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