URC 22/23

[enby]

If he is so keen about improving standards in the league, he should put resources into training up, monitoring and paying a panel of good referees. At the moment, 90% of refs who ply their trade in the URC are way below the standard required for a serious league. It has long been a problem going back to the days of the Changlings and Fitzgibbon and there has been no improvement in recent times. The recent URC semifinals illustrate the problem. Hopefully a semi competent ref has been appointed for the final but nobody will be surprised if its some joker.

[heno]

It's generally said that if the 2 Italian teams were doing better, then it would benefit Italian rugby on the whole. But the assumption behind that is that the Italian teams are largely full of Italian players.

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[heno]

What nobody wants is some element of compulsion or arm twisting. Right now the only thing stopping zebre or dragons from getting a young and promising player to move is money (and preference). So if the Urc wanted to come up with some sort of fund or rebate system that would ultimately give zebre more cash to do more convincing, then that's fair enough. But I can't see what else is doable or tolerable.

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[ronk]

So at what point in their development and at what age do players become eligible for this 'draft' - we already have lads coming out of school who don't make the Leinster academy who won't move to another province so how do you get them to move to another country?

Are they going to cap the number of players each team is allowed to have (including Academy and sub academy) because otherwise how is 'Max O'Reilly' to be persuaded that he is better off playing for the shittest team in the league rather than staying at home with his friends and family and being coached by the best team in the league?

I really can't see any possible way they can make this work (hopefully!!)

Drafts have been discussed before. And are obviously unworkable.

The NFL system scatters players across the continent as they leave college.

What's troubling about this isn't that there's any chance of this bad idea happening, it's that the person saying it should know better, a lot better. And if he's working on stuff like this, he's not focusing on areas where progress is possible.

[SoupyNorman]

A couple of excellent controlled mauls by Munster after Crowley with pinpoint kick.

[ronk]

7 different winners of URC in 12 years, and that’s not counting Treviso for the Rainbow Cup (so let’s say 8 ). It’s a fair bit more competitive than the Leinster procession we keep hearing about.

This win for Munster will be good for the comp. In 2011 it was a post HC clash and didn’t have the same weight. But the Stormers were a strong team at home with time to prep. I think they’ll see the trophy differently now.

[Theleinsterlad]

7 different winners of URC in 12 years, and that’s not counting Treviso for the Rainbow Cup (so let’s say . It’s a fair bit more competitive than the Leinster procession we keep hearing about.

This win for Munster will be good for the comp. In 2011 it was a post HC clash and didn’t have the same weight. But the Stormers were a strong team at home with time to prep. I think they’ll see the trophy differently now.

That match was a true stand alone final and if I’m honest if we had managed to get to it after last week we probably wouldn’t have won it. The buzz in the stadium was great too, the SAers seem to really be taking to the competition.

[Ruckedtobits]

Ireland, and Leinster could do with a few sessions with Munster working on their maul.

The maul is now the most mechanical of all rugby phases, even more so than the scrum. Getting 6/7/8 players to:
A. Know what they're trying to do;
B. Getting into the correct position to do it;
C. "Disabling" the opposition from what they want to do; and
D. Executing all that together,
is the secret of good mauling, based on my experience of listening to and watching great forwards' Coaches over many years.

The improvement in the Munster maul has coincided with the return of Snyman, Loughman & Beirne and a dramatic upturn in form of Archer and Barron. But all eight contribute and it is the effectiveness of the entire pack that now makes this an 80-minute weapon.

Leinster's attacking maul worked for 40 minutes in last year's final. Leinster's defensive maul worked until we lost Ryan this year.

Despite changes in personnel & particularly leadership, Munster's mauls, defensive and attacking, worked for the full 80 minutes. Admittedly, LAR altered their tactics to include short-side attacks from 30 minutes onwards but Leinster's defensive maul was a shambles in the third quarter. Stormers hardly varied their maul tactics or structure although they had more success in the 3rd quarter.k

Staying true to their objective of getting wide round the corner, Munster's mid-field trio did not desert this tactic throughout the game and it ultimately paid dividends with Hodnett's winning try.

So tactically, as well as emotionally, Munster had 'control' throughout this game and this ultimately proved the key factor. Well done Leamy.

[ormond lad]

If he is so keen about improving standards in the league, he should put resources into training up, monitoring and paying a panel of good referees. At the moment, 90% of refs who ply their trade in the URC are way below the standard required for a serious league. It has long been a problem going back to the days of the Changlings and Fitzgibbon and there has been no improvement in recent times. The recent URC semifinals illustrate the problem. Hopefully a semi competent ref has been appointed for the final but nobody will be surprised if its some joker.

How different to what happens now would you have training and monitoring refs?

[Oldschoolsocks]

If he is so keen about improving standards in the league, he should put resources into training up, monitoring and paying a panel of good referees. At the moment, 90% of refs who ply their trade in the URC are way below the standard required for a serious league. It has long been a problem going back to the days of the Changlings and Fitzgibbon and there has been no improvement in recent times. The recent URC semifinals illustrate the problem. Hopefully a semi competent ref has been appointed for the final but nobody will be surprised if its some joker.

How different to what happens now would you have training and monitoring refs?

What happens now OL?

I ask because the standard of reffing seems pretty poor in the URC at the mo

[paddyor]

The draft idea is dumb. The huge differences between this league and the leagues in the US where it operates successively. The biggest one being money. The money on offer for a top draft pick on a draft contract dwarfs what you’d get in rugby. But there’s also the pseudo slavery aspect of the feeder leagues for the pro leagues. Rugby doesn’t have them churning out fully formed pro athletes.

There’s also the sheer waste of the US style draft. Massive amounts of talent gets wasted on terrible franchises and non of it really matters because they’re well paid. They can’t jump league like a rugby player could.

[Ruckedtobits]

Three really good appointments by Dwayne Peel at Scarlets. Jared Payne comes in as Backs & Attack Coach. Albert Van der Berg as Line-out & Forwards Coach and Shane Carney (ex-Ulster) as Head of Athletic Performance.

Scarlets have lots of talented youngsters and a good roster of more experienced guys who haven't always performed to their athletic potential throughout the season. I'd expect to see Scarlets in the top five throughout 2023/24.

[neill_m]

Three really good appointments by Dwayne Peel at Scarlets. Jared Payne comes in as Backs & Attack Coach. Albert Van der Berg as Line-out & Forwards Coach and Shane Carney (ex-Ulster) as Head of Athletic Performance.

Scarlets have lots of talented youngsters and a good roster of more experienced guys who haven't always performed to their athletic potential throughout the season. I'd expect to see Scarlets in the top five throughout 2023/24.

https://all.rugby/transfers/scarlets - 2 in, 19 out re transfers for 23/24 season!

[ronk]

That's a 21 point improvement they'd need based on this year's table. They'd need to pass the Bulls and Munster. That's a huge ask.

Now they did have a few good results and there were probably a few losses in there due to off field disruption. They also are losing 19 players https://all.rugby/transfers/scarlets so it's more likely there's be carnage.

[naraic]

I kind of feel like all the Welsh regions will be but if one of them works out ok they can run the table on the others and pick up a few other wins.

[paddyor]

Some older news but only getting wind of it now.

Currently it is 67.2m Rand (£2.8m)
2023/24 it will be 85m Rand (£3.5m) with 4 marquee players outside the budget
2024/25 it will be 95m Rand (£3.9m) with 4 marquee players outside the budget

This is really great news for the league. It's technically less than the Welsh but as one South African pundit said the wages the players earn goes a lot further than the same wage would in Europe

[hugonaut]

Some older news but only getting wind of it now.

Currently it is 67.2m Rand (£2.8m)
2023/24 it will be 85m Rand (£3.5m) with 4 marquee players outside the budget
2024/25 it will be 95m Rand (£3.9m) with 4 marquee players outside the budget

This is really great news for the league. It's technically less than the Welsh but as one South African pundit said the wages the players earn goes a lot further than the same wage would in Europe

Big Mac Index has Ireland @ $4.77 and South Africa @ $2.34. Very blunt instrument, but it highlights the cost disparity between Ireland and SA.

[sunshiner1]

https://www.therugbypaper.co.uk/all/dom ... K62tWv3fVs

Regardless of what people think about him. He'll be a good signing for the Sharks.

[FtD]

Interesting that Taine Plumtree has signed for the Scarlets from the Auckland Blues. His dad is obviously John Plumtree, and he's Welsh qualified having been born there while his dad coached Swansea in the late 2000's.

While Plumtree was the Irish forward's coach, his sons Taine and Rhys both played for Blackrock College, and both were very highly regarded by all accounts.