Genuine question.. Is there any precendent for a professional team being sent to an away game in season without having the senior coaches with them?
Apart from when coaches are unavailable due to suspension, or illness/personal reasons, has there been any precedent for this?
So many games in the final round carried meaning for the knockouts.
Even Ospreys v Cardiff had meaning for the Welsh shield.
#bestleague
QFs confirmed to be
Leinster Sharks
Glasgow Munster
Ulster Connacht
Stormers Bulls
nothing.
It is, that's why it would be a perfect place for the Welsh to be.
The premiership is gash too. There's a couple of decent sides and thats it.
My favourite part is the Welsh fans who still claim the league isnt good you find only ever watch the Welsh teams play...probably answered their own question there.
Should just join the GP as its a standard where they might actually stand a chance of winning a game or two...but I dont see why the GP would want them either.
Thank god for the South African teams.....they have really brought some excitement to this league....
The Welsh have been a disgrace.
Wrong thread
Dragons beating Scarlets at the moment. Bad season for Welsh regions alright
The 1st 4 are set. Today will be interesting viewing. Ulster have come back strong since the lapse! Fair play to them. They have turned it around.
Lions 50-30 Zebre
10 to go
Doesn't matter how the results go today the top 4 is finalised (Leinster, Ulster, Stormers, Glasgow), most games won is the first deciding factor if teams finish on the same points so Munster can't finish ahead of Glasgow, but still a fair bit to play for in the bottom 4.
Bulls (7) v Leinster (1)
Sharks (8) v Munster (5)
Glasgow (4) v Connacht (6)
Looks like the Benetton player was choking his teammate
This is 100% a red card for Roos. Drives the player head first into the ground with force. Referee got it badly wrong by just giving him yellow.
Roos has done this a few times in the past before too. Remember he did the same thing to Harry Byrne last season and pussied out when a Leinster prop got in his face after.
The coach with the best nickname in rugby
Only the good Dai Young
Complaint from staff of the club is the rumour
Toulon is probably the best example you'll find anywhere. They were in ProD2 when Boudjellal bought them, and had been bouncing up and down from that level for years prior to that. Their last success prior to his spending spree was 1992.
they had a chance. 10-season chances actually, mor if you include Aironi. Never worked.
But the fact is it is not a URC state. Don't think Brive, Perpignan, Oyonnax, Worcester, Newcastle are really better not "progressing".
Only La Rochelle, Exeter, and on a lesser extent dare I say Connacht, moved from poor to good team
The URC doesnt have the luxury of dropping teams if they're awful. Start doing that and you could conceivably see them going after a US team again. Zebre might not come good anytime soon but removing them would ensure they never have a chance.
Zebre are muck. Just when I think they're getting somewhere, they crap the bed
Dragons are strange. Decent squad, probably poor coaching? All the regions have been poor. Dragons are pretty good at being awful.
If we have really bad teams in the URC I'd prefer they come from 6N unions rather than SA. At least there is some development of the game in Europe involved.
Fir actually gives the same funding to both teams despite only owning Zebre.
Benetton have about double the matchday income as Zebre and funding from the Benetton family as extras.
Whatever you want to say about Zebre on the field, they are a stable entity with sustainable financial backing. The URC is not in a position to be throwing out any team that meets those criteria. Besides, the Italian union (owner of Zebre) is an equal partner in the league. They're not going anywhere.
The one thing about all the agreed upon changes in Welsh rugby is that there will be a period of onboarding throughout which major decisions may not happen.
As close as Zebre have come to a few wins this season, 1 win in two years just isn't good enough and there needs to be a serious conversation happening there as it's diminishing the league.
Yeah, there was a lot of talk about that potential Ealing - Ospreys merger, but it seems to have fallen away, and apparently the Welsh have been told it isn't happening. Logistically, you'd think they'd really need to get cracking quickly to have that side in the URC next season.
Whatever about Zebre, if the Italian Union insists on having them then fair enough, and they may eventually win a few matches, but the Welsh Union are probably in more danger of losing one of their regions, so we may need another team from somewhere. Maybe Ealing Trailfinders would join with Ospreys or one of the other regions and solve that one though.
Nah, disagree. You'd end up with a scenario where there's only one club side in Italy - a huge, growing market actually in Europe.
It would exacerbate the travel issues team have by adding even more games in SA to the calendar, and strengthen the argument for SA in the Six Nations, something I wouldn't want to see happen.
Benetton are privately owned. Zebre are union owned. The Benetton group are richer than the FIR.
Is it a conscious decision by the FIR to load Benetton so as to have one competitive team and leave Zebre with the dregs or is it just a failure of their academy, coaches etc.?
It would surely be in the best interests of Italian rugby to have a meaningful rivalry with big derby matches.
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