scrubbedexpat141

The season starts on Saturday with a tasty little opener;

Dirty, average, unwated Wasps Vs The Reigning Champions, Premiership Title Holders and Mightiest of the Mighty Harlequins

Bonus point win for the Quins and another league in the bag come the summer.

Anyone else got any predicitions?

Bob

Be nice to see London Welsh do okay...just because it's nice to see decent rugby coming to Oxford

britexpat76

Yup, that everyone will be watching the football.

commander

They are all drug cheats

Sorry, wrong thread

mentalist

If I want to watch a decent game of rugby, I tune in to OSN and watch the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship or even the Super 15, much better than the mundane English Premiership. We are miles behind the south.

auzdafluff

What do you mean starts on Sunday. It just finished. Warrington won it.

Oh... you mean Rugby civil union... (sorry; that was the best gay rugby joke I could think of).

The Dean

Nonsense - the SH no-tackle basketball is the most artificial garbage I've ever seen. Have a go at counting the number of blatant missed tackles in a single SH match - you don't see that many in a whole season in the NH. Miss one up here and you're dropped. Miss one down there and someone says 'don't worry, it's our turn to score now'.

A couple of years ago there was a Stupor-XV game between (I think) Lions and Chiefs which ended 65-72, and I actually heard a pundit say it was a great game...... do me a favour..........

The Dean

Wasps will be fine this year - and with Welsh in the Prem it (sadly) gives everyone else an easy season. The Championship (ie Second Division) looks much more interesting than the Prem this year, with Newcastle, Bristol, Bedford and Cornish Pirates all looking strong pre-season. And now Jersey are in it, with a bottomless pit of cash, and some interesting signings brought in, it's very appealing.

scrubbedexpat141

Wrong. On so many levels. SH rugby appeals to idiots who want a basketball score.

I respect the flair and ambition to score lots of points but strong defence, not missing tackles and being resilient in your own 22 makes a game exciting. SH rugby is what it is: high scoring and almost blending into Rugby League.

Rugby League is not a sport.

The Dean

Rugby L**gue is for idiots who find Union's rules too complicated........

mentalist

You must be watching different games from me. The fact that so many tries are scored reflects the pace and strength of the attackers. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are miles better than anything we can offer. Be real...and when are they going to scrap the scrummage rule. That touch, pause and engage nonsense is awful.

Mogs

I believe Scotland beat Australia in their last two meetings - so they can't be that good down south.

scrubbedexpat141

Scrap a rule to keep a scrum safe and controlled? Yeah, that's definitely a good idea. Scrums are key moments, if you can turn the ball over at a scrum it's amazing. If you have a good number 8, it can be a decisive weapon to attack when the opposition have all their big men tied up. If you can rumble a scrum forwards and the opposition can't do anything about it you'll inevitably win a penalty and potential points. Look at the way the South African prop demolished the Lions oppo in the last tour.

Without control at the start of a scrum, none of the above would be achievable.

Yes NZ / Aus and SA are nice looking going forwards, but as Mogs posted, Scotland have beaten the Aussies, in Australia.

How often do you see SH teams struggle to defend their own 22. Or turn the ball over trying stupid shit in the oppo 22?

No, I don't like constant kicking games, and yes it's fun to watch someone run 35 metres through a couple of tackles but balance is key. The NH have some extremely exciting backs who are capable of running the side from a deep role, traditionally it allows a balanced team of true rumbling forwards, a smart scrum half who can dictate pace, a smarter 10 who links play and a couple of centres to use as quick battering rams.

It doesn't have to be 76-65 to be an exciting or good game. I've seen some amazing 3-3 or 6-6 matches and played in a few myself.

I'm not saying big scores aren't good, but I have zero respect for the SH's ability to understand defence.

The Dean

They have scrapped it - it's now 'crouch, touch, set' or something, with time limits.

Pace and strength of the attackers? Doesn't defence matter then? You're disproving your own argument.

The Dean

Just finished watching Taranaki-v-Tasman in the ITM Cup (NZ's equivalent of the English Premiership) and it was a typical SH affair. The official website sums it up:

Seven tries were scored in a thrilling opening 40 minutes of running rugby at Yarrow Stadium, although some of the defending was poor with too many first-up tackles missed.

There were ten tries altogether, but I'd say only one could not be put down to poor defending (missed tackles etc). I find it frustrating that SH audiences do not seem to want to see a contest between attack and defence in equal measure - that's what team sport is all about, surely?