Domestic and European Rugby Union

[tomd2103]

I think he was always going to be back but the difference in wages was so huge that it was worth giving it a go.

Sadly I don't think he'll do much to fix the problems wales have.

On that particular issue, big news expected to come out of Wales later today with the WRU proposing a reduction to two professional teams with both being pretty much centrally operated. 

I can see what they're trying to do but destroying 2 well support clubs seems like it'll backfire.

I think it will probably finish off rugby in Wales to be honest Paul.  Football.is becoming far more popular, thanks in some part to the FAW being far more switched on than the WRU.  The crowd numbers at the upcoming Autumn internationals will be interesting.

[paul_e]

I agree, welsh rugby is in a really difficult place right now and a solution like this feels like the sort of thing that someone with no 'skin in the game' would come up with because they're obviously planning to kill Scarlets and the Dragons to roll it into Cardiff and Swansea.

Rigby is struggling for players all over the place though, the handful of people I know in the professional game (including one at scarlets who I'll have a chat with later and get his thoughts on this) have all said that things are really tough since covid, both financially but also just getting kids into the sport.

[UK Redsox]

Rugby is struggling for players all over the place though

Tru dat

With two weeks to go until the start of the season we haven’t got a scrum half. The choice at the moment is playing the second team’s outside half there or a coach in his late 30s coming out of retirement.

At tomorrow’s pre-season game, I’ll be faking a limp just in case there’s a desperate need for a no-pace winger

[cdbearsfan]

People just don't care about rugby in the same way they do football. A supposedly rugby mad country of 3½ million people having two professional teams is pathetic.

[paul_e]

Been a while without a post in here. 5th round of games this weekend and saints are currently mauling Sarries.

So far this year Saints and Bath look exceptional.

[paul_e]

as we've done all season Saints got a big lead, took their foot of the gas and let it get tighter than it should've been and then stepped it up again late on. Frustrating but if we can fix that we're going to be some team because we're ridiculously good going forward.

[Dante Lavelli]

as we've done all season Saints got a big lead, took their foot of the gas and let it get tighter than it should've been and then stepped it up again late on. Frustrating but if we can fix that we're going to be some team because we're ridiculously good going forward.

Young too. 

I don’t follow the other clubs closely enough but it strikes me that the saints academy is exceptional. 2/3 of the squad seem to have come through the youth system.

[paul_e]

as we've done all season Saints got a big lead, took their foot of the gas and let it get tighter than it should've been and then stepped it up again late on. Frustrating but if we can fix that we're going to be some team because we're ridiculously good going forward.

Young too. 

I don’t follow the other clubs closely enough but it strikes me that the saints academy is exceptional. 2/3 of the squad seem to have come through the youth system.

Yeah, saints have put a lot of money into the academy in the last 10-15 years and it's the best in the country now, Todaro is the latest graduate and he's just been called up for Italy after about 10 games for their U20s and 6 for saints. There are 7 more with the England u20s squad as well so there's plenty still coming through. Including subs the only back who played today that isn't a graduate from the academy is Fin Smith.

To drag it on topic a little how they went about it is very similar to what Villa seem to be trying to do which was to focus heavily on specific skillsets they want to see for each position and then concentrate on developing the player who best fit that need so all the players coming through should start to be able to slot in seamlessly as cover. Takes a while but Bogarde is a great example as they've clearly been working with him to adapt his game to be very similar to Kamara.