He left the Blues for personal reasons, saying he wanted to be with his family. I didn't realise be wasn't allowed to go to the USA at all, that just seems cruel and counterproductive .
Yep, hence your first sentence. Went home to see his family and decided he was done with playing rugby in Europe. That’s his extended family - his kids and wife were always with him.
Deeeelighted at this result. The England just need to turn up punditry seemed more in evidence than usual, and this seems to always happen when people act like that.
Watched it on mute because my daughter was asleep. Turned on after 25 minutes and was really worried that England would turn the screw and use their bench to grind out a win. It was strange to see England not use three of their bench at all and three very late changes as well. I think that added to the game as there was more consistency and it felt more old school. Wales also made their changes very late.
In fact it was Wales that turned the screw and didn't allow England to get a foothold in the second half. Kicking to Liam Williams was a stupid tactic but Wales had Gareth Davies box kicking too long almost every time.
Driving the England scrum back and winning the ball against the head towards the end of the first half was one key moment. Not conceding points just before half time when England had an attacking lineout was another.
A magnificent win.
Well, that all went swimmingly...eventually. Pointless to try and analyse it right now, at least until I can watch a recording of the game (and maybe even then).
Watching at the back of the lower tier surrounded by England fans doesn't help the stress levels in what is always a stomach-knotting, teeth-grinding, literally nauseatingly tense game anyway but the release at the end there was explosive.
Italy leading Ireland 16-12 at half time and playing some barnstorming rugby. They wil have to go some to hang on but have been great in attack so far.
Bugger, Ireland manage to somehow conjure a bonus point win out of an absolute shocker of a performance while Italy predictably ran out of steam after some rugby of real verve.
Talking of domestic rugby, astounding rumours continue to circulate that the WRU's current "Project Reset" review of the structure of regional rugby will see the Ospreys close or merge with another region in order that a North Walian franchise become the fourth region and Dragons continue.
The Ospreys are the most consistently successful of all the Welsh regions since the format was adopted, insane.
Talking of domestic rugby, astounding rumours continue to circulate that the WRU's current "Project Reset" review of the structure of regional rugby will see the Ospreys close or merge with another region in order that a North Walian franchise become the fourth region and Dragons continue.
The Ospreys are the most consistently successful of all the Welsh regions since the format was adopted, insane.
Yes, this story will not go away and neither will the new contracts one. Any end to centralised contracts and the introduction of a pay scale with being a current international as the biggest factor. Sam Davies of the Ospreys is apparently the biggest loser and is rumoured to be off to England.
7 of the 23 who played against England were Ospreys and none of them know their future. With Wales being seen as a genuine RWC contender, if you look at the rankings, then having these two issues playing along in the background is farcical. In fact it's so typical of the WRU we must be wondering who is trying to sabotage Wales and why.
Talking of domestic rugby, astounding rumours continue to circulate that the WRU's current "Project Reset" review of the structure of regional rugby will see the Ospreys close or merge with another region in order that a North Walian franchise become the fourth region and Dragons continue.
The Ospreys are the most consistently successful of all the Welsh regions since the format was adopted, insane.
Oh cool, so just give Swansea and the West Wales valleys over to football so the WRU can lose money it doesn’t have in yet another effort to make Gogs like rugby.
The angling towards the US market is very frustrating. The thing is US rugby has something like a future for the first time in a while. Major League Rugby is beginning its second season, and having real professional rugby has helped the national team, which knocked off Scotland and Samoa for the first time ever. By rankings, we’re pretty close to qualifying for a 12 team World League on merit as we’re 13th and something like a third of a point behind Georgia.
But that’s not why we’re being invited. We’re seen as a giant pit of free money that the foundation unions can replenish their empty coffers from, because they have mismanaged professional rugby from virtually Day One, and that’s that. Fuck ‘em, I say. The Eagles getting smoked on a regular basis would probably hurt US rugby and I don’t think the public will care that much about a World League, if they care about rugby at all.
A slow set of dripping leaks from the WRU about their plans culminated in the news that the Scarlets would effectively swallow up the Ospreys and get a budget of £9 million. The Blues would be the second team in Wales and the Dragons would become a development side as would the new team in the north.
Sadly three of the four regions selfishly voted for this.
I think it was more of a genuine merger than one club swallowing the other. Though now the Ospreys have issued a statement saying they're not on the verge of merging but the Pro Rugby Board (composed of the other clubs' chairmen, the Ospreys one having resigned, and the WRU) have issued a counter statement saying both clubs signed a head of agreement to do so on Friday (St David's Day, nice touch).
Self-harm is the true national sport of Wales. In the midst of this the side for Saturday's game against Scotland was announced early and the one change is Beard replacing the injured Hill with Ball stepping up to the bench.
The WRU is currently running the Dragons, see how badly that's going, so how are they going to do running another side.
It is meant to be a merger but everything, bar the European games, would be based in Llanelli. The training, coaching, development and admin etc.
It truly is a national sport in Wales to fuck things up when they are going well. Gatland must be doing his nut in.
The angling towards the US market is very frustrating. The thing is US rugby has something like a future for the first time in a while. Major League Rugby is beginning its second season, and having real professional rugby has helped the national team, which knocked off Scotland and Samoa for the first time ever. By rankings, we’re pretty close to qualifying for a 12 team World League on merit as we’re 13th and something like a third of a point behind Georgia.
But that’s not why we’re being invited. We’re seen as a giant pit of free money that the foundation unions can replenish their empty coffers from, because they have mismanaged professional rugby from virtually Day One, and that’s that. Fuck ‘em, I say. The Eagles getting smoked on a regular basis would probably hurt US rugby and I don’t think the public will care that much about a World League, if they care about rugby at all.
I read about this. Japan is going to be invited too, I suppose for the same reasons.
Wouldn't it make more sense to just invite all the big countries, a few other European ones, the Pacific Islands, and maybe the US, Japan, and Canada and make it a two-tiered thing?
It's natural to compare it to the growth of soccer, of course, because it faces the same catch-22: How do you grow interest in a professional league if you can't afford the best players? How do you get the best players - and develop domestic players for the national team - if you don't have a top professional league that they want to play in? How do you build a top professional league with the top professional players without big gates and a big TV contract to bring in the revenue to pay those players and build facilities?
I don't know much about this story, but I like this quote. "There is not a Plan B because there was never a Plan A." I'm going to use that in some other context someday, I suspect.
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