Rugby - 6 Nations, Heineken Cup, You Can't Beat A Northern Hemisphere Winter!

[Havak]

True - but SANZAR don't want that so it won't happen.

[finbar]

Cheap, obvious and heavy-handed shot aside , no rugby authority anywhere will sanction the return of rucking. Not good for the image of the game, they say, it will scare off the Mums of the world from letting their kids play rugby.

[Havak]

I was aiming for all three - so feel it was a job well done.

Rucking should not scare Mums - scrummaging should. Ask Matt Hampson.

Driving early is very dangerous. Something else Mr Lawrence let go in Paris.

I think we all know the game needs to grow - but if it grows by becoming League (removing all competition for the ball) then it's growing incorrectly for we old crusties surely?

*edit* Hayman to Toulon then. I do wonder how that side are keeping within the new French salary cap?

[kittenOFchaos]

London Irish 38 - Sale 0

So, with Tait and Cueto back we fail to score a single point.

Why should any of the players or coaches collect a wage after achieving that?

Sale are somehow 3rd from bottom. Somehow given Worcester who are bottom have had less scores against and scored more points.

Pfft, we deserve to go down at this rate.

[finbar]

Rucking should not scare Mums - scrummaging should. Ask Matt Hampson.

True. The problem, though, is with the authorities' perception. They fear that the sight of studs landing legally on unprotected flesh will scare the Mums.

*edit* Hayman to Toulon then. I do wonder how that side are keeping within the new French salary cap?

From what I read, the salary cap figure is an average of the three highest team budgets from the preceding (last unlimited) season. Given the unlimited budgets in recent times, the cap figure is substantial.

KoC, if Sale were a racehorse, it would be under a stewards' ban for inconsistent performance.

Saw my first rugby for weeks yesterday. Wasps -v- Irish was entertaining. Irish were stiff. They missed out on a penalty try just as warranted as the one Wasps were awarded. Cipriani, when he came on, mixed very very good with dreadful. How S. Armitage can't get an England gig is beyond me. It's always been beyond me. The kid has extraordinary abilities.

[Havak]

He definitely deserves a run in the shirt. Though the summer tour will be a real tester.

Enjoyed our win over baarf. As I always do when we beat them. Wasps may have overtaken them as our nemesis - but beating Bath is alwasy special for someone from my era.

[finbar]

But back to serious matters. Cracking game last night. Pity there had to be a loser. Leinster did the Irish thing and capitalised on every opportunity, Clermont kicked the game away courtesy of Brock James. Some outstanding rugby from both sides - Heaslip, Malzieu, and BOD's hands should be bronzed and stuck in a rugby museum when he retires.

[kittenOFchaos]

Well, it is becoming increasing likely that Sale will survive

No Welsh, English and needless to say Scottish teams in the semi-finals...

[Havak]

This year there is no more serious matter than who wins the English Premiership for me.

Good to see the ospreys taking the loss so well...maybe they should have brought an extra man on again?

[finbar]

Didn't see the Ospreys game but their response had me s******ing up my sleeve.

Good to see Sale will probably stay up. The relegation system is token anyway. Leeds might stay up this year but Worcester did last year and they would seem to be the losing candidate this year. I really can't see the point of the system.

Tolouse -v- Stade was fascinating. Stade did their best but ultimately were outclassed. They have serious problems, the biggest of which seems to be the team owner. I've seen Mark Gasnier, the Australian recruit from the silly game, half a dozen times now. Nice step, nice hands, but I've never seen an ex-silly game player tackle so poorly. Apparently he's off to the Melbourne Rebels. Stade won't miss him.

When Toulouse applied themselves, they were glorious. Leinster -v- Toulouse should have been the final, but sadly it's not.

[Havak]

You need to get inside the English psyche Finbar. It is fundamentally different to an S14 devotees.

English clubs are not franchises owned by the national Union. They are self administering organisations. If the Premiership were sealed like Super soon-to-be-15 it would be disbarring all clubs from lower divisions from ever playing at the highest levels. They would have nothing to strive for.

I'm not comfortable those 12 sides in the top flight right now have the right to say to all other clubs that you can never join us.

We would have to franchise up for a sealed system to be pallatable here. The Celtic League did this very successfully (he grudgingly admits).

[finbar]

I get all that. I do. All I'm saying is that it does little for the cause of more challenging English rugby if there's a "must not lose" mentality, that which currently dictates too much GP tactical thinking.

[Havak]

I see your thinking. However with nothing on the line will teams truly commit to what are dead rubbers? Doesn't S14 suffer from this a bit?

Thinking of S15 it seems to me Melbourne have signed more UK players than all the other sides put together currently field? Is this simply because Oz cannot staff five franchises from it's player base?

[finbar]

There aren't that many dead rubbers in S14. Top against bottom will always bring a good contest because there's always competition for points and bonus points amongst the top six or eight. It can be a log jam towards the end of the season. And there's rabid competition in the bottom half to stay away from the wooden spoon even if there's no relegation. I'd've thought the same would apply in the GP.

No, there isn't enough talent within Australia to service an extra team. Including Australians playing overseas there might be, if they could be lured back. But the Rebels, because they're a start up, have dispensation on overseas players in order to try to make them competitive from the outset. For obvious reasons. They were even allowed to approach Australian-based players outside the usual negotiating window.

[Havak]

I think the flaw in that logic for me is that whilst the top side might well be pushing for bonus points I simply don’t buy that avoiding a wooden spoon is as motivating as avoiding relegation.

A wooden spoon is just pride – perhaps not trivial to the players – but relegation is a clubs future viability.

It will be interesting to see how Cipriani fares - he still has promise but he is running out of time to fulfil it.