RugbyRebels

switchskier wrote:

Sandydragon wrote:

switchskier wrote:
Well they will be if there are games in South Africa.

I'm in favour of the move. There's a real risk that the game comes to resemble rugby league which struggles to expand beyond its two heartlands in northern England and eastern Australia. With the money in England and France and the crowds that they can actually draw the game here and in Wales is in real trouble if something different isn't tried. I don't have any better ideas so if they can make it work then bring it on I reckon. Barely any away fans travel as it is (barely any home fans turn up sometimes) so I just don't see why this is an issue.

I'd love to see a GB and Irish competitions, with multiple pro leagues. But given the strength of the English clubs, that wont happen anytime soon. I have read that the 2 conferences will ensure that derbies continue. Im not sure how that is going to happen exactly, there too much conjecture at the moment.

Yes, the RFU isn't going to let anyone else in anytime soon, doesn't make sense for them.

I believe that the idea is to have two Irish, two Welsh, one Scot, one Italian and one South African in each conference. Your team plays the other teams in their conference twice (12 games), the team's in the other conference once (another 6 games) and then an additional derby game against a team in a different conference (17 games). Playoffs at the end to determine the overall winner. What I have no idea about is how the conferences are determined or what is judged to be a derby game.

I get why people are sceptical and think that the organisation could easily go very wrong but quite frankly I'd back myself to get it organised in two months (work would be pretty unhappy if I couldn't manage something that straightforward) and they'll have known that this was on the cards for some time.

Scenario above still means losing a derby for the welsh and irish teams as you're only playing one of the other conferences' sides once. Welsh JSG met with Martyn Phillips who assured them there would be the same number of derbies in the new format.

A derby game is obviously a game from the same nation. Easy for Scotland, Italy and SA with only two representatives. Less so for Wales although if you were going to split them they are Ospreys-Scarlets in the west and Blues-Dragons in the East... and even less so in Ireland I would have thought.

Tom English reckons possibly 3 derby games!

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40653822

Would be good if the third one was on some sort of super weekend away, like in rugby league. Everyone plays one match over the course of 2 days at a suitably large stadium.

According to some bloke on another forum I read, the conferences are as follows:-

Munster, Ospreys, Glasgow, Kings, Connacht, Cardiff Blues and Zebre in conference 1. Leinster, Scarlets, Edinburgh, Cheetahs, Ulster, Dragons and Treviso in conference 2.

Mind, in another forum I read that the teams have until 10/8 to agree something or the SA teams are getting binned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/ ... confirmed/

Announcement possibly tomorrow...

I hate this idea. Edit: I hate the application of the idea.

- Conferences suck donkey dick.
- Uneven number of games
- Playing one team 3x for non welsh/irish teams
- "Please note: To maintain competitive balance the Conferences will be reset each season based upon rankings from the previous campaign." But are happy for a "7th" place to be decided on points? Why not a play off?

Here's a video to explain as well...

Edinburgh to host the weeg twice next season. Weeg ST holders to get into the 3rd game for free.

Big D wrote:I hate this idea. Edit: I hate the application of the idea.

- Conferences suck donkey dick.
- Uneven number of games
- Playing one team 3x for non welsh/irish teams
- "Please note: To maintain competitive balance the Conferences will be reset each season based upon rankings from the previous campaign." But are happy for a "7th" place to be decided on points? Why not a play off?

I just plain hate the idea. For the sake of enough money for 1 very good player we've chucked everything in the air and made the league unfair.

Lots of gnashing of teeth in Wales (and how terrible is it that the Welsh seemingly had to have their teams named at the top of each conference) about the loss of the derbies. I find this ironic considering it's only a few years since we heard similar complaints from the principality about artificial between provinces that they had no allegiance to.

It looks about as expected. Condense 2 is probably the slightly weaker but that was always going to come down to which one got the dragons versus the blues.

I suspect once games get started then we will notice very little difference from last year but with the occasional oddity of games against South African teams. I think that most fans think about their side and the next game up mostly and the Celtic league/random direct/mangers/pro12 has always been a bit of an artificial mongrel. Basically if the quality of individual games is high enough then punters will come along to watch and the only change there is playing two games a season on hard pitches in the sun plus the strength of the new opposition. Let's face it they can't be worse than the Italians or Edinburgh have been the last few years.

Ive always been sceptical of the idea but think this could work well enough. Slight unfairness but not ridiculous and think it is fair to rejig the conferences every year. Hopefully the SA teams are good enough

switchskier wrote:Lots of gnashing of teeth in Wales (and how terrible is it that the Welsh seemingly had to have their teams named at the top of each conference) about the loss of the derbies. I find this ironic considering it's only a few years since we heard similar complaints from the principality about artificial between provinces that they had no allegiance to.
.

where?

Eugene Wrayburn wrote:

Big D wrote:I hate this idea. Edit: I hate the application of the idea.

- Conferences suck donkey dick.
- Uneven number of games
- Playing one team 3x for non welsh/irish teams
- "Please note: To maintain competitive balance the Conferences will be reset each season based upon rankings from the previous campaign." But are happy for a "7th" place to be decided on points? Why not a play off?

I just plain hate the idea. For the sake of enough money for 1 very good player we've chucked everything in the air and made the league unfair.

500k is a significant sum to Scottish and Welsh teams though so I can see why they did it. It is around 8-10% more than last years budgets for Edinburgh and Glasgow. I think Glasgow and Edinburgh have probably benefitted from "hometown discounts" when Hogg (reportedly 375k) and Nel (reportedly 325k) signed up, but player wage increases will see that 500k go quite quickly. Last year John Dodson reckoned the SRU were seeing what he described as wage inflation as being 25%.

That 500k may come in handy if Glasgow want to encourage Russell to stay.

*If 1/2p is worth 500k then Hogg is worth a good chunk more than 375K IMO.

See 1/2p is going to the scarlets, will be interesting to see if he can cope with being asked to be an attacking full back and fill the Sanjay hole

He can still run like Christian Cullen in his prime, but Gatland and the Toulon guy apparently haven't wanted him to do that, so he hasn't.

Anyone know who will be the official broadcaster now?

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Think that remains as is. I'd guess it would be Supersport in SA.

General Zod wrote:Think that remains as is. I'd guess it would be Supersport in SA.

Think the Calendar will be quite interesting.

Rumoured fixtures if true have the cheetahs away to Ulster and munster weeks 1 and 2.

Kings away to scarlets and westies.

Week 3 has Kings at home to Leinster and zebre @ cheetahs.

The S.A. sides have been shite. Watch then sort their shit out in time for our sides!