The Rugby Thread

you should have seen the Munster Saracens game yesterday, shocking home crowd for a European cup semi final 

42k in the Aviva, not too bad in fairness 

The first semi final was farcical. No crowd and played like a testimonial. The competition is dead on it's feet as it stands.

They have too many chiefs and not enough Indians. As much as the World League (or whatever it was called) notion was a bit of a non runner as things stand (not including certain nation's, no relegation, etc.) , something like that as part of a whole revamp of the fixture schedule has to take place. That's obviously a very tricky situation with the rugby seasons totally different in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, but they are eventually going to have to have a drastic revamp. It will be as much for player welfare as the good of the game that that should happen.

Do any competitions in rugby use 2 legged ties?

willGUFC wrote: i have a feeling world Cup qualifiers for some of the smaller nations have 2 legged ties. Don't know how it the qualifiers work but I vegurly remember seeing an aggregate score for one, could be wrong.

Hans Moleman wrote: Shedite wrote: Do any competitions in rugby use 2 legged ties? I thought the challenge cup or whatever it's called now (the 2nd tier European rugby tournament) was 2 legged at the knockout stages, but I may be mistaken. A quick Google though shows that it was used in that competition as a play off to get into the next year's tournament. So the European rugby body themselves have used it. The World Cup uses it regularly in play offs for qualifying. English league 2nd tier used to use it at the play off stage also. While googling, I spotted a Gerry Thornley article on the topic from 4/5 years ago. Saying how the one off home semi finals are ridiculously unfair. From a sporting sense alone, home and away legs are a far fairer way of doing things. From a commercial perspective though, it's a no brainier. It would bring massive buzz to 6 high level European rugby ties.  The only real argument against it is calendar space.

Hans Moleman wrote: Oh I know there would be massive problems with the English and French clubs if the 2 legged ties were proposed. The fact that they were allowed dictate that the European Final be played weeks before the end of all the domestic seasons says it all. Calendar space and the total shambles that it is, is obviously a big problem. I was just talking about ways that the Champions Cup competition could be revitalised. Moving the final to the last game of the season and 2 legged QF and SF would be hugely positive moves. Will it happen - of course not. The competition will continue to die a slow death instead.

Hans Moleman wrote: Stade Limerique  I doff the cap to you sir