General Rugby Discussion II

BonnieSituation

swiwi_ wrote: »

One of the strongest arguments I’ve heard to date for not moving the 6N.

My own personal mental calendar, until the recent stupid changes, started on the day after the All-Ireland football Final and went from there... and the period where the NFL, LOI, Allianz Leagues and 6N coalesce is a glorious few weeks of the year.

BonnieSituation

OldRio wrote: »

Utterly fascinating interview with Stuart Barnes on OTB on YouTube. I wish it had been for a lot longer to be honest.
Highly recommended.

Here's the link anyway on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5K6wHTFsyc9mLS6xfan5kq?si=rqr6YzuISJSkPYsYxWjx3Q

swiwi_

Buer wrote: »

So World Rugby are meeting today to discuss the global calendar. I'm cautiously optimistic as to the outcome.

From the reports, the potential line up of the season could look something like this:

January - April: Club rugby with the T14 potentially starting before Christmas due to the length of their season (similar to how their season goes longer and starts earlier as it stands)
May - June: Six Nations/Rugby Championship
July - August: Completion of domestic tournaments
September - October: The summer and autumn internationals condensed into a single, prolonged window.
November - December: Off season

If the above came to pass, it would mean the Six Nations is delayed by 3 months and the Rugby Championship is brought forward by 3-4 months.

The European domestic season would play in July and August which it hasn't before and, with the Rugby Championship now interrupting Super Rugby, they would potentially need to start in late January and play well into August to complete their seasons.

It also puts to bed the notion that all the movement would be done on the part of the northern hemisphere. There would be a fair bit of movement on both sides of the table.

I think overall it would benefit the game. Some will undoubtedly push back but I hope it comes to pass. The current approach just isn't conducive to teams playing each other at their peaks with lopsided matches taking place and exhausted teams flying to another hemisphere to face teams which are at peak performance. This, as we all know, is the actual reason Ireland has never won a test match in NZ.

The domestic season would receive a boost, I think. It would have a sustained run where the focus would be purely on club rugby without the interruption that the November tests provide. Interference from national set ups would potentially be reduced and the profile of leagues such as the Pro14 would benefit, to my mind. The media spotlight would remain more focussed on club rugby for that period.

It would also be of benefit to the non-test players. If the season finished at the end of August and resumed in January, that gives a 4 month off season which is massive. That would give a whole extra month for these guys to recover without playing any matches.

I think the 6N move would upset tradionalists who believe the Febraury/March window to be sacrosanct but I have very little issue with moving that to late spring. I've no love for these matches being played in muddy, wet conditions or, in rare cases, being under threat of postponement due to snow or frozen pitches.

They also need to incorporate a plan for the RWC. The RC is run on a reduced format to accommocate the tournament every 4 years. Would this be the case again and, if so, there's no way the 6N would accommodate this too. The knock on being that players would be flogged for everyone to keep their slice of the pie.

And it went nowhere.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/300035469/world-rugbys-radical-plans-for-restructured-season-fail

Tigerandahalf

The 6 Nations in February was always something to look forward to during a dark January. You always had an audience too as people would be staying in.

If they move to May/June the games will probably need to move to later kick offs as people will be outside enjoying the better weather.

Clubs might see greater numbers attending with the better weather and the possibility of hanging around the grounds pre and post match.

You have nothing in November, December and January then though except soccer. Players might be happy to be off over Xmas.

Competing with the GAA and European/WC soccer around June though is very risky especially if it went behind a paywall. People would have plenty of sport to watch on fta tv.

Moving the Rugby Championship to the same slot as the 6 Nations might be better. It wouldn't be competing with the AFL then. For rugby in Australia they would be better playing from Oct to April when the AFL is in off season.

A lot of figuring out to be done.

salmocab

swiwi_ wrote: »

And it went nowhere.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/300035469/world-rugbys-radical-plans-for-restructured-season-fail

There’s just too many stakeholders, it’s hard to see an agreement.

Buer

OldRio wrote: »

Utterly fascinating interview with Stuart Barnes on OTB on YouTube. I wish it had been for a lot longer to be honest.
Highly recommended.

Listened earlier. Brilliant and only about half of it was on rugby. Really interesting guy.

Podge_irl

OldRio wrote: »

Utterly fascinating interview with Stuart Barnes on OTB on YouTube. I wish it had been for a lot longer to be honest.
Highly recommended.

Significantly more broad-ranged than I expected. Quite interesting.

molloyjh

swiwi_ wrote: »

And it went nowhere.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/300035469/world-rugbys-radical-plans-for-restructured-season-fail

No surprise. If you take the Premiership as the mid-point between the P14 and the T14, they would need to run every week without stop from the first week in Jan to the 3rd week in August to complete their season (including Europe). Due to the number of KO games, you would effectively have the last 9 games of the regular season played without any internationals due to the 6 Nations. The run-in would be cheapened and damaging. And that would apply to all leagues. There is no way any of the leagues would accept that. Nor should they.

The number of games in the club calendar in the NH hemisphere demands overlap with the international calendar, and that overlap has to be spread out to avoid a whole chunk of the season being reduced to second fiddle.

I know some would argue that we play too many games and should look to reduce them, but reduce the games we play and we reduce our revenues. And now more than ever that is not a runner.

CatFromHue

Is the juice from a global season worth the squeeze?

For me anyway the problems that arise from it aren't worth the solutions it'd bring.

Playing the Autumn and June Internationals in one block in September and October isn't going to work very well and people will lose interest. I think you'd have to have get rid of one month of them to keep them interesting and alternate yearly who gets to be the home teams. That then has a big affect on the money brought in to keep the game going.

Former Former

They were never going to get agreement on one Zoom call. It isn't necessarily dead yet.

But as noted above, it's not really clear what problem they're trying to solve and whether all this upheaval is worth it.

aloooof

This is pretty incredible:

https://twitter.com/edjenx/status/1272499301667700736

Joe Columbo

Summer Rugby season would be a poor move in my opinion and the COVID 19 lockdown has proven this.


Because the lock down started from around St Patricks day and that is essentially the time when the weather starts to get better and you end up spending more time outdoors and watching less television it's massively reduced the impact of no sport on TV.


Had the lockdown occurred from October onwards it would have made a much bigger impact as that's the TV watching part of the year and more spectator sports are needed at that time of year.



Rugby and Soccer during the winter time gives you something to look forward to during the time when you can't be outside as much and are more likely to watch games in the winter time than during the summer time.

AbusesToilets

CatFromHue wrote: »

Is the juice from a global season worth the squeeze?

For me anyway the problems that arise from it aren't worth the solutions it'd bring.

Playing the Autumn and June Internationals in one block in September and October isn't going to work very well and people will lose interest. I think you'd have to have get rid of one month of them to keep them interesting and alternate yearly who gets to be the home teams. That then has a big affect on the money brought in to keep the game going.

Aligning the season to remove club/ international overlap has to be a priority. The Majority of conflict in the game stems from that. They probably need to reduce the number of club games, Top14 season for example, is absolutely ridiculous. Barely ends before the new one starts.

thomond2006

Former Former wrote: »

They were never going to get agreement on one Zoom call. It isn't necessarily dead yet.

But as noted above, it's not really clear what problem they're trying to solve and whether all this upheaval is worth it.

WR are pushing for the 10 Nations at least.

Clegg

https://twitter.com/guardian_sport/status/1273271513408512000?s=19

Bazzo

Don't want to ask in the super rugby thread cuz I'll probably spoil it on myself. Does anyone know when the match from this morning is being repeated on sky sports later today or tomorrow (or even Monday)? At work today so won't be able to catch it

connemara man

Bazzo wrote: »

Don't want to ask in the super rugby thread cuz I'll probably spoil it on myself. Does anyone know when the match from this morning is being repeated on sky sports later today or tomorrow (or even Monday)? At work today so won't be able to catch it

2

Bazzo

connemara man wrote: »

2

Still in work at 2 unfortunately. Any time after 6?

Yeah_Right

Bazzo wrote: »

Don't want to ask in the super rugby thread cuz I'll probably spoil it on myself. Does anyone know when the match from this morning is being repeated on sky sports later today or tomorrow (or even Monday)? At work today so won't be able to catch it

Just had a quick look. Didn't see any replays on the tv guide. Should be on catch up tv tonight or tomorrow.

lawrencesummers

Stephen Jones has picked his lions squad, and he’s defiantly looking for a reaction from this side of the pond.

His only Irish inclusions are Chris Farrell, John Cooney, Furlong, Porter, James Ryan, Henderson, Dan Leavy.


No Ringrose, Henshaw, Aki, stockdale, larmour, CJ, Conway, Sexton, Murray....

The only think I reckon has right is marking Itoje for captain.

thomond2006

He's a grifter. I wouldn't pay any attention.

sydthebeat

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Stephen Jones has picked his lions squad, and he’s defiantly looking for a reaction from this side of the pond.

His only Irish inclusions are Chris Farrell, John Cooney, Furlong, Porter, James Ryan, Henderson, Dan Leavy.


No Ringrose, Henshaw, Aki, stockdale, larmour, CJ, Conway, Sexton, Murray....

The only think I reckon has right is marking Itoje for captain.

Nothing at all surprising from SJ.

If anything the inclusion of farrell and leavy just goes to show how fanciful of a selection it is.

Also, duhan VDM as a wing bolter before he's played a minute of test level rugby?

They guys good, and very good on a flat track in the Pro14, but he's a long way currently from being a lions contender

Former Former

There are some odd selections but it's certainly not anti Irish. Given the national team performances over the last 12 months, seven Irish Lions would be a good return.

Clegg

Chris Farrell is an odd one seeing as he's miles behind Ringrose in the pecking order and Henshaw appears to be second choice 13.

sydthebeat

SJ is wedded to the idea that in order to beat the South Africans we simply need the largest bodies on the field

lawrencesummers

sydthebeat wrote: »

SJ is wedded to the idea that in order to beat the South Africans we simply need the largest bodies on the field

The English approach again so.

these articles are only being done to create noise and reaction.

Buer

None of those omissions are majorly controversial. Obviously it would be a big surprise if they all came to pass but there's not really any real shockers in isolation.

bilston

I don't think I've ever been less enthusiastic about the prospect of a Lion's tour next year than I am right now.

From an Irish POV, I don't think we could say that any Irish player would definitely start the test matches.

However we may still get a few touring, and once on tour who knows what will happen.

irishbucsfan

The man once picked Dan Hipkiss over BOD. His opinions on rugby are utterly worthless, he hasn’t a clue. Any value he can add is purely from reporting, but recent times has shown he’s pretty incapable of doing that without making a fool of himself as well.

If people just ignored him he might be replaced with someone with something more to add.

bilston

Clegg wrote: »

Chris Farrell is an odd one seeing as he's miles behind Ringrose in the pecking order and Henshaw appears to be second choice 13.

Chris Farrell is a pretty random selection