Rugby Union

[mizlaplan]

Originally Posted by DB83

Eddie has, himself, acknowledged that these comments were offensive and has had to apologise.

Of course the Celtic Nations will always have a dig at The English. What else would we do other than discuss the weather

Sorry, only us English can discuss the weather.
It's our thing

[DB83]

No poetry from me today. (Big sigh of relief)

What a weird end to the championship. Of the 3 games, two are lost by the team that deserved to win.

The other ? Well even without the little fella there is still a Saint to shine down.

[pierrelm]

An odd championship; Ireland were comfortably worthy winners in the end, albeit they were a whisker away from defeat in Paris but won at Twickenham without ever being seriously under threat; England lost the most ground and it must be back to the drawing board - farewell to the old stagers and a regrouping and reassessment for the rest. Italy, Wales France and Scotland all have reasons to look forward to better days though - for each of them there was something encouraging.

[george anson]

I think Ireland can have genuine optimism for the future and namely the 2019 World Cup. They can be real contenders to make the final given the current state of other unions.

They have a conveyor belt of young players stepping in and making contributions a tribute to the domestic club scene and the provinces. The others all have to look hard at themselves as they have all fallen far short of where they need to be in particular England will be undergoing a lot of soul searching and a need to find a clinical efficiency in attack which exuded precious little cut and thrust for lengthy periods.

Italy are showing signs of revival under O'Shea with plenty of youngsters blooded and looking more than capable of stepping up like Negri, Minozzi and Boni. Their u20 also did relatively well for the first time in a long while in the u20 Six Nations.

As to the 2019 RWC Spain will be hosting Belgium today this afternoon. Romania face a tricky tie away at Georgia which they will probably lose. This means as Georgia (third in their group at the 2015 RWC) are already qualified Spain will take Europe 2. And Romania will have to face off against Samoa and Canada for two of the three remaining spots.

While in one sense its nice to see Spain return to a RWC for the first time since 1999 I am not that happy. In the past Spain have produced some very decent players like Northamptons Oriol Ripol, Pablo Feijoo and Cesar Sempere. However the current set up consists of four Argentines and many players born in France who were naturalized. It does not sit well with me or indeed Romania adopting an almost all Polynesian backline.

The IRB needs to be firmer in it's nationality rules. I for one support teams like Argentina, Georgia all the more for fielding teams which are nearly always of players produced in the nation. Something certainly has to be done about the way the larger unions for instance scour the PI juniors and hoover up numerous players at u20 level. Australia are rather guilty in recent years.

Portugal set to return to the ERC to take on a rather woeful Germany (all the more surprising given the number of Afrikaaners they picked up) as comfortable winners of the Rugby Europe Trophy ahead of Holland should they beat Poland away next week in a relegation promotion play off.

In South America the URU are considering linking up their domestic clubs names like Old Christians with the major football clubs like Penarol and Nacional in advance of a new South American professional rugby tournament which is set to feature teams from Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. This will provide certainly to players outside of Argentina another level of professionalism to help bridge the gap from their still almost amateur level to the Test arena.

The Americas Rugby Championship was surprisingly won by the USA ahead of Argentina C (effectively u20). Great news in advance of the launch of Major League Rugby destined to start with seven teams in April and to be broadcast on CBS. The teams being Seattle, Salt Lake City, Glendale, Austin, Houston, New Orleans and San Diego with New York (a union hotspot) joining next year with 2-4 Canadian teams.

Again the aim is to provide a route for young North American players to play the sport professionally full time and provide a larger player pool to pick from for national selectors and showcase some of the definite talent there is to European scouts. It is a much needed league and should boost the competitiveness of the national teams there as there will also be an influx of primarily English and Irish coaches.

[ultimatewarlord]

I'd be careful about the Ireland optimism. Last year I was thinking the same about England. As to the Irish youth, they were battered 48-15 in the U20 by England on Friday. Though, to be fair, the first half was very tight. I also hope that Italy have shut down the talk about them being demoted for a while.

[footstep]

Well done Ireland!
We were so near yesterday.
14 13.Better this year . Much better.
Well done Wales.

[Dr Pepper]

All Black legend Fergie McCormick has left us:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/...mccormick-dies

[george anson]

I don't know if anyone watched Spain playing Belgium. The Spanish thought they would win easily and qualify for the World Cup.

The game was refereed by a Romanian who needed Spain to lose for Romania to qualify. Note that the president of European Rugby is Romanian. The Spanish lost the game and there were indeed several dubious calls.

Several Spanish players surrounded the referee. World Rugby ordered an investigation. The ER president resigned, and WR will now have neutral officials in all such matches.

On further investigation Spain, Belgium and Romania were all found to have fielded ineligible players and all have been thrown out of the forthcoming World Cup having also had points deduced. Russia therefore take a spot in Pool A.

Portugal will play Germany in a playoff to see who plays Samoa for the last WC spot. Germany are also in turmoil with the billionaire who bank rolls the development programme there in dispute with the German union and refusing to release players for this match.

Hopefully all the nations involved will realize that importing players is not the long term path to success. Romania now field several Pacific Islanders in the backline while Spain have several French players in the side.

It really is time for WR to tighten regulations as it seems nowadays anyone who spends enough time in a country can turn out for it. And every union barring Georgia and Argentina are guilty of it.

In Super Rugby the most promising thing is the recent performance of the two newest franchises the Sunwolves of Japan and especially the Jaguares. It just shows what a proper coach can do. Step up former hooker and Wallabies scrum coach Mario Ledesma.

He has benched Creevy to an impact role and brought in several of the u20 side who have really flourished. Four away wins in Australia and NZ and a thrashing of the Bulls have sowed great confidence. Much improved defensively and discipline wise the set piece still needs work but Argentina will be a huge threat to England and France in Pool C as they will now also be able to call on their European based players.

Indeed Pool C looks the toughest in which you also have Tonga & the US while Ireland and Scotland in Pool A look to have struck lucky.

[teaktop]

I really like this guys channel
So how good are Leinster?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy8oRRkE55c

[teaktop]

Saturday GMT
New Zealand vs France, 8.30am, SS Action
Australia vs Ireland, 11.00am, SS Action
South Africa vs England, 4.00pm, SS Action
Argentina vs Wales, 8.45pm, Channel 4

Is this too much for the rugby lads? is this flogging the Rugby players too far?