International Rugby

[cdbearsfan]

Annoying that the rugby never seems to be on when I have the telly to myself and Villa aren't playing.

Do you try to watch the club game?  English club rugby is truly brilliant right now, there are 4-5 teams that are great to watch, I recommend Wasps and Worcester to anyone who likes a more flowing game (Worcester are the scots of the league, trying to do everything the right way but just not quite good enough to pull it off) and then Bath, Exeter, Gloucester and Saints are all capable of looking excellent when thy hit form.

I can't say I do really. I occasionally check how Moseley are getting on but can't say I'm overly bothered. I also like Glasgow to do well in Pro12/Europe but, again, not too arsed. I think if I start watching any more sport my girlfriend will definitely dump me! Anyhow I couldn't support franchise scum Wasps.

[paul_e]

Annoying that the rugby never seems to be on when I have the telly to myself and Villa aren't playing.

Do you try to watch the club game?  English club rugby is truly brilliant right now, there are 4-5 teams that are great to watch, I recommend Wasps and Worcester to anyone who likes a more flowing game (Worcester are the scots of the league, trying to do everything the right way but just not quite good enough to pull it off) and then Bath, Exeter, Gloucester and Saints are all capable of looking excellent when thy hit form.

Thinking of getting a season ticket to either Wasps or Worcester next season and pick my Villa games.

If you're neutral I recommend wasps, I suspect they'll challenge for the title next year, Hughes, Robson/Simpson and Cipriani is a phenomenal 8, 9, 10 and with Hallai, Wade and Daly outside they're going to expose a lot of teams, there's loads of pace, quick ball from the ruck and a 10 who can hit a sixpence.  I'm thinking of getting a season ticket there myself.

[cdbearsfan]

Boooooooooo!

I don't know much about rugby but I know I don't like Wasps!

[nigel]

Annoying that the rugby never seems to be on when I have the telly to myself and Villa aren't playing.

Do you try to watch the club game?  English club rugby is truly brilliant right now, there are 4-5 teams that are great to watch, I recommend Wasps and Worcester to anyone who likes a more flowing game (Worcester are the scots of the league, trying to do everything the right way but just not quite good enough to pull it off) and then Bath, Exeter, Gloucester and Saints are all capable of looking excellent when thy hit form.

Thinking of getting a season ticket to either Wasps or Worcester next season and pick my Villa games.

If you're neutral I recommend wasps, I suspect they'll challenge for the title next year, Hughes, Robson/Simpson and Cipriani is a phenomenal 8, 9, 10 and with Hallai, Wade and Daly outside they're going to expose a lot of teams, there's loads of pace, quick ball from the ruck and a 10 who can hit a sixpence.  I'm thinking of getting a season ticket there myself.

Decision made 

[paul_e]

Boooooooooo!

I don't know much about rugby but I know I don't like Wasps!

Sounds like Worcester would be your team, and with regualr valiant defeats it'll feel familiar...


Oh and the only English club that you should openly dislike is Sarries, their blatant disregard for the salary cap is taking the piss but for someone reason no one cares.  on top of that they're boring as fuck to watch.

[Villa in Denmark]

Boooooooooo!

I don't know much about rugby but I know I don't like Wasps!

Sounds like Worcester would be your team, and with regualr valiant defeats it'll feel familiar...


Oh and the only English club that you should openly dislike is Sarries, their blatant disregard for the salary cap is taking the piss but for someone reason no one cares.  on top of that they're boring as fuck to watch.

Spend obscene amounts of money. Awful to watch. Don't get the level of success you'd expect from that level of financial doping.

So the Chelsea of rugby then? Do they have a habit of deifying an absolute cock socket as a manger whilst shitting from a great height all over the few decent people they've got in their employ?

[paul_e]

The sarries argument amounts to "France doesn't have these caps so if we don't spend more than we should all the best players go there".  What that ignores is that pushing for increases to the caps (which are there to safeguard the clubs so they don't go into debt, Sarries are the only club carrying large debts) is fine but to repeatedly breach the caps (to qualify this, if they aren't breaching the caps then the average wage for non-playing staff at the club is about 40% higher than London averages for those roles but that's their defence) whilst making that argument is a massive "fuck you" to the league and really should've resulted in a points deduction by now.


EDIT - lost track of my point there.  I'd actually liken them to Leeds more than anything, spending like it's going out of fashion to keep up with the big boys whilst totally aware that 1 bad season will leave them deep in the shit for at least a decade.

[Villa in Denmark]

Fair enough.

Chelsea, Leeds?  Odious.

[cdbearsfan]

Boooooooooo!

I don't know much about rugby but I know I don't like Wasps!

Sounds like Worcester would be your team, and with regualr valiant defeats it'll feel familiar...


Oh and the only English club that you should openly dislike is Sarries, their blatant disregard for the salary cap is taking the piss but for someone reason no one cares.  on top of that they're boring as fuck to watch.

I'm no Pear! I've already said I'm a not-very-arsed Moseley/Glasgow fan!

[paul_e]

Boooooooooo!

I don't know much about rugby but I know I don't like Wasps!

Sounds like Worcester would be your team, and with regualr valiant defeats it'll feel familiar...


Oh and the only English club that you should openly dislike is Sarries, their blatant disregard for the salary cap is taking the piss but for someone reason no one cares.  on top of that they're boring as fuck to watch.

I'm no Pear! I've already said I'm a not-very-arsed Moseley/Glasgow fan!

I was joking just to get another dig in about scotland to be honest.

[PaulWinch again]

Tuilagi retained in squad in place of Goode. Happy with that.

[Dante Lavelli]

Surprised by the silence from both Gatland and Jones.  I was looking forward to them stoking the fire before the game.
 

[lovejoy]

Boooooooooo!

I don't know much about rugby but I know I don't like Wasps!

Sounds like Worcester would be your team, and with regualr valiant defeats it'll feel familiar...


Oh and the only English club that you should openly dislike is Sarries, their blatant disregard for the salary cap is taking the piss but for someone reason no one cares.  on top of that they're boring as fuck to watch.

What about Bath, again blatant disregard for salary cap, found 'jobs' for players in amateur era and don't even own their own ground (which incidentally has rubbish views and mostly uncovered).

[paul_e]

Boooooooooo!

I don't know much about rugby but I know I don't like Wasps!

Sounds like Worcester would be your team, and with regualr valiant defeats it'll feel familiar...


Oh and the only English club that you should openly dislike is Sarries, their blatant disregard for the salary cap is taking the piss but for someone reason no one cares.  on top of that they're boring as fuck to watch.

What about Bath, again blatant disregard for salary cap, found 'jobs' for players in amateur era and don't even own their own ground (which incidentally has rubbish views and mostly uncovered).

The 'jobs' during the amateur era was fairly normal (Tigers were the worst for it, hence they just happened to be a fair bit further along than most sides when things went professional).  The ground is a tough one because the Bath fans I know would be mortified if they moved but they have no option to buy it so what do they do?  I agree they took the piss a little with the salary cap but not to the same extent as Sarries, and they were only over for 1 year (by the look of it).  My bigger issue with Sarries is the debt, as I say, they're like Leeds in that they've run up massive debts that they can really control as is, 1 bad season and they're utterly fucked - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-3414067/Saracens-debt-hits-45-1m-club-extends-unwanted-record-further.html - they've adopted a football club mentality in a market that doesn't really support it and I worry that not only are they going to send themselves to the wall but they're going to damage the game in the process.  They should've been docked points but if that happens and they miss the play offs it could cripple them so they're in a 3 way stare off with the RFU and premiership rugby and I don#t see any way for it to end well so long as sarries refuse to admit they need to do something about it.

[PaulWinch again]

George being out is a blow, although currently Hartley would be playing most of the game anyway.