General rugby thread
Discussion
Keith Murdoch - 1972 All Black. If you're in your late 60's that name might ring a bell. I found this rather sad story about him while looking for other NZ info.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-ne...
prand said:
Pleased to see London Irish beat Wasps at the Ricoh yesterday. I gather this was the first away win for them in the Premiership for 26 games!
There's a lot of supporters (including me!) hoping this is a good sign for Irish this season and they hold their own in the Premiership.
Irish have Sale at home next week, hopefully they can make the most of it with Faf De Klerk, Tom Curry and Mark Wilson still away on RWC duty, whereas all of the Irish's Samoan and Fiji players are now available.
Well, De Klerk, Curry and Wilson's absence didn't seem to bother Sale and Irish got thrashed at home 6 tries to 1. There's a lot of supporters (including me!) hoping this is a good sign for Irish this season and they hold their own in the Premiership.
Irish have Sale at home next week, hopefully they can make the most of it with Faf De Klerk, Tom Curry and Mark Wilson still away on RWC duty, whereas all of the Irish's Samoan and Fiji players are now available.
The fear is creeping back again, at least we have England to cheer on at the moment!
So to cheer myself up from London Irish's performance, and to fill the gap before Saturday morning, I watched the Rugby X highlights tonight. 5 a side at the O2 on a half size pitch. International teams in a knockout format.
Didn't seem overly busy, nice to see some fit boys and girls passing the ball around, but didn't really see how this could be better than sevens. And really too simple compared to 15s.
Given the strapping on the players knees it didn't look like they enjoyed going to ground on the artificial pitch either.
Anyone catch this? Will this format catch on? I felt there were too few players on the pitch to attack and defend, making it a bit one dimensional.
Didn't seem overly busy, nice to see some fit boys and girls passing the ball around, but didn't really see how this could be better than sevens. And really too simple compared to 15s.
Given the strapping on the players knees it didn't look like they enjoyed going to ground on the artificial pitch either.
Anyone catch this? Will this format catch on? I felt there were too few players on the pitch to attack and defend, making it a bit one dimensional.
There has been some discussion of this on the Quins fans forum
https://comeallwithin.createaforum.com/general-dis...
They don't seem too enamoured. I have watched some of the ads for this format, can't really see the point. There are a few rugby names promoting this, so I suppose there is some money in it for someone?
https://comeallwithin.createaforum.com/general-dis...
They don't seem too enamoured. I have watched some of the ads for this format, can't really see the point. There are a few rugby names promoting this, so I suppose there is some money in it for someone?
My 12 year old and some of his friends went to see this at the O2 yesterday - they loved it. Interestingly, they thought the women's matches were better than the men's.
If it can bring more kids into the sport then it can only be a good thing, but I suspect it is a bit too much of a gimmick to really catch on.
He said afterwards that it looked more fun than the normal rugby union game and he would love to give it a go - and he has been playing club and school rugby since he was four!
If it can bring more kids into the sport then it can only be a good thing, but I suspect it is a bit too much of a gimmick to really catch on.
He said afterwards that it looked more fun than the normal rugby union game and he would love to give it a go - and he has been playing club and school rugby since he was four!
TNJ said:
My 12 year old and some of his friends went to see this at the O2 yesterday - they loved it. Interestingly, they thought the women's matches were better than the men's.
If it can bring more kids into the sport then it can only be a good thing, but I suspect it is a bit too much of a gimmick to really catch on.
He said afterwards that it looked more fun than the normal rugby union game and he would love to give it a go - and he has been playing club and school rugby since he was four!
I agree about the women's games - pretty good skills and action, the Men covered the pitch too well I felt. And of course the England women won their competition! If it can bring more kids into the sport then it can only be a good thing, but I suspect it is a bit too much of a gimmick to really catch on.
He said afterwards that it looked more fun than the normal rugby union game and he would love to give it a go - and he has been playing club and school rugby since he was four!
If he's 12 he's been pretty much playing the equivalent rugby X for several years, perhaps with 6 or 7 players up . Though at 12 he's probably now moving up 11 or 12 player teams and the complicated elements of scrums. lineouts and kicking for points.
Like introducing the physical elementsof the game (i.e. tackling) and also the more complex rules, I can see this turns off players, especially as you can end up uninvilved in play for a long time. Shorter forms are much better for that, and more attractive to those who want to run about a lot (less so for some forwards I'd guess!)
Will be interesting to see how this takes off.
TNJ said:
My 12 year old and some of his friends went to see this at the O2 yesterday - they loved it. Interestingly, they thought the women's matches were better than the men's.
If it can bring more kids into the sport then it can only be a good thing, but I suspect it is a bit too much of a gimmick to really catch on.
He said afterwards that it looked more fun than the normal rugby union game and he would love to give it a go - and he has been playing club and school rugby since he was four!
From what I can gather, it is pretty much a mixture of U9/U11 rugby with fewer players!If it can bring more kids into the sport then it can only be a good thing, but I suspect it is a bit too much of a gimmick to really catch on.
He said afterwards that it looked more fun than the normal rugby union game and he would love to give it a go - and he has been playing club and school rugby since he was four!
I do see how dumbing down the full 15 game could bring in more players in theory, but in reality Sevens already exists in a pretty much separate bubble, so why wouldn't this? If anything, it strikes me as something which is going to compete with the full game, so seems counterproductive.
I was at the RugbyX last night. It was reasonably busy at points but not packed. Bit of an odd format- essentially beach rugby- and if they want to do it again they probably need to think about a few things.
For example, possession is obviously a massive advantage so to counter that (I assume) restarts were from about 5-10 metres from the re-starting team’s try line. But this meant that if the teams weren’t nearly matched one team tended to score and then dominate. Also the tie-break shootout they use, which decided the women’s final, really doesn’t work: barring any cock up both sides will score almost every time so the “first to three tries” rule just means that whoever starts (the last team to score in normal time) is going to win. It’s pretty anti-climactic.
Still, I was on a corporate freebie so it was a fair night out. Not sure I’d spend my own cash on it though.
For example, possession is obviously a massive advantage so to counter that (I assume) restarts were from about 5-10 metres from the re-starting team’s try line. But this meant that if the teams weren’t nearly matched one team tended to score and then dominate. Also the tie-break shootout they use, which decided the women’s final, really doesn’t work: barring any cock up both sides will score almost every time so the “first to three tries” rule just means that whoever starts (the last team to score in normal time) is going to win. It’s pretty anti-climactic.
Still, I was on a corporate freebie so it was a fair night out. Not sure I’d spend my own cash on it though.
Watch this space. Sarries could be in for a very hard time.
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/saracens-salary-aci...
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/saracens-salary-aci...
Smollet said:
Watch this space. Sarries could be in for a very hard time.
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/saracens-salary-aci...
indeed - could get very tastyhttps://www.rugbypass.com/news/saracens-salary-aci...
phil_cardiff said:
Sarries are financially doping? Well I never.
I suppose Bath will get relegated if hit with something similar. I like Bath btw, but rumours of salary cap breaches are rife.
I just wish we were better at it!!!I suppose Bath will get relegated if hit with something similar. I like Bath btw, but rumours of salary cap breaches are rife.
I know rumours were rife but are rumours still rife?
Who is being paid the big bucks? Louw & Faletau. Who else? Its not exactly the Sarries team/squad!
iwantagta said:
phil_cardiff said:
Sarries are financially doping? Well I never.
I suppose Bath will get relegated if hit with something similar. I like Bath btw, but rumours of salary cap breaches are rife.
I just wish we were better at it!!!I suppose Bath will get relegated if hit with something similar. I like Bath btw, but rumours of salary cap breaches are rife.
I know rumours were rife but are rumours still rife?
Who is being paid the big bucks? Louw & Faletau. Who else? Its not exactly the Sarries team/squad!
Sarries must be close to Racing/Toulon wage levels.
Gassing Station | Sports | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff