Premiership Rugby out of Heineken Cup?

rrpc wrote: »

Fine, we have nothing more to discuss in that case.

Senior figures have stated that the salary cap is being circumvented. The squad sizes are one way of looking at that, but we haven't even started looking at qualitative differences, so when you start including academy players who collectively can't cost a club more than one senior player then we really can't continue.

Butr then you have never accepted that there is anything even slightly untoward going on in the Premier League, you even dismissed 'bloodgate' as having happened in the HEC and therefore nothing to do with the Premiership.

Great, so no team has a squad 50% bigger than anyone else. Glad to see those incorrect claims have been put to bed.

Bloodgate DID happen in the HEC. So I'm not sure of your point there.

Gloucester had a very poor start to their season. Which matters more to them than it would to a Pro 12 team.

But still surprising. They must really be targeting the Bath game.

rrpc wrote: »

No, they haven't. You won't even accept a starting premise set out in black and white so we have nothing to discuss.

Because you're completely twisting the numbers. It's ridiculous. You won't exclude Exeters academy players but you are refusing to include Harlequins. And they are all listed on the premiership site, which show a difference of 16%.

Please show us a difference of 50% and be clear about who you are excluding and why. It simply doesn't exist.

Your idea of limiting teams by squad size is really poor and would solve absolutely nothing.

Exeter only have 49 players if you include academy guys. Harlequins only have 34 if you exclude them. Yet you're comparing the two and claiming it is fair.

No it was caught in the HEC. It had been going on for years in the Premiership.

It had been going on for years at all sorts of levels. It may still be. It has happened at club level in Ireland among many other things. I really don't see your point here, are you saying English teams are cheaters?

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Gloucester had a very poor start to their season. Which matters more to them than it would to a Pro 12 team.

But still surprising. They must really be targeting the Bath game.

You use the word 'surprising'. I would use the word 'farcical'.
English teams pretend to get their knickers in a knot about Irish teams resting players for games in a a domestic league that is, quite frankly, none of their damn business. And here's one of the teams resting players for the H-cup itself.
They should be laughed out of the room at the next meeting.

We will get a look ahead at what the Anglo/French cup next year will be like in the knock out stages of the Amlin this year the way things are going

its_phil wrote: »

What's the bloody point of qualifying for it if they don't even have the respect to play their full side in it?

The Rabo gets criticised for resting players for the HCup but it is apparently okay for Sarries to do it and Gloucester to not even play their best players in the competition because they're targetting the Premiership.

Farcical isn't a strong enough word. Bull****

Ah right, so they have made this selection because they don't respect the competition then?

its_phil wrote: »

Clearly if they had respect for the biggest club competition in rugby, they would pick their best team.

You could equally say that after such a shocking start in the premiership, they respect the H Cup so much that they are willing to concede a game in order to focus on getting themselves high enough up the league to get back into it for next season.

Does that mean, following that line of logic, that no one in the Rabo respects it given they play teams that aren't at full strength all the time?

This is a very rare selection as well let's remember, I haven't seem anything like it from an English team before that I can remember.

danthefan wrote: »

RUMOUR AND CONJECTURE ALERT.

This is coming from PR, a poster of good repute, I don't think he's made it up himself.

Apparently from two separate sources, a deal has been agreed in principle for the European tournament to go ahead next season. It's 20 teams, 6+6+6+2. The last sticking point is the Rabo unions are looking for a minimum of one team each. Broadcaster is unclear, and suggested the pool structure is 4 groups of 5, with the quarter finals essentially scrapped, pool winners go straight to the SF.

Take with a large dash of salt.

That sounds god-damn awful.
The H-cup is great as it is. Leave well-enough alone.

irishbucsfan wrote: »

The proposal has always been 5 groups of 4.

Also the Anglo-French conceded the one team per Union thing back in December 2012

I thought that one of the issues that the French had was that there were too many games in their calendar. Hence the cut in HEC teams from 24 to 20. But 5 groups of 4 does not reduce the number of matches....the only difference is that 3 of 5 2nd placed teams go through to quarters rather than 2 of 6

Or was number of matches never part of the problem?

Gaurenteeing one team for each union is grossly unfair it will mean that in order for a celtic union to have two teams in the top level EC they will have to have two teams coming 2nd or 3rd which will hurt international rugby in the celtic nations. It should be the top 6 qualify and if you can't make it into the top 6 tough.