United Rugby Championship 21/22

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United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby The Feral Goat on Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:40 am

https://www.edinburghrugby.org/the-club ... or-2021-22

SA teams eligible for Europe potentially from 22/23
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby Friday Knight Lights on Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:46 am

Not a fan of this. I liked the Pro14 both teams home and away.

Not ideal buying a ST and not knowing who you'll see play that year. Although I don't mind playing the Italian teams and think they're of a good enough standard the games are often quite entertaining.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby The Feral Goat on Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:01 am

Friday Knight Lights wrote:Not a fan of this. I liked the Pro14 both teams home and away.

Not ideal buying a ST and not knowing who you'll see play that year. Although I don't mind playing the Italian teams and think they're of a good enough standard the games are often quite entertaining.


Benetton, Zebre, Glasgow home and away (love a weekend trip to Italy as well)

Would assume then 2 from each of the other "regional pools" will be at home and the other 2 away
(rather than say 3 SA away, 1 Welsh, 2 Irish or any other combo...but you never know)


Fixtures: The regular season of the United Rugby Championship will take place across 18 rounds with each team’s fixtures comprising of six (6) Home AND away fixtures against their regional pool opponents and12 Home OR away fixtures against the remaining teams in the league

Regional pools

Irish Pool: Connacht, Leinster, Munster, Ulster

Welsh Pool: Dragons, Cardiff Rugby, Ospreys, Scarlets

South African Pool: Cell C Sharks, DHL Stormers, Emirates Lions and Vodacom Bulls

Italian & Scottish Pool: Benetton Rugby, Edinburgh Rugby, Glasgow Warriors, Zebre Rugby Club

Final Series/Play-Offs: One league table will be used to rank teams and after 18 rounds the top eight sides will qualify for the Play-Offs. Teams will be seeded from 1 to 8 and will receive home advantage according to their seeding.

A full round of Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals will take place to produce two teams who will qualify for the Grand Final.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby robdinsdale on Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:06 am

Home and away is preferable but on the plus side, no games on international weekends and generally the standard should be higher with the South African teams. Also the 'mini tour' down to SA is good.

Getting lumped in with the Italians is not great but inevitable really. Wonder if they'll try that 'More than a rivalry!' marketing line again :lol: Although actually I don't mind Treviso, they are a proper club and have potential to be consistently competitive when they get the coaching right.

Potentially better odds for Champions Cup qualification from our group and the Welsh group due to Zebre and Dragons being poor?
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby The Feral Goat on Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:33 am

At least one side from each of the regional pools will qualify to play among Europe's elite.

This means there will be a guaranteed side from Wales, Ireland and South Africa in the competition, while the leading side out of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Zebre and Benetton will also qualify.


Had missed above, not sure on this, think it should just be top 8 teams to qualify


Edit: FT suggesting games may be on BBC

These people said it has also secured new television deals for the start of the 2021/2022 season in September, including with the BBC in the UK, RTE in Ireland and SuperSport in South Africa. The organisers will also launch a new global subscription streaming service for fans.

Though the aim is for the majority of matches to be screened on free-to-air TV to reach the largest possible audience, the broadcast deals will help boost annual revenues for the competition to £55m, up from £25m last year.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby robdinsdale on Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:53 am

The Feral Goat wrote:
At least one side from each of the regional pools will qualify to play among Europe's elite.

This means there will be a guaranteed side from Wales, Ireland and South Africa in the competition, while the leading side out of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Zebre and Benetton will also qualify.


Had missed above, not sure on this, think it should just be top 8 teams to qualify


Actually, I think it will probably work out the same. The guarantee will only kick in if one pool ends up entirely in the bottom half of the overall league and that's probably unlikely.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby BigD163 on Tue Jun 15, 2021 11:04 am

Friday Knight Lights wrote:Not a fan of this. I liked the Pro14 both teams home and away.


I am not in favour of the SA teams being in full stop.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby artie fufkin on Tue Jun 15, 2021 4:54 pm

Im generally very happy with this. New teams, alignments, increased competition, higher profile, the upsides more than compensate for the potential downsides. Add the new stadium, good sales of ST and we are looking at a very interesting season ahead
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby bignose on Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:39 pm

artie fufkin wrote:Im generally very happy with this. New teams, alignments, increased competition, higher profile, the upsides more than compensate for the potential downsides. Add the new stadium, good sales of ST and we are looking at a very interesting season ahead


Apart from the box kicking
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby dolf_lundgren on Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:49 pm

I think its ok, at least back to one league, but it is still imbalanced. We actually have an advatage over the Irish and SA teams in that we get to play poorer teams more.

I just hope there are more Euro places up for grabs, it will be tough to dislodge the Irish and Saffer teams, which will lead to less cash for us and a potential downward spiral.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby Tichtheid on Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:40 pm

dolf_lundgren wrote:I think its ok, at least back to one league, but it is still imbalanced. We actually have an advatage over the Irish and SA teams in that we get to play poorer teams more.

I just hope there are more Euro places up for grabs, it will be tough to dislodge the Irish and Saffer teams, which will lead to less cash for us and a potential downward spiral.



It will be interesting to see how the draws pan out regarding home and away fixtures.

I have no idea of how strong the SA sides are, Leinster are out on their own, but most weeks we stand a chance against Ulster and Munster playing in Edinburgh, as long as there are no overlaps with international rest periods.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby Martin Bell on Tue Jun 15, 2021 11:23 pm

From a spectating perspective, I'd prefer to see all South African teams playing at Minifield and could cope without seeing either Italian team. From a progression point of view, it's the reverse, of course.

The more times we play the South African sides, the more used to coping with the physical challenge they bring our players will become. That can only be good for Scotland as well as our pro teams.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby Pitfitter446 on Wed Jun 16, 2021 10:19 am

Think we need to stay away from 2 maybe 3 of the SA teams until we get settled again, from the games I’ve watched (most) this year they big speedy guys that we will need time to adapt to, need the final details on tv coverage to decide but overall this could be a good move forward for all teams.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby The Feral Goat on Wed Jun 16, 2021 10:43 am

I am pretty positive about this overall.

Keeping the league structure fixed for 5 years will allow a full RWC/Lions cycle etc and can see how it works for all stakeholders. The not playing everyone home and away is not an issue in the 6N so don't see it as a big deal.

Streaming service sounds like the start of CVCs influence and if there other rugby investments move to the same platform that would be appealing, interesting they look to be going free to air first.

Goes without saying there are some world class players in the SA teams, would love to see our back row go up against Kolisi and co.

My only slight concern, and it is ER specific perhaps, is that with no games clashing with internationals it may lead to even less chances for ERs youth to get game time.
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Re: United Rugby Championship 21/22

Postby robdinsdale on Wed Jun 16, 2021 11:12 am

The Feral Goat wrote:
Streaming service sounds like the start of CVCs influence and if there other rugby investments move to the same platform that would be appealing, interesting they look to be going free to air first.



Pro14 already have a global streaming service that you can subscribe to although it's a bit basic and they don't promote it very much. It's how I can watch games legally in Turkey. However, a streaming service probably has more potential now that the potential market includes the SA diaspora.

The Feral Goat wrote:My only slight concern, and it is ER specific perhaps, is that with no games clashing with internationals it may lead to even less chances for ERs youth to get game time.


Martin Anayi has apparently been talking about a potential 8-10 team A-league because the unions are aware that there will be fewer 'development' games in the regular league.
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