Re: Rugby Union Thread
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 3:10 pm
A couple of observations:
Conference A is tougher than Conference B.
The Irish (and indeed the Welsh) teams have a tougher schedule by the virtue of the fact they must play tougher derbies.
The Champions Cup places continue to be a mess with teams being able to finish lower and qualify based on where theyre from.
When you have to play in SA will make a huge difference, you could go from a frozen snow covered pitch one week to playing in 30 degree heat the next.
The SA teams will also likely be strawberry floated come the end of the season with all the travel.
The playoffs could be a nightmare for travel. eg. The Cheetahs last regular season game is at home, then they play in Glasgow for the quarterfinals, then get a home semi final, then the final is in Cardiff. Its an unlikely scenario but its a gooseberry fool load of flying in a 4 week stretch if it does happen.
In my opinion the European leagues play a higher standard of rugby than Super Rugby do, the New Zealand teams and the Lions would do just fine in Europe but the rest of Super Rugby would struggle, so I don't understand how bringing in 2 teams what were deemed not good enough to compete in what could be classed as a lower league is a good move for the Pro 12. I understand its going to bring in more TV money but the big problem Super Rugby has is empty stadiums because you get zero away fans and its impossible to develop a rivalry with a team thousands of miles away. The Pro 12 already suffers from a milder version of this, adding in 2 teams based over 8000 miles away from the rest of the league wont solve this, it will just add to the empty stadiums problem.
Cheetahs fans getting to see Munster or Leinster come to town might sell tickets but will Connacht move the needle down there? What about when the Kings come to Edinburgh, Scottish fans can barely be arsed to watch Edinburgh play anyway, why would they bother to show up to see the worst team in South Africa? The Kings vs Treviso could have free entry and no-one would show up for strawberry floats sake.
I'm definitely intrigued by it as an idea, I love the Pro 12 but its an infuriating league to follow, you have some of the best teams in Europe but the standard is pulled down by the bottom feeders of European rugby. Adding 2 Super Rugby cast offs is unlikely to change that, one thing it will do is provide a comparison point for Europe vs Super Rugby which will be interesting but ultimately of little real value. I want to see the league succeed and as a sport I want to see rugby grow but I don't see this being the right way of doing it, for my money pushing into the larger European markets combined with a semi-pro D2 is a better use of resources.
I didn't agree with the Champions Cup shrinking and smaller teams being excluded from the Challenge Cup, I believe you need to give these teams something to shoot for. Having a proper league structure with German, Spanish & Belgian representative sides alongside some of the bigger Romanian and Georgian clubs in a second tier league with promotion and relegation to the Pro 12 would give these teams a path to top tier competition and do more to grow the game and light a fire under the Italian teams than adding a couple of unwanted southern hemisphere teams.
Of course this, like promotion and relegation in the 6 Nations, will never happen because Georgia, Romania, Germany etc don't bring big money to the table and no-one wants to risk getting relegated from Europes top table just because they have 1 down year. I guess until that mindset is changed we will continue to see those kinds of moves from the Pro 12, including a rumoured push into North America in the next 18-24 months, a place that just saw its own pro league fold without making a ripple. Weird but interesting times ahead for the "Celtic League".
Conference A is tougher than Conference B.
The Irish (and indeed the Welsh) teams have a tougher schedule by the virtue of the fact they must play tougher derbies.
The Champions Cup places continue to be a mess with teams being able to finish lower and qualify based on where theyre from.
When you have to play in SA will make a huge difference, you could go from a frozen snow covered pitch one week to playing in 30 degree heat the next.
The SA teams will also likely be strawberry floated come the end of the season with all the travel.
The playoffs could be a nightmare for travel. eg. The Cheetahs last regular season game is at home, then they play in Glasgow for the quarterfinals, then get a home semi final, then the final is in Cardiff. Its an unlikely scenario but its a gooseberry fool load of flying in a 4 week stretch if it does happen.
In my opinion the European leagues play a higher standard of rugby than Super Rugby do, the New Zealand teams and the Lions would do just fine in Europe but the rest of Super Rugby would struggle, so I don't understand how bringing in 2 teams what were deemed not good enough to compete in what could be classed as a lower league is a good move for the Pro 12. I understand its going to bring in more TV money but the big problem Super Rugby has is empty stadiums because you get zero away fans and its impossible to develop a rivalry with a team thousands of miles away. The Pro 12 already suffers from a milder version of this, adding in 2 teams based over 8000 miles away from the rest of the league wont solve this, it will just add to the empty stadiums problem.
Cheetahs fans getting to see Munster or Leinster come to town might sell tickets but will Connacht move the needle down there? What about when the Kings come to Edinburgh, Scottish fans can barely be arsed to watch Edinburgh play anyway, why would they bother to show up to see the worst team in South Africa? The Kings vs Treviso could have free entry and no-one would show up for strawberry floats sake.
I'm definitely intrigued by it as an idea, I love the Pro 12 but its an infuriating league to follow, you have some of the best teams in Europe but the standard is pulled down by the bottom feeders of European rugby. Adding 2 Super Rugby cast offs is unlikely to change that, one thing it will do is provide a comparison point for Europe vs Super Rugby which will be interesting but ultimately of little real value. I want to see the league succeed and as a sport I want to see rugby grow but I don't see this being the right way of doing it, for my money pushing into the larger European markets combined with a semi-pro D2 is a better use of resources.
I didn't agree with the Champions Cup shrinking and smaller teams being excluded from the Challenge Cup, I believe you need to give these teams something to shoot for. Having a proper league structure with German, Spanish & Belgian representative sides alongside some of the bigger Romanian and Georgian clubs in a second tier league with promotion and relegation to the Pro 12 would give these teams a path to top tier competition and do more to grow the game and light a fire under the Italian teams than adding a couple of unwanted southern hemisphere teams.
Of course this, like promotion and relegation in the 6 Nations, will never happen because Georgia, Romania, Germany etc don't bring big money to the table and no-one wants to risk getting relegated from Europes top table just because they have 1 down year. I guess until that mindset is changed we will continue to see those kinds of moves from the Pro 12, including a rumoured push into North America in the next 18-24 months, a place that just saw its own pro league fold without making a ripple. Weird but interesting times ahead for the "Celtic League".