Pro 14 - General Thread

[blockhead]

Kings beat Edinburgh. Leinster now have a 21pt lead. Benetton in 2nd place.

[Peg Leg]

Kings beat Edinburgh. Leinster now have a 21pt lead. Benetton in 2nd place.

I really want to see Treviso tear some English side asunder next season in the ERCQPRCC (what is it now?) thing.

[blockhead]

Kings game is on rugbylist now. Amazing finish, Ryle and Toland on commentary.

[ronk]

Kings beat Edinburgh. Leinster now have a 21pt lead. Benetton in 2nd place.

I really want to see Treviso tear some English side asunder next season in the ERCQPRCC (what is it now?) thing.

It's the Heineken (Champions) Cup

[ronk]

https://www.pro14rugby.org/statistics/powered-by-opta/

Turnovers won stats are interesting. Beirne has had a successful season but slipped out of the turnover rankings.

Robinson doing great in a few stats, then 2 no. 8s and 2 centres make up the rest! One of them is Nick Williams!!

[paddyor]

https://www.pro14rugby.org/statistics/powered-by-opta/

Turnovers won stats are interesting. Beirne has had a successful season but slipped out of the turnover rankings.

Robinson doing great in a few stats, then 2 no. 8s and 2 centres make up the rest! One of them is Nick Williams!!

Scarlets had him all year. He has 11 in 8 games(550 mins) from 14 games (1120 mins). HEC is a better indicator.

[Laighin Break]

https://www.pro14rugby.org/statistics/powered-by-opta/

Turnovers won stats are interesting. Beirne has had a successful season but slipped out of the turnover rankings.

Robinson doing great in a few stats, then 2 no. 8s and 2 centres make up the rest! One of them is Nick Williams!!

I think someone mentioned it in another thread but JGP with 15 try assists! Way ahead of everyone else (Jack Carty is next with 7).
5 tries too, and that's in 11 Pro14 appearances [606 minutes]

[neill_m]

Kings game is on rugbylist now. Amazing finish, Ryle and Toland on commentary.

They were a bit fortunate that the officials didn't check the final pass for the winning try, looked at best flat.

[TerenureJim]

Kings game is on rugbylist now. Amazing finish, Ryle and Toland on commentary.

They were a bit fortunate that the officials didn't check the final pass for the winning try, looked at best flat.

The insane superman offload?

[blockhead]

Kings game is on rugbylist now. Amazing finish, Ryle and Toland on commentary.

They were a bit fortunate that the officials didn't check the final pass for the winning try, looked at best flat.

The insane superman offload?

Flat is good enough. Would be a crime to call that one back.

[blockhead]

The away game v Zebre on Feb 16th is in Viadana in Aironis old ground. A double header no less, sounds like a bit of a craic.

AFTER 7 YEARS RETURNS THE INTERNATIONAL RUGBY TO THE ZAFFANELLA STADIUM OF VIADANA WITH ONLY ONE CUTTING YOU WILL BE HELD WITH TWO LARGE RUGBY MATCHES

On February 16th, the Guinness PRO14 will make its comeback at the Rugby Viadana 1970 home to host the prestigious challenge between the Zeber Rugby Club and the Irish Leinster. The challenge between the bianconeri and the defending champions of the Celtic tournament and the Champions Cup - valid for the 15th round of the Guinness PRO14 - will be followed by that of the top Italian Top12 championship between the hosts Gialloneri and Rugby Mogliano, in one special rugby event that for the first time will bring together the two tournaments on the same field. It will start at 15:30 with the team of Michael Bradley who will challenge that of compatriot Leo Cullen, representative of the Irish province of Leinster. Following at 18 the training of coach Filippo Frati will challenge the Mogliano Rugby on the fourth day of the round of the return of the TOP12 Championship.

Google translate.

ROAD TRIP!!

[rooster]

The away game v Zebre on Feb 16th is in Viadana in Aironis old ground. A double header no less, sounds like a bit of a craic.

AFTER 7 YEARS RETURNS THE INTERNATIONAL RUGBY TO THE ZAFFANELLA STADIUM OF VIADANA WITH ONLY ONE CUTTING YOU WILL BE HELD WITH TWO LARGE RUGBY MATCHES

On February 16th, the Guinness PRO14 will make its comeback at the Rugby Viadana 1970 home to host the prestigious challenge between the Zeber Rugby Club and the Irish Leinster. The challenge between the bianconeri and the defending champions of the Celtic tournament and the Champions Cup - valid for the 15th round of the Guinness PRO14 - will be followed by that of the top Italian Top12 championship between the hosts Gialloneri and Rugby Mogliano, in one special rugby event that for the first time will bring together the two tournaments on the same field. It will start at 15:30 with the team of Michael Bradley who will challenge that of compatriot Leo Cullen, representative of the Irish province of Leinster. Following at 18 the training of coach Filippo Frati will challenge the Mogliano Rugby on the fourth day of the round of the return of the TOP12 Championship.

Google translate.

ROAD TRIP!!

Parma though is actually the best spot to stay, not a lot around Viadana, excellent wee stadium with fanatical supporters who were very pissed off at Aironi becoming Zebre in Parma. I'm almost tempted myself it really is a superb away trip.

[neill_m]

Was a superb offload, but it did look dodgy. Even some of the Kings fans on the social media were saying they got away with it .

[neill_m]

Cheetahs 40-36 Southern Kings on Saturday.

Cheetahs only 2 points behind 3rd placed Ospreys in Conference A.

[johng]

2 points covering 3rd 4th 5th and 6th in Conf A

2 points covering 2nd 3rd 4th 5th in Conf B

Competitive league. 3 teams in front and 3 at the rear.

Very symetrical

[blockhead]

Gwladrugby
B&Q-ification
We’re now deep into the second half of the season. Some of our professional clubs have only two or three home matches left.

Yet the four still don’t know where they will be when the 2019-20 season kicks off in six months. They don’t know who will play for them, because they haven’t been able to recruit or retain players. They don’t even know for sure – if rumours emerging over the weekend have any substance – that they will still exist.

When the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) kind-of-half-announced Project Reset in January, details were scarce. Amid talk of scrapping central contracts and introducing salary bands, players have justifiably spoken of their deep concern about their livelihoods. These are people who don’t know if they will still have an income in a few months.

Another major element to the new structure was that serious consideration was being given to differentiating between the four clubs. The four would not – as had been broadly the case since 2003 – be treated the same and provided with the same level of payments by the WRU.

As ever, the absence of detail fuelled the rumour mill. It’s broadly accepted by those who have been paying attention that Welsh clubs are operating on budgets which are smaller than any other Six Nations country, with the possible exception of Italy. So we clearly cannot continue as we are and expect any of our clubs to compete at the business end of the season. Last year provided a rare moment in the sun – as the Scarlets reached the final of the Pro14 and the semi-finals of the Champions Cup, while Cardiff Blues won the Challenge Cup – but this season has seen a return to the struggles of much of this decade.

The dilemma for the Professional Rugby Board (PRB) – the body, consisting of the WRU and the four professional clubs, which is intended to run the professional game – is that the payments to which the four are entitled are dependent on the amount broadcasters, sponsors and tournament organisers are willing to pay.

Wales needs to field four clubs to have even a hope of retaining the same level of payments from broadcasters and others. But there is no certainty that a country which offers one or two semi-skimmed teams will receive the same payments as it would if it was fielding four full-fat teams.

There is a reasonable consensus that the national team requires at least three, if not four, professional clubs in order to fully furnish the national team with players. This weekend – with Dan Biggar having to play for his English employers at Northampton and leaving the field injured – emphasises the importance of having as many Test players as possible plying their club trade within Wales.

But how to make it work? Would we have three “properly” funded teams, with one development region? Which would it be? Could we even afford three? Why not 2+2, rather than 3+1? And which of the four would be downgraded? How could the Union even do that, when much of the WRU’s payments is in fact the clubs’ own income, generated by their participation in the Pro14 and European competitions?

For this reason, the rumoured favoured model of the WRU – for just two professional clubs – is unlikely to be adopted.

So the 3+1 or 2+2 models make some sense, in that they would provide four clubs playing at the elite level while allowing some of those to compete properly at the top end of the game.

As matters drag on, more rumours emerge.

Last week, it was suggested that an announcement is imminent, but would be delayed until after the England game this Saturday to avoid destabilising the players. As if this whole mess isn’t destabilising as it is.

This weekend, new rumours started to put some meat on the bones. We hear that serious consideration is now being given to fielding four professional clubs next season. But they would not be equally funded and, more surprisingly, one of the teams might be relocated to north Wales.

When the WRU took over the Newport Gwent Dragons a year ago and dropped the geographical branding, the great swathes of the disenfranchised cheered. Not enough to actually get off their entitled arses to attend a game, but they cheered. Of course, the Dragons have been an utter disaster, having failed to attract any outside investment, blown 10% of their entire playing budget on a player who has barely appeared for them, sacked their coach and are currently bouncing along on the bottom of the Pro14.

But it seems that the WRU think this is the way to go. Now that it subsidises professional rugby in the south-east, it has no answer to Peredur y Pwyllgor from Penmaenmawr when he asks why the south-east and not the north? The justification for the four clubs we had until last summer was that they – and by extension domestic professional rugby – could not survive without additional private funding. Now that one of the teams is entirely centrally funded, there is no rational justification not to provide a centrally-run team somewhere else too.

And so the latest seems to suggest that it will be 2+2. The Scarlets are likely to be one of the full-fat teams. The Dragons and a beefed-up RGC in Colwyn Bay may be the two semi-skimmed versions. The second fully-loaded team – in this version of the rumour, in any case – depends on which of the Ospreys or Cardiff Blues cave in first. One could completely disappear, with the other covering the whole of the old Glamorgan.

This would be insanity squared.

If you’re running a retail business – let’s, to pluck one from mid-air for no apparent reason, say B&Q – you can consolidate. You can make a case that you can close a store in Penllergaer, extend the one in Trostre and people from Swansea are likely to go along to the new superstore in Llanelli. It isn’t far, after all.

But this isn’t retail. We have seen over the past 15 years that rugby supporters – like all sport fans – are emotional beings. We have been told, over and over, that people from the Gwent valleys and the central Glamorgan valleys will not travel to Cardiff and Newport to watch teams to which they have been assigned by some central committee. These are people who haven’t been invested in a professional rugby team for over 15 years. And yet the WRU genuinely seem to be considering establishing a structure which will alienate half the supporters of existing professional rugby in the hope that they will be replaced by greater numbers of people who currently don’t watch any regular professional rugby.

These are rumours, and – as we’ve suggested – the absence of any detail allows all sorts of stories to be given legs. There may not be anything in them.

But, whatever is going on, WRU really needs to get its act together. This uncertainty cannot continue, for the sake of the existing clubs, their employees, players and supporters.

[Oldschool]

Great post blockhead.
Very informative.

[FLIP]

That bastion of racists and nutjobs Gwlad, like a broken clock, can be right twice a day - about the uncertainty anyway. Their inability to get behind their teams is their own fault.

[blockhead]

Great post blockhead.
Very informative.

I just c&p'd it Oldschool. Didn't write it myself.

[paddyor]

Gwlad is rife with rumours that have never happen so unless you've heard the Ospreys one elsewhere I'd take it with a pinch of salt.. That being said I don't think they can fully support 4 teams in 80km stretch along the M4 corridor with a polulation the size of the GDA.