Topic: [Rugby] Union / League / Super / Sixes Sevens Pro14 / Cups & Tours / Olympics - page 41. (Read 15792 times)

Well I have a bet on Wales to win today, a small 0.1mBTC @3.5. I dont think welsh that you
are mad, as previously mentioned Wales do have serious talent and experienced players, I
am figuring they are going to make a statement today after all what happened this week.

Just watching Italy v Ireland and everything is on track for an Irish win early into the second half
eventhough Italy are looking dangerous at times.

Anyway, I'm predicting Wales win against England. I know, I'm a mad man. We definitely do seem to pull it off despite what situation we're in. Obviously, the current issues surrounding Welsh rugby isn't exactly normal, and is quite unprecedented, but I'm hoping the worst is behind us. Maybe, from now on we can start building an actual rugby team without too much drama.

That's right. Although, again I don't really see why we should be punishing players doing what's best for their careers. I know, Welsh rugby at a club level would suffer as a result, but I'm not a fan of punishing players for deciding to play abroad. At the end of the day, if they're from the country, then we should be supporting them whatever their career choices are. Of course, I want to see Welsh club rugby excel too, but maybe they just need to work on offering the players more for staying in the country.

I've just come across two USA matches - Seattle ($1.40) over Atlanta ($2.80) and Houston ($1.14) over NOLA Gold ($5.20)

Already I've lost out on a couple of the New Zealand matches, hopefully I'll do better tomorrow.

Fair play to them anyway, they were definitely being pinched by politics and falling
salaries, not good.

I thought that 60 cap rule was also to do with a player playing outside Wales?
In Ireland we have such a rule, even more restrictive, if a player wants to play for
a club outside Ireland he is welcome to do so but he wont be considered for the
national team ^{unless you are Johnny Sexton}

Best example was Simon Szebo of Munster and Ireland, went to play for Racing 92
in France which ended his career for the National team, he was a brilliant winger/full back.

The trouble also with a small population is the pool of players to pick from and Rugby
competes with other sports as it does here in Ireland, the biggest codes are Gaelic Football
and Hurling, then Soccer and Rugby after them.

If the clubs and national team do well the chances are kids at the grassroots level will
be more interested and inspired to choose Rugby.

Putting restrictions on the senior teams only damages the game in the long term.


Its certainly a busy time for Rugby, we are half way through our competitions here
and you lot are starting your seasons there. Too much to keep up with!

I've only just been able to place bets on the New Zealand Super Rugby Pacific games for round one.

To win, I'm going with: Crusaders over the Chiefs, Waratahs against the Brumbies, Fijian Drua  to edge out Moana Pasifika, the Blues over the Highlanders in a close match, the Hurricanes will blow over the Reds, while the Western Force will outclass the Rebel Scum.

Well, the players seem to have got what they wanted out of the contract negotiations. They were threatening to forfeit the English game this weekend. So, Wales vs England is still going ahead. We've reduced the cap requirement to be called up, allowing players with less caps in their clubs to play for the national team. Something that WRU put in place, which unfortunately only hurts the Welsh team, since we're a rather small nation to begin with.

Honestly, if I had my way I'd scrap it altogether, and just allow the manager to call up who he thinks his deserving. It'll likely be more experienced lads anyway, but at least it gives some of the youngsters a chance, and we might have some hidden talent which could help us out. You know, when Wales is only around 3 million in population wise, we need all the help we can get to compete in the competitions. Especially, when London alone has more population than our who country.

Anyway, I expect us to lose, but hopefully we get to see some of that hidden talent . We definitely do have some youngsters that were deserving to be called up. Hopefully, that happens now.

Eventhough there are always anomalies and compromises A welsh club amalgamating
with an English one would be "insulting" as Welsh put it.

Anyway the six nations game is a runner for the weekend after a deal was struck and
a compromise made. Its just a pity that it had to come to this and the WRU were not
willing to do a compromise before hand.


Ouch, they play the Bulldogs who were neck and neck with each other last year.

Storm Storm have been hit hard with two players out, one for the full season!

https://www.nrl.com/news/2023/01/01/casualty-ward-all-the-latest-nrl-injury-news-updates-returns-details/

I see we are treated to a replay of last years Grand Final, first game of Round 1 Eels v Panthers!

Hard to know what to make of that.  It can't be called Welsh if they're not based in Wales.

Then again, the Queensland Rugby League Cup has a team from Papua New Guinea based on the Gold Coast and the New Zealand Rugby comp has various Island Nation teams playing.

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I've heard a couple of players have injuries whilst training ahead of next weeks opening round of the NRL.  The Sea Eagles might be on shaky ground already.

Ahead of the Six Nations this weekend it seems like the game between Wales and England
is under threat.

There is still a bit of hassle with the signing of financial contracts for the 4 Welsh clubs.

Wales have postponed announcement of their team today.

Reading through this article > https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12321/12815751/wales-six-nations-squad-announcement-delayed-due-to-uncertainty-of-player-involvement

It seems clear what the main concern is of the players

TBH if I had been paying more attention to the games I would have gone with last years
ladder toppers and this is what I suspect I'll do when the premiership starts... although
remember the start of last season, the Eels and Rabbitohs in particular had a mixed bag,
Rabbitohs lost 4 from the first 7 games, Eels the same I think but they came good and
reached the final.

Its a tough one to call!

It's definitely a warm up for the season, however I don't recall seeing a ladder for two weeks worth of warm-up games in past years.

Two from eight picks was pretty dismal. I should have gone with last year's ladder as there would have been fewer upsets in who I would have picked.

The Canberra Raiders and West's Tigers are jostling for wooden spoon with their dismal performances over the preseason. The Dolphins likewise have failed to ignite to imagination while the Manly Sea Eagles are replicating their start of the 2022 season with early wins and then tanked midseason never to recover.

Don't be surprised if I bang the relegation drum once in a while (even though such a thing doesn't yet occur).

Luckily neither Rollbit or Nitro had the Panthers v Saints listed, I would have lost on
that result and I recon they would have made on it also. Golden point seals the deal
for the Saints.

What can we take from the preseason or is it just a warm up for the premiership proper?

So far South's win over Saint George is my only winning pick. I'm going to try to watch a game in a little while.

The Sea Eagles soared against the flightless Roostrers while Newcastle collapsed against Parramatta who are looking to make amends for their crushing defeat last season.

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The Penrith Panthers must have been smarting in their loss to St Helens yesterday going down 12-13. The Broncos beat NQ 20-18 while the Rabbitohs blitz the Dragons 42-24.

Today will be a full day with no less than four games being played this afternoon.

^
Ok I wasnt aware of the funding mechanics both in the WRU and the country in general,
sounds to me like a form of oppression, economic oppression.

TBH I have no idea on how the funding works over there but I imagine Wales and Scotland
would be treated the same but Scotland this year have had two great performances in the
Sin Nations and Glasgow Warriors beat Ulster last night in the URC.

Contrastingly the Ospreys were slaughtered by Munster last night.

Anyway I would be interested to hear a little about funding both Rugby and nationally.

That article from Wales Online did seem bizarre alright, as you eluded to if the union got
proper funding and players healthy contracts there would be no need for extreme measures
like amalgamating with an English club.

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RUGBY LEAGUE NRL Pre Season

Looking at the teams and their standings and the odds for the remaining games in its
just odd!

I have Storm and the Sharks to win later, the odds are not great though and neither
Rollbit or Nitro are listing the Panthers v Saints game?

Anyway a 2 round "competition" is a bit skewed anyway.

It's no secret that the WRU has been struggling for a while. They definitely don't get as much funding as the other organisations in the UK. However, that's kind of a similar story to Wales in general. However, I don't want to bring too much politics into it, but the Welsh players recently walked out from a sponsorship meeting, which is suppose to be their way of demonstrating their frustration with the contracts situation.

Whether or not that works or not, I don't know. Also, it's probably worth noting that the Wales Online that you've quoted isn't exactly a great news source. They're pretty awful with a lot of sensationalist headlines. I very much doubt what they claim is true, and even if there was talks of it, it would never happen. It would be outright insulting, actually.

Anyway, I was looking forward to Wales vs England, despite already knowing the outcome, unless something radical changes things up. However, it's bloody next weekend in it.

Hmmm interesting in a way, whats the point of this preseason competition other
than a money spinner for the NRL itself I guess? why not just go straight into the premiership
itself?

Obviously the $100,000 is something to play for!

And it will all end this weekend after the 2 round competition. Hmmm.
I know its not new but I actually missed it last year.

I might throw a bet or two on, See The Saints will have a baptism of fire tomorrow when
they play the Panthers!

Yeh, I was wondering about that when I was going to put bets on. Looks very safe to say Ireland, Scotland and hopefully Wales will get the job done next weekend.

Interesting to read about the proposed changes over there. Nowadays a person can follow a team anywhere on the planet so it's no surprise local clubs might struggle (at the local level) to get the grassroots support they need.

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In the NRL preseason ladder (all two weeks of it) in round one the Roosters and Sea Eagles walked away with fifteen points, Warriors, Bulldogs, Sharks and ringins The Saints grabbed fourteen points (I never did get the point scoring) with the Panthers in seventh place on thirteen points.

Following on with seven points are the Broncos, Titans and Dolphins (all Queensland teams) the cowboys on six points and Panthers on just two points...

Surprisingly the Rabbitohs and Knights scored just one point each while perennial class dunces the Eels, Dragons, Radiers and West's Tigers scored a collective big fat zero between them.

On the basis of the above my bets for round two will be higher score over lower for all matches with the exception of the equally scored Dolphins I'm betting on against veterans the Titans.

If you haven't placed a bet on the winner of the 2023 season, it'll be one of the top seven of seventeen teams.

This year one team per week will have a bye due to the odd number of teams (i.e. last year's sixteen plus the dolphins).

This headline yesterday evening caught my attention>
English team could join WRU, merge with Welsh region and play in London under radical proposal

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/english-team-could-join-wru-26249690

Interesting article which points out how Welsh Rugby is in a bit of a financial crisis and
that players salaries which could be capped lower is not good.

No Six Nations this weekend, the URC is back on with Round 14.

I think that's part of the problem. I think we need to look to the future, and stop relying on our more experienced men. I mean, they've served us brilliantly over the years, but you can see how they're declining. Biggar, Halfpenny, and to some extent Liam Williams are all world class at their peak, but it's only really Liam Williams that's still really up there, and even he's making some mistakes, and not performing to expectation. Our forwards of decent, obviously Ken Owens is probably our best player.

The future looks bleak unless we actually start changing things up. Plus, the line outs need to be sorted, for a few years now we've struggled with that, and I'm not even sure why.

In fairness both games were very interesting, obviously if you were cheering for Wales
it wasnt happy viewing. Scotland had some really great play in the second half.

Highlights for ya >

Ireland v France - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iGKGzycR9k

Scotland v Wales - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEgXzqkVpAw

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Looking forward to the NRL season this year.
Cant believe the drunken brawls at this stage in the "professional era" of sport in general
wnere there is a lot of money involved and players looking to take the place of anyone
not performing. . . or maybe thats not a thing?

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I hear ya! as Ireland supporters we have had plenty of lean years, and font talk about
the massive expectations in the last 2 world cups where we just didnt do well at all,
especially when we have a massively talented squad, a golden era squad really.

Whats strange currently with Wales is that there is still massive talent in the squad,
and seriously experienced players there.