Rugby, anyone?

[FlatSpinMan]

I don't have high hopes if this thread lasting long, but does anyone else follow rugby?

I'm watching the amazingly hard-fought second test between the British and Irish Lions and the Wallabies.

Intense game, despite all the points coming from penalties so far. I really can't call whose going to win despite the Lions' territorial advantage and the Wallabies' possession advantage.

[theOden]

Would've loved to seen it but Rugby is very rare on Swedenland TV.

Read on BBC that the aussies won ja?

Good times

 

Shouldn't it be a human right to see rugby on local TV?

Who can I call to arrange this else?

[FlatSpinMan]

I may be able to assist you.

[FlatSpinMan]

Bumping my own thread here, but I'm interested to know what anyone thinks about the French and English clubs' move to set up their own competition. Hope it doesn't bugger up chances of a global season.

[DD_Arthur]

 Hope it doesn't bugger up chances of a global season.

 

Club rugby has discovered money. Serious money. TV money.  It's the best kind of money but unfortunately most of it goes to the governing bodies as TV currently likes international rugby.  By getting rid of the RFU the Clubs get to establish their own league and have the commercial independence to negotiate their own TV deal and keep all that lovely money for themselves.  Unfortunately FSM your balls are the wrong shape for most of the viewing world to stomach .  This means the pot of TV money is always going to be dwarfed by that available for soccer so the Clubs are going to have to wrest this money from the International Unions.     A breakaway Rugby Premiership League is the start of this process.

 

Since I can't stomach the shape of your balls either I'm not too bothered by it all.  However, I do like my soccer and for English players and by extension our national team the English Premiership has been fairly disastrous.   Such is the spending power of EPL clubs thanks to the frankly stupendous TV deal they've got they can bring in just about anyone they choose and they do this by paying ludicrously high wages to players.  There are normally ten matches a week played in the EPL which means 220 guys on the pitch.  There are only very rarely more than forty players eligible to play for England in this total and more often it is closer to thirty.  If the England squad has 23 players then it means you've got around a fifty per cent chance of getting picked for England even though you might actually be.....shite. .

 

Which is one of the reasons why, for a rich, developed country like the UK with a population in excess of sixty million, our national football team is shite too.    

[DD_bongodriver]

What have you got against rugby Arthur?.....it's a bit like soccer only it's played by men.

Edited September 28, 2013 by DD_bongodriver

[JaMz]

 

 

Which is one of the reasons why, for a rich, developed country like the UK with a population in excess of sixty million, our national football team is shite too.    

 

Cannot argue with that.

[Revvin]

Bumping my own thread here, but I'm interested to know what anyone thinks about the French and English clubs' move to set up their own competition. Hope it doesn't bugger up chances of a global season.

The IRB won't sanction this new tournament unless the British and French unions support it, the RFU have indicated they would support it but the French have not and have shown support for the ERC who say that the English and French clubs are still under contract for one more season. The Celtic leagues certainly won't sanction any of their clubs joining this new tournament. I think in the end the ERC will reach a compromise and sort this mess out, a break-away tournament will be bad for Northern Hemisphere rugby.

[FlatSpinMan]

Firstly, let me say that my balls are superior in shape to your own, vastly more pedestrian and humdrum type.

 

Secondly, your point about the national team being weakened because of the influx of, well, money, is one that worries me. Currently NZ players are ineligible for the All Blacks unless they play in NZ. There'S one current AB who may head overseas as no team here wants to touch him. I'm hoping that the NZRFU will stick by their principles and not select him if he does go. That would be the end of rugby here. They probably wouldn't, but you never know. Sports administrators generally seem to have more than their fair share of stupidity.

[FlatSpinMan]

I hope you're right, Rewin, but I don't know. If the new comp can pay out a decent amount then they might jump rather than be stranded in a rump-Heineken Cup. I don't know the ins-and-outs of it though.

 

By the way, has anyone seen the newest England rugby alternate strip? 

I think this is some kind of stealth act of revenge by NZ - perhaps the NZ Govt is pushing Canterbury Clothing to do this, because surely there's no way they thought THIS would be a good look.

http://www.rfu.com/news/2013/september/news-articles/230913_canterbury_kit

 

Personally I'm a big fan of stripes, but fo the English national team?? What's next - Black? Purple? Oh wait...

[DD_Arthur]

What have you got against rugby Arthur?.....it's a bit like soccer only it's played by men.

 

Born and brought up in Norffff London where we played footie in the winter and cricket in the summer.  My introduction to rugby took place in the marines.  It was like this;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orTqqL4C0ok

 

 

Firstly, let me say that my balls are superior in shape to your own, vastly more pedestrian and humdrum type.

 

Secondly, your point about the national team being weakened because of the influx of, well, money, is one that worries me. Currently NZ players are ineligible for the All Blacks unless they play in NZ. There'S one current AB who may head overseas as no team here wants to touch him. I'm hoping that the NZRFU will stick by their principles and not select him if he does go. That would be the end of rugby here. They probably wouldn't, but you never know. Sports administrators generally seem to have more than their fair share of stupidity.

 

 Whilst your balls may indeed be superior mine are, at least, still intact.    I can't really imagine the end of rugby in NZ though.  Aren't you guys all given one of those funny shaped balls just after they cut the umbilical cord and just before they press you to mother's tit?  In the EPL money and stupidity seem to go hand in hand. The more you have of one, the more you get of the other!

 

On a serious note; imho if you love your rugby then I'd be worried by this development.

[FlatSpinMan]

That was a good link. Yes, it is a bit of a surprise for a start. I felt much the same when I started as I never played at school, only a few years at university in very social teams. But that just goes to show you the depth of the player base in NZ. My university had around 40 social teams, each of around 20 guys (including those on the hungover list) in its competition. Then there were the serious teams that played in the serious competitions against other clubs.

 

Strangely though, despite playing in such a lowly league, I did once play against an All Black. He had a weekend of from provincial and international rugby so mucked around with his mates against us. I forget if he was with the Mudsharks or Bastards RFC. I'm pretty sure it was one of them - though purely social teams, they'd been going for 30 and 10 years respectively when I was there.

[DD_Arthur]

@FlatSpin, couldn't resist a quick necro on this thread so you can have a gloat over what the All Blacks did too us today!

Edited June 21, 2014 by arthursmedley

[TheBlackPenguin]

@FlatSpin, couldn't resist a quick necro on this thread so you can have a gloat over what the All Blacks did too us today!

 

The series was lost anyway, but considering how close the other two games were there is nothing to be ashamed of. The football team on the other hand are overpaid and useless, which is nothing new.

[FlatSpinMan]

Hooray! Rugby again.

That was an enjoyable series, wasn't it? Far more involved than the usual one-off test match.

England have won a ton of fans, or perhaps, lessened the loathing, on this tour. They came to play, and 20 minutes last week, and 40minutes yesterday, aside, they did that.

Those 60minutes certainly were fairly damaging though, and had me giggling in glee as I watched.

How good is Ben Smith? Savea of course gets across the line, but watching the swerving runs of Ben Smith as he invariably finds space is one of the finer things in rugby.

 

Who would you have in your back line after all this? Farrell, Burrell, Tuilagi (not on the wing!), Yarde (at least for his second half performance), Not Ashton, the real Mike Brown, not the hollow replica they carried with them to NZ

[Sternjaeger]

rugby all the way, much much better than footie!

[FlatSpinMan]

I think so.

I watched part of Japan vs Italy yesterday, too. Impressively, Japan won. They even did well in the scrums, which is impressive against a strong scrummaging team like Italy. I was really impressed at the patience and lack of panic leading up to one of Japan's tries. They were near the Italian goal line, running it up, running it up, running it up. But everyone stayed calm, recycled the ball quickly, built up the pressure, then scored with a fantastic play.

Wow. Could I have used the word "impressive more in that post?

[MiG21bisFishbedL]

rugby all the way, much much better than footie!

Both versions of footie from either side of the Atlantic if you ask me. I caught a Rugby tournament in Vegas not too long ago and rather enjoyed watching it. This would've been a sport I'd have loved in high school. My introduction to it was All Blacks vs. South Africa.

[Mastermariner]

Never could stand that game.

Like watching a "pink" porno in my eyes but its important to many and I recall decades ago when I was chief mate on a British super tanker, one of the biggest ULCCs  in the world, we where coming from Persian Gulf and was just about to round Cape Agulhas South Africa, captain came on the bridge and instructed me how extremely important it was to maintain the minimum distance to shore stipulated by the SA authorities'. No problem, I lay a course way out. Moments later the door banged open and the master was leaning over the chart with ruler and pencil in his hand. New course! He had just found out that there was an important rugby tournament on SA TV and we couldn't receive it if we didn't hug the shore. Which we did.

  

 Master

[FlatSpinMan]

mig21 - there were two epic tests between the good guys and the evil 'boks last year. Not that I am in any way biased. They would have been excellent introductions to the game.

 

Master mariner - there's a man with his priorities right.