Comments on: Super Rugby 2019: Round 3 Predictions

By: Don P

Don P — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 16:01:37 +0000

Agree SJ, marching 10 IS under used. In fact can’t recall when I last saw it ulised. Need to look up, but could be used & or in conjunction with pens for persistent offending, ‘cheating’ for instance. May result in less yellows?

By: Don P

Don P — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 15:51:34 +0000

Well Pablito, Frans’ original piece, to which I responded, was about whether SH player drain was good for English rugby. Ultimately, it’s not as it suppresses local players’ ops. E.g., Saracens boast 57% home grown players. What about the other 43%? Is that moral? Anyway, as stated, this is getting away from the original post.

By: Pablito

Pablito — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 14:58:13 +0000

Breaching financial rules is an entirely different argument. Players aren’t responsible for ensuring that their clubs act within the salary cap.
I cannot see any moral argument for not letting players maximise their earnings. If anything, banning them from achieving their earning potential would be the immoral course of action.

By: Don P

Don P — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 13:59:43 +0000

Depends on whether you take a commercial or a moral view Pablito. Also, forethought as to the likely impact on the global game. With Saracens yet again in the frame for breaching fin regs, after having been found guilty (along with Bath) in 2015 for same, it’s not just a case of begrudging ‘players’ maxing their earnings’. It’s also whether a case of whether they do so legally. There’s a lack of regulation re same & fines for aforementioned breaches were a wrist slap. Pah!

By: Pablito

Pablito — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 12:54:35 +0000

Surely you don’t begrudge players the chance to maximise their earnings? Whether that be in their country of birth or abroad?
After all rugby players don’t have long at peak earnings in the game and it could all be ended by one unfortunate tackle.
If the country losing the players has an issue with it, then is not entirely up to them to try and keep their players, whether through increased salary or other inducements?
As for foreign players in other leagues, why is it necessarily a bad thing? They bring new ideas and new experience that can help, not hinder, their new clubs.

By: SJ

SJ — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 12:37:09 +0000

Picking up on a sentence in your comment got me thinking DP… Is the ‘marched 10’ an underused deterrent by referees in this day and age? It seems to me that it is solely reserved for back-chat and/or petulance but I think there is scope to apply it more broadly. Of course this brings into play the individuals referee’s interpretation and how to enshrine any law around it into black and white. But for the moment, I am going to leave it as I started it – I think it is underused.

By: Don P

Don P — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 09:46:08 +0000

Well hello Frans! Influx of foreign players is ultimately a lose, lose situation. This northern drift continues to undermine SH rugby & in turn NH teams, countries. However, with a seemingly gutless WR condoning this spurious practice, I see the old human nature of greed alive @ well. I read somewhere a while back that there are, I think, 300+ SA’s playing abroad. Undermines S Rugby teams & therefore weakens international side. Likewise in NZ, although they’ve mainly, thus far, retained 1st line AB’s, it’s the guys ‘fringing’ whom go offshore; e.g., Piatau, Siaeli, Lowes, Luatua, Parkes, Maitland etc. Gosper of WR stated that commercial interests rule, ok?!; or words to that effect. Gloomy.

By: Frans

Frans — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 06:16:28 +0000

So Don what do you think-the influx of foreign players-a good or bad thing for English rugby.

I am glad to see that the Kiwis have taken steps
to retain their All Blacks and that SA rugby is
doing the same.

By: Don P

Don P — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 21:33:39 +0000

Frans, no one’s ‘listening’ to you, apart from me. Now I’ve stopped too. Communication usually requires @ least 2 people. G’luck.

By: Frans

Frans — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:52:29 +0000

JOHANNESBURG – If the Lions continue to lose players at the rate they have in the past year they’ll field an almost completely new-look side in next year’s Super Rugby competition. The exodus of players from the Lions is nothing short of a crisis.
The weakening of the Rand and gloomy economic prospects, and of course their former coach influence are in my opinion the main reasons for the Lions demise.

To do well in international events such as the
the Rugby championship and World cup the southern hemisphere national sides,need that their franchises perform well in Super Rugby.
This has been proven by the Kiwis over and over again.

It is not only the Lions that are under threat, a number of prominent Sharks players will also leave the franchise after the completion of Super rugby and will leave sooner if not selected for the world cup squad.

Don’t get me wrong,I know rugby is now a professional sport.but I have to ask, is the influx of foreign players really beneficial in improving local rugby? Are you not depriving and discouraging local talent.
Are you not heading in the same direction
as soccer with extremely strong local competitions and teams, only facing early exit in World cup competitions, as stars leave their clubs to join their national teams?

Should the RFU not consider a limit on the number of foreign players any club may recruit?

By: Don P

Don P — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 12:01:07 +0000

Boy, this prediction bizzo! Had Hi’landers by 10! A blow out! Chiefs by 21, another blow out. Canes by 10, an underestimate by..10. Crusaders by 17, not 10. Need a QBE actuary’s feed. Watch the rest through my fingers!

By: Don P

Don P — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 18:58:36 +0000

Frans, I didn’t particularly notice the issues that you rightly mention in the aforementioned match, because I wasn’t esp watching out for them & also because I believe that they are now commonplace in the current game. They shouldn’t be, I agree. Refs ought to be reinstructed to simply apply the rules & hammer cheats with cards & or by their being marched 10. Unfortunately, not releasing the ball also applies to lineouts, scrums, pens, turnovers etc. There’s also much illegal ‘shepherding’, or blocking now, whereby players not only run lines to protect their own catcher, but they then stop in front if tacklers to prevent their actually tackling. Ball carriers also run behind & across their team mates using them as shields to prevent their being tackled. The lying on in the breakdown, which you highlight, is also another area which is being ignored & so illegally stops play from being continued. The rucking you mention certainly helped stop the cheaters from hanging around for too long & produced quicker ball. Policed properly with a 1000 cameras, it might help to alleviate this particular issue. Unfortunately, these days the lack of will & or interpretation of actual laws, is being encouraged by WR & refs by their not enforcing, or instead, the intermittent ‘coaching’ of players . Incidentally, I spoke to a local ref in London recently who opined that if ALL laws weren’t ‘interpreted’, there wouldn’t be a game. I suggested that he should do his job.. or get another 1. Bloody frustrating for those of us whom just want to see a game being actually ‘played’. Regds.