Rugby Union 2012/13

[cheltenhamlion]

Our record there is fucking terrible but hasn't been too bad the last few years. Looks like it will be dry all week until then so that should help the backs.

My mate gets married on the Saturday after the Biarritz game and I am trying to encourage him to go as a last hurrah.

[cdbearsfan]

When Wimbledon buggered off to Milton Keynes all Hell broke loose. Quite rightly in my opinion.

However in rugby it seems just about all the London sides are playing miles outside London... Wycombe, Reading, Oxford, Watford, but I never hear any fuss being made about this. Don't any of their fans care or have I just managed to miss the surrounding controversy?

[Dave Cooper please]

When Wimbledon buggered off to Milton Keynes all Hell broke loose. Quite rightly in my opinion.

However in rugby it seems just about all the London sides are playing miles outside London... Wycombe, Reading, Oxford, Watford, but I never hear any fuss being made about this. Don't any of their fans care or have I just managed to miss the surrounding controversy?

Rugby is shit and absolutely no one outside of Leicester and Bristol gives a fuck.

[paul_e]

When Wimbledon buggered off to Milton Keynes all Hell broke loose. Quite rightly in my opinion.

However in rugby it seems just about all the London sides are playing miles outside London... Wycombe, Reading, Oxford, Watford, but I never hear any fuss being made about this. Don't any of their fans care or have I just managed to miss the surrounding controversy?

Rugby is shit and absolutely no one outside of Leicester and Bristol gives a fuck.

Or, more likely, a lot of the fans will have travelled in to London from the outskirts anyway so they've moved closer to their main fan base.  London Irish have always been west london so moving out to Reading isn't a massive change for them.

[cdbearsfan]

Not convinced. You could make a case that most Villa fans have historically come from West Birmingham but I reckon there would still be an outcry if we moved to Telford.

[Dave Cooper please]

It does seem as if football is the only sport that just won't accept franchises.

[lovejoy]

When Wimbledon buggered off to Milton Keynes all Hell broke loose. Quite rightly in my opinion.

However in rugby it seems just about all the London sides are playing miles outside London... Wycombe, Reading, Oxford, Watford, but I never hear any fuss being made about this. Don't any of their fans care or have I just managed to miss the surrounding controversy?

Rugby is shit and absolutely no one outside of Leicester and Bristol gives a fuck.

To an extent you are correct. Fans in London treat rugby like going to the theatre, a day out to be passively entertained from time to time. Ultimately no passion.
I would have to say from your comment though that you have never been to Gloucester and I suspect Northampton. People there do 'give a fuck' about rugby. Yes siree.

[paul_e]

When Wimbledon buggered off to Milton Keynes all Hell broke loose. Quite rightly in my opinion.

However in rugby it seems just about all the London sides are playing miles outside London... Wycombe, Reading, Oxford, Watford, but I never hear any fuss being made about this. Don't any of their fans care or have I just managed to miss the surrounding controversy?

Rugby is shit and absolutely no one outside of Leicester and Bristol gives a fuck.

To an extent you are correct. Fans in London treat rugby like going to the theatre, a day out to be passively entertained from time to time. Ultimately no passion.
I would have to say from your comment though that you have never been to Gloucester and I suspect Northampton. People there do 'give a fuck' about rugby. Yes siree.

I lived in Northampton for a few years, you don't see many football shirts there, pure rugby town.

[paul_e]

Bringing this thread back fro the brink a little here and commenting on a story from the start of the week but...

It's interesting to note that the luck of the irish clearly extends to the citing commission doing everything they can to ensure Paul O'Connell gets to go on the lions tour.

Here for those who haven't seen it.  To me there's no way he can get a boot to that ball without kicking him in the head so I think calling it clumsy is pretty generous, given some of the bans handed out by the citing commission in the last couple of years I think he's got away with one.

Any thoughts?

[lovejoy]

I don't know, I could see that being argued both ways.

You are on the money with the citing of Lions players (and internationals generally). Toby Flood just before the 6N is a case in point.

[paul_e]

For me there is no chance he can get a boot on that ball, from the angle he's coming in at, without kicking the guy in the head first.  Yes it's clumsy but there is a complete disregard for the safety of another player there, in my opinion.  I'm amazed it wasn't at least cited, 2-4 week ban as far as I'm concerned.  As I say though, taking POC on the lions tour would then be difficult as he's already struggling to get enough game time this season to find any form.  Add to that a munster and Clermont semi coming next week and when I first saw it I knew he'd get away with it.

I think there needs to be an investigation into it if I'm honest, much like Healy in the 6N and the Flood incident you mentioned it happens too often that international players seem to never get bans that massively affect their national side.

[PaulWinch again]

I see Gatland has ditched a lot of English players from the Lions, no Robshaw at all.

[paul_e]

Lions Squad

Captain: Sam Warburton

Lions squad for the tour to Australia:

Backs: Leigh Halfpenny (Wales), Stuart Hogg (Scotland), Rob Kearney (Ireland), Tommy Bowe (Ireland), Alex Cuthbert (Wales), Sean Maitland (Scotland), George North (Wales), Jonathan Davies (Wales), Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland), Jamie Roberts (Wales), Manu Tuilagi (England), Owen Farrell (England), Jonathan Sexton (Ireland), Conor Murray (Ireland), Mike Phillips (Wales), Ben Youngs (England).

Forwards: Dan Cole (England), Cian Healy (Ireland), Gethin Jenkins (Wales), Adam Jones (Wales), Matt Stevens (England), Mako Vunipola (England), Dylan Hartley (England), Richard Hibbard (Wales), Tom Youngs (England), Ian Evans (Wales), Richie Gray (Scotland), Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales), Paul O'Connell (Ireland), Geoff Parling (England), Tom Croft (England), Toby Faletau (Wales), Jamie Heaslip (Ireland), Dan Lydiate (Wales), Sean O'Brien (Ireland), Justin Tipuric (Wales), Sam Warburton (Wales, captain)

Matt Stevens? Erm..
No place for Robshaw or Wood but Croft gets a spot... really?
I'm amazed that Wade hasn't got a spot, he'd be perfect for the conditions down under.

15 welsh, 10 english, 9 irish and 3 scots - not quite sure how Ireland have nearly as many as england given the form in the last year.

They said there would be suprises, the only name on that list who wasn't fairly obviously in the mix is Matt Stevens and that's mainly because it's well established that he's not good enough for international rugby.

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah Stevens is very odd. I'm really hoping Wade gets the opportunity to cement his place in the England team this summer.

[paul_e]

I think Tommy Bowe and Dan Lydiate are the 2 I'm most offended by.  both have play a couple of games after 3-4months out injured and have been picked ahead of Wade and Wood/Robshaw respectively.  Wade being the top scorer in the premiership and Wood and Robshaw both having had fantastic seasons, both for club and country.