RaboDirectPro12 2012/13 General Discussion (with transfers/season preview)

molloyjh

Zebre

Tox56 wrote: »

20 in a row! Wonder if there's a record for that

EDIT: I also see he's leading points scorer (by a long distance), leading marksman (by a comfortable margin) and 1 more try would get him in the top try scorers list... and he's not even first choice in his club! Some season he's having

He's on 6 tries, Visser is on 11.

But yeah 20 in a row is incredible. He's also played in every league & HEC game for us this season (albeit only 1 minute against Exeter in Sandy Park). It's been a pretty amazing season for him all right.

Tox56

molloyjh wrote: »

He's on 6 tries, Visser is on 11.

But yeah 20 in a row is incredible. He's also played in every league & HEC game for us this season (albeit only 1 minute against Exeter in Sandy Park). It's been a pretty amazing season for him all right.

I mean the try scorers list, the guy at the bottom is on 7 tries, another for Madigan and he would be in that list too.

molloyjh

Zebre

Tox56 wrote: »

I mean the try scorers list, the guy at the bottom is on 7 tries, another for Madigan and he would be in that list too.

Ah yes sorry, I get you now.

molloyjh

Zebre

Tox56 wrote: »

I mean the try scorers list, the guy at the bottom is on 7 tries, another for Madigan and he would be in that list too.

Ah yes sorry, I get you now.

thomond2006

Zebre

The BBC picks up on something that could be a real threat to the Welsh regions next season, Cardiff City's promotion to the Premier League: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/22201954

Two Welsh teams in the top flight of football are going to take a lot of media space/hype away from regional rugby, not to mention the effect on attendances.

Podge_irl

Zebre

While Cardiff are preparing to quadruple their revenue from £20m to £80m next season, the city's professional rugby side will be operating on a £3.5m salary cap.

Jesus, really puts it into perspective.

Part of me thinks anyone who has been going to watch the Blues over the last couple of years is unlikely to stop because Cardiff City are in the Premier League. Though I suppose if Cardiff City are bad enough it may fulfil their masochistic desires.

awec

Podge_irl wrote: »

Jesus, really puts it into perspective.

Part of me thinks anyone who has been going to watch the Blues over the last couple of years is unlikely to stop because Cardiff City are in the Premier League. Though I suppose if Cardiff City are bad enough it may fulfil their masochistic desires.

Those aren't the people who are the issue.

It's the floating supporters.

errlloyd

Zebre

Cardiff are going to lose every single game, play like drains and actively push supporters away. This is based on my football knowledge which consists of always "siming" against them in Fifa.

Podge_irl

Zebre

awec wrote: »

Those aren't the people who are the issue.

It's the floating supporters.

I get that. I'm just not sure how many floating supporters the Blues have after a couple years of being useless. I'd imagine a lot of them are hardcore fans. They need to improve their team, I think that's their bigger issue rather than Cardiff City being promoted.

errlloyd

Zebre

The problem is actually 15 years down the line. When you have three sides in the premiership (Swansea, Cardiff and Gareth Bale) you're not losing 18-35 year old supports, you're losing the key constituency of 5-15 year old supporters, players and future stars.

its_phil

errlloyd wrote: »

The problem is actually 15 years down the line. When you have three sides in the premiership (Swansea, Cardiff and Gareth Bale) you're not losing 18-35 year old supports, you're losing the key constituency of 5-15 year old supporters, players and future stars.

That is very true and it is important that Cardiff now use Warburton and Halfpenny as their poster boys just like Bale is now the face of Welsh football. If they can't keep those two, it is only going one way.

Introducing the proposed artificial surface into the Arms Park would be an excellent call too. Would give them a good excuse to constantly play that old school expansive Welsh rugby well with no mud to interfere like it currently does and give their fans some entertainment. Rhys Patchell is an excellent talent too and well capable of spinning it wide from the bits I've seen.

.ak

Zebre

It's funny, a lot of the Pontypridd fans I talked to a while back were saying they stopped supporting Cardiff and started supporting Pontypridd because they felt the level that Ponty put into their game far exceeded what Cardiff do. There's a massive case of why bother supporting a team that doesn't really care about themselves.

Pete_Cavan

Podge_irl wrote: »

I get that. I'm just not sure how many floating supporters the Blues have after a couple years of being useless. I'd imagine a lot of them are hardcore fans. They need to improve their team, I think that's their bigger issue rather than Cardiff City being promoted.

But how can they improve their team if Cardiff City are soaking up all the fare-weather fans, all the sponsorship money in the city and all the media attention. You need money in order to improve the team but the soccer club is now going to take an even bigger slice of that pie. The most worrying thing is that Cardiff City (possibly Cardiff Dragons in the near future) are a club owned by a Malaysian business man who turned their backs on over 100 years of club heritage and ignored the fans when they changed the club colours from blue to red in order to make them more marketable in Asia, yet they get 3 times the average attendance the Blues get!

The Welsh regions seem to think that emulating their brethren with a round ball and getting into bed with a commercial English league will solve all their problems. The truth is that regardless of how much additional revenue they would get from joining the Premiership, it will still be a fraction of what the soccer clubs get so the same problems (the soccer clubs offering a more attractive product to bandwagon supporters, fuelled by foreign millionaires) will remain.

The only way I can see the Welsh rugby regions surviving is if they adopt the Irish system, come in under their Union and become a more grass roots organisation focused on producing local players. They cant compete with the soccer clubs in commercial terms but I am sure there is a large sports fan base available who dont like how commercial soccer is and would get behind a community focused team that represents their city/region istead of merely being a vehicle for already rich people to increase their wealth.

molloyjh

Zebre

thomond2006 wrote: »

The BBC picks up on something that could be a real threat to the Welsh regions next season, Cardiff City's promotion to the Premier League: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/22201954

Two Welsh teams in the top flight of football are going to take a lot of media space/hype away from regional rugby, not to mention the effect on attendances.

slightly off topic, but the Cardiff jersey in that picture is exactly like one of the Irish training jerseys. Puma aren't even arsed varying their designs across different sports. Will be glad to see the back of them.

I'm genuinely worried about Welsh rugby and the knock on effect on the league (and therefore Irish rugby). People talk a lot about how a strong Leinster needs a strong Munster and vice versa. But Irish rugby really does need strong and competitive Welsh regions too. The in-fighting that seems to be going on there at the moment makes a resolution to their issues look a long way off. And in the mean-time they're just getting weaker.

little173

molloyjh wrote: »

slightly off topic, but the Cardiff jersey in that picture is exactly like one of the Irish training jerseys. Puma aren't even arsed varying their designs across different sports. Will be glad to see the back of them.

I'm genuinely worried about Welsh rugby and the knock on effect on the league (and therefore Irish rugby). People talk a lot about how a strong Leinster needs a strong Munster and vice versa. But Irish rugby really does need strong and competitive Welsh regions too. The in-fighting that seems to be going on there at the moment makes a resolution to their issues look a long way off. And in the mean-time they're just getting weaker.

Yes - agree with that, they need to be strong to give the Rabo on going credibility. I suspect though that the regions are going to have a long and difficult battle ahead working out how to proceed. For Cardiff, having the football team in the EPL has major implications but they need to get an artificial pitch and make it a family offering. Rugby is still huge there and has great history.

cruiserweight

Zebre

Warriors are putting on a big push to get a good crowd for tonights game, lots of social media (see video for example) and other advertising. They have sold over 6000 tickets with the capacity being 9000 with the temporary stands in place, the two main stands appeared to be almost sold out when I ordered my tickets on Monday.

I plan on leaving work early to have a few pints before heading to Scotstoun. One of my mates works for one of the sponsors, so if there are spare hospitality tickets left over I might be able to avail of that as well Hopefully they can knock the Ospreys out of playoff contention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulKJYwhDiU4

vienne86

Zebre

cruiserweight wrote: »

Warriors are putting on a big push to get a good crowd for tonights game, lots of social media (see video for example) and other advertising. They have sold over 6000 tickets with the capacity being 9000 with the temporary stands in place, the two main stands appeared to be almost sold out when I ordered my tickets on Monday.

I plan on leaving work early to have a few pints before heading to Scotstoun. One of my mates works for one of the sponsors, so if there are spare hospitality tickets left over I might be able to avail of that as well Hopefully they can knock the Ospreys out of playoff contention

Hmm.....I think I would prefer Ospreys to win this and keep Leinster well clear of Glasgow. I think (and hope) there is a good chance that Scarletts will overtake Ospreys.

errlloyd

Zebre

Considering how kack Glasgow, Scarlets and Ospreys were in Europe (in particular) do you think it's unfair we give the French teams stick for not caring.

They must look at the Rabo and think Ulster, Leinster and Munster are the only ones who give a damn.

Podge_irl

Zebre

errlloyd wrote: »

Considering how kack Glasgow, Scarlets and Ospreys were in Europe (in particular) do you think it's unfair we give the French teams stick for not caring.

They must look at the Rabo and think Ulster, Leinster and Munster are the only ones who give a damn.

I think Glasgow will be a lot better next year. I think they've improved as the season went on and were simply out of the running in their pool too quickly.

Scarlets and Ospreys were both in horrifically difficult pools.

molloyjh

Zebre

errlloyd wrote: »

Considering how kack Glasgow, Scarlets and Ospreys were in Europe (in particular) do you think it's unfair we give the French teams stick for not caring.

They must look at the Rabo and think Ulster, Leinster and Munster are the only ones who give a damn.

Ospreys weren't bad at all, they were just in a terrible pool with Toulon and Leicester. The Leicester-Ospreys game sticks out as a class game from the pool stages for me. Scarlets also had a tough pool with the best side in the competition (Clermont) and the reigning champions. Glasgow have improved over the course of the season but even they had a difficult pool with Northampton and Ulster in it. It'll be interesting to see how they go next season.

who_me

errlloyd wrote: »

Considering how kack Glasgow, Scarlets and Ospreys were in Europe (in particular) do you think it's unfair we give the French teams stick for not caring.

They must look at the Rabo and think Ulster, Leinster and Munster are the only ones who give a damn.

I don't know.

If the Celtic teams did well in the HEC and not in the Pro12, they'd be accused of focusing on the HEC which isn't fair. If they did well in the Pro12 and not the HEC, they'd be accused of not taking the HEC seriously - or just not being able to step up to Euro level. And if they did well in both, people would complain the Pro12 isn't competitive enough, it's impossible to do the double in the T14/Premiership and HEC.

The truth is, there are only one or two teams from each league that have ever had much Euro success - Toulouse, Leinster, Munster, Wasps and Leinster. Others have had their moments (Bath, Northampton, Brive, Stade Francais, Ulster, Cardiff, Scarlets/LLanelli etc.) on and off over the last 16 years.

The only thing that's changed is there seem to be more of the 'mid table' French clubs moving up to that top 'table' with the injection of money, Toulon and Clermont most obviously. It's going to be hard for any Pro12 side to live with that.

errlloyd

Zebre

who_me wrote: »

The truth is, there are only one or two teams from each league that have ever had much Euro success - Toulouse, Leinster, Munster, Wasps and Leinster. Others have had their moments (Bath, Northampton, Brive, Stade Francais, Ulster, Cardiff, Scarlets/LLanelli etc.) on and off over the last 16 years.

Classic Leinster.

yimrsg

Glasgow are 12-3 up against Ospreys with 20 minutes gone. Maitland scored a great try from a kick though. Weir has missed two kicks at goal.

vienne86

Zebre

Glasgow are impressive. Ospreys had sustained attack around Glasgow 22 but came away with nothing. Now Glasgow are on Ospreys 22.

vienne86

Zebre

Another try for Glasgow. Now 19-3.

yimrsg

Ryan Grant's performance in the scrums against Jones has been impressive, he's also managed to bag 2 tries. He's putting his hand up for Lions contention.

Add he cough's up a penalty just after I say he's done well in the scrums.

matthew8

Zebre

Glasgow should get the BP tonight, and maybe against Connacht, which means Leinster may have to chase one down on Sunday.

yimrsg

Alain Rolland bins both Ryan Grant and Adam Jones for their shenanigans in the scrums.

P_1

What's the Glasgow try count now?

vienne86

Zebre

Converted try for Ospreys. Try for Glasgow - that's their bonus point. 27-10, despite Duncan Weir having nightmare with the boot.