Just seen Sean Fitzpatrick walking past in London. Surprisingly smaller and less godlike than I expected
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Worcester will go down this time. They are the Sunderland of the rugby world.
Genuine question because I don't know what I think about it:
The biggest 12 clubs on England and with the potential to win trophies in the medium term are the 12 current premiership clubs minus London Irish, plus Bristol.
If London Irish and Bristol swap places again, would the game be better off doing away with relegation?
Worcester and Bristol are trying to make a go of it and have the resources and long term potential, and are trying by signing players like Piutau and Teo. Big gamble though with the threat of relegation always present.
The flip side is of course someone like Exeter who won the league last year only a few years after being promoted.
I suppose you could always account for that by expanding the league when a club comes along showing the potential and resources to be a genuine force, or kicking out someone who has become uncompetitive.
This would be the risk, at least by having relegation, even when it's the same teams battling against it, you stop having teams doing what the likes of Zebre are doing in the Pro 14. If the NotNots, Bristol or Worcester do come good, there will be someone else ready to take their place in the relegation battle and needing to do something about it.I guess the problems they would worry about would be too many meaningless games with no relegation to avoid, and loss of interest in the league which has been hampering the Pro12/14 and Super Rugby
This would be the risk, at least by having relegation, even when it's the same teams battling against it, you stop having teams doing what the likes of Zebre are doing in the Pro 14. If the NotNots, Bristol or Worcester do come good, there will be someone else ready to take their place in the relegation battle and needing to do something about it.
I like the idea, but could you see the league agreeing to that? Especially that group of lower mid table teams, Quins, Sale, Gloucester etc when it could put them at a disadvantage in the battle at the bottom while widening the gap to the teams at the top with huge squads.Maybe they could mitigate the yo-yo problem by the RFU subsidising some loan deals or contracts for young talent who are on the fringes at other clubs, to play for the promoted team
I like the idea, but could you see the league agreeing to that? Especially that group of lower mid table teams, Quins, Sale, Gloucester etc when it could put them at a disadvantage in the battle at the bottom while widening the gap to the teams at the top with huge squads.
There's just no quick fix really.
I like the idea, but could you see the league agreeing to that? Especially that group of lower mid table teams, Quins, Sale, Gloucester etc when it could put them at a disadvantage in the battle at the bottom while widening the gap to the teams at the top with huge squads.
There's just no quick fix really.
There weren't any stand out games really. Bath's performance was utter crap, completely lacking in the intensity we saw in the first 2 games, but really not helped by the constant injuries to key players, what were the chances of losing Garvey, Fotuali'i, Underhill, Banahan and effectively Watson all in one game?In other news, that was a really off-colour performance by Bath this weekend. But of a mediocre round of fixtures overall actually
What did we all make of the Haskell/Marler incident then..?
Well aye, but should he have also had a yellow? I very much enjoyed Haskells judo throw mind.Marler is a gobby shitwhisk. If I were the Quins head coach I would give him a bonus for successfully getting under Haskell's skin like that
Well aye, but should he have also had a yellow? I very much enjoyed Haskells judo throw mind.
Poor ref, they both were culpable, yellow each.What did we all make of the Haskell/Marler incident then..?