Premiership Rugby 2019-20

sydthebeat wrote: »

According to the new saracens chief exec. On the greenwood podcast, once the team is in compliance on June 19 (I think its the date) then that's all that matters. It worth listening to

I haven't thought this statement through really, but my initial reaction there is "So as long as they get rid of players at the end of the season, they can basically get away with another season of cheating".

molloyjh wrote: »

So it turns out that the initial punishment decided on for Saracens was a points deduction of 70 points. Hadbthat been applied they would have been relegated. The PRL decided that "wasn't in the spirit of the competition" and reduced that to 35 points. Now I understand that you cant have that many English players playing in the Championship, but imagine Leicester get relegated. A big name club that has done nothing wrong and actually acted quite prudently financially. Had the original punishment stuck Leicester would have been safe. They'd be paying the price to keep Saracens up should they go down. How pissed would they and their fans be? And rightly so. And how bad a message does that actually send?

Guaranteeing Saracens relegation was never going to happen. The PRL and the RFU wouldn't send the biggest provider of national team players down into the second tier for a season.

But if I was a Leicester or London Irish fan, whoever gets relegated, I'd probably be more pissed off that despite the points deduction Sarries continued the season with zero squad changes for the first half of the season, with almost the exact same team that breached the salary cap for the previous season.

Common sense would have been that the PRL should have told them they wouldn't be receiving any points until they got their squad below the salary cap, and not just let them continue as is and fix it at the end of the season after they avoid regulation.

jr86 wrote: »

Rumours Jonny May could be on his way out in the summer

If Leicester do manage to survive they are absolutely goosed next season if he leaves. He single handedly won the game for them last weekend and is arguably the form wing in test rugby

To Saracens is the rumour. There's be murder amongst the other clubs if that happened

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Sinckler confirmed to join Bristol

https://twitter.com/BristolBears/status/1221719496085463041?s=19

Was about to post that. Massive blow for Harlequins and yet another big name, big money player for Bristol.

And one hell of an announcement video.

https://twitter.com/btsportrugby/status/1228431319115456512

Not always been his biggest fan, but good on him for having a bit of a sense of humour about the ball-dropping. He jokes about it post-match too in an interview with Steenson.

Live fast, Dai Young.

Quins should have about 17 penalty trys at this stage. Shocking reffing of the advantage at the end of ordinary time.

Larbre34 wrote: »

Live fast, Dai Young.

Quins should have about 17 penalty trys at this stage. Shocking reffing of the advantage at the end of ordinary time.

Just got it there.

Gives them.their try bonus point too.

BT excoriating the referee in the Exeter game. Say there's no way it was a penalty try. Rob Baxter now complaining to the ref about it.

Hum dinger between Sars and Nor

stephen_n wrote: »

Chris Ashtons contract with Sale Sharks terminated with immediate affect. Agreed by both parties.

Apparently he's linked with a move to Quins, and Diamond has said he wants to make a couple of signings soon so it could be a case that they need to cut him as a marquee to get under the cap.

Or else he's realised his move back to England was a bit of a waste since he's not getting back into the national squad like he had hoped, and is looking to cash in.

It's a strange one, be interesting to see what happens.

Not just Chris Ashton apparently.

I assume the designated marquee players remain outside the cap for eligibility to be promoted back to the Premiership?

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Itoje and Farrell, yeah they'll be held to the same credits and allowance system as Premiership teams I believe.

Williams is the only player who has actually left though (other than Kpoku who signed with Saints but was on an academy contract anyways), I'm still hesitant to believe anything until deals are confirmed, because at this rate we must've seen the same 'almost done deal' stories about 15 of their players.

From what I understand, Williams didn't count anyway, since he was injured and hadn't played in any premiership matches this season.

Squidgy Black wrote: »

For next season though. This season is a write off regardless, I think it had been clarified that the rule hadn't been updated with the correct wording so it's only next season that applies to them if they're back up for promotion

The point being that if they were over the cap this season, Williams wouldn't have counted anyway. So his going earlier makes no difference to the cap this season or next season.

Harlequins have confirmed the signing of Chris Ashton.

https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1235170472905633792?s=19