NH club rugby
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@Machpants said in NH club rugby:
Watching Bristol Vs Bath. Fuck me Semi, Charles P, Steven L, are on a different planet. Even Afoa was great
Heard that. I’ve got a bad case of Bristol Blues.
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@bones said in NH club rugby:
@sparky I'm confused. Is this a different comp?
No that's from January, and those were a trio of warm up games Saracens paid for. This the first week of the Championship.
What an excellent result, the long term benefactor of the Pirates has a good rant at RFU, too. This was from just before the match
It was Pirran's day on the 5th Oggy Oggy Oggy Oii Oii Oii!
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@stargazer said in NH club rugby:
Not sure where else to post this:
Oh FFS.
Nothing against the Jaguares, great team, but the Pro 14 looks hell bent on re-enacting the mistakes made by Super Rugby. Limitless expansion, more and more countries involved, fewer local derbies, rising supporter apathy, you know the rest.
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@gibbonrib said in NH club rugby:
@stargazer said in NH club rugby:
Not sure where else to post this:
Oh FFS.
Nothing against the Jaguares, great team, but the Pro 14 looks hell bent on re-enacting the mistakes made by Super Rugby. Limitless expansion, more and more countries involved, fewer local derbies, rising supporter apathy, you know the rest.
100%
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@gibbonrib Whats your thoughts on it, if any?
I think there may be similarities to the transition of NPC to Super. I think we were all once hardcore NPC fans & that has now seriously diminished. However, if super rugby was to die & NPC players had the All Blacks back in it, it would take less than 30 seconds for all of us to revert back to being passionate NPC fans.
Is there parallels here with Wales?
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@majorrage
I reckon there are some parallels, but some differences too. (Disclaimer: I know SFA about NZ provincial rugby, and I'm pretty out of touch with Welsh club rugby having left a long time ago).Welsh club rugby used to be super intense, South Wales is a ridiculously small place, you can drive 100km from Newport to Llanelli, and you'd go through or right past Cardiff, Caerphilly, Pontypridd, Bridgend, Neath, Swansea. The top 50 clubs in Wales in the amateur era were probably all in the southern 50km of the country. So loads of very strong rivalries squashed into a very small area.
But the introduction of "regional" rugby burned a lot of people. Partly because it was handled really badly, and partly because the rugby landscape in Wales was totally unsuited to lumping areas together. (Ireland was incredibly lucky to have the traditional 4 provinces ready made). So I think a lot of the old fans have been lost to the game - people who followed Bridgend, Pontypool, Newport etc. If somehow we went back to a 10 or 12 team league I don't think the support would be there any more for those clubs. In contrast there are probably more people than even who support Wales first and foremost and don't really follow a club below that.