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Domestic & European Rugby 2017-18

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UK Redsox:
For anyone with access to BT Sport, their rugby show tonight had an interesting segment with Wayne Barnes explaining the changes to the laws for the upcoming season.

Main changes......

Scrum Halves must put the ball in straight (ish) and the hooker must hook

No more kicking the ball forward in a ruck

Italy's non-committing to rucks and then loitering around the edges tactic has been banned

Mister E:
Thanks for this, UKR. Useful.

j66acd:
The scrum halves are never going to put the balk in straight!!

I also liked the rules/laws about keeping the ball in play rather than playing for line outs.

Saracens for the double but I'm hoping Wasps can go one step further this season.

paul_e:
Lots of interesting squad changes this season.  Most of them are largely like-for-like (Leicester have sign May but lost Pietersen and have swapped Burns for Ford for example).

Irish look a much stronger squad than Bristol and Newcastle have bought really well so the bottom of the table might be more interesting this year, I worry for Worcester because they don't seem to have improved their quality massively despite a very busy summer.

Wasps will miss Beale, he gave them a spark of brilliance and Frank Halai is a good player out the door as well but they have added Marcus Watson who I like (and his 7s time has made him a much more complete winger than many).

Sarries are, for me, weaker than they were last season because they lost some good players to retirement and Ashton, for all his problems, was a key player for them for a few years.  Liam Williams is a good signing though and they have added some depth around the squad.

Exeter didn't do much and didn't need to do much but again they've lost a few that they'll be upset about.

Final one, I think Piers Francis could well be the most important signing of the summer.  The work at Saints doesn't look that huge but when you add the 3-4 players they picked up during last season there's been a big change to the squad in the last year.  Losing Picamoles will be a huge blow but their backs look much better now so if they can start making use of them now they have a proper playmaker at 10 then it could be a good season for them.

curiousorange:
Worcester will drop. They've searched all year for a decent fly half and are sitting on what they have, but their injury record is appalling. They have to rely on Te'o to get them anywhere near firing and their pre-season has been ropey too. Gary Gold will have a job on getting them to safety.

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