Not hot: Jim Hamilton and David Paice
It is time for our weekly wrap up of who has their name in lights at the moment ... and who is making the headlines for the wrong reasons.
They're smooooookin!
Romain Teulet: 'Robocop', as they like to call him in the Tarn, became the first player in history to score 3000 points for a single club when he landed the first penalty against Clermont on Saturday. The Castres full-back ended the day on 3010 career points and with Les Castrais now into the Top 14 play-off, he's unlikely to stop knocking 'em over any time soon.
Harlequins: After finishing seventh last year and eighth the year before that, Quins have set the pace for most of this season's campaign. Victory over Sale on the last day of the regular season assured Conor O'Shea's men of a home semi-final. After stumbling in Europe, can they now produce the goods when it matters most?
Brumbies: Most pundits had written the Brumbies' youngsters off before the season had even started, but Jake White has molded a team that is ticking all the boxes. Last weekend's demolition of the Waratahs was confirmation the team from the capital represent Australia's best hope for the title.
Leinster: Runaway leaders for most of RaboDirect PRO12 season, finishing ten points clear at the top, and favourites to defend their Heineken Cup crown, it would be hard to deny that Joe Schmidt's team are Europe's best side at the moment.
New Zealand Sevens: Victors in Glasgow and now need only to reach the Plate final in London to retain the Series crown. They overcame England in the Cup final last weekend despite having a young team that was once again led superbly by the likes of DJ Forbes and Tomasi Cama.
Someone turn on the heater...!
Brive: To avoid relegation from the Top 14, Brive must win with a bonus point in Clermont this weekend. Since no team has tasted victory there in 42 games, it's safe to assume Brive will drop to the Pro D2 next season. In 25 rounds, les Corréziens spent just one week (back in September) out of the relegation zone and when the chips were down last week, they melted under pressure against Bordeaux-Begles. Their fate is all but sealed.
Newcastle: They put up a brave fight, but in the end Falcons SHOULD be relegated. We wait to see if Bristol can recoup their 21-point deficit against Cornish Pirates this Sunday and then go on to win the Championship final.
Jim Hamilton and David Paice: Brian Smith branded Jim Hamilton "a disgrace" after the Gloucester captain and London Irish hooker David Paice were sent off during the Exiles crushing 52-18 victory at the Madejski Stadium. The pair were dismissed seven minutes into the second half after two confrontations. They were initially shown yellow cards by referee Dave Pearson after trading blows for the first time, but when they clashed again when leaving the field, it triggered an unseemly mass brawl near the touchline. Paice had required a dozen stitches in a cut head.
Stade Français: Have missed the Top 14 play-offs for the third consecutive season. Not great for a club with one of the largest budgets in France.
Aussie Super Rugby conference: Only one team in the top half of the standings. If the standings were based on pure merit and not that irritating 'conference leader gets a top three spot' rule, the Brumbies would be fifth.
Premiership/Championship debacle: So with Bristol - the sole side in the second tier play-offs able to gain promotion into the top flight - having lost their first leg at the Cornish Pirates by 21 points, the odds are now stacked heavily in the favour of Newcastle staying in the Premiership next season. Surely if stadium facility requirements are such that only one out of the Championship members in the knockouts was able to get into the big-boy league, then they should consider just scrapping relegation altogether?
Comments
BokAvenger says...
@jonesy2: You wrote: "name one south african side that is better than the reds and waratahs or rebels or force for that matter no injuries considered. thought so"
Are you having us on mate, or did you just forget to put the cap back on the bottle of Bundy next to your computer? I'll name two for you: The Bulls and the Stormers. Ordinarily I'd throw in the Sharks but they're having a bad season. Even the lowly Cheetahs can't be written off - they beat the Crusaders the last two years and took out the Hurricanes in NZ this year. I'd also argue that by rights they should've beaten the Brumbies this year too were it not for a few dodgy calls in the last 20 mins from the referee.
Posted 08:52 10th May 2012
Rayz says...
We need the Australian Conference. As others have pointed out there is a bigger picture to look at.
BTW...Which team won the Super Rugby last year?
Posted 08:25 10th May 2012
jontheref says...
Agree, winner of the Championship should get 12 months to sort out stadia.
I have also said, I would be happy for top teams in Pro 12 to be HC entrants, if Italian or Scots are not good enough, so be it.
Before some mad Caledonian jumps on me, same goes for Wales & Ireland, but they would get at least 1 team each, with 8 places up for grabs!
I don't think Edinburgh actively concentrate on the HC, it is just they had a weak pool, and some favours from the refereeing, once that happened, the die was cast.
As for Brian Smith's comments about Hamilton, it was Plaice who started the second (or was it 3rd?) round of the battle.
Sounds like he got his deserves!
Disgrace and Smith have a ring to it too!
One eyed ocher.
Posted 07:47 10th May 2012
BDAUSSIE says...
The Australian conference is definitely the weakest this year but why do people keep harping on about it. Talk about a broken record. There are conference systems in many sports, but you don't see, for example, NBA fans complaining that they have to play in the harder Western conference. That's simply the rules.
All this complaining about the weak aus conference is nothing more than anti Australian sentiment.
The aus conference will be the weakest for a few years yet at least. The conference system is a long term solution to stop the sport dying in Aus. Remember neither SA nor NZ have to combat such aggressive competition from AFL and NRL. So far the conference system has been a positive thing for Australian rugby and should help the sport rebuild.
For those of you who don¿t want Australian rugby to be strong then by all means hate the conference system, but I think most people will agree that world rugby would lose out if Australian rugby falls by the waist side.
Currently there is a wealth of talented footy players joining the AFL and NRL, instead of playing rugby, something that hopefully changes on the next few years.
Posted 05:25 10th May 2012
jonesy2 says...
name one south african side that is better than the reds and waratahs or rebels or force for that matter no injuries considered. thought so
Posted 05:14 10th May 2012
Steve1036 says...
Melkdave
pretty tough to say the Aussie Conference has been weak for quite a few years. 2010 they had 3 out of 4 teams in the top 6 making them essentially the strongest conference. This year two of the teams (tahs and reds) have had ridiculous amounts of injuries which has made it very hard for them to be competitive
Posted 02:36 10th May 2012
chocol8thunda says...
conference system works. you're making it sound like the Aussie conf. will suck forever. It won't. What needs to happen is for players who are from SANZAR countries be able to play on any team in the S15. Who cares if DC decides to play in Cape Town or Burger laces up the boots in Auckland. They all get the same player releases for the 4 nations so what would be the harm? This would solve the weak conference debate because talent would be spread every where; there would be parity.Then you could have a salary cap through SANZAR it's self. The unions could then make contracts with players. I also think this would stop the exodus, or at least stem it. Players could have a choice of 3 countries to play in, which are all different, yet similar.
Posted 01:51 10th May 2012
Carpelone says...
Leinster in the hot list would be fine, if only the Celtic League games were not such a rubbish.
This League needs to find new motivations otherwise it is not going to work in future (team fielding secong string sides, players rested for the HC etc).
Posted 23:38 09th May 2012
Carpelone says...
To be honest, I would come back to Super 12, maybe with a promotion relegation mechanisms for NZ and SA teams. The reason why is that the season is becoming far too long and the show is way far too diluted. Has anybody noticed that only since one or two weeks the results are more normal? The reason is that all the underdogs throw everything in the first rounds, while the heavyweights try to gain form more gradually.
More games do not mean more entertainement.
PS I made 7 out of 7 last week end.
Posted 23:28 09th May 2012
staph_glorious says...
I don't see how the PRO12 unions could agree to league-position qualification, most notably the SRU or FIR.
How about restructuring the European competitions? Reduce the Heineken Cup to a 16-team event, and bolster the spectacle of the Amlin Challenge Cup with the remaining sides. The PRO12 would naturally become a hotly contested affair, as the respective unions' Heineken allocation would be halved (2,2,1,1). In Europe, debate concerning 'easy' groups would dampen, for both the refined quality of the pools and the removal of the 'best runners up'. The flip-side to this proposal is the loss of four pool matches per weekend, though some of these fixtures were arguably the chaff.
Initiating such an arrangement would probably hinge on the marketability of an improved, though still second-tier, Challenge Cup. If clubs such as Munster, Bath, Stade Francais and Scarlets still have the pulling power, and all unions involved have faith in the sport's expansion in Europe - and the riches! - it would seem a way forward.
Posted 23:25 09th May 2012
isthatrightref says...
Can anyone come up with a format that delivers theS15 broadcasters their 125 games, without dragging the season out further and/ or imposing increased costs on the teams? Unless this can be done we're stuck with the conferences, but SANZAR need to look at ranking the 3 x conference leaders/ winners & best 3 others according to actual comp points: we almost had the farcical situation of Bulls & Stormers each on 41 but being ranked 2nd & 4th; worse, we could have had Brumbies & Waratahs equal but being ranked 3rd & 9th.
Posted 20:30 09th May 2012
jackblack says...
brumbies will qualify for the playoffs - based on the conference system and I don't want to see Bryce Lawrence, Marius Jonker or Jaco Peyper anywhere near any of those playoff games. My approved sanzar refs would include: Kaplan, Joubert, Jackson, Pollock, Walsh & Mark Lawrence
Posted 20:30 09th May 2012
milkshake says...
@Melkdave
The conference system was introduced because it reduces travel (which is expensive and tiring), and it maximises local derbies (which they think we want to see more of). It was not to address any Australia-specific issues to my understanding.
The question of having one from each conference qualify for the top 3 is a separate issue which is definitely working for the Aussie teams right now. Of course, this system is not the one favoured by the ARU or NZRU. They wanted straight up top 6.
From wikipedia :
"Secondly, the three conference winners and the three best performed of the remaining teams would qualify for a three week finals series, with seedings deciding the match-ups. This system would be a hybrid of the conference-based qualification system favoured by the SARU and the 'top six' model favoured by the ARU and NZRU."
Posted 19:26 09th May 2012
irish_bok1 says...
Agree with the comment regarding the 'Conference leaders' debacle but its a bit of a contradiction after claiming the Brumbies to be 'Hot'!!
Posted 16:12 09th May 2012
kpe12 says...
"Aussie Super Rugby conference" - Whats frustrating is that if there was one dominant team in that conference they would be double bagging points, fortunately their talent is spread so thin they are all average. Kind of makes the Brumbies feat of beating one top 8 team this season a little weak to claim them "hot". Also the Brumbies pulled the best draw of the season, no Stormers or Crusaders.
Posted 15:45 09th May 2012
melkdave says...
The weakness of the Australain conferance has be known for quite a few years ,when compared to their NZ and SA counterparts.The conferance system was introduced really to insure rugby union survies as a viable sport in Australia ,as attendances have /are falling there.Hence more derby games to try and bolster interest and bums on seats ,wheather its working is debateable and only time will tell .
I to believe the Pirates should be promoted if they win the championship,after all not many clubs are going to spend alot of money on their stadia unless they are going to be promoted ,surly a year couild be given for the work on the stadia to be done .Then even if they are relegated the following season they will have the stadia done for when next promoted. Exeter are the only non former premier side to have gotten promotion and the Cornish Pirates deserve their shot to emulate their west country rivals imo
@GCP_Jones
Couldnt agree more with your comments about the Pro12 ive posted numerous times on its weaknesses and failings and just how many matches just dont matter .How can Edinburgh be considered serious HC contenders for 2013 despite getting to the SFs this year while they finish 11th in the league ,its just crazy .The league matches are the clubs bread and butter games its where they should generate a good income ,yet alot of clubs just dont try to win the league .How can they possibly expect to secure a TV deal and another good income if they cant be bothered in the league games or attract fans to the games .One reason why the clubs are struggling financialy imo HC qualification on merit has to come and i hope it starts next season (Italain clubs given 2-3 yrs to become competative then same applies to them)
Posted 15:27 09th May 2012
GCP_JONES says...
the Relegation/Promotion issue has been rolled out time after time by the English Media as the reason why the Aviva Premiership is precieved to be more defensive and less entertaining than other competitions, and now it seems it wiill come home to roost that basically its a crock of S%&T.
I think the Cornish Piates should sue the powers that be when they are denied access if they are victorious on Sunday.Or as I have said in other posts they should apply to join the Pro12 (Celtic/Magners)league they would be a welcome addition to it IMO.
even though I'm on one level happy with the sucess of Leinster, from the perspective of the PRO 12 it is a worry for the competative nature of the league.
With the Welsh clubs weakened by tightening budgets and teams the likes of Edinburgh just focusing of the Heineken Cup, I think the league will increasingly become less of a spectacle,and maybe a team like the pirates will bring a freashness to it, or more importantly I really do think its time to go along with the FFR and RFU and just have the top 8 teams qualify for the Heineken that would certainly focus the minds of teams that up to now have qualified automatically for the Heineken cup.
Posted 13:52 09th May 2012
ruckingkiwi says...
"Aussie Super Rugby conference", I think if we were basing it on merit, then it would just be us and the South Africans.
Posted 13:36 09th May 2012