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The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

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    The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

    Disappointingly Rotherham's Christmas game is on Boxing Day at the same time as the Millers' match, and not on Christmas Eve when nowt else is happening...

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      The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

      The qualifying tournament for the European Challenge Cup seems flawed. The first stage ends this week with Russian side Krasny Yar and Italian team Petrarca looking to end the group with four wins out of four. The Russians travel to Rovigo (one win from three) while Petrarca go to winless Heidelberg.

      You'd think that as both would have 100% records with wins, then both sides would presumably be qualifying for the next stage as group winners. However Krasny Yar and Petrarca are both in the same group. The for,at means that rather than playing teams in your own group, you actually play the sides in the other group. This means that it is quite possible that a side finishing with a perfect record will be eliminated, whilst a side from the other group will go through despite having a far inferior record (at most two wins from four and potentially just one win).

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        The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

        The Anglo-Welsh cup is being run on similar lines. The four teams in one group play no teams from their own group but four teams from another group. Bonkers it is.

        I've not heard anyone defending Hartley at all which is good. Dallaglio and O'Driscoll continued to ask the questions of him yesterday. Dallaglio was absolutely scathing about the lack of commitment to his club.

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          The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

          Hartley banned for six weeks, which strikes me as lenient, given his record.

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            The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

            ursus arctos wrote: Hartley banned for six weeks, which strikes me as lenient, given his record.
            5 weeks for the foul play and a week extra for his previous.

            Compare that to the 3 weeks James Davies got for swearing and a wanker hand gesture. This was reduced from four.

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              The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

              Brings his aggregate to an even 60 weeks of bans, but allows him to play against France if selected.

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                The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

                From the people who brought you the whitewash over Joe Marler's racist abuse. You can't have England internationals being punished like other players, after all.

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                  The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

                  How badly are Glasgow beating up on Racing? Well it's 23-0 with over an hour gone for starters. But those aren't the most eye opening numbers. No, those were the personal stats of Dan Carter when he was subbed off exactly on 60 mins.
                  Carries: 0
                  Metres made: 0
                  Defenders beaten: 0
                  Offloads: 0
                  Arguably the greatest talent ever... I wonder if he has previously played a game where he achieved literally nothing?

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                    The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

                    Both Racing v Glasgow games in the last week have been the same. I do wonder if the Parisians Toulonesque "Buy your Fantasy Barbarians XV from three years ago" policy hasn't been rather found out. They were absolutely insipid.

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                      The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

                      The first stage of qualifying for next season's Challlenge Cup has indeed ended with a team being eliminated with a 100% record whilst a side beaten by that team qualify having won two and lost two.

                      A combined table (qualifiers in bold, group B sides in italics)
                      Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk- 4 wins, 20 points
                      Petrarca - 4 wins, 19 points
                      Calvisano - 3 wins, 14 points
                      Mogliano - 2 wins, 12 points
                      El Salvador - 1 win, 6 points
                      Rovigo - 1 win, 6 points

                      Dendermondse - 0 wins, 0 points
                      Heidelberger - 0 wins, 0 points

                      All sides have played four games, except Dendermondse and Heidelberger who will meet in a fairly meaningless game in January.

                      More meaningfully Krasny Yar will play Timisoara and Mogliano will play Enisey-STM, both over two legs in April, for places in the groups stages of next season's Challenge Cup.

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                        The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

                        In other news. PRORugby is imploding

                        A professional receives payment in exchange for goods or services, but in the wake of its inaugural season, PRO has left numerous unpaid coaches, players, managers, announcers and vendors.

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                          The Road to Rio: Rugby 2016

                          George Earle gets an 8 week ban following his red card for the Blues against Bath last week. He made contact with the face and eye of a Bath forward trying to disrupt a maul. He says it was an accident and it does look like that but to get longer than Hartley us a disgrace.

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