General Rugby Discussion 3

Don’t think it’s been discussed on here- but supposed to be a lot of grumbling down South about France’s decision to not pick their strongest squad to tour NZ next summer during the Lions tour.

The French have said they won’t select players who play in the Top14 finals.

Not wholly inconsistent behaviour from the French who never seem to pick strong squads for summer tours, but I get why the Kiwis are frustrated.

NZ should respond by simply opting not to play the French in November windows for a few years.

Yeah, that’s it for me.

It is brilliant for the French how strong financially their game is, but there needs to be a bit of give and take here. Some unions are financially in relatively poor position.

It is very tough to sell these games out if it’s a largely second choice French side.

It’s not an inconsistent decision with what they’ve done in the past, and I know their hands are tied by the clubs to a certain extent, but it still feels a bit selfish and ****.

There's an argument that a lot of the financial and schedule issues in the game are directly tied to the French. The Top 14 is such a dominant force, it really impacts everyone else massively

I guess there was always going to be some fallout from their sheer capitulation last week versus the Lions.

Ross Thompson is a fairly tidy player IMO - when I saw him moving there I thought at the time it would be a challenge for Healy to stay ahead of him.

Eligible for ireland 3 years after last international cap for scotland

Any place to download

'Chasing The Sun 2'

PM if anyone has a link

Ronnie Dawson of Wanderers, Leinster, The Barbarians, The Lions and Ireland.

May he rest in peace

Can't say I really agree with their reasoning. They talk a lot about player safety, but they also state that there's not sufficient evidence to say one way or the other. Surely there are stats to say whether the 20 minute red card has an adverse affect on player safety based on the trials that have taken place so far? Are there even stats to say that player welfare has improved with the bar lowered for red card offences concerning head contact? At the very least, there should be stats to show that the 20 minute red card results in a huge jump in the number of offences, due to players knowing the punishment isn't as severe.

Maybe there are stats out there now, but I couldn't see anything when I last looked. Judging from the n=1 sample size of Leinster v Munster on the weekend, the volume of HIA assessments definitely isn't going down.

I look at the rule-change more from the perspective of sanctions not just on HIAs.

If its a red card offence, you should be sent off. If its a yellow card offence, you should be sin-binned. You have a bunker review if its somewhere between the two (and/or the referee is not sure) and you let the bunker look at all the angles at all the speeds and determine the appropriate punishment. Simple.

Make no mistake, this is all being done because the game/spectacle "suffers" when a player gets sent off. This is not being done to bring yellow cards up to the standard of 20 minute red cards, its to bring red cards down to less severe punishments. It's almost an admission that players can't be trusted to cut out red-card offences so lets reduce the effect of some of them, just in case.

Whatever way someone looks at it (whether you agree or disagree that it will or will not affect player safety), World Rugby reducing punishments for red card offences when the game is in the midst of CTE issues and huge concussion-related lawsuits, is at best awful timing.

I've edited because I tried, rather unsuccessfuly an English translation to the FFR statement.

Australians, it's that simple.

Xacto