Ireland once again plays the spoiler and stops England's winning streak at 18, leaving them tied with the all blacks. Of course I say playing spoiler again because it was Ireland who ended New Zealand's winning streak at 18 back in November.
Ireland once again plays the spoiler and stops England's winning streak at 18, leaving them tied with the all blacks. Of course I say playing spoiler again because it was Ireland who ended New Zealand's winning streak at 18 back in November.
Nice to see Ireland end another streak. Eddie Jones and the English in general were getting too cocky. To be fair to England though they didn't have much to play for having already clinched the Six Nations last week.
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Haha, Highlanders coach Tony Brown with a sick burn after beating the useless Rebels 51-12 last night:
Quote:
It was good to score those tries and put away one of the weakest teams in the competition. We’ve got a massive challenge next week against the Blues. I’d say they’re going to be at least three times as good as the Rebels.
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The Super Rugby Australasian group standings after week 6. Once again the New Zealand teams are dominating while the Australian teams are pathetic. The 5th place Highlanders have more points than the 1st place Brumbies.
^ Really good presentation IMO. Hopefully over time they can turn things around because looking ahead to the RWC qualifiers in June doesn't give much hope.
the coach's opinion of what is wrong/right with the 15's program in Canada (From Apr/2017)
Nice that they state the obvious. You have well over half the players that they pick that are at best part time rugby players. 16 with no rugby at all / so not even playing in the BC Premier League which plays in winter. Why then are they chosen? If these players are serious about making the Canadian team they should be in BC. As the coach says the level may not be high enough but at least they are playing. Rugby Canada should be finding these guys jobs in BC for the ones that are willing to move.
The ones that aren't shouldn't be picked. As he says later on they keep picking guys that are not good enough just to fill in numbers. They added a bunch of young guys which is a good move and added to the base of players in the system.
Get the guys who want to play and are willing to sacrifice moving to BC. Then pump that league as much as possible with better coach's etc. Let the other provinces concentrate on their youth programs and feed into the Premier League either via UBC and UVIC or with other teams that will sponsor players from other provinces.
I really don't see any other way(weather dictating) other than indoor stadiums(would cost a fortune) for them to advance the game.
Nice that they state the obvious. You have well over half the players that they pick that are at best part time rugby players. 16 with no rugby at all / so not even playing in the BC Premier League which plays in winter. Why then are they chosen? If these players are serious about making the Canadian team they should be in BC. As the coach says the level may not be high enough but at least they are playing. Rugby Canada should be finding these guys jobs in BC for the ones that are willing to move.
The ones that aren't shouldn't be picked. As he says later on they keep picking guys that are not good enough just to fill in numbers. They added a bunch of young guys which is a good move and added to the base of players in the system.
Get the guys who want to play and are willing to sacrifice moving to BC. Then pump that league as much as possible with better coach's etc. Let the other provinces concentrate on their youth programs and feed into the Premier League either via UBC and UVIC or with other teams that will sponsor players from other provinces.
I really don't see any other way(weather dictating) other than indoor stadiums(would cost a fortune) for them to advance the game.
Well he does say that they are trying to get some players to head down to New Zealand and play there. But the fitness angle he goes through sounds pretty bad, but somewhat explanatory for what we've seen over the past couple years. The team can come out and look decent for maybe 50-60 minutes tops, and then fold in the final quarter. There have been a lot of losses where they held the lead and dropped it (and some were significant leads!)
But there are also players overseas all winter. Some aren't playing at all and it sounds like some aren't staying in shape when they are there. Or at least by the time they came back in June they weren't in shape. That sounds like a commitment issue in general?
SANZAAR has just announced Super Rugby will be reduced to 15 teams in 2018 with South Africa and Australia being cut back to 4 each. The format will be 3x5 team conferences with Japan moving to the Australian conference. The teams to be cut have not yet been determined but rumours are it will be the Force, Kings, and Cheetahs.
Although it is sad for the fans of those team this had to happen. The existing competition has too much travel, too many bad teams, and a confusing format. This will also help the remaining Australian teams be more competitive as Australian does not have the talent to spread across 5 teams.
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World Rugby Sevens Series Update Brought to you by HSBC, Cathay Pacific and UCB.
This week: The premier event on the Sevens calendar, the Hong Kong Sevens!
Hong Kong is considered the top Sevens event in the world. I would love to attend this one day.
1st place: Fiji 2nd place: South Africa 3rd place: Australia
Fiji picks up their first win since taking Gold in Rio.
How did Canada do?
Win vs Kenya 17-14
Win vs France 28-14
Loss vs South Africa 26-7
Loss vs Fiji 29-12
Loss vs Argentina 20-19
Overall: 7th place.
Canada continues their rise up the standings and has now passed Wales into 9th place. Also, Nathan Hirayama played in his 50th Sevens match and took over as Canada's all time Sevens point scorer.
There was also a qualification tournament over the weekend. Spain beat Germany in the finals and has qualified for the 2018 series.
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Last edited by FireGilbert; 04-09-2017 at 08:25 PM.
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SANZAAR has just announced Super Rugby will be reduced to 15 teams in 2018 with South Africa and Australia being cut back to 4 each. The format will be 3x5 team conferences with Japan moving to the Australian conference. The teams to be cut have not yet been determined but rumours are it will be the Force, Kings, and Cheetahs.
Although it is sad for the fans of those team this had to happen. The existing competition has too much travel, too many bad teams, and a confusing format. This will also help the remaining Australian teams be more competitive as Australian does not have the talent to spread across 5 teams.
Kings and force are a no brainer, theyve never been competitive and don't draw much of a crowd. Bummer for cheetahs fans though. Does this mean they're going back to the old 6 team playoff format as well?
Kings and force are a no brainer, theyve never been competitive and don't draw much of a crowd. Bummer for cheetahs fans though. Does this mean they're going back to the old 6 team playoff format as well?
They are keeping the 8 team playoff format. The 3 division winners and 5 wild cards.
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Kings and force are a no brainer, theyve never been competitive and don't draw much of a crowd. Bummer for cheetahs fans though. Does this mean they're going back to the old 6 team playoff format as well?
####ing travesty if the Cheetahs go.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Nice that they state the obvious. You have well over half the players that they pick that are at best part time rugby players. 16 with no rugby at all / so not even playing in the BC Premier League which plays in winter. Why then are they chosen? If these players are serious about making the Canadian team they should be in BC. As the coach says the level may not be high enough but at least they are playing. Rugby Canada should be finding these guys jobs in BC for the ones that are willing to move.
The ones that aren't shouldn't be picked. As he says later on they keep picking guys that are not good enough just to fill in numbers. They added a bunch of young guys which is a good move and added to the base of players in the system.
Get the guys who want to play and are willing to sacrifice moving to BC. Then pump that league as much as possible with better coach's etc. Let the other provinces concentrate on their youth programs and feed into the Premier League either via UBC and UVIC or with other teams that will sponsor players from other provinces.
I really don't see any other way(weather dictating) other than indoor stadiums(would cost a fortune) for them to advance the game.
If all of Canada, save 1 province plays a summer season, perhaps BC should change to a summer season.
I whole heartily disagree with having to move to BC. It is, IMO, a backwards approach. If the end goal of RC is to grow rugby via a pro or semi-pro league there needs to be a unified season.
I know of a number of players that were "lost" to RC because they didn't want to move to BC.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
High school rugby season starts today in Calgary (at least for us). Rain/snow in the forecast and cold temperatures, should be fun to play in but not quite as much fun to be a spectator.