Guinness Pro14 Season 2018-2019

AbusesToilets

Former Former wrote: »

A perusal of boards.ie/rugby wouldn't endear the Irish to many people either.

Ahh, there's a fair gulf in the sentiments. Any board like this will have fans who crow about their team and overestimate them. Gwlad is far more toxic, even allowing for different approach with respect to moderation. I've never seen the naked hatred and bigotry expressed here that is a regular occurrence there.

There's a strong cohort who blame all rugby ills on the IRFU and their supposed Mandarin influence over the game. Refs fixing results, colluding to control the game etc etc.

troyzer

molloyjh wrote: »

troyzer wrote: »

I did read that article (before it was shared here) and it does seem to be somewhat more self critical than most. But there are legions of Welsh fans out there who parrot their English counterparts in decrying Ireland's supposed super salaries without a cap. As if Leinster are Toulon. They genuinely think that's why they keep getting battered and until they wake up and smell the coffee, things aren't going to better.

The reason why Welsh rugby is in a financial black hole is because the WRU are incompetent. It's as simple as that.

I don’t think it’s quite that straight forward really. The provinces have a massive financial advantages because the WRU haven’t managed that end well. But the influence of the clubs over there is huge and the resistance to the regions in some areas isn’t something the WRU could really do much about. The whole thing is a bit of a clusterf*** really.

But the idea that the league is a major issue is a massive stretch IMO. It’s another excuse is all it is. Sure they can’t remain competitive in the P14. If the competition were any tougher they’d be properly screwed. In fact one way to make the co petition tougher, and possibly force the hands Olin the IRFU to change their approach, is to have more competitive teams from Wales. Glasgow and Edinburgh are making a fist if it. Even Benetton are now too. Cheetahs could be a major player in the next few years if they can get the funding and players in place. If the Welsh could get 2 teams consistently conpetitive that would have a huge impact on the league. But that’s on them to sort out. Not everyone else.

It's not like Ireland is this financial titan with no issues. We have problems that would give the WRU nightmares.

For starts, Connacht has about 11 people in it and only 1 of them watches rugby. Ulster have a lot more but basically half of the province is ideological entrenched in their opposition to the sport and the culture they think it represents.

Leinster is a juggernaut but it too has huge issues with perceptions of elitism and the difficulty in expanding beyond its heartland.

Munster is just too competitive with all of the other sports and will always struggle with this.

Wales have the advantage of a GAA like grassroots and genuine widespread support that crosses generations and class. And they've still ****ed it up.

Former Former

molloyjh wrote: »

Ah stop, it’s not anywhere near that bad here. Some of the provincial sites might be, but this place tends to be a lot better.

That's because you post here all the time.

Imagine you were a (for example) Scottish guy who thought that all Irish rugby fans were arrogant w**kers. And you came on here looking for posts that corroborate that; it wouldn't take long to find exactly that.

Keep in mind, if you're a first-time viewer, you can't distinguish the diehards from the seagulls, the serious posters from the trolls, you can't tell a dyed-in-the-wool Munster man from a dashingly handsome and urbane Leinster fan.

If you took every post on boards.ie at face value, do you honestly think it would be hard to find whatever you needed to back up your pre-exsting opinion?

We all need to get over the idea that we're great and the Welsh are bastards.

thomond2006

Gatland works miracles in fairness. I read that Welsh regional funding is up in the air even for next season. Compare this to the system Schmidt gets to work with.

I hope Wales can sort it out. The Pro14 could be very competitive if you had 2-3 teams consistently at around playoff standard. If English ringfencing does happen then they'll have no choice but to row in behind Celtic rugby.

thomond2006

Glasgow Vs Connacht and Ospreys Vs Munster on Friday. Two big Conference A games.

troyzer

thomond2006 wrote: »

Gatland works miracles in fairness. I read that Welsh regional funding is up in the air even for next season. Compare this to the system Schmidt gets to work with.

I hope Wales can sort it out. The Pro14 could be very competitive if you had 2-3 teams consistently at around playoff standard. If English ringfencing does happen then they'll have no choice but to row in behind Celtic rugby.

The word on Gwlad is that the new banding has been finalised and all that's left is some paperwork.

But as part of this, they're proposing that the Ospreys are broken up and put a new team in North Wales instead.

molloyjh

Former Former wrote: »

That's because you post here all the time.

Imagine you were a (for example) Scottish guy who thought that all Irish rugby fans were arrogant w**kers. And you came on here looking for posts that corroborate that; it wouldn't take long to find exactly that.

Keep in mind, if you're a first-time viewer, you can't distinguish the diehards from the seagulls, the serious posters from the trolls, you can't tell a dyed-in-the-wool Munster man from a dashingly handsome and urbane Leinster fan.

If you took every post on boards.ie at face value, do you honestly think it would be hard to find whatever you needed to back up your pre-exsting opinion?

We all need to get over the idea that we're great and the Welsh are bastards.

The reason I post here all the time is because it’s better than the likes of Leinsterfans, a place I used to post in all the time but no longer bother visiting because of the constant BS.

I mean if all people want to do is confirm an opinion they already hold then of course they can find examples of that kind of posting here. In fact they could find it anywhere at all. This is the Internet after all. But that would be them coming in with a predetermined view and ignoring what doesn’t already fit that view. It wouldn’t be a fair or balanced reflection on this forum though.

I don’t think any of us have called all Welsh supporters anything tbh, although my negative experiences with them pre and post matches far exceeds my positive ones unlike any other rugby nation. But there are so many articles taking shots at the league when part of the reason the league isn’t as competitive as it could be is down to the Welsh themselves. People are going to react to those in the same way they react to daft articles here.

awec

troyzer wrote: »

I did read that article (before it was shared here) and it does seem to be somewhat more self critical than most. But there are legions of Welsh fans out there who parrot their English counterparts in decrying Ireland's supposed super salaries without a cap. As if Leinster are Toulon. They genuinely think that's why they keep getting battered and until they wake up and smell the coffee, things aren't going to better.

The reason why Welsh rugby is in a financial black hole is because the WRU are incompetent. It's as simple as that.

I’d bet you Leinsters wage bill is not a kick in the arse away from the likes of Toulon.

The IRFU likes to paint a picture of being paupers. Bollocks. Leinster are a team packed full of internationals. Must surely be one of the highest wage bills in all of European rugby.

Eod100

awec wrote: »

I’d bet you Leinsters wage bill is not a kick in the arse away from the likes of Toulon.

The IRFU likes to paint a picture of being paupers. Bollocks. Leinster are a team packed full of internationals. Must surely be one of the highest wage bills in all of European rugby.

Not exactly a similar comparison then. Of course having IRFU contracted players will increase the wage bill. Bit different from players brought in to Toulon to only play Top 14.

troyzer

awec wrote: »

I’d bet you Leinsters wage bill is not a kick in the arse away from the likes of Toulon.

The IRFU likes to paint a picture of being paupers. Bollocks. Leinster are a team packed full of internationals. Must surely be one of the highest wage bills in all of European rugby.

We'll never know really. But Toulon have a wage bill of something like €15m. I honestly doubt Leinster are close to that. A figure of something like €8-9m was thrown around a while ago.

CatFromHue

8-9m seems roughly right.

Say if you had 20 guys on 350K that's 7 million, 10 guys on 100K that's 1 million, and 10 guys on 30K that gives you 8.3 million.

Sexton and one or two of the big names will be more than 350K but some of the others won't so averaging over the squad the above could be the way the squad is broken down.

molloyjh

Even if (and it’s a huge if) we were comparable to Toulon in that way it is a completely useless comparison to make. Most of our senior squad are only available to us when the IRFU allow it. That’s far from the case with Toulon.

errlloyd

Matteo Minozzi signed by Wasps. Blow for the league.

thomond2006

errlloyd wrote: »

Matteo Minozzi signed by Wasps. Blow for the league.

Ugh that sucks. He's the kind of player the FIR should tie down.

Eod100

errlloyd wrote: »

Matteo Minozzi signed by Wasps. Blow for the league.

They won't be signing Savea then. Not sure if that was more speculation than anything though..

Exclamation Marc

This is so gross. Glad he got a ban.

https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella/status/1098238114940760065?s=19

Buer

Jesus Christ. What a dirtbag.

Although I am genuinely surprised they gave him 13 weeks.

Former Former

13 WEEKS?!!! I mean, it's gross and he absolutely deserved a ban, but the panel said:

“It is difficult to imagine how an act of foul play of this sort could be worse, save for repeated acts or where actual injury is caused.”

What are they smoking? He got 26 weeks reduced by 50% for a clean record. The day after Henderson got away with neck-rolling a guy onto his head.

That's incredible

www.pro14rugby.org/2019/02/20/decision-of-disciplinary-hearing-nico-lee-13-weeks/

Buer

I suppose there is precedent. Jermoe Fillol spat into Stringer's face before and copped 14 weeks.

It's a very unique situation that's utterly disgusting. I'm just not sure how it sits along acts of genuine foul play and malice. We've all seen lesser bans handed down for eye gouging, for example.

Squidgy Black

Former Former wrote: »

13 WEEKS?!!! I mean, it's gross and he absolutely deserved a ban, but the panel said:

“It is difficult to imagine how an act of foul play of this sort could be worse, save for repeated acts or where actual injury is caused.”

What are they smoking? He got 26 weeks reduced by 50% for a clean record. The day after Henderson got away with neck-rolling a guy onto his head.

That's incredible

www.pro14rugby.org/2019/02/20/decision-of-disciplinary-hearing-nico-lee-13-weeks/

Robertson McCoy stamped on VdF's head intentionally, and got 12 weeks, which was then reduced to 6.

Yet somehow they say someone blowing their nose onto a player is twice as bad and they couldn't imagine a worse act of foul play.

It's completely disgusting, but compared to physically harming someone.

Mind blowing.

typhoony

Former Former wrote: »

13 WEEKS?!!! I mean, it's gross and he absolutely deserved a ban, but the panel said:

“It is difficult to imagine how an act of foul play of this sort could be worse, save for repeated acts or where actual injury is caused.”

What are they smoking? He got 26 weeks reduced by 50% for a clean record. The day after Henderson got away with neck-rolling a guy onto his head.

That's incredible

www.pro14rugby.org/2019/02/20/decision-of-disciplinary-hearing-nico-lee-13-weeks/

it's just stupidity, a moment of madness. but apart from that I think that a 4 week ban would have been enough. I mean I've farted in the wife's face in the past and only received a 1 week ban so there you have it.

Eod100

Buer wrote: »

Jesus Christ. What a dirtbag.

Although I am genuinely surprised they gave him 13 weeks.

Awful and deserves a ban but thought you might not even get that length of ban for eye gouging say. Disgusting thing to do and that's him gone for rest of season. Do bans carry into start if next season? Cheetahs season likely to be over end of April

Buer

Eod100 wrote: »

Awful and deserves a ban but thought you might not even get that length of ban for eye gouging say. Disgusting thing to do and that's him gone for rest of season. Do bans carry into start if next season? Cheetahs season likely to be over end of April

Cheetahs final game is on April 27th which is in 10 weeks. But I imagine they'll try to work it such that the remainder of the ban is served during the Currie Cup, if he's in the Cheetahs squad to play in that competition? The Currie Cup is being moved to an earlier point in the year in part to avoid the clash between the Pro14 and Currie Cup for the later rounds.

Squidgy Black

Buer wrote: »

Cheetahs final game is on April 27th which is in 10 weeks. But I imagine they'll try to work it such that the remainder of the ban is served during the Currie Cup, if he's in the Cheetahs squad to play in that competition? The Currie Cup is being moved to an earlier point in the year in part to avoid the clash between the Pro14 and Currie Cup for the later rounds.

The statement says he won't be eligible to play until the 21st of July.

Buer

Squidgy Black wrote: »

The statement says he won't be eligible to play until the 21st of July.

His ban must run through the Pro14 playoffs so because that's the opening weekend of the CC.

Eod100

Squidgy Black wrote: »

The statement says he won't be eligible to play until the 21st of July.

Yeah just spotted that: ''The committee took into account the rugby calendar for the rest of the season and for domestic fixtures in South Africa, and as a result, the player is banned for a period of 13 games and is free to play from midnight on Sunday, July 21, 2019.'' Only 6 regular seasons left in Pro14 so guess rest takes account of Currie Cup games

AdamD

As disgusting as it is, dangerous tackles/hits should be copping bigger bans than incidents like this.

arsebiscuits1

AdamD wrote: »

As disgusting as it is, dangerous tackles/hits should be copping bigger bans than incidents like this.

Punching and stamping should.

Dangerous tackles are often accidental or reckless.

This is someone consciously and deliberately snot rocketing in someones face.

This is not acceptable behaviour in any circumstance.

Stone Gossard

arsebiscuits1 wrote: »

Punching and stamping should.

Dangerous tackles are often accidental or reckless.

This is someone consciously and deliberately snot rocketing in someones face.

This is not acceptable behaviour in any circumstance.

Nobody is saying it's acceptable...what people are saying is that deliberate and gross acts of violence against a player get lesser bans....and that isn't acceptable either

sydthebeat

fcuk him, no sympathy......