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

CatFromHue

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Are they going to be doing the breakdown this season, last year it was only around internationals and HEC games

Nah I think it was much more frequent than that as Setanta have only Rabo, Top 14, and 6 Nations footage so didn't have a show on HEC weekends.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Zebre

CatFromHue wrote: »

Nah I think it was much more frequent than that as Setanta have only Rabo, Top 14, and 6 Nations footage so didn't have a show on HEC weekends.

You are right it wasn't HEC games but a HEC preview I think

Matty is being kept pretty busy in Narbonne

thomond2006

Zebre

Zebre vs Connacht at Stadio XXV Aprile
Referee: Ian Davies (Wales)


Cardiff Blues vs Edinburgh at Cardiff Arms Park
Referee: David Wilkinson (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Sean Brickell (Wales), Jason Langdon (Wales)
Television match official: Neil Ballard (Wales)


Ospreys vs Ulster at Liberty Stadium
Referee: Neil Paterson (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Neil Hennessy (Wales), Phil Fear (Wales)
Television match official: Tony Rowlands (Wales)


Glasgow Warriors vs Scarlets
Referee: Dudley Phillips (Ireland)
Assistant referees: David Changleng (Scotland), Graeme Marshall (Scotland)
Television match official: Jim Yuille (Scotland)


Munster vs Benetton Treviso
Referee: Andrew McMenemy (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Peter Haycock (Ireland), David Keane (Ireland)
Television match official: Sean Flannery (Ireland)


Leinster vs Dragons
Assistant referees: Mark Paton (Ireland), Jonathan Peak (Ireland)
Television match official: Alan Rogan (Ireland)
Assessor: Michael Carroll (Ireland)

I have season match bet on Edinburgh to finish above Cardiff in the table so this is a big 8 pointer!

Looks like Leinster vs Dragons will have no ref!

backawaygo onahead

Dudley Phillips - the mention of that name fills me with rage. That will be some match, Weegies play the least attractive rugby in the league & Dud Do'wrong makes a recipe for disaster, best of luck Scaaaaaaaaaalets.

Ulster have no chance - Neil Patterson, never win when he refs.

Thriller in Italy, go on the Westies.

phog

backawaygo onahead wrote: »

Dudley Phillips - the mention of that name fills me with rage. That will be some match, Weegies play the least attractive rugby in the league & Dud Do'wrong makes a recipe for disaster, best of luck Scaaaaaaaaaalets.

Ulster have no chance - Neil Patterson, never win when he refs.

Thriller in Italy, go on the Westies.

I'd much prefer Dudley than Daivid Wilkinson, hey I'd even take Paterson over him.

freyners

Zebre

dudley philips and McMenemy are easily my two least favoured refs

phog

Disciplinary Hearing - Ian Evans, Ospreys

A disciplinary hearing for Ian Evans, Ospreys lock forward, will be held in Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon. The independent RaboDirect PRO12 Disciplinary Committee appointed is comprised of John Kirk (chairman), Paul Minto (both Scotland) and Dr Barry O'Driscoll (Ireland).

Ian Evans was given a red card by the referee (John Lacey, Ireland), after receiving two yellow cards in the RaboDirect PRO12 match between Benetton Treviso and Ospreys on Friday 31 August.

I didn't see the game or hear why he got the yellow cards but it's great to see a ref have the courage to issue a 2nd card to a player, so often we see the ref bottle it once he has shown the player a card earlier in the game.

CatFromHue

You can see what Evans got his second yellow card for at 1.30 on the clip below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9CW-57WUrg

The "highlights" of the game don't show what he did for the first yellow but on the match review on the Rabo website it mentioned:

"Evans' first yellow card came just two minutes later and knocked the wind out of the Ospreys' sails - the Wales second row sin-binned for a deliberate indiscretion on the floor.

It was typical of the Ospreys' indiscipline in the first half with the visitors conceding four penalties within the first 14 minutes with Burton able to convert two to give Treviso a 9-0 lead"

Evans got his first yellow in the 9th min.

Dan Biggar received a one week ban last season for picking up too many yellow cards. The week he was given the ban was a week the Ospreys had no game so if Evans gets a ban they can't have too many complaints.

.ak

Zebre

How did the Ospreys mess up that opportunity at the end? Open goal stuff.

thomond2006

Zebre

Cardiff Blues:
15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Gavin Evans, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Lewis Jones,
8 Andries Pretorius (capt), 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Josh Navidi, 5 James Down, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Benoit Bourrust, 2 Rhys Williams, 1 Taufa'ao Filise.

Replacements: 16 Marc Breeze, 17 Nathan Trevett, 18 Thomas Davies, 19 Lou Reed, 20 Luke Hamilton, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Thomas Williams.

Edinburgh:
15 Greig Tonks, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 John Houston, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw (capt), 9 Richie Rees,
8 Stuart McInally, 7 Roddy Grant, 6 David Denton, 5 Sean Cox, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.

Replacements: 16 Andy Titterrell, 17 John Yapp, 18 Willem Nel, 19 Perry Parker, 20 Netani Talei, 21 Chris Leck, 22 Gregor Hunter, 23 Sep Visser.

ray jay

I haven't seen any sign of the Breakdown listed on Setanta's schedule. I asked Matt Williams on twitter what the story was but got no response. Does anyone know if it has been cancelled or what? It would be a pity if so.

Risteard

ray jay wrote: »

I haven't seen any sign of the Breakdown listed on Setanta's schedule. I asked Matt Williams on twitter what the story was but got no response. Does anyone know if it has been cancelled or what? It would be a pity if so.

I had also looked up twitter and found some guy that asked Setanta. He put up a few days later that apparently Matt is in Oz for the foreseeable future so no show without him I suppose.

Though I thought he was DOR at some french club. Seems strange that he'd be in Australia.

I'll miss it tbh, is there any other highlights program for the Pro12?

thomond2006

Zebre

The BBC2Wales Scrum V show on Sunday evening/night does highlights but it mainly concentrates on the Welsh regions.

thomond2006

Zebre

It's nice to see a packed ground watching Cardiff for a change.

thomond2006

Zebre

Edinburgh win 19-21 at Cardiff, Laidlaw got a dropgoal on the 78th minute. 1 try for Cardiff (Alex Cuthbert) while Edinburgh got a penalty try and a certain big and fast winger scored as well.

Cardiff missed 2 penalty kicks in the last 10 minutes which proved very costly.

Scarlets are leading 6-18 at Glasgow with 20 to go.

CatFromHue

That's two good wins for Lanelli now. Up next for them are Connacht (a), Ospreys (h), Treviso (a), and Dragons (h) so they could realistically be leading the Rabo before the break for the HEC. They are playing with pretty much their strongest team at the moment so I'm not sure how they can sustain this for the whole season.

thomond2006

Zebre

Clean sweep for the provinces this weekend!

sixy

Zebre

thomond2006 wrote: »

Clean sweep for the provinces this weekend!

Very good to see!

thomond2006

Zebre

2,025 attendance for Zebre vs Connacht, that's pretty disappointing and with Zebre's likely results it probably won't improve.

Only 8,000 went to see Ospreys vs Ulster, it seems it doesn't matter how many Rabos Ospreys win, the locals don't give a ****. Swansea City in the EPL probably doesn't help either. Then again there wasn't much more at the Munster game (some people saying 6-7k) but better opposition will likely get better attendance (I hope!).

durkadurka

There was a great crowd in the RDS tonight. Much more then you'd normally get for a low end rabo game where we have the transition year students out.
The lovely weather brought them out maybe.

.ak

Zebre

durkadurka wrote: »

There was a great crowd in the RDS tonight. Much more then you'd normally get for a low end rabo game where we have the transition year students out.
The lovely weather brought them out maybe.

Plus the Irish Craft Beer festival no doubt helped. The atmosphere around the grounds was great...

Teferi

Scarlets

thomond2006 wrote: »

2,025 attendance for Zebre vs Connacht, that's pretty disappointing and with Zebre's likely results it probably won't improve.

I think that is probably fine or even above expected for a team in their second regular season game ever.

Hopefully they can get a few key wins this year which will help their crowd grow.

DivingBoard

thomond2006 wrote: »

2,025 attendance for Zebre vs Connacht, that's pretty disappointing and with Zebre's likely results it probably won't improve.

Only 8,000 went to see Ospreys vs Ulster, it seems it doesn't matter how many Rabos Ospreys win, the locals don't give a ****. Swansea City in the EPL probably doesn't help either. Then again there wasn't much more at the Munster game (some people saying 6-7k) but better opposition will likely get better attendance (I hope!).

2,025 ain't too bad for the new Italian team but obviously it's not ideal either. Treviso and Aironi's (RIP) average attendance hovered between 3K & 4K.

Surprisingly enough 8K is pretty much spot on average attendance for most clubs in the Celtic League (Ospreys, Scarlets, Ulster & Cardiff Blues all average around that) with the rest below that again.

The two obvious exceptions to the rule though are Munster & Leinster who last year who had an average attendance of 15K & 19K in the Rabo last year.

I think I heard the announcer say there was upwards of 15.5K at the Leinster game on Saturday which will be probably be repeated at the Edinburgh game in two weeks as they'll be giving out the packs for season ticket holders.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Zebre

DivingBoard wrote: »

I think I heard the announcer say there was upwards of 15.5K at the Leinster game on Saturday which will be probably be repeated at the Edinburgh game in two weeks as they'll be giving out the packs for season ticket holders.

That includes season tickets sold whether or not they show up so every leinster game is going to have a minimum attendance of 13.5K

.ak

Zebre

It was fairly full in fairness. The sun helped. I would say it was atleast 80% full.

durkadurka

.ak wrote: »

It was fairly full in fairness. The sun helped. I would say it was atleast 80% full.

Yep normally RDS attendance announcements draw laughter in my corner in the stand but there was genuinely 15k there.

DivingBoard

And as I said, there will be a similar figure for the Edinburgh game when season ticket holders turn up for their packs.

Just to point out - yes, some season ticket holders don't always make it to every game (hosting Zebre on the 1st of December will pay testament to that) but as a whole we still have one of the best attendance rates going for home AND away games.

Let's just be glad we're not Edinburgh where average attendance has dropped to about 2K and which is made all the worse by their stadium holding over 67K...

CatFromHue

DivingBoard wrote: »

but as a whole we still have one of the best attendance rates going for home AND away games.

In the 05/06 season there were 47,000 at the HEC game between Leinster and Munster. The tickets were distributed poorly (I'm a leinster fan but couldn't get one nor could my friends) so the stadium was mostly Munster fans who had worked very hard to get theirs.

For the HEC home games Thomond had a max of 13,200 which was reached for all of their home pool games. Munsters biggest CL attendance was the home game against Edinburgh when they had 9,000. Leinster's home game in the CL against Munster had an attendance of 14,135.

We had some poor attendances at home for some games (Leinster v Glasgow at the start of the season had only 3,700 at it) but all in there was some very good attendance levels for Leinster historically. It's just that one game that was very high profile that created an unfortunate myth.

Winters

DivingBoard wrote: »

Let's just be glad we're not Edinburgh where average attendance has dropped to about 2K and which is made all the worse by their stadium holding over 67K...

Its only one match but Edinburgh have started this season well with 4,000 at home versus Munster. On a few occastions last season they used the East Stand as it is opposite the TV camera and closer to the pitch. Is that still the case?

Attendances have risen in Scotland over the last season, helped by Edinburgh's run in the HEC and Glasgow's good showing in the league. Glasgow's first game in their new Scotsdoun Stadium had over 4,300 in attendance which is fantastic. In my opinion Scottish rugby has turned a corner in terms of attendances at Pro12 matches, not a success story yet but certainly not in decline any longer.

Hagz

Scarlets

Josh Strauss has signed for Glasgow
http://planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_8071527,00.html