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Seems like there's quite a large gap between the best and worst MLR teams off the field so far. Houston and Seattle definitely have their act together, Utah as well,. The other 4 appear to be struggling or still in the starting blocks. Is Austin Elite a permanent name or a placeholder? And is it...

Good points. Then I guess the worst case scenario is that Romania, Spain and Belgium all get disqualified, Russia qualify and Germany and Portugal playoff to see who gets to be destroyed by Samoa. Japan vs Russia to open the tournament is pretty sellable, and Russia is at least roughly the...

I've read that Spain approached WR (World Rugby) to get approval for their player when he was first selected. What if Romania did as well, and both were given the green light incorrectly? What a nightmare. Maybe they should just have some new set of matches between Romania, Spain and Russia in June.

And also that Belgium fielded an ineligible player in their match against Germany. Same guy was originally named to play against Spain as well, but ended up being replaced before the game. It's amateur hour at Rugby Europe! Question is whether Belgium only get disqualified for the match...

I think it's a no brainer to move it to 6pm. The extra crowd numbers and TV viewers in Australia that would be gained by avoiding the clash would surely outweigh the additional morning viewers in Ireland and the UK? The time difference is only 9 hours in June, so it'd still kickoff at 9am there...

I saw it live and thought the whole time that Spain were getting screwed by the ref. But I've certainly seen plenty of other rugby games that seemed like that and if it wasn't for the fact I knew the ref was Romanian I don't think I'd have suspected anything potentially dodgy was going on. And...

I don't think it'll do well there, it's not a good stadium for rectangular sports. Not sure they had any better options though with the SFS and Parramatta Stadium unavailable. Places like Leichhardt, Brookvale and North Sydney Oval probably don't have good enough facilities. Maybe Gosford could...

Agreed. Maybe the match should be replayed with a ref from a neutral country and half a dozen of those Spanish players suspended from it.

It would have just been a common sense removal of a potential conflict of interest for a match of unique significance. Not the most dangerous of precedents given the status of the match. It's particularly bad when on the same weekend the England v Ireland match had a replacement assistant...

I've seen 18-8, 24/25-4 and 28-8. They should probably clarify that as while all are very one-sided 18-8 isn't quite as insane. What do you think of the last one? Spain had got within 5 points near the end of the game and were then penalised for not releasing the ball after being tackled...

The thing is Spain didn't play very well and probably could have won in spite of the refereeing if they'd been a bit smarter and not let it get to them so much. But the decisions really did go against them quite regularly, and that's gotta be a lot harder to move on from during the match when...

I assume when these referee assessments are done after test matches the referees are given some kind of accuracy score. I wonder what score would be needed for World Rugby to decide they had to replay the match? The problem with rugby is that at many breakdowns you can find a reason to...

The penalty count was 24-4 against Spain. Saw the match. Spain were undoubtedly poor under the pressure, but the refereeing was a disgrace and I'm sure it got in their heads. It's ludicrous that World Rugby would allow a Romanian to referee this match under the circumstances. I'm sure the...

It's great to see these developments. I think what World Rugby really needs to do now on the back of it is to expand the world cup to 24 teams. It provides for a fairer schedule (4 team pools avoids 4 or 5 day gaps between games), increases the number of knockout games (with a round of 16...

Yeah I think the large gaps between home games is perhaps the biggest flaw of Super Rugby. But I'd guess the choice of round 1 fixtures is well down the list of reasons why super rugby crowds are heading in the wrong direction. Most of the casual fans of rugby in Australia are predominantly...

Maybe a softer opening to the season is worth trying. Round 1 matches are not always the best spectacles, teams aren't in the groove of playing, combinations are new or rusty etc. You want the bigger, more popular matches (ones that attract a lot more casual fans) to be good spectacles and I...

Spain beat Romania 22-10 last night to put themselves in the box seat to qualify as Europe 1. All they have to do now is beat Germany and Belgium, and potentially they'll need to beat 1 with a bonus point. But given other results so far this year that should be pretty much a given. Assuming...

I think if SANZAAR wait too long Europe will integrate them into some expanded 6 Nations. That'd be more lucrative so if the US ever had two offers on the table they'd probably choose Europe. SANZAAR need to get in early.

Not a fan of the logo. If MLR is reasonably successful and the US Eagles improve that little bit more you'd think SANZAAR would be pretty quick to invite them into the Rugby Championship. I wonder if it would be feasible to have a 2 tier Rugby Championship with a promotion/relegation playoff...

Agreed. There should be a dispensation for players with a small number of tests to change allegiance. At least to change to their country of birth.