Friday's rant

[Ruckedtobits]

Toulouse win Top14 quarter-final with all eight forwards replaced in second half.

Racing 92 beaten in Top14 quarter-final as they only replace seven forwards in second half.

The game has changed but the French League has made a mockery out of the fifteen-a-side game.

[nc6000]

Do you mean forwards who were taken off being bought back on after a while on the bench?

[hugonaut]

Toulouse win Top14 quarter-final with all eight forwards replaced in second half.

Racing 92 beaten in Top14 quarter-final as they only replace seven forwards in second half.

The game has changed but the French League has made a mockery out of the fifteen-a-side game.

Could not agree more. The eight man bench has been in play for more than a decade and it is taken for granted, but it has changed rugby for the worse.

These are Toulouse's forward changes [alone]:

21' Cros [No6] off, Flament [No19] on
51' Mauvaka [No2] off, Marchand [No16] on
53' Baille [No1] off, Ainu'u [No17] on
58' Ri. Arnold [No5] off, Meafou [No18] on
61' Elstadt [No7] off, Tolofua [No20] on
61' Aldegheri [No3] off, Vallez [No23] on
66' Ro. Arnold [No4] off, Elstadt [No7] on
77' Mallez [No23] off, Aldeghiri [No3] on
79' Jelonch [No8] off, Mauvaka [No2] on

Literally subbed off every member of their pack in an 80 minute game.

[Oldschool]

Toulouse win Top14 quarter-final with all eight forwards replaced in second half.

Racing 92 beaten in Top14 quarter-final as they only replace seven forwards in second half.

The game has changed but the French League has made a mockery out of the fifteen-a-side game.

Could not agree more. The eight man bench has been in play for more than a decade and it is taken for granted, but it has changed rugby for the worse.

These are Toulouse's forward changes [alone]:

21' Cros [No6] off, Flament [No19] on
51' Mauvaka [No2] off, Marchand [No16] on
53' Baille [No1] off, Ainu'u [No17] on
58' Ri. Arnold [No5] off, Meafou [No18] on
61' Elstadt [No7] off, Tolofua [No20] on
61' Aldegheri [No3] off, Vallez [No23] on
66' Ro. Arnold [No4] off, Elstadt [No7] on
77' Mallez [No23] off, Aldeghiri [No3] on
79' Jelonch [No8] off, Mauvaka [No2] on

Literally subbed off every member of their pack in an 80 minute game.

There's a very simple and obvious solution to this sort of abuse.

[IanD]

Bernie Ecclestone

RTE news : Ecclestone would 'take a bullet' for Putin

http://www.rte.ie/sport/motorsport/2022 ... for-putin/

[Dave Cahill]

Bernie is almost unique in that Putin isn't the dodgiest person he's ever met

[John23]

C19. Managed to dodge it until now. The mother of all headaches.

[the spoofer]

C19. Managed to dodge it until now. The mother of all headaches.

Liquids and bed.

[ronk]

Bernie Ecclestone

RTE news : Ecclestone would 'take a bullet' for Putin

http://www.rte.ie/sport/motorsport/2022 ... for-putin/

Putin is in fine company https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/ ... arks_N.htm

[Twist]

Toulouse win Top14 quarter-final with all eight forwards replaced in second half.

Racing 92 beaten in Top14 quarter-final as they only replace seven forwards in second half.

The game has changed but the French League has made a mockery out of the fifteen-a-side game.

Could not agree more. The eight man bench has been in play for more than a decade and it is taken for granted, but it has changed rugby for the worse.

These are Toulouse's forward changes [alone]:

21' Cros [No6] off, Flament [No19] on
51' Mauvaka [No2] off, Marchand [No16] on
53' Baille [No1] off, Ainu'u [No17] on
58' Ri. Arnold [No5] off, Meafou [No18] on
61' Elstadt [No7] off, Tolofua [No20] on
61' Aldegheri [No3] off, Vallez [No23] on
66' Ro. Arnold [No4] off, Elstadt [No7] on
77' Mallez [No23] off, Aldeghiri [No3] on
79' Jelonch [No8] off, Mauvaka [No2] on

Literally subbed off every member of their pack in an 80 minute game.

There was a good discussion about this on some podcast or other this week. The molepod, or the badgercast something ridiculous like that. I agree that the eight man bench as become a blight on the game. But as I recall it was brought in for prop safety reasons(?) I remember a few switch-hitting props were being asked to take too much risk.

But its easy to make rules allowing for that. It won't be long til we see break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type players covering the whole backline from 23 with 7 replacement forwards.

[Xanthippe]

Could not agree more. The eight man bench has been in play for more than a decade and it is taken for granted, but it has changed rugby for the worse.

These are Toulouse's forward changes [alone]:

21' Cros [No6] off, Flament [No19] on
51' Mauvaka [No2] off, Marchand [No16] on
53' Baille [No1] off, Ainu'u [No17] on
58' Ri. Arnold [No5] off, Meafou [No18] on
61' Elstadt [No7] off, Tolofua [No20] on
61' Aldegheri [No3] off, Vallez [No23] on
66' Ro. Arnold [No4] off, Elstadt [No7] on
77' Mallez [No23] off, Aldeghiri [No3] on
79' Jelonch [No8] off, Mauvaka [No2] on

Literally subbed off every member of their pack in an 80 minute game.

There was a good discussion about this on some podcast or other this week. The molepod, or the badgercast something ridiculous like that. I agree that the eight man bench as become a blight on the game. But as I recall it was brought in for prop safety reasons(?) I remember a few switch-hitting props were being asked to take too much risk.

But its easy to make rules allowing for that. It won't be long til we see break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type players covering the whole backline from 23 with 7 replacement forwards.

[Oldschoolsocks]

Toulouse win Top14 quarter-final with all eight forwards replaced in second half.

Racing 92 beaten in Top14 quarter-final as they only replace seven forwards in second half.

The game has changed but the French League has made a mockery out of the fifteen-a-side game.

Could not agree more. The eight man bench has been in play for more than a decade and it is taken for granted, but it has changed rugby for the worse.

These are Toulouse's forward changes [alone]:

21' Cros [No6] off, Flament [No19] on
51' Mauvaka [No2] off, Marchand [No16] on
53' Baille [No1] off, Ainu'u [No17] on
58' Ri. Arnold [No5] off, Meafou [No18] on
61' Elstadt [No7] off, Tolofua [No20] on
61' Aldegheri [No3] off, Vallez [No23] on
66' Ro. Arnold [No4] off, Elstadt [No7] on
77' Mallez [No23] off, Aldeghiri [No3] on
79' Jelonch [No8] off, Mauvaka [No2] on

Literally subbed off every member of their pack in an 80 minute game.

There was a good discussion about this on some podcast or other this week. The molepod, or the badgercast something ridiculous like that. I agree that the eight man bench as become a blight on the game. But as I recall it was brought in for prop safety reasons(?) I remember a few switch-hitting props were being asked to take too much risk.

But its easy to make rules allowing for that. It won't be long til we see break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type players covering the whole backline from 23 with 7 replacement forwards.

I believe it was brought in to end the blight of uncontested scrums

[Schumi]

There was a good discussion about this on some podcast or other this week. The molepod, or the badgercast something ridiculous like that. I agree that the eight man bench as become a blight on the game. But as I recall it was brought in for prop safety reasons(?) I remember a few switch-hitting props were being asked to take too much risk.

But its easy to make rules allowing for that. It won't be long til we see break-glass-in-case-of-emergency type players covering the whole backline from 23 with 7 replacement forwards.

Simply allow a maximum of three substitutions in a game. If you want to sub a new front row on, fine but you've no more subs left.