General Rugby Discussion 3

Haven't checked this again, but think (with advantage being called more often) there are now fewer scrums, but that the playing time taken up by scrums has increased. IE: Fewer but slower scrums / reset scrums. To an largely partisan audience who can't follow the Refs signals this quickly (& repeatedly) produces tedium.

From the Guardian / Irish Times

English Premiership rugby clubs who “have been teetering on the edge” are set to come under further scrutiny by the British government over the repayments of their £124 million Covid bailout loans.

A report by the UK’s National Audit Office details how the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) awarded 26 per cent of its £474 million loans to Premiership clubs, including £41.6 million to Worcester, Wasps and London Irish, who have all since gone bust. According to the report, they are three of nine borrowers who in total received £46.1 million and their collective demises mean the DCMS does not expect to recover up to £29 million in loans awarded.

The chair of the committee of public accounts Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “The government stepped in to lend just shy of half a billion pounds to the sports and culture sectors during the pandemic, saving many organisations from near-certain failure.

“Although progress has been made in recovering initial repayments, it is concerning that up to £29 million of taxpayer money could be lost from borrowers who have since gone under. DCMS should continue to keep a close eye on English rugby union clubs that have been teetering on the edge. Given the public money at stake, the department has more to do to show it has a long-term plan for managing and recovering loans across the sectors.”

A Premiership Rugby spokesperson said: “Since the pandemic the clubs and Premiership Rugby have worked hard to move back into a period of growth and stability, which is well under way. Premiership Rugby strengthened its financial regulation and governance with the formation of an independent Financial Monitoring Panel, which was set up with the help of former government and financial advisers. Our clubs are fully committed to repaying all taxpayer money and we continue to work closely with DCMS, for whom we are thankful for their ongoing support.”

Rest in peace

Stephen Bale (rugby writer), Kevin Bowring (Wales), Alun Carter (Wales), Peter Crittle (Australia),

Ronnie Dawson (Ireland), Connor Garden-Bachop (New Zealand), Sid Going (New Zealand)

Derrick Grant (Scotland), Norm Hewitt (New Zealand), Barry John (Wales), Lewis Jones (Wales)

Ken Macaulay (Scotland), Courtenay Meredith (Wales), Lucien Mias (France), Derek Morgan (England)

Peter Morgan (Wales), Medhi Narjissi, (France U18), Tony O’Reilly (Ireland), John O’Shea (Wales)

Shayne Philpott (New Zealand), Malcolm Price (Wales), Jack Rowell (Bath/England coach)

Donald Scott (Scotland), Andrew Titheridge (commentator), Chris Wardlow (England)

JPR Williams (Wales), Tom Voyce (England).

Going into this weekend, Bristol and Saracens were 2nd and 3rd in the table. The former lost 0-38 at home and the latter 68-10. Saracens had a player sent off after 15 minutes but that still doesn't justify such a hammering.

Really hard to gauge the actual quality of the league.

Not a bad one. They lost a two key men to injury early on, and then got a Red.

A day to forget.

He has a reputation he'll never shake in the eyes of many but 2024 Finn Russell is a brilliant player. Possibly the best passer and tactical kicker in the world, and far better work rate and commitment in defence than in his Racing years.

He's a fantastic player.

I doubt Farrell will risk Russell in any of the midweek matches, even for 20 minutes.

The L'Equipe team of the year is bizzare, well from the Irish guys picked anyway. Furlong barely played, Aki was fine I guess and Porter is consistently good but there's a guy called Ox Niche playing rugby at LH these days.

I would of had Doris as probably the only Irish player , maybe Beirne too.

Could see it. Russell and Marcus Smith pretty much nailed on bar injury. He is probably up against Owen Farrell and Finn Smith for the third spot imo. Would take Farrell as things stand but a long run in Europe and strong 6 Nations might change things for Prendergast.

Antoine Frisch is no 3 on the Midi Olympique flops of the season list as well.