United Rugby Championship

[riocard911]

remarkable that the URC have worse highlights on youtube than the pro 14 had..

Thus far the Premier Sports highlights are superior to those of URC TV, IMO.

[blockhead]

Does anyone know what is the situation with regards to the Final venue?
IE, will it be a neutral ground or will top seed have home advantage, as in the old way?
Maybe we need to go back to the old way.
Pro 14 has been lucky enough with its calls on stadiums up until now.
2015- Ravers Munster v Glasgow-Irish team in the final, and how they played
2016- Murrayfield- lets quickly move on shall we
2017-Aviva Munster v Scarlets-Irish team in Final, absolute massacre oh lordy!
2018- Aviva Leinster v Scarlets-Irish team in Final, the double.
2019- Paradise Glasgow v Leinster- Scottish team in final, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfvRabqeYJU.
2020 & 2021 Covid so no issue.

The showcase event of the season needs to be played out in front of a big passionate crowd.
Just cant risk picking Italy or RSA at this point or in the near future, can you imagine Leinster v Glasgow in Ellis Park? tumbleweed
Ditto a repeat of the Rainbow Cup Final but this time in the Principality.
Give themselves some space and chose one of the Union owned stadiums most apporpriate considering the finalists.
Worked before, especially in 2013.

[enby]

Smashing try from Connacht winger Hanson. 22-7 up on 54 mins

[Oldschool]

Smashing try from Connacht winger Hanson. 22-7 up on 54 mins

Irish qualified too A real stroke.

[blockhead]

Connacht bossed that 2nd half so decisively that I'm getting a little concerned about these RSA sides, of which the Bulls are supposed to be the best. I fully expect them to BP the home games they play against European opposition (when their home game are actually played in South Africa) but atm they are looking a lot like the kings and the cheetahs. Yeah they have players coming back after the international window is over, but they will be managed very carefully.

[ronk]

Connacht bossed that 2nd half so decisively that I'm getting a little concerned about these RSA sides, of which the Bulls are supposed to be the best. I fully expect them to BP the home games they play against European opposition (when their home game are actually played in South Africa) but atm they are looking a lot like the kings and the cheetahs. Yeah they have players coming back after the international window is over, but they will be managed very carefully.

They were playing in the rain in Galway in October in a nothing game to them. It's a big change for them, hopefully they adapt in time to still be competitive later in the season so their motivation doesn't flag.

Or maybe the club game in the southern hemisphere has been a much bigger pile of shite than generally thought.

[Oldschool]

Connacht bossed that 2nd half so decisively that I'm getting a little concerned about these RSA sides, of which the Bulls are supposed to be the best. I fully expect them to BP the home games they play against European opposition (when their home game are actually played in South Africa) but atm they are looking a lot like the kings and the cheetahs. Yeah they have players coming back after the international window is over, but they will be managed very carefully.

They were playing in the rain in Galway in October in a nothing game to them. It's a big change for them, hopefully they adapt in time to still be competitive later in the season so their motivation doesn't flag.

Or maybe the club game in the southern hemisphere has been a much bigger pile of shite than generally thought.

Or maybe the Pro14 wasn't the pile of excrement that some would have had us believe.

[sunshiner1]

by Oldschool

Or maybe the Pro14 wasn't the pile of excrement that some would have had us believe.

Very much this

[Dave Cahill]

They were playing in the rain in Galway in October in a nothing game to them. It's a big change for them, hopefully they adapt in time to still be competitive later in the season so their motivation doesn't flag.

Or maybe the club game in the southern hemisphere has been a much bigger pile of shite than generally thought.

It wasn't a nothing game, but the rest of your point is key - they're playing in a new league against new teams with different interpretations of the laws than you get in the SH whilst their best players are unavailable - its going to take a while for the team to acclimatise and the game in SA to realign to the new situation. Of course by the time they do, we'll probably have changed the tournament again to include teams from venus or something

[Dave Cahill]

Absolute cracker in Treviso with Benetton coming out on top after getting a dropper with the clock in the red

[blockhead]

Absolute cracker in Treviso with Benetton coming out on top after getting a dropper with the clock in the red

Absolute cracker in Treviso with Benetton coming out on top after getting a dropper with the clock in the red

I was wondering how the score was as it was on the URC webpage. They obviously didnt envisage dropgoals when designing the thing

[Dave Cahill]

It should be bourne in mind at this stage of the season that the South Africans are missing (apart from injuries) due to Springbok duties

Bulls
Johan Grobbelaar
Trevor Nyakane
Morné Steyn

Sharks
Thomas du Toit
Ox Nché
Siya Kolisi
Jaden Hendrikse
Lukhanyo Am
Makazole Mapimpi
Sbu Nkosi
Aphelele Fassi

Stormers
Bongi Mbonambi
Steven Kitshoff
Frans Malherbe
Marvin Orie
Herschel Jantjies
Damian Willemse

[Laighin Break]

The URC YouTube channel now has 7/8 minute highlights on all games so far. Definitely a step up from what we got from the Pro1X.
Making a 7/8 mins highlights package from the Leinster game at the weekend must have been a challenge.

[blockhead]

Jake White is a bit of fun, isn't he. Getting the URC well and truely noticed
Before Connacht game..
"A lot of Leinster guys, who come down from Leinster because they didn't get contracts up there; they come down here.
"It's very similar to a couple of franchises we have in South Africa. When they don't get contracted by the big unions, they go down to the small provinces and try and find a way to get noticed by the bigger provinces.
"As I said, we're used to playing that sort of opposition and it will be nothing different. They'll be looking to front up, especially after last week when they lost against Cardiff."
After the Connacht game....
"There's no doubting that Connacht know how to play on this field," he told News 24. "The wind was pumping and the rain came down.
"When you lose the toss here, it really becomes like cricket. You struggle to get up the hill. The ground is sloped that way and it's also the direction the wind comes from.
"I don't think people appreciate how tough it was to carry the ball out of your half. It's different when you score tries running down the hill. The reality is we weren't good in the conditions and we weren't accurate."

Your small, the players see you as a stepping stone to better teams, your ground is a sh!thole.
Get off the fence Jake.

[OneLungDavy]

Jake White is a bit of fun, isn't he. Getting the URC well and truely noticed
Before Connacht game..
"A lot of Leinster guys, who come down from Leinster because they didn't get contracts up there; they come down here.
"It's very similar to a couple of franchises we have in South Africa. When they don't get contracted by the big unions, they go down to the small provinces and try and find a way to get noticed by the bigger provinces.
"As I said, we're used to playing that sort of opposition and it will be nothing different. They'll be looking to front up, especially after last week when they lost against Cardiff."
After the Connacht game....
"There's no doubting that Connacht know how to play on this field," he told News 24. "The wind was pumping and the rain came down.
"When you lose the toss here, it really becomes like cricket. You struggle to get up the hill. The ground is sloped that way and it's also the direction the wind comes from.
"I don't think people appreciate how tough it was to carry the ball out of your half. It's different when you score tries running down the hill. The reality is we weren't good in the conditions and we weren't accurate."

Your small, the players see you as a stepping stone to better teams, your ground is a sh!thole.
Get off the fence Jake.

I put his initial comments about "smaller provinces" down to being new around here, but the sloped pitch comments are very delusional.

[mildlyinterested]

Jake White is a bit of fun, isn't he. Getting the URC well and truely noticed
Before Connacht game..
"A lot of Leinster guys, who come down from Leinster because they didn't get contracts up there; they come down here.
"It's very similar to a couple of franchises we have in South Africa. When they don't get contracted by the big unions, they go down to the small provinces and try and find a way to get noticed by the bigger provinces.
"As I said, we're used to playing that sort of opposition and it will be nothing different. They'll be looking to front up, especially after last week when they lost against Cardiff."
After the Connacht game....
"There's no doubting that Connacht know how to play on this field," he told News 24. "The wind was pumping and the rain came down.
"When you lose the toss here, it really becomes like cricket. You struggle to get up the hill. The ground is sloped that way and it's also the direction the wind comes from.
"I don't think people appreciate how tough it was to carry the ball out of your half. It's different when you score tries running down the hill. The reality is we weren't good in the conditions and we weren't accurate."

Your small, the players see you as a stepping stone to better teams, your ground is a sh!thole.
Get off the fence Jake.

Just the 9 ex-leinster underage players in the connacht squad against the bulls.. usually more.

[riocard911]

Jake White is a bit of fun, isn't he. Getting the URC well and truely noticed
Before Connacht game..
"A lot of Leinster guys, who come down from Leinster because they didn't get contracts up there; they come down here.
"It's very similar to a couple of franchises we have in South Africa. When they don't get contracted by the big unions, they go down to the small provinces and try and find a way to get noticed by the bigger provinces.
"As I said, we're used to playing that sort of opposition and it will be nothing different. They'll be looking to front up, especially after last week when they lost against Cardiff."
After the Connacht game....
"There's no doubting that Connacht know how to play on this field," he told News 24. "The wind was pumping and the rain came down.
"When you lose the toss here, it really becomes like cricket. You struggle to get up the hill. The ground is sloped that way and it's also the direction the wind comes from.
"I don't think people appreciate how tough it was to carry the ball out of your half. It's different when you score tries running down the hill. The reality is we weren't good in the conditions and we weren't accurate."

Your small, the players see you as a stepping stone to better teams, your ground is a sh!thole.
Get off the fence Jake.

I put his initial comments about "smaller provinces" down to being new around here, but the sloped pitch comments are very delusional.

I must be suffering from the same delusion too so, 'cos that pitch in the Sportsground has always appeared sloped to me - from west to east or left to right on de telly.

[wixfjord]

Just the 9 ex-leinster underage players in the connacht squad against the bulls.. usually more.

I like the way you sneakily referred to Leinster 'underage' players there to bump up the numbers...!

[fourthirtythree]

What's this "come down here"? I mean the RDS is maybe marginally north of the sports ground but what it is really is east of it. Come over here. Doubt he's looked at a map.

[heno]

What's this "come down here"? I mean the RDS is maybe marginally north of the sports ground but what it is really is east of it. Come over here. Doubt he's looked at a map.

North South East West has nothing to do with it. You go down the country and you go up to Dublin. Because you're moving up in the world

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