, easier, cheaper and the team have more promise and future about them than the Wuss
I'd be worried that Glaws might not let them do [i]too[/i] well.
Where is Hartpury btw? I thought I knew most of the sides in the UK worth knowing. 😳
It's a college in gloucestershire. Obviously has a senior team, which is used as a feeder team by Glaws.
Ooh. grenoble may have found a new star 😯
😛
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/rugby-thread-201718/page/2#post-8689982
some players at Hartpury have dual contracts with Glos I think. Unbeaten to win the Nat 1 last year, they will enjoy the championship and Id expect them to stay up.
There isn't much dross in the champ this year, should be a good competition from top to bottom.
Apologies for not spotting your earlier post!
agreed.
Good to see the LOirish do a number on quins despite Yard looking v v strong.
> http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/rugby-thread-201718/page/2#post-8689982some players at Hartpury have dual contracts with Glos I think. Unbeaten to win the Nat 1 last year, they will enjoy the championship and Id expect them to stay up
Are you suggesting that I should get off my arse and read the thread? 😳 😆
Ooh. grenoble may have found a new star
He'll get picked by France. Play one game where he has a blinder then play a second where he doesn't touch the ball/gets injured and then we'll NEVER see him again. Ever.
According to the rugby paper; wuss are for sale. Hope it turns out ok.
Rather glad I shelled out the £20 a month on the Prem; what a weekend and 3/4 games every week as well.
Nonu tells the Ref "this is not soccer" 🙂
BYW the site seems to be pretty good for clips and highlights esp of the Top 14
Enjoyed the opening weekend of the AP;
Wuss were poor - they really miss Hougaard when he's away. They need to get a better fly half too. Can't see them being put up for sale helping to galvanise players etc.
Gloucs appear to have a bit of backbone this season - didn't see that result coming at all.
Sarries were very good, but Saints were massively poor. Mallinder and co have surely got to go this season; their time is done.
Irish gave a good account of themselves; Kennedy comes across as a very thoughtful, bright coach. Quinns looked poor and workmanlike at best and a shadow of the team that won the AP.
Wasps were bright; Cips had a very good game and Robson was brilliant - will he get any international recognition this season? Daly has signed a new contract with them too. Sale look to have a good attack but its hard to judge how they'll far on that performance.
Bath did pretty well given the number of front row injuries but both they and Tigers were pretty error strewn. Tigers backline looks good this season, but the pack doesn't look like it'll provide the platform for the backs to work from.
Chris Ashton "humiliation" compilation 🙂
I'm convinced Ashton is a 9 at heart 🙂
Nonu's comment would have been funny had he not hit high, late, with no arms, in the back and sworn at the ref.... he really can be a tit
Ashton has never been able to tackle
Cheetahs have just announced pricing for their opening home game of the Pro14.
Free.
Yep, free tickets.
Now, this makes good sense to me. There are going to be approximately five Zebre supporters within a thousand miles of the stadium on match day, so why not see if you can get all sorts of folks who might not normally go to a game in to the stadium. The money is coming in from TV, so anything you can make on the bars is the take for the day!
Surprised that Biggar is joining the Saints. They've got some serious recruitment to do with regards to coaches let alone players!
Many is broken again; due to have surgery on minor knee ligament damage. Doesn't look like he'll get the chance to stake his claim for the AI's.
I was surprised about Biggar too... I guess the time is right to chase the bigger bucks
Based on the way Saints played on Sat, Mallinder has lost the dressing room. I cannot see how he will still be in charge next year, they were terrible against Saracens.
Guess which tiger is going to miss the next 12 weeks through injury/surgery.
Eddie will have to wait until the 6 nations in order to give him the chance to make a fool of himself again.