Topic: [Rugby] Union / League / Super / Sixes Sevens Pro14 / Cups & Tours / Olympics - page 65. (Read 16207 times)

COVID restrictions and protocols are having an effect on everything and its frustrating
to say the least. I recon its a right headache for sports organisations to manage.

In the six nations my betting for the first weekend will be Ireland to beat Wales,
England to beat Scotland and France to beat Italy, fairly straight forward although
Wales could challenge Ireland.

As I mentioned over on the Tennis thread, I'm sick of Spertsbet and their
Rugby offering and I'm going to move to Nitrogensports, do you have a referral
link Timelord?

This is the offering from Sportsbet on my app for Rugby Union "Future events"

It's a shame to see so many tournaments pausing, re-starting then pausing again.

The Six Nations may be another month away, but I've got a couple of wagers locked in:

6th February, Ireland - Wales I'm going to say Ireland followed by the Scotland - England game I'm going for England.

7th February, the books haven't opened on the France Vs Italy game as yet.

So this weekend sees one tournament on "Pause" ^{United Rugby Championship}
and another resume ^{Heineken Champions Cup}.

Round 3 resumes this weekend, games starting tonight. As per a previous post the organisers
have a difficult job to try an fit the previous postponed games into the season and with the
Six Nations Championship starting in the first week in February its going to get really tricky

That looks like a running battle against COVID, like a lot of sports. Its effects are still
showing in the URC and Heineken Champions Cup with suspended games.
Our national games here are effected with training restrictions also.

I'm looking forward to the new NRL season.

---

After the weekends round 10 in the URC Edinburgh do indeed go into top spot
by beating Cardiff 34 - 10. Gong forward Edinburgh are definitely a team much
improved this season and are ones to watch for this season.

Australian Rugby League News:

NRL stars lash out at tight COVID-19 restrictions ahead of return to pre-season - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-05/nrl-covid-latrell-mitchell/100738760

Posted Wed 5 Jan 2022 at 9:17am

---

---

Next day...

Qld NRL clubs hit by COVID-19 outbreaks - https://thewest.com.au/sport/rugby-league/number-of-broncos-covid-19-cases-grow-c-5202907

George Clarke and Murray WenzelAAP Thu, 6 January 2022 10:40AM

---

---

Three hours later:

V'landys confident NRL has systems in place to avoid disruptions - https://www.nrl.com/news/2022/01/06/vlandys-confident-nrl-has-systems-in-place-to-avoid-covid-disruptions/

Thu 6 Jan 2022, 01:14 PM

---

---

A day later...

RLPA to meet NRL over COVID protocols - https://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/7573191/rlpa-to-meet-nrl-over-covid-protocols/

 - January 7 2022 - 3:38PM - George Clarke

---

---

Round 1 of the 2022 Maori Vs Indigenous mini series kicks off on the 12th of February at 7:10pm AEDST

https://www.nrl.com/draw/all-stars/2022/round-1/maori-v-indigenous/

Game one of the 2022 NRL Series kicks of on the 10th of March, 2022 with the clash of the Grand-finalists for 2021, the Panthers and the Sea Eagles at 7:05pm AEDST.

https://www.nrl.com/draw/nrl-premiership/2022/round-1/panthers-v-sea-eagles/

---

---

The 2021 NRLW season is coming - https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/12/20/where-unreal-becomes-real/

4 games scheduled this weekend in the United Championship with 1 postponed
because of the old reliable COVID.

Edinburgh v Cardiff - Edinburgh could go to top position if they win but the table ATM is
a bit skewed with Edinburgh being 1 point behind Leinster at the top and many teams 1
or 2 games behind and still to play them.

Glasgow Warriors v Ospreys - this is a game between 5th and 4th spots currently

Munster v Ulster - Ulster are going well and are in 3rd, while Munster who are not going too badly
are down in 7th but only 6 games played, thats 3 missed to date.

Scarlets v Dragons - Postponed

There is concern now as to how to fit all remaining games into the remaining schedule,
round 10 this weekend and every team has missed some rounds, The south African
teams and Cardiff have only played 5, some have played only 6 or 7 and a few have
played 8.

^
It would be great to have you back in the thread and on the forum Timelord and hopefully
2022 will bring some more regular contributors to the thread too

Happy new year Timelord and to all the Rugby fans who commented to date.

A Happy New Year to one and all.

Yes, Covid has been playing havoc with games - I've been hearing the various UK Football teams have been impacted this round with players and officials out.

Our covid numbers are slim in Australia compared with UK/IRE/EU Continent, however two family members of mine (one in Victoria, the other here in SEQ) have both been told to isolate and get tested the same day which hits close to home.

At this point, it looks like I'll be able to post perhaps once per week, so I'll try to put together a "weekly wrap up" of information I find online (I might hunt out some small comps not featured on gaming sites too).

This thread needs a bump.

TBH I havent been betting on any games but both the United Championship and the
Heineken Champions Cup, also the Challenge Cup ^{Which I havent been following}

COVID is still playing its part with some games being postponed.

Round 9 of the URC is on tomorrow but 4 matches are postponed and 2 set to play.

This weekend sees tho more competitions starting up in Europe:

The famous "Heineken Champions Cup" and the EPCR Challenge Cup.

The Heineken is the top tier club Rugby Union cross country competition
on the calendar which sees top clubs from England, France, Ireland, Wales
and Scotland play in two pools of 12 teams.

The Challenge cup running beside the Heineken has 4 pools of 5 teams all
pretty much playing for a spot in next years Heineken Cup

https://www.epcrugby.com/2021/12/09/dont-miss-this-seasons-heineken-champions-cup-and-epcr-challenge-cup/

I'm not sure where you can bet on these games, but ATM Sportsbet dont have
any Rugby listed 

United Rugby Championship - Round 7

Three games scheduled for today but one is still postponed in South Africa
between The Bulls and the visiting Scarlets so the Bulls are scheduled to play the Sharks.

The other matches are:
Edinburgh v Benetton - Benetton will be looking to build on their win over Glasgow Warriors
from last week when playing at home.

Leinster v Connacht - Connacht have beaten Leinster before and will be looking to do what
Ulster did last week.

---

On the betting side I dont see Sportsbet listing any of the URC games for the last
number of weeks and their French PRO D2 and TOP14 are listed but betting is closed
on all games. They also have the Rugby 7's world series listed but no betting open.

https://www.world.rugby/sevens-series/teams

So I'm thinking of switching sites to a different gambling platform because maybe
Rugby betting on sportsbet does not have the amount of involvement needed, IDK

---

E D I T 04/12/21

---

Update on the results from yesterday...

Sharks 30 - 16 Bulls

Edinburgh 24 - 10 Benetton - unfortunately Benetton couldnt continue their
win from Glasgow away to Edinburgh. They now sit in second place behind
Leinster but Ulster could go back in to that spot by beating The Ospreys today.

Leinster 47 - 19 Connacht - Leinster were not going to have 2 defeats in a row,
they proved far too strong for the visiting Connacht.

---

E D I T 07.12.21

---

Update from Saturdays games in the URC

Ospreys 19-13 Ulster - A bit of an unexpected result, after a great result against the
"team to beat" last week Ulster cant back it up.

Stormers 19-37 Lions

Glasgow Warriors 33-14  Dragons

I'm not sure it was quick enough though, there have been two confirmed cases in the U.K
and it seems to be more transmissable than the Delta variant. Rugby matches will be
affected as will other sports in December and into the new year.

---

Update on the URC:

Connacht last night came back to winning ways at home by beating The Ospreys 46-18.
I was offered 2 free tickets to go to the match but I would only have made it in for the second
half.

---

E D I T - 02/12/21

---

Update from last weeks URC

While all the South African games were postponed due to Omicron, all the other
scheduled games were played with a few upsets IMO.

Benetton held out to beat the Glasgow Warriors by 1 point - 19 - 18. Looking over the
stats for this game they really read in favour of The Warriors but the Benetton defence
looked to have been able to deal with the attacks from The Warriors. A good result from
Benetton, they are mid table having lost 3 and won 3.

The Dragons were beaten by Edinburgh 14 - 30

And Ulster beat the home team Leinster 10 - 20. Even though it was a low
scoring game Ulster were far superior against the #1 positioned team on the table.

Hopefully this new Omicron variant turns out to be nothing to worry about, but I'm still praying for the world. I'm grateful South Africa detected the new variant so quickly and reported it. Probably saved countless lives, if this thing turns out to be a deadlier new strain.
I hope other countries that see new variants popping up in or coming through their countries catch them and report them quickly and honestly too.

Yes, I've been watching the SBS news just now discussing omacron (I'm learning the Latan alphabet one variant at a time)

We will probably see limited international games in the coming year and similar the the NRL where there were concentrated hubs if players isolated from the rest of the community.

UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP

The competition is back up and running for this weekend with round 6, Connacht are
at home to The Ospreys. Strangely enough Connacht can perform better at away games
than they do at home.

Saturday sees all the South African teams playing at home.

Stormers v Zebre
Benetton v Glasgow Warriors
Sharks v Scarlets
Dragons v Edinburgh
Bulls v Munster
Leinster v Ulster

---

E D I T

---

[quote = https://www.unitedrugby.com/latest/news/sa-r6-r7-postponed]R6 & R7 South African Home Games Postponed Due to New Covid Regulations[/quote]

The new "South African" strain of COVID-19 has been detected and is already
on the move with a case diagnosed already in Belgium.

---

I tried to put some bets on the URC games this weekend but Sportsbet dont have any games
listed which is dissapointing, Connaught are leading The Ospreys ATM.

In Ireland a player say from South Africa playing for one of the provinces can become
eligible to play for Ireland after 3 years, if they decide or are forced back to their
native country for any number of reasons they could play international rugby for their
native country with this new rule.

Hmmm thinking about it more I dont think it is or will be utilised much.

I can imagine there are a lot of south pacific players who try for New Zealand but
have to switch back to their own country to get games as you guys point out.

I'm really not a fan of this change. I'm just not sure what's the incentive to doing this? We have clubs where players move around quite frequently, and while year 3 years is a decent amount of time, especially considering Rugby players generally have a shorter time playing than other athletes, but I don't know it just takes a lot of the commitment away from me.

Although, I can't see too many players actually doing this, at least current internationals. I guess this is useful for those that have selected a nation to play for, but never get the opportunity to play for them. Otherwise, I feel like players switching when they play regular rugby for a nation to another, would just be frowned upon by most.

I suspect the majority of the time it would be the other way around, those wanting to play for New Zealand not making the squad, therefore switch in favour of playing more regular.

A Tongan or Samoan player switching to play for New Zealand.  Possibly even Fiji.

Ah yes, games between the tip tier teams will always command more interest
and have the potential to create memorable games, doesnt always work out that way.

---

News out today from World Rugby has a big rule change


https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/59406025

On the face of it, it sounds good.
3 years seems like a long stand down period and can be a very large portion of a players
carreer. What are the situations where a player would change country?

I actually think that's a good thing in so far as it makes for more thrilling games knowing the teams are ranked so close together.  It'd be an entirely different match if the last place were to face-off against the first place and loose (as everyone expected) - hardly worth going along to watch.