NH club rugby
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New competition from 2024: Asia Rugby Grand League. This could mean that we'll lose even more fringe SRP/club rugby players to professional clubs overseas.
Thursday marked a big step forward for rugby in Asia with the local federation announcing a new pan-Asia competition set to kick off in 2024.
Eight clubs from around Asia will compete in the first edition of the newly conceived Grand League, with the competition set to expand further in the years following.
While teams for the Grand League have not yet been confirmed, it’s anticipated that the likes of Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines could all take part in the new tournament.
“Council was briefed [at the latest general meeting] on the brand new Asia Rugby Grand League, a clubs franchise-oriented competition planned to see lights during quarter one and two in the year 2024,” Asia Rugby said in a statement.
“Eight targeted national federations have been identified and will commence constructive collaboration during the first working group meeting scheduled for Friday 3rd February 2023 in Singapore.
“The concept will be rolled out on phases running from the year 2024 to 2027.”
Asia Rugby president Qais Al Dhalai – who was also confirmed as the continent’s new World Rugby council member at the meeting – suggested on Twitter that the intention was to ostensibly mimic the developments that have occurred in South America, in part thanks to the introduction of the Super Liga Americana de Rugby.
The SLAR has seen franchises from across South America go to battle over the past three years, with two expansion sides from North America set to join the competition in 2023.
Pro rugby takes massive step forward in Asia with announcement of Grand League
Thursday marked a big step forward for rugby in Asia with the local federation announcing a new pan-Asia competition set to kick off in 2024.
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Watched the Saints/Quinns game this morning. Geez Quinns looked like they forgot to get out of bed, but was mightily impressed with Ramm on the wing for Saints, Finn Smith at 10 looks a good young un, and the * for thm impressed the hell out of me before he went off.
Quinns were as I said ,looking very very sluggish, though I thought Dombrant at 8 put in a bloody good shift I thought. Was well worth the watch. -
Not sure if this has been reported on here before or not
Will be hard getting competitive given they will have to scratch around to get a squad together, presumably of semi-professional players and starting with a bank balance of zero.
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Another head knock for Sexton, but I can't see anything about him being cited for the head clash,although comments about a soak tackle...man all these new tackle types.
I want less cards, but the inconsistency is ridiculous.
Didn't see it, but reading it would appear the other fella didn't go straight off despite clear evidence of a heavy collision.
Johnny Sexton damages cheekbone in match-ending collision with Jarrad Butler
"A head injury for Johnny Sexton perhaps taking the shine off it a little bit," the Viaplay commentator said. "You can see the scar on his left temple"
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@taniwharugby said in NH club rugby:
but the inconsistency is ridiculous.
Yep, considering some if the ones we saw for head clashes last year, guys who were going lower than that were getting carded.
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Summer rugby seem to be popular in South Africa
URC
Fans Turn Up in Record Numbers as URC Makes HistoryHistory was made as the overall attendance record for a single round in the United Rugby Championship was broken in Round 11 with over 123,000 fans packing into stadiums across both hemispheres.
The total of 123,307 surpassed the previous record of 121,177 as sell-out crowds and season-high attendances were reported in Belfast, Cardiff, Dublin, Durban, Edinburgh and Parma.Both the 1872 Cup game between Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors in Scotland and the Cell C Sharks v Vodacom Bulls fixture drew in crowds of 25,000 while games in Dublin (17,560), Belfast (16,672) and Cape Town (15,001) all drew attendances of over 15,000.
It caps an impressive two-week period for the United Rugby Championship with nearly a quarter of a million fans attending the Christmas and New Year derby games. Of those 16 fixtures there were three sell-outs and a total of nine season-high attendances.
Underscoring the impressive achievement, Martin Anayi, CEO, United Rugby Championship said: “To break the overall attendance record for a single round in the league’s history is yet another boost for the United Rugby Championship. This comes just a week after the Christmas attendance was broken and again shows the superb work our clubs are doing to grow the game.
“To put this achievement in context, the previous record included a 62,000 crowd from Judgement Day in Cardiff in 2018, so to break it without hosting a major double-header is fantastic. There was barely a spare seat in Ireland, the Cardiff Arms Park in Wales was full, Edinburgh did a terrific job to get so many into BT Murrayfield for the 1872 Cup game while Zebre also had their biggest crowd of the season.
“In South Africa, the concept of playing over Christmas and New Year was very new to their market but fans have embraced ‘summer rugby’ with almost 100,000 attending over two weekends. Right now fans will have lots of demands on how they spend their money and to see so many choosing to buy tickets to support their teams in the URC is humbling.”
R10 and R11 URC Attendances
30,003 DHL Stormers v Vodacom Bulls (R10)
25,813 Cell C Sharks v Vodacom Bulls (R11)
25,600 Munster v Leinster (R10)
25,137 Edinburgh v Glasgow Warriors (R11)
24,721 Cell C Sharks v Emirates Lions (R10)
17,560 Leinster v Connacht (R11)
16,672 Ulster v Munster (R11)
15,001 DHL Stormers v Emirates Lions (R11)
12,125 Cardiff Rugby v Ospreys (R11)
11,480 Ospreys v Scarlets (R10)
8,566 Scarlets v Dragons RFC (R11)
8,582 Dragons RFC v Cardiff Rugby (R10)
7,338 Glasgow Warriors v Edinburgh (R10)
6,041 Connacht v Ulster (R10)
3,683 Benetton v Zebre Parma (R10)
2,433 Zebre Parma v Benetton (R11)
Across Round 10 and 11 of the United Rugby Championship close to a quarter of a million fans attended 16 games where the average attendance was 12,500. South Africa had the highest attendance by country with 95,538 fans attending the four derby matches in Cape Town and Durban.
This was followed by 65,873 in Ireland with one game apiece played in Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Limerick while in Wales there were two sell-outs and a season high attendance (Ospreys) across Cardiff, Llanelli, Newport and Swansea among the 40,753 attendees.
Top Three League Attendances for a Single Round
123,307 R11 Dec 30-Jan 1, 2022/23
121,117 R21 Apr 28, 2018
117,448 R10 Dec 23-26, 2022
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Obviously, that is a bit of a puff PR piece put out by the league's own PR team. Adding 4 extra teams to a league results in a new aggregate round record, surprise. Two rounds of derby matches, so expect them to be the highest.
The previous month, socials and reddit etc full of threads by NH viewers wondering why South African stadiums are so empty (because they're so big, mostly ...)
There are some good numbers there though, concede that. Although historically, that is quite unimpressive for a Stormers/Bulls or Western Province / Northern Transvaal clash. Doing a quick google, I see that max crowd of 30k is actually about the same as the Stormers average crowd in
20182017 over the whole season (which was the first historic article that came up).29/06/2018 — Surprisingly, the team with the highest average attendance in world rugby is the Stormers, who had 28,700 through the gates on average last year.
Looks like summer rugby will have the cricket conundrum. Absolutely terrible crowds in December pre-xmas etc. Then bumper crowds of Boxing Day to New Year period.
But, as rugby seems to be declining everywhere. I won't judge too harshly on not matching historical numbers.
Edit: This would show that Stormers are currently averaging half their 2017 numbers.
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@Rapido take into account that change from Newlands to Cape Town Stadium. Traditional Newlands draw big crowds during the season with a lot of schools rugby around Newlands at Bishops/Sacs/Wynberg & Rondebosch. Visiting school rugby supporters from Paarl and Stellenbosch would stay after the schools matches (some draw up to 10,000) to support WP or Stormers.
To get 30,000 in December is outstanding due mainly because of the traditional rivalry and holidays.
The attendances in 2017 dropped dead in the years following.
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Harlequins Nick Evans being added to the England coaching team for the 6 Nations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64190500
Appears as if he’s well respected as an attack coach. Always thought he was insightful and spoke well as a pundit.
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@Nepia said in NH club rugby:
@taniwharugby said in NH club rugby:
but the inconsistency is ridiculous.
Yep, considering some if the ones we saw for head clashes last year, guys who were going lower than that were getting carded.
<Irish Pundit Impression>
The force in the collision is all coming from the thug carrying the ball. Sexton absorbs it and carefully guides the attacker to ground while giving up territory. Text book example how to defend.
</Irish Pundit Impression> -
This post is deleted!
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Another ugly hit by Owen Farrell yet again. I doubt he'll get much of a ban though.
Owen Farrell's poor tackle technique is a big problem for Steve Borthwick
Farrell's indiscretion is the latest in a litany of dangerous tackles that have accumulated seven weeks' worth of bans in total
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Aaron Cruden did get a deserved red. Why don't players learn?
Rugby: Ex-All Black Aaron Cruden scores, then red-carded in Japan's League One | Newshub
The first-five was given his marching orders for a cleanout on South Africa's Faf de Klerk.
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@taniwharugby said in NH club rugby:
@Dan543 accidental knock, or foul play as they like to call it, they can go back, and do so regularly, or was that one of the rule tweaks?
Not sure, that's all I heard, was ref asking if it was same phase, so wondered if there a tweek or just in that comp.
Wasps confirm return for 2023/24 season
2022–23 United Rugby Championship - Wikipedia
