Club rugby season ends

Club rugby season ends

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Derek Smith

Original Poster:

45,514 posts

247 months

Sunday 24th April 2016
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After 28 matches the rugby club my son plays for played its last match of the season. We had something of a scratch side, following injuries, and we were playing the team above us in the league and away, so the omens didn't look good.

We lost, by a single point 3 minutes from the end of time.

But an exciting match against an old fashioned rugby club.

I congratulated a couple of their players as they walked from the pitch and had a five minute conversation with them. The team will be relegated at the end of the season, with a 25 point penalty, so we won't play them next season (or the season afterwards, even in the unlikely event they manage to get promoted, as we are going for the top slot in 16-17). Inside the club house afterwards I was talking to some of their supporters about the penalty and instead of moaning about it they were talking about the challenge of the 25 point hit almost as if it will add to the fun of the season.

It seemed like real rugby union.

We've had a tough season. In one match we had three players concussed, one of whom was hospitalised with a broken cheek bone, another of whom was my son, and all by the same player, and the fun went out of it. But play against a team that seems in it for enjoyment as well as victory, and it all changes.

I've got my weekends back as I edit the team videos on Sundays (just finisned) but the feeling is roll on next season.


Kermit power

28,634 posts

212 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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Aha! Just the man I was looking for, as I reckon if anyone knows how relegation works in London South 1 on here, you will! smile

We also had our last match of the season on Saturday, with the boys celebrating promotion by running in the largest winning score in the club's history, but everyone on the day - apparently including themselves - seemed to think that our opponents, Twickenham, had already been relegated.

I'm not so sure, though? Charlton Park also lost without a bonus point, so finished dead last on 20 points, a single point behind Twickenham, who normally would've also gone down, but with the guys being penalised with relegation, wouldn't that mean Twickenham are safe? Trying to figure out a third team to promote from the division below would be a bit of a nightmare!

XCP

16,876 posts

227 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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Not for the poor old Bristol supporters it doesn't! Once again we win the championship by miles and now have to play 4 play off matches to see if we are good enough to be promoted!

Derek Smith

Original Poster:

45,514 posts

247 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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Kermit power said:
Aha! Just the man I was looking for, as I reckon if anyone knows how relegation works in London South 1 on here, you will! smile

We also had our last match of the season on Saturday, with the boys celebrating promotion by running in the largest winning score in the club's history, but everyone on the day - apparently including themselves - seemed to think that our opponents, Twickenham, had already been relegated.

I'm not so sure, though? Charlton Park also lost without a bonus point, so finished dead last on 20 points, a single point behind Twickenham, who normally would've also gone down, but with the guys being penalised with relegation, wouldn't that mean Twickenham are safe? Trying to figure out a third team to promote from the division below would be a bit of a nightmare!
I asked some of those in my club who know everything whether London 1 will lose two or three teams and there was the blank look you get when ex rugby players try and think.

The general belief in my club is that Twickenham will stay up but it is by no means universal. The anti thought is that relegation goes on as normal regardless of the penalty to Medway. This seems unlikely to me, and unfair. After all, if Medway had not bent the rules, things might have been different. The only other time I've known anything similar, the penalised club disintegrated as it hemorrhaged star players as was bottom anyway.

Shame: I've always enjoyed our matches against them. They play hard but there's a great atmosphere. Mind you, I don't enjoy it as much when we lose by one point in the last 3 mins.

Congratulations on your promotion and best of luck next season. We got a point from you at home but you trounced us when we were away.

With any luck we'll be with you next season. We've got some players coming in over the summer - possibly including an international! - and the idea is that we will go for promotion. That's a problem from my point of view as every loss will be a tragedy and every win expected. It takes some of the enjoyment away.

We've had some tough times but still managed 5th. We had three concussed in one match just after mid season, one of them my son. He missed 6 matches and one player had a fractured cheekbone.

On the highest ever score, a couple of seasons ago we were playing another side that had suffered injuries and we were playing a makeshift second team. We got over 100 and my son, the captain, regaled the players to continue trying. He said to the team: Let's try for the club record. His thought was that he wouldn't want the opposition to give up if the boot was on the other foot. As they walked off I asked him what the club record was. He replied, 'I haven't got a clue.'

National League 3 is an expensive option. Grinstead, it seems, are struggling to stay in NL3. I doubt you'll have problems next season if you just want to consolidate your promotion.

All the best,

Derek


Kermit power

28,634 posts

212 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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Cheers Derek!

From my perspective, to be honest, the main thing is if we've got a happy, well performing first XV, then we also get a bunch of happy, well performing mascots from our age groups! hehe

There is indeed talk about it being a massive step up to National 3, so hopefully they won't try to set the sights too high...

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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Depending on play-off results my old club may be joining in National 3. About a decade ago we were in London 1, I was injured most of the year (thank god) as it was the league from hell with Scottish, Richmond, Ealing, plus a few others.

At the time I think Scottish were paying their coach about he same as the total playing budget for all our teams, which admittedly was not a lot. Probably 10 of the previous years team retired after promotion as a lot were early 30s, we didn't so much drop down as detonate out...smile

Kermit power

28,634 posts

212 months

Monday 25th April 2016
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wsurfa said:
Depending on play-off results my old club may be joining in National 3. About a decade ago we were in London 1, I was injured most of the year (thank god) as it was the league from hell with Scottish, Richmond, Ealing, plus a few others.

At the time I think Scottish were paying their coach about he same as the total playing budget for all our teams, which admittedly was not a lot. Probably 10 of the previous years team retired after promotion as a lot were early 30s, we didn't so much drop down as detonate out...smile
Guildford or Tring? smile

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 26th April 2016
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Kermit power said:
wsurfa said:
Depending on play-off results my old club may be joining in National 3. About a decade ago we were in London 1, I was injured most of the year (thank god) as it was the league from hell with Scottish, Richmond, Ealing, plus a few others.

At the time I think Scottish were paying their coach about he same as the total playing budget for all our teams, which admittedly was not a lot. Probably 10 of the previous years team retired after promotion as a lot were early 30s, we didn't so much drop down as detonate out...smile
Guildford or Tring? smile
Well I dont recall Tring shipping 100+ points against Scottish a decade ago..;) So must be Guildford smile

Kermit power

28,634 posts

212 months

Tuesday 26th April 2016
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wsurfa said:
Well I dont recall Tring shipping 100+ points against Scottish a decade ago..;) So must be Guildford smile
Ouch! hehe

Good luck in the play-off..

Smollet

10,465 posts

189 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
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XCP said:
Not for the poor old Bristol supporters it doesn't! Once again we win the championship by miles and now have to play 4 play off matches to see if we are good enough to be promoted!
Ridiculously state of affairs. Otoh Saracens go to the playoffs probably on top and more than likely will emerge as champions again but whereas I really hope Bristol make it I won't shed a tear for Saracens if they fail wo win the title again.

housem

20 posts

135 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
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Smollet said:
Ridiculously state of affairs. Otoh Saracens go to the playoffs probably on top and more than likely will emerge as champions again but whereas I really hope Bristol make it I won't shed a tear for Saracens if they fail wo win the title again.
Out of interest, why?

Kermit power

28,634 posts

212 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
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housem said:
Smollet said:
Ridiculously state of affairs. Otoh Saracens go to the playoffs probably on top and more than likely will emerge as champions again but whereas I really hope Bristol make it I won't shed a tear for Saracens if they fail wo win the title again.
Out of interest, why?
Anything which reduces media exposure of Chris bloody Ashton and his tttish swallow dive thing is an excellent thing. Has no place in rubgy, and it's a right pain in the arse to stop kids doing it on a Sunday morning after he's done it on TV on a Saturday afternoon. tt. irked

housem

20 posts

135 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
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Kermit power said:
Anything which reduces media exposure of Chris bloody Ashton and his tttish swallow dive thing is an excellent thing. Has no place in rubgy, and it's a right pain in the arse to stop kids doing it on a Sunday morning after he's done it on TV on a Saturday afternoon. tt. irked
I don't necessarily disagree with (some of) that. But I am of the principle of the the winner of the league over the season should be the champion (Regardless of whether i like them or not), so Bristol and Saracens and anyone should both receive that. IMO it's wrong to change the principle just because I don't like one club or some of that clubs players.

To keep the interest and generate the income!, by all means create another 'competition' for the Top 4, but the league should decide the champions.

Kermit power

28,634 posts

212 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
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housem said:
Kermit power said:
Anything which reduces media exposure of Chris bloody Ashton and his tttish swallow dive thing is an excellent thing. Has no place in rubgy, and it's a right pain in the arse to stop kids doing it on a Sunday morning after he's done it on TV on a Saturday afternoon. tt. irked
I don't necessarily disagree with (some of) that. But I am of the principle of the the winner of the league over the season should be the champion (Regardless of whether i like them or not), so Bristol and Saracens and anyone should both receive that. IMO it's wrong to change the principle just because I don't like one club or some of that clubs players.

To keep the interest and generate the income!, by all means create another 'competition' for the Top 4, but the league should decide the champions.
For promotion from the Championship, I agree completely. It's a farce that Bristol have been so dominant so regularly but keep falling at the last hurdle, but more importantly, it's a disgrace when they start dicking around with the playoff winner, as they did with London Welsh, so that by the time their promotion is confirmed, they've got no hope of getting a decent squad together. They should just say "winner of the regular season, up you go", or at worst have a single playoff match at Twickenham between the winner of the championship and the bottom club in the Premiership, right after the end of the regular season.

I've got less of a problem with it in the Premiership though, as there's a lot less riding on who actually wins the title, plus the impact of the Six Nations and Autumn Internationals is such on some clubs that the overall winner at the end of the season isn't necessarily indicative of the strongest team across the season to the extent that it would be if, for example, the Premiership followed the Oikball lead and didn't play on International weekends.

And Ashton is still a showboating tosser! hehe

Smollet

10,465 posts

189 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
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Kermit power said:
housem said:
Smollet said:
Ridiculously state of affairs. Otoh Saracens go to the playoffs probably on top and more than likely will emerge as champions again but whereas I really hope Bristol make it I won't shed a tear for Saracens if they fail wo win the title again.
Out of interest, why?
Anything which reduces media exposure of Chris bloody Ashton and his tttish swallow dive thing is an excellent thing. Has no place in rubgy, and it's a right pain in the arse to stop kids doing it on a Sunday morning after he's done it on TV on a Saturday afternoon. tt. irked
Couldn't have put it better myself and also I know one Saracens fan who's done his level best to ps off just about anyone who knows him with his smug attitude. Well it's worked on me. It's got great players and deserves the success it's getting but one person has put me off them for life. Silly I know but that's how I feel.

Edited by Smollet on Wednesday 27th April 11:45

Smollet

10,465 posts

189 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
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Kermit power said:
And Ashton is still a showboating tosser! hehe
He was never like it at Saints. I guess becoming part of something very special changed him. After his perulant kicking the ball away in the HC semi I hope Jones never selects him for England ever again. Fazlet has issues in that department as well. At times he's a nasty piece of work.

Derek Smith

Original Poster:

45,514 posts

247 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
quotequote all
housem said:
I don't necessarily disagree with (some of) that. But I am of the principle of the the winner of the league over the season should be the champion (Regardless of whether i like them or not), so Bristol and Saracens and anyone should both receive that. IMO it's wrong to change the principle just because I don't like one club or some of that clubs players.

To keep the interest and generate the income!, by all means create another 'competition' for the Top 4, but the league should decide the champions.
From what I remember, the clubs were asking for more matches to increase income. The current system, where the normal season can be seen as a qualification for the play-offs, seems as good as any. It also evens things out to a degree. Richer clubs tend to dominate the season but any team in the top four can, on any one day, win. It adds a bit of excitement (although not for me as 'my' team isn't in it), and gives more matches which is a positive for me.

Any competition has rules and regulations.

housem

20 posts

135 months

Thursday 28th April 2016
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Derek Smith said:
From what I remember, the clubs were asking for more matches to increase income. The current system, where the normal season can be seen as a qualification for the play-offs, seems as good as any. It also evens things out to a degree. Richer clubs tend to dominate the season but any team in the top four can, on any one day, win. It adds a bit of excitement (although not for me as 'my' team isn't in it), and gives more matches which is a positive for me.

Any competition has rules and regulations.
Fair point, it's Pros & Cons for me. I certainly enjoy the extra games and the excitement it brings. Just think we should have a 'league' winner. Unfortunately another month and its all over!

XCP

16,876 posts

227 months

Thursday 28th April 2016
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Derek Smith said:
From what I remember, the clubs were asking for more matches to increase income. The current system, where the normal season can be seen as a qualification for the play-offs, seems as good as any. It also evens things out to a degree. Richer clubs tend to dominate the season but any team in the top four can, on any one day, win. It adds a bit of excitement (although not for me as 'my' team isn't in it), and gives more matches which is a positive for me.

Any competition has rules and regulations.
There is an element of farce in the championship though as Bedford cannot be ( and don't want to be) promoted even if they won the playoffs. So if Bedford win I assume no-one gets promoted which is even more silly, when Bristol won the regular league so convincingly.

Kermit power

28,634 posts

212 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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XCP said:
There is an element of farce in the championship though as Bedford cannot be ( and don't want to be) promoted even if they won the playoffs. So if Bedford win I assume no-one gets promoted which is even more silly, when Bristol won the regular league so convincingly.
Add to that the fact that the Premiership boys tried to keep London Welsh out for not meeting criteria such as primacy at their ground at a time when they actually met more of the criteria than some of the clubs already in the Premiership....