Domestic and European Rugby Union

[paul_e]

I said it looked like 25k from where we were so that sounds right.

[Monty]

Went to Benetton-Cardiff yesterday in Treviso. Top drama, great skills and tons of mistakes, basically just running in straight lines for 80 minutes solid while the ultra dorks tried to deafen me with their interminable drumming and megaphone screeching and never actually watching the game. SPINGE LEONI, yeah I get it, it's tattooed on my nightmares for all time.

Anyway 38-35 Benetton, good fun all round.

[paul_e]

Benetton have a really good squad now and play really good rugby. Menoncello in particular is, in my opinion, the best 13 in the world.

[Monty]

Benetton have a really good squad now and play really good rugby. Menoncello in particular is, in my opinion, the best 13 in the world.

He was man of the match and totally worth it.

Edit: actually they gave it to Lamaro in the end, which, fine. I had Menoncello down as the difference-maker though, myself.

[paul_e]

Haven't posted here for a while and obviously we're all distracted by events elsewhere but right now Northampton are putting on a masterclass of attacking rugby and look highly likely to break their record score currently 80-21 with nearly half an hour to play.

[Gareth]

Some of the dumbest rugby I’ve ever seen from Bath at the end of that game, clock dead in front of posts & no interest in a drop goal.  Dumb, stupid and deserve to not go to final for that alone

[dcdavecollett]

In fairness, Bath are well known for scoring 'red-zone' tries, so may have thought it was the best way to go. Delighted Exeter got the reward for a stirring comeback.

A really exciting game, even if different from the titanic clash between Saints and Tigers the previous evening.

[paul_e]

I'm with Gareth, incredibly dumb rugby from Bath. They do score a lot of tries but sometimes you have to play the situation.

In contrast Saints were excellent on Friday. Pollock, Smith and Freeman were all in top form and Tigers barely hung on to avoid a cricket score.

[dcdavecollett]

The Friday game had the intensity of Test rugby.

[Meanwood Villa]

Good first half that. Thought it would be more one sided in favour of Northampton but Exeter have done alright. Both teams left tries out there.

[Meanwood Villa]

Couple of great wingers' tries to seal it

[paul_e]

Exeter did everything they could to disrupt but the extra quality of saints was always there.

Both yellows were soft but the first in particular was a shocker of a decision.

I do find myself watchig games like today and hoping for a review of the laws to stop tackler rolling round as the tackle completes to ensure they get pinned in meaning they're legally slowing down the recycling of the ball. In the current laws it's ok so long as you're not taking the piss but when it happens 9 tackles out of 10 it's quite clearly a tactical decision. Given all the other changes they've made to protect the 9 and speed up play this one feels like a big mistake to have been missed.

[Dante Lavelli]

Delighted for Saints.  They’re my local team, but beside that they’re a homegrown bunch of lads that play ridiculously entertaining rugby.

In the commentary (I think) they said their wage bill is 8th lowest of the 10 teams in the league.  Just goes to show what coherent investment in youth players can achieve.

[Dante Lavelli]

The goal for villa is to recreate something like this.  The scale is smaller in rugby but when all the component parts combine FFP/SCR rules become less relevant.  We are not far away.

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/jj-van-der-meschts-wife-writes-wonderful-heartfelt-thank-you-message-to-saints-8754045?fbclid=IwZnRzaASmf5VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeJMyg5VKBcGlMTRYoo8V16v9Cs9RcX_jGLsUf_PvIvOK0SlAGTo0vFV8KYkc_aem_j9X3M3q3ol1NSNMxFJ2NQQ

[paul_e]

His story is a great example of what saints are doing so well, their squad really is an incredible achievement for them. At the start of the season they named a 56 man first team squad of which 33 came through the academy and on the back of that they've won the league, got the QF in Europe and have about 15 of those academy players with full international caps.

They absolutely are the dream of what a sustainable club should be. Replicating it in football is obviously much harder with far more competition for every young player and far more pressure on individuals than you get in rugby but getting to the point where all the players coming through know exactly what the plans are for how to push on and have players they can work with and learn from is clearly an incredibly effective model.

My favourite bit is that every year they seem to have another handful coming though. There's already 7-8 with the England U20s of which 4-5 are predicted to really break-through in the next 18months, and by the time they do there will be another group of a similar size.