Rugby Union

[honestly united]

I see Nigel Owens was the referee for the Glasgow vs Cardiff game.  I thought that wasn't supposed to happen?

I'd rather have Owens than any of the Irish refs to be honest

[Mark Connolly]

I was bored at work today, so came up with the following two teams for a potential Scotland trial match. A bit of an assumption that everyone would be fit, but still interesting.

 

[peasy23]

It's astonishing to think you can pick two teams with that quality, and still have all those guys not selected.

[Mark Connolly]

2 minutes ago, peasy23 said:

It's astonishing to think you can pick two teams with that quality, and still have all those guys not selected.

You could field a full strength Glasgow side AND a very strong Scotland side the same day, which is ridiculous.

[Gianfranco]

Townsend was watching Man City train today.

[Swarley]

I've heard talk of an ENgland vs NZ game in the US next year as part of the build up to the league world cup in the US / building up some awareness for the game etc. There is also talk of a New York league team on a similar vein to the toronto wolfpack that are getting decent crowds at the moment.
Im just hoping that union hasn't missed out by not getting proper pro clubs up and running in the US and Canada

By "decent crowds" what are we talking? League is massive in NSW but they still get absolutely pitiful attendances (imho) apart from Grand Final and Origin games.

[honestly united]

10 hours ago, Swarley said:

By "decent crowds" what are we talking? League is massive in NSW but they still get absolutely pitiful attendances (imho) apart from Grand Final and Origin games.

From what I can gather Toronto are getting approx 5 to 7000 per game, and that's for 3rd tier rugby league

Edit: Having check wiki it appears there average crowd last season was 6900 - thats Pro 14 level crowds for 3rd tier rugby league - imagine what they will be getting if they get to Superleague

Edited December 5, 2017 by honestly united

[ajwffc]

Townsend was watching Man City train today.

He has talked in the past about how rugby coaches could learn from the way Guardiola management and training styles

[Torpar]

17 hours ago, honestly united said:

From what I can gather Toronto are getting approx 5 to 7000 per game, and that's for 3rd tier rugby league

Edit: Having check wiki it appears there average crowd last season was 6900 - thats Pro 14 level crowds for 3rd tier rugby league - imagine what they will be getting if they get to Superleague

Toronto seemed to be a raging success in their first season, crowds were steadily good, all the games were on tv, albeit on an obscure games channel, they regularly featured on the all local news shows and I quite often spot people wearing Wolfpack hats etc. A lot of Canadian rugby fans don't seem get hung up on which code they are watching and are just fans of Rugby in general (a lot of causal fans don't know the difference).  I'd say the whole novelty value of it all was a big part of why they got good crowds, as well as the whole game experience they put on, food and beer etc. And the fact that league is a summer sport meant it didn't clash with NHL/NBA/NFL (the Jays were awful so there wasn't a lot of interest there) Be interested to see where they play if they do get to Superleague, they currently play in a pretty horrible looking  city owned public stadium  which during the week is rented out for 5 a sides etc. Similar I guess to playing at Meggetland.  And with nearby BMO Field now having two tenants it's highly unlikely they would play there. For a big city, there are very few stadiums.

Due to the climate a union team wouldn't work in Toronto, the Wolfpack played all away games until May. But Vancouver seems a good fit, they only have one team in the 'big four' leagues and BC Place the home of the MLS and CFL teams I'm sure would love a tenant for the winter months

[honestly united]

16 minutes ago, Torpar said:

Toronto seemed to be a raging success in their first season, crowds were steadily good, all the games were on tv, albeit on an obscure games channel, they regularly featured on the all local news shows and I quite often spot people wearing Wolfpack hats etc. A lot of Canadian rugby fans don't seem get hung up on which code they are watching and are just fans of Rugby in general (a lot of causal fans don't know the difference).  I'd say the whole novelty value of it all was a big part of why they got good crowds, as well as the whole game experience they put on, food and beer etc. And the fact that league is a summer sport meant it didn't clash with NHL/NBA/NFL (the Jays were awful so there wasn't a lot of interest there) Be interested to see where they play if they do get to Superleague, they currently play in a pretty horrible looking  city owned public stadium  which during the week is rented out for 5 a sides etc. Similar I guess to playing at Meggetland.  And with nearby BMO Field now having two tenants it's highly unlikely they would play there. For a big city, there are very few stadiums.

Due to the climate a union team wouldn't work in Toronto, the Wolfpack played all away games until May. But Vancouver seems a good fit, they only have one team in the 'big four' leagues and BC Place the home of the MLS and CFL teams I'm sure would love a tenant for the winter months

The new MLR starts up next year, with 7 teams for the first season (Denver, Seatle, New Orleans, Austin, Houston, san diego and utah) over a 12 week season. They cant start until end of April due to the wranglings with Pro USA which died after one season, but still had exclusivity rights). They are looking to expand in 2019 and 2020 with talk of New York, Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, Ontario, Kansas and North Carolina. They are all looking at playing out of the smaller stadia similar to the Wolfpack.

I dont know how this is going to impact the proposed Pro14 expansion into the US and Canada though

[Savage Henry]

On 12/4/2017 at 23:46, Gianfranco said:

Townsend was watching Man City train today.

Wonder who he's going to call up?  Aguero would make a fine scrum half, I reckon.

[David990]

Pretty sure Toonie has visited several footie clubs to see their coaching set-ups. Barcelona was one of them I think.

[ajwffc]

Edinburgh  prop Michele Rizzo has been recalled by Leicester 

[ajwffc]

After his red card v Glasgow Cardiff's Taufa’ao Filise has received a 3 week ban(reduced from 6 due to previous behaviour) by a Pro14 disciplinary board.

 

 

[honestly united]

4 hours ago, ajwffc said:

After his red card v Glasgow Cardiff's Taufa’ao Filise has received a 3 week ban(reduced from 6 due to previous behaviour) by a Pro14 disciplinary board.

 

 

Same as Kepu got for his red card vs Scotland - and his was much worse than Filise, who I thought was a harsh red as more accidental than malicious, whereas Kepu's was deliberate.

[Northsea80]

[come on shire]

I was at the game vs Cardiff on Friday night.  Didn't play exceptionally well by any means but we were clinical when needed to be and got the BP win.  Once again another piece of magic from Niko at the end.  I thought the red card was harsh.  A yellow would have sufficed but haven't watched the game back yet to hear Nigel on the TV.  However the extra man did help especially when they got a yellow card towards the end.  I thought Danny Wilson made a huge mistake in taking Nick Williams off the park after the red.  He's a huge unit at the back of the scrum and as a ball carrier.

Loving the team for tomorrow night though.  Showing that we're not giving up.  Traditionally the French teams aren't the best travellers but we need to make sure it stays that way despite it being a potentially tough game.  Only a win will do (preferably with a BP).  If we get the win our Euro campaign will still be in intensive care but we won't have to call the priest in just yet.  That would end Montpellier's interest and their team selection will probably show that when we go there the week after.  Basically, so much riding on tomorrow night.  Looking forward to going to cheer the guys on.  Mon eh Warriors!

[afca32]

Good to see Rennie recognising George Horne and Pyrgos' respective form.  Not expecting anything from tomorrow, it's not a strong bench and Montpellier have a freakishly good team. Still, you never know with Glasgow.

[honestly united]

51 minutes ago, afca32 said:

Good to see Rennie recognising George Horne and Pyrgos' respective form.  Not expecting anything from tomorrow, it's not a strong bench and Montpellier have a freakishly good team. Still, you never know with Glasgow.

Apart from the 2nd and back row cover, thats about as good a bench as we can put out at the moment,

And apart from Dunbar, can think of anyone else not injured who should be starting

[peasy23]

I was at the game vs Cardiff on Friday night.  Didn't play exceptionally well by any means but we were clinical when needed to be and got the BP win.  Once again another piece of magic from Niko at the end.  I thought the red card was harsh.  A yellow would have sufficed but haven't watched the game back yet to hear Nigel on the TV.  However the extra man did help especially when they got a yellow card towards the end.  I thought Danny Wilson made a huge mistake in taking Nick Williams off the park after the red.  He's a huge unit at the back of the scrum and as a ball carrier.
Loving the team for tomorrow night though.  Showing that we're not giving up.  Traditionally the French teams aren't the best travellers but we need to make sure it stays that way despite it being a potentially tough game.  Only a win will do (preferably with a BP).  If we get the win our Euro campaign will still be in intensive care but we won't have to call the priest in just yet.  That would end Montpellier's interest and their team selection will probably show that when we go there the week after.  Basically, so much riding on tomorrow night.  Looking forward to going to cheer the guys on.  Mon eh Warriors!

I think Owens was originally thinking yellow, but after he saw the replay he mentioned when talking to the TMO that the Glasgow player wasn't as low to the ground as he had originally thought he was, so there was no mitigation that the player was on the way down when he hit him. I thought it was borderline too but he did explain the reasoning for his decision well.