General Rugby Discussion 3

Watching the prem playoffs and french lower divisions the past couple of weeks really hammers home how sh1te the URC latter stages are. Wish we could just play everyone home and away and have no post season. Makes more sense with the 0 away fans.

No more then the French teams do.

Pro D deux is 30 plus up to three knockout games. But they don't have an equivalent of the European Cup adding 4-8 games to their season. Top Quatorze is 26 plus up to 3 knock out games. So neither of these would be as many as the potential 38-game season for an Irish province playing in the URC with the format you suggest and the current European Cup.

Not the English though.

Going forward I think it's inevitable that an Anglo Irish Italian league will be formed. The SA governing body are looking at what competitions they should participate in. Logistically a SA league would make sense but would sponsors be interested? The URC has greatly benefited from the inclusion of the SA teams.

As for us. I'd imagine sponsorship and TV money would be good. Logistics easier. A more equal league structure would benefit the Irish teams. The Scottish teams less so.

Then how would it work? 2 leagues would make it fair but and it's a big but who goes where? Governance and the EPL losing it's grip would be a problem.

As for the European competitions. Well I'd thought I'd never say this but personally I'm not that bothered. Fed up with all the changes and format. It's on its death bed anyway. I'd imagine even the French will just shrug their shoulders and give it a meh if it goes.

Sorry for the long rant but I believe we need Rugby to move on. Less but more meaningful games for all teams. Spectators and players would benefit. The men in blazers might not agree.

Rugby has 1 functioning healthy league in the entire world.

Its way part time the sport took a hard look at itself and stopped delaying the inevitable with leagues cobbled together from all over the place.

The Spanish and Portuguese are at AIL level. Any talk of Spain is just more evidence that people really don't understand how small a sport rugby is in the grander scheme.

There is one and only one fix for rugby and that's stop spending so much money.

So cease the entire capitalist system. Rugby to set itself up as some sort of socialist utopia. As a card carrying trade unionist I have to say I'm intrigued. Do tell,how would this work?

That's pure hyperbole. 100s of sports get by every week without going bankrupt. It's clear that unsustainable levels of money are being spent on teams and by unions.

It will end up that way regardless. Either everyone except the French spends less and lose players to the French or go bankrupt and lose players to the French.

It would be sad to see it end up like the dominance of the Premier League in soccer but in the short term I can't see it not happening.

Well, Spain has been quite open about our long-term URC ambitions. In fact, some believe we could have an announcement regarding a Challenge Cup wildcard for next season in the coming days.

I think my chances of finding somewhere to watch the URC final are slim to none though with the football on everywhere.