European Club Rugby
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I have the rugby channel free for 3 months (I also think the normal sky channels are showing the European clubs comps now rather than them all being ghetoised on the rugby channel).
Anyway, the last few weeks this is the first time I have watched French club rugby (I just mysky the highlights show).
I found myself fast forwarding through this half hour highlights show last time as it's just really dull rugby. Pick and go tries, maul tries.
Also the teams all have bland kits that I can't remember who's playing who, boring Cell-C Sharks/Western Force look-a-likes.Conversely. I find the English Premiership show really good, and the tries & action last week were great, and the show was slick. And I can tell a Northampton/Leicester/Quins or Gloucester etc instantly just by their kits.
Zach Mercer looked excellent in the little highlights I saw last round. I remember seeing him in the JWC a few years ago and thinking he looked the wrong size and shape for an English No8. But he's bulked up a bit and was a beast and also skillful (he scored a great stepping try)
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@antipodean said in NH club rugby:
The whole point of having low, mid and high entry points negates mitigating issues. The idea you "show remorse" and get a reduction is a joke.
the only way that could be shown to be applicable is if we had players coming out and saying "nah, i think that guy is a fuckwit, so i whacked him. Fuck that guy".
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I see the Cheetahs held Ulster to a 39 all draw overnight. That's a remarkable improvement by the Cheetahs who now take their record to played 4, lost 3 drawn 1. Points for = 77 points against = 175. It still leaves them in last place mind you. What is surprising is that Ulster were leading their Pro 14 Division and had to rely on an injury time Henry Speight try (which was converted) to avoid the ultimate indignity!
Needless to day but the Kings have a very similar record going into the fourth round with three straight losses.
Looks like nothing much has changed for both teams.
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Higgins said:
I see the Cheetahs held Ulster to a 39 all draw overnight. That's a remarkable improvement by the Cheetahs who now take their record to played 4, lost 3 drawn 1. Points for = 77 points against = 175. It still leaves them in last place mind you. What is surprising is that Ulster were leading their Pro 14 Division and had to rely on an injury time Henry Speight try (which was converted) to avoid the ultimate indignity!
Needless to day but the Kings have a very similar record going into the fourth round with three straight losses.
Looks like nothing much has changed for both teams.
Last season, Cheetahs performed well given their starting point and made the playoff finals. Whilst their squad is split across playing in Currie Cup and PRO14 then they’ll be at a disadvantage. SARU have said they’re going to change timing along with the planned Cull & Draft Strategy.
Kings were poor last season and looked like they would continue where they left off this season. However, Davids has been getting improvements each week and yesterday they pulled off a deserved home victory 38-28 over Glasgow whose forwards were mainly second starters but a first starting backline. Small steps but heading in the right direction.
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VIDEO: Player’s giant brother confronts Julian Savea - france
A giant fan - said to be the brother of Stade Francais player Sekou Malacou - invaded the pitch in the apparent attempt to get at Julian Savea.
A giant fan – said to be the brother of Stade Francais player Sekou Malacou – invaded the pitch in the apparent attempt to get at Julian Savea.
Savea was yellow carded and the brother was taken away by security, although he seemed to be going fairly mental as he left.
Why not let him stay and fight Savea?
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taniwharugby said:
VIDEO: Player’s giant brother confronts Julian Savea - france
A giant fan - said to be the brother of Stade Francais player Sekou Malacou - invaded the pitch in the apparent attempt to get at Julian Savea.
A giant fan – said to be the brother of Stade Francais player Sekou Malacou – invaded the pitch in the apparent attempt to get at Julian Savea.
Savea was yellow carded and the brother was taken away by security, although he seemed to be going fairly mental as he left.
Why not let him stay and fight Savea?
French club rugby ca be quite confrontational.
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taniwharugby said:
VIDEO: Player’s giant brother confronts Julian Savea - france
A giant fan - said to be the brother of Stade Francais player Sekou Malacou - invaded the pitch in the apparent attempt to get at Julian Savea.
A giant fan – said to be the brother of Stade Francais player Sekou Malacou – invaded the pitch in the apparent attempt to get at Julian Savea.
Savea was yellow carded and the brother was taken away by security, although he seemed to be going fairly mental as he left.
Why not let him stay and fight Savea?
Fat boy vs trained athlete.
That's an easy ban for the authorities.
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I went to a game recently (Section Paloise vs Stade Francais). It was just as bad in real life.
Slow. Lots of bad kicking. Obvious backline plays.
And players who had been better than that in the Southern Hemisphere (Slade, B Stanley, Mogg) were no better.
It's worse than 1st XVs in NZ in terms of style of play.
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The 10 minute period I watched, they just kept dropping the ball.
Maybe it's confirmation bias. As I've said earlier in the thread, I've never watched Top 14 until this season. I was expecting it to be slow from what I've read over the years. But I'm prepared to accept that if the league and occasion has passion and tradition etc as it can still make for good viewing. Even so, I'm surprised how dull the stuff I've seen so far has been.
And as for tradition, the match I watched yesterday - the reason I kept watching for a bit was to work out which team the "Tou" was that was getting spanked. (Toulon or Toulouse). I couldn't hear any commentary because open plan living is a fucking stupid idea. And "Tou" were wearing all grey with shit loads of adds. I eventually worked out it was Toulouse when they showed a close up of the coach and I could see an ST bade rather than an RCT badge on his polo.
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Hardly surprising that it is like that given most of the overseas players are ones that have finished international rugby through "old age" or guys that were not going to progress any higher than the level they were playing at. Prime example Jamie MacIntosh still playing professionally when the was not even wanted at Mitre10 level by Southland
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A big performance from Lima Sopoaga for Wasps yesterday:
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My struggles with the Top 14 highlights show continues.
While still having to concentrate much more than expected to work out which team is which.
I also have to second guess who the players are due to garbled pronunciations. Charles Nigger-tie had an impressive game this week.
I genuinely don't know if some of these Polynesian guys scoring all these tries are players I've surprisingly never heard of, maybe French Polynesians, or ex-hurricanes with slightly shaggier hair and a new name.
I'm not sure who the target audience is for this show.
Stuff