Comments on: Three talking points from the Champions Cup semi-finals

By: Dazza (Dazzle)

Dazza (Dazzle) — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 14:36:39 +0000

Hopefully Spencer will get more and more game time as next season will most likely be Wiggy’s last. He has learnt a lot from those around him and has become a complete 9. He runs good supporting line as well and has great pace and vision. He aslo has a great left boot and a pretty healthy kicking percentage off the tee!

By: Don P

Don P — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 12:46:06 +0000

Ben Spencer seems to be the all singing, all dancing 1/2back answer England’s prayers @ 9, but not to EJ’s? What’s he (BS, not EJ) like going backwards though?

By: Don P

Don P — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 12:36:10 +0000

Well if enough people didn’t care about Euro Rugby 10TD, it couldn’t exist. Not being insular are you?

By: Don P

Don P — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 12:22:55 +0000

Expressed concerns about empty stadiums to a man in the pub who seems to have all answers to everything. He reckoned that if Sarries had played @ home they’d have filled their ground. So, presumably, the answer is play these games @ home then? Problem solved?

By: steve

steve — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 18:21:06 +0000

Just on Spencer. It was an assured, mature performance that I enjoyed a lot. He took good options, kept defenders honest while his basics of kicking and passing were first rate.
He should have had far more game time for England. Hopefully he will from now on. Goodness knows we need some new blood at 9, a position Eddie Jones has neglected badly and where we need to see what players can step up.

By: DarthMaul

DarthMaul — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 10:52:49 +0000

For me simply agree with Dazza in that the cost just adds up…..lets face it a day at the rugby usually consists of travel cost, pre-drinking maybe a pub lunch, drinks at the game, drinks after. Add tickets that even to most league games are not as cheap as they used to be (unless you want front row behind the posts). I used to go with the Wife to watch Quins often but any decent viewing seat is now £65! Add the days ‘festivities’ and you are looking at £150 day out per head!

By: Ten Ton Donut

Ten Ton Donut — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 09:37:50 +0000

I’m not surprised by the lack of attendance. I don’t know many people who really care about European rugby. I certainly don’t.

By: Dazza (Dazzle)

Dazza (Dazzle) — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 09:19:19 +0000

I think SJ has a great point here. Sarries are also going to be in a Prem semi-final and potentially the final also. Add that to the European final and it all adds up to a sizeable amount of money to keep spending on tickets.
I do think that Easter weekend played a big part and people being on holiday etc. but a lot of people can’t afford to go to all of these games, and will probably pick and choose certain semis and finals to go to.
I can also second Stuart’s comments about the ticket issue. ECPR allocation for the Sarries/Munster game was all over the place. Could some of the empty seats been corporate allocation which weren’t used?

By: Stuart Marcy

Stuart Marcy — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 22:45:42 +0000

Henry – Thanks. To clarify, it wasn’t down to the Sarries, it was all controlled centrally by the EPCR. The link I referenced was sent out initially by the Sarries to go through to the seats that had been allocated to us, but the whole ticketing process was handled by the EPCR. The sections were scattered around the stadium, not continuous, and only a few rows or sets of seats would seem to be for sale in each section. I checked back several times over the period leading up to the game and there never seemed t be any more released.

By: SJ

SJ — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 22:24:44 +0000

Attendance down – undoubtedly contributed greatly by everything you have mentioned as well as the train situation but I’d add that we are 8 months into the season with the prospect of another 6 weeks … I’m going to sound like a broken record but there is just too much rugby !

By: Henry Ker

Henry Ker — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 16:14:08 +0000

That’s a really interesting point, thanks for raising. I did hear about the train issues, but hadn’t heard about the lack of tickets appearing on sale! If they weren’t expecting to sell many, they may not have opened up sections of the stadium for sale (to keep everyone concentrated in one area) but still surprising. You would have though for a ‘home’ semi-final, they would have been going all guns out to try and get a sizeable home crowd?

By: Stuart Marcy

Stuart Marcy — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 13:56:55 +0000

On the point of attendance at the Ricoh, it also didn’t help that the direct line train from London to Coventry was out of action for engineering works. More importantly for me (and I’ve not seen any of the press pick up on it) was that hardly any tickets appeared to be available via the website. I looked early, mid-way and late, via both the Sarries link and the general sale website, and the amount of tickets shown as “available” was paltry! They were obviously being held back for some reason, but why?!