URC 2024/25

Ben Bailey

Stormers 13 pushed Chay Mullins to ground & mysteriously a gap appears for SFM

Jacovs

Just keeping an eye on the score. Minute left, 34-29. Connacht attacking.

Jacovs

****. 34-34. Try on the hooter. Kick to go for Connacht.

Jacovs

Justice.

niallm77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123371352#Comment_123371352

Conor Murray to r92 to.replace La Garrec

Podge_irl

That table is absurdly tight. I think Connacht are probably out of it. But I would not feel comfortable at all in judging who makes the top 8 from the remaining teams.

Ciaran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123372977#Comment_123372977

Connacht have three winnable games left, I wouldn't rule them out yet.

Homesick Alien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123372977#Comment_123372977

There's also absurdity in the points difference column. Benetton in 5th with - 51 and Edinburgh in 11th with +24

niallm77

Only 21000 at the double header in Cardiff yesterday but over 40000 sold for Bristol v bath there in a few weeks.

Podge_irl

More people live in Bristol than Cardiff and its fairly close. Plus obviously locals might go to both.

But yeah it's not a great look.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123372977#Comment_123372977

Predictions:
Top 4 will be: 1 Leinster, 2 Glasgow, 3 Bulls, 4 Sharks
5-8 will be: 5 Stormers, 6 Munster, 7 Benetton, 8 Cardiff
9-12 will be: 9 Edinburgh , 10 Connacht , 11 Ulster , 12 Lions
Bottom 4 will be: 13 Scarlets, 14 Ospreys, 15 Zebre, 16 Dragons

There are a lot of table-turning matches though so the confidence beyond predicting the top 5 is low.

For the provinces, the probabilities of making the final 8:
Definite - Leinster are realistically home and dry,
Likely - Munster need 2 wins from 3, and are likely to do so with Cardiff a possible win and then 2 matches at home.
Unlikely but possible - Connacht need 3 wins, must beat the Lions away in Round 16, then Edinburgh and Zebre at home. Any try bonus points would help also. It's certainly still possible.
Unlikely but possible - Ulster need 2 wins, and probably need a couple of bonus points. Sharks at home in Round 16 is must-win, then one of the last two rounds, away to Munster or away to Edinburgh. I'd fancy to beat Edinburgh with 4 tries to make the final 8 hopefully.

With a bit of luck all 4 provinces could make it into the top 8.

Sets the scene for an absolutely massive weekend next weekend for Round 16!

So the mission for the provinces for Round 16 is:

Leinster need to batter Scarlets away to keep them as far down the table as possible.
Munster need to beat Cardiff away on Friday evening to leapfrog them in the table and push them as far down as possible.
Connacht absolutely have to beat the Lions to stay alive in the fight to make the top 8 for playoffs & Champions Cup qualification.
Ulster have a huge task to beat Sharks at home, but it would set them up nicely to then probably only need 1 more win and a couple of bonus points to make the top 8 for playoffs & Champions Cup qualification.

URC Round 16 is shaping up to be a cracking round of matches.

Friday evening, Munster away to Cardiff, 7:35 p.m. (Prem Sport & TG4)
Saturday, Connacht away to Lions 3 p.m. (Prem Sport & TG4), Leinster away to Scarlets 5:15 p.m. (Prem Sport & RTÉ), Ulster at home to Sharks 7:35 p.m. (Prem Sport & RTÉ).

niallm77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123373935#Comment_123373935

Edit that should have said 28, not 21

icdg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123371394#Comment_123371394

No word on that but I’d say if it continues it probably won’t be available in Ireland any more.

Premier’s current deal is a wholesale deal with Sky - it doesn’t have any relationship with TNT other than that Sky have a similar wholesale deal with them and have chosen to bundle them together as Sports Extra. Both deals are somewhat unusual in that they give Sky all wholesale rights in Ireland (there is a sublicense to Virgin). There is still no word as to whether that arrangement will continue for the next FAPL rights cycle and to be honest if both deals are renewed (and they may already have been) there’ll probably be no “announcement” per se things will just continue as they are.

Unfortunately more recent news out of Premier is talking down the prospect of Premier Rugby being launched in Ireland in the short term which is a pity because they are suffering from major congestion most weekends (unless either football or rugby is on an international break) as a result of having more rights than they can broadcast in their two channels. UK viewers have the third channel and the player service none of which is available Ireland.

PMC83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123375325#Comment_123375325

I'm hoping if we can't get the Premier rugby channel then URC tv continues. I've been watching Premier Sports via Now but Now itself can be flakey at times. Whatever update they have recently released simply wont work on my fire tv, so it leaves me on the Tablet.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123374199#Comment_123374199

One thing I would say about your predictions, both Munster and Ulster need 2 wins from 3 at a minimum but they play each other in round 17 so the likelihood of both making the top 8 is slim

spillit67

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123375325#Comment_123375325

I'd say that is just to do with their carraige deal coming up. There's no doubt with this recent announcement that it is on the cards.

I suspect Ireland is probably half the market for this given the popularity of rugby here.

icdg

I’d like to hope that is the case. Something really needs to be done about Premier’s congested schedule. There are rights they have (the Top 14, Japan Top League, and MLR among them) that are getting barely any coverage here because their weekend schedules are simply too congested.

niallm77

Adam beard is leaving the osprey

niallm77

Jake ball back to the scarlets

https://twitter.com/_AlexBywater/status/1915105366498578556?t=pEy87O-otb3Q4Di6lnkpWA&s=19

icdg

Round 16. Just two more weeks after this. Unfortunately this round gets hit by a particularly congested weekend at Premier. The Zebre match has been moved to Friday to avoid a clash with the Pope’s funeral.

Friday 7:35pm

Glasgow v Bulls Prem 2

Cardiff v Munster TG4 BBC Two Wales Prem 1

Zebre v Edinburgh (Delay, Prem 2, Sat 11pm)

Saturday

3pm Lions v Connacht TG4 Prem 2

3pm Ospreys v Dragons (Delay, Prem 1, 2am)

5:15pm Stormers v Treviso (Delay, Prem 1, 12 midnight)

5:15pm Scarlets v Leinster RTE2 Prem 2

7:35pm Ulster v Sharks RTE2 BBC Two NI Prem 2

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123384600#Comment_123384600

URC TV (and presumably premier player in the UK) will be showing Zebre V Edinburgh live

Red Silurian

Premier Sports & URC.pdf

Found on another boards.ie thread, press release from Premier Sports on the URC coverage

The word "exclusive" appears a lot in terms of fixtures

• 21 Exclusive Irish fixtures (presumably 1 in each of the 18 rounds and 2 in another 3 rounds)
• Six exclusive interpros (half of them)
• 98 exclusive non-Irish team fixtures
• Exclusive coverage of '26 and '28 final
• Exclusive coverage of select QF and SF games

Reading between the lines URC TV is probably for the chop

Cookiemunster

Premier Sports Ireland will show every Irish game. Those listed above are the ones that won't be on TG4. It means nothing for URC TV.

icdg

I think there are probably two other things that are more ominous for URC TV:

The fact that it hasn’t been mentioned in the press releases regarding renewal of the rights.

And the fact that RTE is out as a rights holder. They are the operators of URC TV.

Now it’s possible they’ll keep operating URC TV without being a rights holder themselves (just like Premier for LOITV) but in the current deals URC TV isn’t allowed sell subscriptions in the UK and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that gets extended to Ireland in this new deal.

Podge_irl

As long as they keep URC TV for abroad. It has been a godsend for me.

Exclamation Marc

I can't see URC TV going away. A large number of people these days don't have Virgin Media or Sky TV. Also on URC TV website it notes that:

"The Season Pass subscription will auto-renew at full price pre the September 2025 season. You can opt-out of auto renewal at any time within your My URC TV account."

From that, you can assume it's going nowhere.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123387847#Comment_123387847

I doubt the abroad element will go anywhere just yet, although Florugby now have the US rights after a year of URCtv. I suspect that's where the Irish rights are going

niallm77

Glasgow have a few big players missing and it shows. They would do well to get TBP win from here and they absolutely have to get a 5-0 win here or else the Bulls can nab 2nd.

niallm77

Bulls 12 ahead after 57 min. If it stays this way the leinster only need a few match points tomorrow to guarantee top spot

niallm77

Glasgow Have woken up