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

thomond2006

Zebre

Is that Treviso's new home jersey? Tbh I liked their hooped one.

PhatPiggins

Ulster

thomond2006 wrote: »

Is that Treviso's new home jersey? Tbh I liked their hooped one.

Wasps jersey is rancid.

Some nice off loading from Treviso throughout that clip.

Beery Eyed

That try from Treviso just after 3mins into the video includes some incredibly good offloading! The build up starts just after 2mins & continues for a full minute of multiple phases & countless passes.

Obviously easier to do in pre-season when defences aren't as committed & the conditions are nice & dry, but still pretty impressive stuff!

CatFromHue

Some of the weekends pre season results (neither of the Scottish teams were playing as far as I know):

Bayonne 15-20 Ulster
La Rochelle 31-7 Munster
Leinster 33-22 Gloucester
Exeter 6 - 8 Connacht

Biarritz 40-3 Dragons
Clermont Auvergne 49-25 Ospreys
Narbonne 17-9 Scarlets
Cardiff 25 - Worchester 30

Treviso 32-15 London Wasps
Zebre 30-28 Northampton Saints

All of the Welsh teams lost though they did have stronger opposition, except for Cardiff, than most other Rabo teams.

thomond2006

Zebre

Narbonne are a mid table ProD2 side so Scarlets will be disappointed with that result, at least in Munster's case La Rochelle should challenge for promotion this year.

freyners

Zebre

great result for connacht, exeter hammered us last year and we sent out a very experimental team containing a load of newcomers (props were academy and sub academy)

thomond2006

Zebre

Ryan Jones out till Round 6 through injury.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_7985145,00.html

Ospreys have cut their squad for this year, I don't think they will have as much depth as before.

bilston

Zebre

CatFromHue wrote: »

Some of the weekends pre season results (neither of the Scottish teams were playing as far as I know):

Bayonne 15-20 Ulster
La Rochelle 31-7 Munster
Leinster 33-22 Gloucester
Exeter 6 - 8 Connacht

Biarritz 40-3 Dragons
Clermont Auvergne 49-25 Ospreys
Narbonne 17-9 Scarlets
Cardiff 25 - Worchester 30

Treviso 32-15 London Wasps
Zebre 30-28 Northampton Saints

All of the Welsh teams lost though they did have stronger opposition, except for Cardiff, than most other Rabo teams.

You probably can't read too much into these games but that's a great result for Connacht. Good win for Ulster too and the Italian sides will be pleased as well.

Disappointing for the Welshies and Munster but for the Celtic teams these are more like high intensity fitness games and the results are fairly meaningless.

CatFromHue

Some other weekend friendly results:

Ospreys 10 - 21 Bath
Worchester 22 - 7 Lanelli
Gloucester 20 - Cardiff 8
Dragons 18 - London Irish 12

Newcastle 21 - 3 Edinburgh
Sale 49 - 27 Glasgow

Treviso 14 - 11 Saracens

ray jay

Let's not forget

Quins 45 - 11 Connacht
Saints 43 - 0 Leinster
Ulster 14 - 14 Leicester
Munster 24 - 9 Bristol

.ak

Zebre

lol.... wut

justsomebloke

Scarlets

do Glasgow and the 2 Italian teams not have main sponsors?

tolosenc

Zebre

Is Glasgow's main sponsor the color blue?

CIARAN_BOYLE

Zebre

justsomebloke wrote: »

do Glasgow and the 2 Italian teams not have main sponsors?

Dunno about Glasgow

Zebre don't have main sponsors or indeed any sponsors on their shirt that I can tell
http://www.newrugbykits.com/2012/08/new-zebre-rugby-jersey-2012-2013-puma-zebre-kits-12-13-home-away-heineken-cup/

Treviso's sponsors are higher up and their player happens to be blocking them from display with knees and arms

Errea, Tim and Textil are the sponsors that should visible
http://www.jmsports.co.uk/store/products/large/1324348802_15249_L.jpg

Think I might sponsor Zebre.

molloyjh

Zebre

tolosenc wrote: »

Is Glasgow's main sponsor the color blue?

Apparently they are searching for the "right fit" in terms of sponsorship. I saw Glasgow supporters even suggesting potential sponsors for them on Twitter. I hope they get that sorted before the start of the season!

thomond2006

Zebre

Secondary broadcasters until January confirmed:

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/schedule.php

totallegend

thomond2006 wrote: »

Secondary broadcasters until January confirmed:

http://www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/schedule.php

Cue howls of outrage from Leinster fans that the first game isn't being shown...

thomond2006

Zebre

It's on S4C, which will have English commentary on the red button.

molloyjh

Zebre

totallegend wrote: »

Cue howls of outrage from Leinster fans that the first game isn't being shown...

I think most of the outrage was that a number of games in the RDS weren't being shown last season. People can understand one or two games here and there. But when a few of your home games that are played near spitting distance from the national broadcasters main site aren't being shown then there tends to be a bit of bad feeling.

Podge_irl

Zebre

molloyjh wrote: »

I think most of the outrage was that a number of games in the RDS weren't being shown last season. People can understand one or two games here and there. But when a few of your home games that are played near spitting distance from the national broadcasters main site aren't being shown then there tends to be a bit of bad feeling.

I imagine its possible some teams may not want their home games televised in an effort to increase attendances?

molloyjh

Zebre

Podge_irl wrote: »

I imagine its possible some teams may not want their home games televised in an effort to increase attendances?

I've never heard that before. I suppose it's possible, but is it not irrelevant also? The television stations are there to provide for their customers, i.e. the viewers, not sporting teams. And not everyone can make the games, especially Thursday or Friday kick offs. Not having it on the tele doesn't change that.

Either way it's not something I'm overly concerned about personally. I'm lucky enough to both live in Dublin and only work down the road from the RDS so I'm not affected by the dates or times of kick-offs. As for away games I have Sky so again it hasn't been an issue. The only game that I couldn't watch either live or on the TV was the Aironi game away last season. I'm just playing devils advocate.

Winters

In some sports league, I cant remember where, a match can only be televised when a certain % of tickets have been sold. It certainly makes some sense. I think it was part of the TV deal negotiated by the league in question. Might be the NFL in the states.

justsomebloke

Scarlets

molloyjh wrote: »

I've never heard that before. I suppose it's possible, but is it not irrelevant also? The television stations are there to provide for their customers, i.e. the viewers, not sporting teams. And not everyone can make the games, especially Thursday or Friday kick offs. Not having it on the tele doesn't change that.

It happens a lot in most sports. In American Football matches aren't shown by local providers so as not to effect ticket sales. I think the same is true for the 3pm saturday kick offs in the English premiership. Setanta were allowed show them here as it wouldn't effect sales but in England neither Sky or ESPN show the 3pm games

molloyjh

Zebre

justsomebloke wrote: »

It happens a lot in most sports. In American Football matches aren't shown by local providers so as not to effect ticket sales. I think the same is true for the 3pm saturday kick offs in the English premiership. Setanta were allowed show them here as it wouldn't effect sales but in England neither Sky or ESPN show the 3pm games

Every days a school day. I wasn't aware of that (I'd heard about the American Football but not the Premiership).

thomond2006

Zebre

Cardiff's Chris Czekaj out for 3 months, another blow to Cardiff with Jamie Roberts already out till Dec/New Year.

thomond2006

Zebre

Stuart Hogg out for 2 months: http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_8014586,00.html

Swan Curry

Sweet Jesus,they're dropping like flies.I think the executives of Premiership Rugby are after putting a voodoo curse on the Pro 12.

thomond2006

Zebre

From a Lions POV, I really wanted to see Hogg burst into action this season, probably at outside centre. Now's he's touch and go for the AIs, dang.

Teferi

Scarlets

Ah disaster! Hopefully he can pick right up where he left off after this injury.

My favourite Scottish player, have had my eye on him for a while and really like him. Hopefully this won't hurt his Lions chances, I'd love to see him get on the tour.