Made a pleasant change from all this international stuff to watch Bridgend v Llanelli yesterday. Rugby in the raw.
My home side was lucky to avoid relegation this year. Lot of poor results but won a few big games
Lucky to finish as high as 6th. Our points for/against differential is horrendous.
Ouch, that's some season! What the hell happened in the second half against Bruff?
Saracens are a 'small' club and the fan base is certainly not vocal, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I was at the Saracens Munster game and the amount of vitrol was unbearable; I thought I was at some sordid football match. Munster fans having heated arguments amongst themselves about keeping quiet during Saracens kicks. Persistent racist abuse. Reams of profanities aimed at players on the pitch and Saracens supporters, completely oblivious that rugby is meant to be a child-friendly environment. One Munster fan threw (what I can only assume was) beer over Saracens fans after a try was scored.Sarries are the man city of rugby, blow opponents away with attacking rugby, no fans or atmosphere at any of their important matches XD
I would have thought it pretty obvious what fans were egregious (Munster) and no I'm not going to repeat the vitrol directed to the likes of the Vunipolas, Itoje and Skelton based on their ethnicity from the fans in my vicinity.
I would have thought it pretty obvious what fans were egregious (Munster) and no I'm not going to repeat the vitrol directed to the likes of the Vunipolas, Itoje and Skelton based on their ethnicity from the fans in my vicinity.
I've never seen anything like this in rugby before
It is OK to boo billy v for his views, not ok to abuse him for his skin colour.
I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly didn't say anything. It was an incredibly uncomfortable environment. I just didn't know how that would play out.Well that's disappointing. Did anyone challenge them or make it known to the stewards? Had a similar incident in Lansdowne the other week where a Leinster 'supporter' starting hurling sectarian abuse at Ulster supporters, he was thrown out of the ground.
I think the problem with the booing was the outright hypocrisy. Honestly I think Munster should be heavily penalised.The fan confronting billy v was out of line, and that stuff you wrote about above is disgraceful and i hope anybody caught being racist gets lifetime bans. It is OK to boo billy v for his views, not ok to abuse him for his skin colour.
Why was the match played at the ricoh arena as home adv for saracens if sarries fans couldnt even make it? European rugby trying to test club fans wanting to attend matches with all these stupid ground changes
Each country has a 'home' venue chosen by the tournament organisers at the start, irrelevant of who the potenital teams are in the semi finals. It does make sense to a degree, but there needs to be a review of making sure that the venue is accessible. Munster would still have out-numbered Saracens, but I'm more worried that the experience has probably put off many people. I couldn't see myself paying a visit to Thomond Park anytime soon.
Think the venue of the semis should be picked on group performance, same as quarters, and if the stadium is too small then pick a bigger one in the same regionI think they announce the stadiums after the group stages are done.
It seems clear that they want to keep the money within rugby and will change the rules to do so. Allowing Edinburgh and Racing to play their semis in their home stadiums shows this. Previous semis have seen Leicester play at Nottingham Forest's ground so it wouldn't have been strange to see Edinburgh play a semi at Hampden but they let them play at Murrayfield because that is owned by the SRU. Racing are the main tenants at La Defense Arena but were given the right to play a semi there and of course Leinster have played many home games at the Aviva but are allowed to play home semis there because there isn't really an alternative.
It seems to me that Home semis should be at home grounds or at least up to individual clubs to find a suitable venue.
For Saracens they have a small stadium but a core support in London, it should have been easy to find a stadium in London to play the match, (even if that was Twickenham) rather than going up to the Midlands.
luke mcgrath, why didn't you just kick out for half time :(
billy v the difference today, try and 2 turnovers for sarries won them that match. Leinster, 3 attacks in the first part of the 2nd half and came away with no points, which you cannot do against this sarries team, need to keep the scoreboard going up.
Well done sarries, well deserved
Please don't say that... we're trying to stay under the radar.
Seriously though it does seem like the most open WC in a long while, although still with one clear favourite. It helps that NZ won't have a walk through the groups like they usually do; if SA can win that game it puts the ABs in the wrong side of the draw and anything can happen from there.
Yeah we are either gonna be humbled by the hosts or we are gonna cause heartbreak for the hosts. The heroic draw at Twikenham gives me hope that we can go deep in the tourney, just need to learn how to start games better.So, the Rugby Championship results are beginning to get me excited for the World Cup. Don't want NZ to win if three times in a row as it's just a little bit boring. SA got their mojo back in the last couple of years, Argentina look good. Think Wales are in with a decent shout, will be interesting to see what England and Ireland can bring after a slightly disappointing 6N.
I just wish Scotland didn't have Japan in the last game of the group stage. Wouldn't be a massive upset, but it would be massively upsetting...
Yeah we are either gonna be humbled by the hosts or we are gonna cause heartbreak for the hosts. The heroic draw at Twikenham gives me hope that we can go deep in the tourney, just need to learn how to start games better.
Is there a major tournament coming up? I expect at least 10 first team players to pick up freak horrific injuries in the next month or 2.I think we can give everyone a game - however, we could also be abysmal at times. We have a high risk, high reward style of play that means when our moves come off we look incredible but when they don't we look awful. One thing I'm praying for is that Finn Russell doesn't get injured.
Wales are in the best position they've ever been, Gatland has been planning this for the last four years. Go for it!
Yeah we know that, we just don't want anyone else to realise it! Bookies still have us behind England and Ireland as outright winners, which I'm more than happy about.
In terms of Wales' actual chances, I'm almost just as concerned about the Fiji game as I am about Australia. Partly because of recent form and partly because of when the games fall. Australia is our second game and first is against Georgia, so for a lot of the players it'll be their first run out. Playing Fiji third is a massive potential banana skin I think; they're on excellent form and they always have big players who could target some of ours who'll be on their third game by then. I wouldn't be surprised if no one got a clean sweep in that group to be honest.
Please don't say that... we're trying to stay under the radar.
Seriously though it does seem like the most open WC in a long while, although still with one clear favourite. It helps that NZ won't have a walk through the groups like they usually do; if SA can win that game it puts the ABs in the wrong side of the draw and anything can happen from there.
Not too worried about the score line as long as we don't pick up anymore injuries. Wales are notoriously slow starters and this game means nothing at the end of the day...