Can somebody please summarize these northern club tournaments and the qualifications to get into them…eg how does another South African team qualify?
Captain49,914 posts
28 Mar 2022, 20:32
#1
28 Mar 2022, 20:32#1
Request
Started by Mozart6 REPLIES888 VIEWS· 28 Mar 2022, 20:32
Pro4,532 posts
28 Mar 2022, 22:19
#2
28 Mar 2022, 22:19#2
Qualification into the Champions Cup from the URC is determined as follow. The winner in each of the 4 Shields (Irish, Welsh, Scottish/Italian, South African) will automatically get a qualification into the Champions Cup.
As it stands now that would be Leinster in the Irish Shield, Ospreys in the Welsh Shield, Glasgow in the Scottish/Italian Shield and the Stormers in the South African Shield. The remaining 4 places would be determined by league finishing position, assuming all the shield winners are within the top 8.
However if it was to finish now, the Sharks who are 8th and above the Ospreys in 9th would miss out on final the Champions Cup place as Ospreys as the Welsh shield winners would be given the Sharks place instead. Unfair but this stipulation came at Welsh insistence, as they feared the South African teams would take all their qualifying spots (looks like they where right too)
The remaining teams in the URC that don't qualify for the Champions would instead play in the second tier European competition which is called the Challenge Cup.
Qualification is also seeded so the higher up you finish in the league table the better seeded you will be and thus less likely to face the strongest teams from the URC, England and France in the group stages.
As it stands now that would be Leinster in the Irish Shield, Ospreys in the Welsh Shield, Glasgow in the Scottish/Italian Shield and the Stormers in the South African Shield. The remaining 4 places would be determined by league finishing position, assuming all the shield winners are within the top 8.
However if it was to finish now, the Sharks who are 8th and above the Ospreys in 9th would miss out on final the Champions Cup place as Ospreys as the Welsh shield winners would be given the Sharks place instead. Unfair but this stipulation came at Welsh insistence, as they feared the South African teams would take all their qualifying spots (looks like they where right too)
The remaining teams in the URC that don't qualify for the Champions would instead play in the second tier European competition which is called the Challenge Cup.
Qualification is also seeded so the higher up you finish in the league table the better seeded you will be and thus less likely to face the strongest teams from the URC, England and France in the group stages.
Captain26,388 posts
28 Mar 2022, 22:20
#3
28 Mar 2022, 22:20#3
Hopefully...your friend StavAnger knows...I think he said the top SA side automatically qualifies...I don't know how many spots their are from the whole of the URC, but it would be nice if more SA teams could qualify.
Edit: Thanks Stav...that's good news.
Captain49,914 posts
29 Mar 2022, 21:04
#4
29 Mar 2022, 21:04#4
This is the same ‘group logic’ that ruined Super Rugby. But thanks for that info Anger.
Pro3,695 posts
30 Mar 2022, 17:27
#5
30 Mar 2022, 17:27#5
Spot on, ja, they were hoping the Cheetahs could enter the Challenge Cup but was turned down.
But also, don't forget that the French and English were moaning that Leinster had an easier season when they were winning the competition on a regular basis due to having fewer games in the season and less congestion, but the french and English have bigger leagues, so it would never be an equal amount of games.
But, SA could take up at least 3 of the other spots if they can recruit better players to strengthen their team, but we had a terrible start to the season, but lets hope we can continue to win our home games and get more teams into the champions cup.
Would be great to watch one of our teams play Saracens or an English team here in England.
But in all honesty, I agree that this conference system is a farce. The same thing happened to Super Rugby
Especially when Australia insisted on having at least one Australian team in the finals.
The welsh are pulling the same stunt and so is Italy and Wales.
The Champions Cup and Challenge cup is where the real money is for these unions. Not the league
Pro4,532 posts
30 Mar 2022, 17:45
#6
30 Mar 2022, 17:45#6
Yeah it would more straight forward and fairer if the 8 qualifiers for the Champions where simply the top 8 finishers in the league and the shield system was done away with. Of course if one Welsh team sneaks into the top 8 then its all fine and the Shield will make no difference, but as it stands it looks like one of the SA teams will get shafted.
Captain26,388 posts
03 Apr 2022, 08:07
#7
03 Apr 2022, 08:07#7
The last six weeks are going to be interesting, many of the top teams plaing each other.
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