Was the TMO's reluctance to upgrade to red just because the camera angles weren't great? From what I saw, the way he lunged forward looked nasty, and he probably couldn't have hit anything but head, but there just wasn't a clear angle of the impact.
I'd say that's what it was practically, but still it means the TMO stuffs this up. You can't mitigate down for always illegal acts of foul play, which clearly a headbut after the whistle would fall into.
I can see how with the proceeding kerfuffle and the referee not seeing it all clearly live why he might not call a straight red. Agree with @Strewthcobber's assessment of the stuff up. It would have been interesting how it might have changed the dynamic of the game, France down a player for another 10mins.
The RFU own Twickenham Stadium. Surely any other option would be more costly? But I get their point/issue. Seems rather wasteful to have these large assets so under-utilised.
I think it's more a play aimed at the constituency of the local council. That is every bit rugby country and if there is any concrete suggestion they'd lose out on England test matches in their backyard they'd revolt. Or at least that's what it looks like the RFU's play is, I think there's a solid chance it's the blazer crowd that they're trying to leverage that doesn't want the non-rugby events, so it may not work as well as they hope.
I think you're right. They're looking enviously at Tottenham's multi-use of their stadium and Haringey Council's support for the stadium from the get-go, not always to the delight of the locals. They've also floated the notion of buying 50% of Wembley, a shit stadium if ever there were one. It's politics, something the RFU have famously always managed to get wrong.
Racing had to get something right sooner or later! Good for Bayonne. Has taken them a long time to get over the Mike Phillips curse. LaR's -69 is bizarre.
www.rugbypass.com
The way their governance works - the clubs have to (unanomously) vote to agree to lower the salary cap. And of course, they don't (especially clubs chasing success in Europe competitions)
I don't think you can ever really get away with lowering a salary cap, the players would revolt and you'd lose all control of your talent. The RFU would probably even try and step in to block it, given they maintain a local selection policy. Best they can probably do is pause it for ~5 years in the hope revenues catch up and maybe remove some of the marquee exemptions.
Sums it up. Heads in the sand over the viability of the Prem. In fact, rugby in general. Its fanbase is limited, predominantly in the south, around London, and the SW to a lesser extent. Once Newcastle folds, and they will, Sale will be the only club anywhere near the north. The north is RL territory and RL is in a bigger mess. Today there's a report that the GBP125m forked out by the government in loans to support rugby clubs during Covid is unlikely to ever be repaid.
No surprise. Welsh rugby, unfortunately, is a basket case from top to bottom with the vast majority of the problems stemming from the top.
My impression was that the community rugby clubs are the member organisation of the WRU (similar to our member unions).
Whatever the community clubs take out is piffling compared to the money blown by the WRU. They received £84m as their share of the CVC rights deal. They bought a hotel adjacent to the stadium which they are paying a hotel company to manage ... and, at the same time, cut funding to the regions. Now, with the demise of Cardiff, it has come to light that one of the owner's previous companies collapsed with debts of more than £30m. His ownership of Cardiff was waved through. The WRU is not fit for purpose.
