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I'd echo what Omar said about the lack of support for Rugby in Japan. The teams there are little more than the playthings of the big Japanese companies. My girlfriend worked for one of them for many years, up to last year, and employees would be "encouraged" to attend the games and give their...

Personally I don't see anything wrong with the quality of Super Rugby. In terms of the competition itself it might suffer due to the format compared to NH rugby. But there are so few teams in Super Rugby that it's hard to change it without introducing more teams. Super Rugby is currently filling the role of a domestic...

The current NH club Rugby season started back in September 2013 so it's still the same season this thread was created for.

There was mention of a Challenge Cup equivalent but no details were released on it. The fact that there's mention of a third tier developmental cup would suggests to me that the Romania, Spanish and other non 6Ns clubs will be excluded and pushed down a level. Nothing has been released about...

Wouldn't normally expect it to be given as a red in the NH either to be fair.

Munster's really was an emphatic win. Apart from a short flurry after Gear's try Toulouse were 2nd best. I didn't see the Clermont game but it seems they really had to hang on in the end as Leicester attempted to come back. Currently watching Ulster v Sarries (Half time 9-5 to Ulster). It...

Oh I knew about the u20s stuff from reading the threads about both the u20s and how useless Nuci was. I was just wondering if at some point he did something to warrant being handed the reigns for a very important part of player development in Aus. Hopefully if he doesn't perform he's shown the...

Funnily enough there just happens to be an article this week on the BBC about Southampton's financial position and how they owe £27 million in transfer fees. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26813363

For this weekend's HEC games I'm expecting the 3 and 1 rule to apply. I just hope that Leinster can be the 1. Looking at how strong the line up is for the Quarter Finals you could make a case for any of the away teams winning. It's the strongest QF line-up in a very long time. There's no game...

I really did hope that Nuci thing was an April Fool's. Ireland have got a lot right since professionalism but I'm not sure due diligence was carried out on this one. All they had to do was search for him on here and it should have been enough to make them think twice. Some Irish fans are...

I wouldn't expect Australian Rugby to end up like the A-League as you produce much higher quality Rugby players than you do footballers. A better point of reference in football would be South America where a high proportion of the world's top players are developed, spend much of their career in...

Also forgot to mention that in football agents make more money when a transfer fee is involved so it's in their interests to engineer a move for players on their books when the opportunity arises. They can't make every player move but they can sway a player who's not sure what to do. In Rugby...

The type of transfer system you're talking about in European football relates to players who are still under contract. Players at the end of their contract are free transfers and no fee is involved (with few exceptions). Also players are allowed to open negotiations prior when they have less...

In the biggest market for soccer (Europe) due to the Bosman ruling there's no transfer fee involved when players are off contract. The only exception I know of is in England & Scotland where players moving domestically can have a tribunal set a fee. Also players can sign a pre-agreement with...

Wasn't sure exactly where to put this one, but this thread seems as good a place as any. A club has chastised it's fans for hurling soccer style abuse at a referee and told them to either behave or go find another club to support. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-union/26767000 It's good...

Mike Brown was, IMO deservedly, named player of this years 6Ns. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-union/26685700

Interesting article about sponsors expressing an interest in sponsoring a team based in Aberdeen. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/rugby-union/26616760 Would be interested to hear what the Scottish posters no here think of the idea. Personally I've made no secret of the fact that I think...

Yeah the BBC were full of back handed compliments to Ireland and talk of how close England came. Apparently the party line for the BBC is that the Irish are an aging team. Can only imagine what the red top rags are saying today. Thankfully though the vast majority of the English fans are just...

Was a nerve wrecking game that one. Especially as I had my sister and her family over for her birthday. Place was full and one of her daughters just kept saying I can't watch this and made everyone else more nervous haha. It's very rare that we beat France in Paris and even rarer to beat them...

Don't want to see Scotland get completely humiliated but if they do it would be a fitting end to Johnson's reign.