Too much rugby, Dave. How many more times do you need to hear it. The guys are playing non-stop for 12 months now. Somewhere you gotta rest your key players.
Too much rugby, Dave. How many more times do you need to hear it. The guys are playing non-stop for 12 months now. Somewhere you gotta rest your key players.
I thought when a global season was introduced, it would mean all countries would not play rugby for like 3 months per year.
Instead, it has turned into a 12 month season. It is pretty boring watching players that are not club standard put in dismal performances.
Yeah it's become a little farcical. The Investec tournament strikes me as being too big. Too many teams involved, too many mismatches, too many nothing games, too many B-sides to facilitate the long season. Slap in 10 top sides in a competition and I'll maybe get excited again. This is just mass production for mass consumption at the moment.
Yes, too diluted - a bit like what happened to SuperRugby, after it changed from 12 teams.
Having 2 tournaments running at the same time is also confusing for the viewer, and must be hard to plan as a coach. Do you focus on the weaker tournament, or do you focus on the more difficult tournament.
It is nice to have one tournament conclude before the next one starts.
My problem with this is that the fucking stupid SA coaches are prioritising the wrong competition. It’s obvious that the Champions Cup carries far more bragging rights than the URC. Fuck me beating French, English, Irish and Scottish clubs is the measure.
So if you want to rest players rest them in the URC - especially when it comes to all those local URC derby’s we have at home
Nothing will convince me that the URC should take preference over the Champions Cup and therein lies my problem
By fucking useless Plumtree sending a B side to compete in the Challenge Cup, he is effectively saying he has no interest in his side playing in Champions Cup next season. What a crap attitude
By fucking useless Plumtree sending a B side to compete in the Challenge Cup, he is effectively saying he has no interest in his side playing in Champions Cup next season. What a crap attitude
Who gives a shit about the Challenge Cup, it's a tournament for the teams that weren't good enough to qualify for the Champions Cup or came second last in their Champions Cup group.
The only reason you would target the Challenge Cup is as a back door for Champions Cup qualification. Sharks don't need that this year. URC is far more important to win than the stupid Challenge Cup, where its very common to see B sides from all the nations. So Plum tree was justified in his choice.
I can respect Jake White for fielding a strong team in their match. But assuming they win next week against Edinburgh, that will mean a 5 week tour of the north, that may come back to bite the Bulls in the ass in the tail end of the season.
Yes the Champions Cup should be the priority but you can see its being given increasingly less priority by the English and French teams as the years go by. It needs to be rejigged. The format needs to more understandable and the tournament better marketed in South Africa.
The old format was great. 5 Groups of 4. 3 home and away matches. Top 5 teams qualify and the 3 best runner ups. Straight into quarter final none of this last 16 shit. Reduce the number of qualifiers from each league to 7 from the Top 14, 7 from the URC and 6 from the English league (its a joke that 8 out of 10 teams qualify)
Geez - in order to get back into the Champions Cup you need to win the Challenge Cup so of course the Challenge Cup is important - fuck sake
What are you talking about, the normal way to qualify for the Champions Cup is by finishing in the top 8 of the log in whatever domestic league your playing in. The Sharks are in 4th currently and are pretty much guaranteed a top 8 spot at this point (they will likely finish 4th)
Whoever wins the challenge cup simply takes the place of 8th place team of whatever league they are playing in if they winner of the challenge cup is below that 8th placed team and out of qualification spots.
If the winner of the Challenge Cup is already in the top 8 of their league, then it makes zero difference.
This is basic stuff, how do people not know this at this point. The Challenge Cup is purely there to give weaker teams the same amount of games as the stronger teams get over the course of the season. It's a token tournament.
Ok cool thanks for clarifying that - so let’s exclude the Challenge Cup unless you need to win to qualify for the Champions Cup
My issue still lies with teams prioritising the URC over the Champions Cup
A competition lacking English and French clubs is far inferior to one that includes them - that is beyond debate
My issue still lies with teams prioritizing the URC over the Champions Cup
That's fair enough.
A competition lacking English and French clubs is far inferior to one that includes them - that is beyond debate
Well yes, I do think teams should prioritize the Champions Cup over the URC, but the URC Is developing into a pretty fine competition as it stands that's well worth winning.
The problem is the Champions Cup is declining in relevance, we have some English, French and South Africa teams fielding weaker teams in as they prioritize their domestic tournament's over it.
The format needs to change, to make the tournament more elite, like it use to be.
Agreed
Definitely needs to change. Let’s start with chucking the SA teams out ;)
Shut up Becs - comments like that is why everyone hates the English
Gotcha Becs is teasing I bet :)
I'd take that becs. Wish we were back in Super Rugby.
I knew Saffolk would bite ! Ha ha ha !
Yes Rooinek, I miss Super Rugby too.
Well Becs, I look forward to you continuing your role as agitator on this forum. Don't disappoint us now.
Chill Dave, they are in the B league, they've dropped out of the Cup and have no chance. No point in progressing as the SA teams can't host home games and will have to play all their games abroad. Jake didn't field his strongest team either but I don't think he knows his best team either.
I said it before, we need to take a break from Feb March and April when the 6 nations are on and start our season 6 weeks earlier. I always want to see 2 more teams added to the SA shield and we can convert our shield to the curry cup. So all the other provincial teams play for qualifications from June onwards and then qualify to join the URC teams. They will play from Sept to December and we can have a semi and Final like we use to have. I would also ask the URC for SA teams to play all their home and away games first against other SA teams and then plan for a 3 month tour up north, allow teams to base themselves in one place and remove the need for travel up and down. SA can then host incoming teams..
I think that is the best for all of our teams
Would be nice to see the cheetahs play again
Disagree, the less derby games the better, it’s boring seeing the Sharks vs the Bulls etc - I’d much rather see our sides playing against foreign clubs
We can leave the Currie Cup as the comp for derbies
Our stupid provincial sides just need to get their priorities right and place greater emphasis on competing well in the more prestigious Champions Cup than the URC.
Our sides should be sending B sides out to play in the URC fixtures against Welsh and Italian clubs when they want to rest their A team
players.
There seem to be far less Champions Cup games than URC ones so our sides should be giving the Cup their all and navigating the URC based on the opposition you are up against each week
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Have selected some half baked side for their game tomorrow
Whats the point