Dave Cahill wrote:Rugby League has no future as an International game. There are really only 4 teams (Eng, Aus, NZ, PNG - maybe France as a fifth) that can compete at a high level without being flooded with a huge number of tenuously connected English or Australian players.
As noted below Tonga are very competitive and I could easily see Samoa going the same way if Fox money is available and guys aren't hoovered up by NFL academies.
A lot of work is going in from RLI in terms of youth, coach and referee development in league.
Have played myself somewhat for a few summers and while playing numbers/fixture completion is poor the groundwork seems to be going on in the background.
Aren't all the Tongan players basically tongans living and who have been born or brought in nz and oz from a young age though?
Yes all bar around 3 I think, at the last world cup were been born in NZ or Aus. Some players took massive pay cuts when they went to play for Tonga.
The Kangaroo players somehow managed to negotiate a 20k dollar match fee for each player, so they basically can never afford to play international matches (the players had to take a huge pay cut to play Tonga a few months back). When you look at rugby league and their atrocious international scene, you really have to be grateful for the work that World rugby has done in union. With the NRL taking responsibility for setting up the few internationals outside of the league world cup in the SH and with England having nodoby to play in the NH, they basically have no hope in creating anything close to what we have in union.
It appears that if the 4 South African teams are added to the Pro 14, to make it the Pro 18.
Then the conferences will be rejigged to make it 3 conferences based on geographical locations.
Makes great sense, and likely means that the likes of Munster and Leinster will only have to play in South Africa 3 times a year. If they keep the format to playing each team from outside your conference only once.
Just because a post upsets you, that doesn’t mean that it is wrong. People have different views in all aspects of life, this is a key ingredient to an interesting conversation.
munster#1 wrote:It appears that if the 4 South African teams are added to the Pro 14, to make it the Pro 18.
Then the conferences will be rejigged to make it 3 conferences based on geographical locations.
Makes great sense, and likely means that the likes of Munster and Leinster will only have to play in South Africa 3 times a year. If they keep the format to playing each team from outside your conference only once.
Does that make it 22 regular season games? An increase from 19 currently? I realise that's back to where we were but it seems to be going against the tide of reducing the numbers
I like your right leg. A lovely leg for the role.
I've got nothing against your right leg.
The trouble is ... neither have you
munster#1 wrote:It appears that if the 4 South African teams are added to the Pro 14, to make it the Pro 18.
Then the conferences will be rejigged to make it 3 conferences based on geographical locations.
Makes great sense, and likely means that the likes of Munster and Leinster will only have to play in South Africa 3 times a year. If they keep the format to playing each team from outside your conference only once.
Does that make it 22 regular season games? An increase from 19 currently? I realise that's back to where we were but it seems to be going against the tide of reducing the numbers
I haven’t heard, but I wonder will it be a move away from playing all teams from within the same country, but not the same conference twice?
That would make sense, but could be a financial hit.
Just because a post upsets you, that doesn’t mean that it is wrong. People have different views in all aspects of life, this is a key ingredient to an interesting conversation.
munster#1 wrote:It appears that if the 4 South African teams are added to the Pro 14, to make it the Pro 18.
Then the conferences will be rejigged to make it 3 conferences based on geographical locations.
Makes great sense, and likely means that the likes of Munster and Leinster will only have to play in South Africa 3 times a year. If they keep the format to playing each team from outside your conference only once.
Does that make it 22 regular season games? An increase from 19 currently? I realise that's back to where we were but it seems to be going against the tide of reducing the numbers
It's 21 atm? You must be forgetting the extra derbies.
I saw a post on planet rugby forum saying the conferences would be 1. the 6 SA teams, 2. Ireland and Scotland, and 3. Wales and Italy. Play in conference home and away and teams from other conferences home or away. Supposedly the top two in each conference and two wildcard teams would then make the eight-team play-offs. I guess the key in all of this is maintaining derbies while limiting travel to and from SA to a reasonable amount.
leinsterforever wrote:
It's 21 atm? You must be forgetting the extra derbies.
I saw a post on planet rugby forum saying the conferences would be 1. the 6 SA teams, 2. Ireland and Scotland, and 3. Wales and Italy. Play in conference home and away and teams from other conferences home or away. Supposedly the top two in each conference and two wildcard teams would then make the eight-team play-offs. I guess the key in all of this is maintaining derbies while limiting travel to and from SA to a reasonable amount.
That's me told... again
I like your right leg. A lovely leg for the role.
I've got nothing against your right leg.
The trouble is ... neither have you
munster#1 wrote:It appears that if the 4 South African teams are added to the Pro 14, to make it the Pro 18.
Then the conferences will be rejigged to make it 3 conferences based on geographical locations.
Makes great sense, and likely means that the likes of Munster and Leinster will only have to play in South Africa 3 times a year. If they keep the format to playing each team from outside your conference only once.
Does that make it 22 regular season games? An increase from 19 currently? I realise that's back to where we were but it seems to be going against the tide of reducing the numbers
It's 21 atm? You must be forgetting the extra derbies.
I saw a post on planet rugby forum saying the conferences would be 1. the 6 SA teams, 2. Ireland and Scotland, and 3. Wales and Italy. Play in conference home and away and teams from other conferences home or away. Supposedly the top two in each conference and two wildcard teams would then make the eight-team play-offs. I guess the key in all of this is maintaining derbies while limiting travel to and from SA to a reasonable amount.
That would make the league very difficult for the Irish and Scots. Essentially all the strongest teams in one conference.
Just because a post upsets you, that doesn’t mean that it is wrong. People have different views in all aspects of life, this is a key ingredient to an interesting conversation.
Whats not to like, sure hasn't this system turned Super Rugby from a minor unwatched competition into the best most popular rugby competition in the world.
One global table would make it simpler to follow, even if games were still split up on a conference basis. The Welsh and South Africans would have a bit of an advantage then though as them getting to play Zebre and the Kings respectively twice would become apparent in the standings.
I'm guessing if it was conferences the Italians and Scots would swap between the Irish and Welsh conferences from season to season.
Wouldn't be as bad as Super Rugby because that had loads of different time zones and not everyone playing everyone else.
The 3 regional groups could end up being a disaster. Super Rugby lessons not being learned. I get whole covid reasoning behid it but nah, the public wont buy into it. With the CVC partnership in Pro14 and Prem, I wonder will they push to get the saffers into the Heino?
You know I'm going to lose,
And gambling's for fools,
But that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live FOREVER!
blockhead wrote:The 3 regional groups could end up being a disaster. Super Rugby lessons not being learned. I get whole covid reasoning behid it but nah, the public wont buy into it. With the CVC partnership in Pro14 and Prem, I wonder will they push to get the saffers into the Heino?
I would have thought that it was more likely that they'd try to sideline the Heineken Cup and have the competitions they've invested in move into the space and pick up the slack revenue. The European Cup was notable by it's absence in the reports of the competitions they were interested in investing in.
munster#1 wrote:It appears that if the 4 South African teams are added to the Pro 14, to make it the Pro 18.
Then the conferences will be rejigged to make it 3 conferences based on geographical locations.
Makes great sense, and likely means that the likes of Munster and Leinster will only have to play in South Africa 3 times a year. If they keep the format to playing each team from outside your conference only once.
Does that make it 22 regular season games? An increase from 19 currently? I realise that's back to where we were but it seems to be going against the tide of reducing the numbers
I haven’t heard, but I wonder will it be a move away from playing all teams from within the same country, but not the same conference twice?
That would make sense, but could be a financial hit.
They will play teams from the same country at least twice. Other formats are flexible. Zero teams will propose or support a solution that doesn’t have home and away derbies.
blockhead wrote:The 3 regional groups could end up being a disaster. Super Rugby lessons not being learned. I get whole covid reasoning behid it but nah, the public wont buy into it. With the CVC partnership in Pro14 and Prem, I wonder will they push to get the saffers into the Heino?
I would have thought that it was more likely that they'd try to sideline the Heineken Cup and have the competitions they've invested in move into the space and pick up the slack revenue. The European Cup was notable by it's absence in the reports of the competitions they were interested in investing in.
Don't say that man. The Heino is a fantastic comp, with the big saffer teams it would only get better.
Q. If the Heino was scrapped would we still put 4 stars on the Leinster jersey?
You know I'm going to lose,
And gambling's for fools,
But that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live FOREVER!
SEPTEMBER 5: Winner Conference A v Runner-up Conference B, Winner Conference B v Runner-up Conference A.
SEPTEMBER 12: European quarter-finals.
SEPTEMBER 19: PRO14 final.
SEPTEMBER 26: European semi-finals.
Only two more pro14 rounds will be played so it is likely to be Leinster V Munster, Ulster V Edinburgh in the semis.
Really short turn around for both ulster and leinster for the Heino quarters and semis if we get through.
