European Club Rugby
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A decent weekend of European Cup rugby up here, Quins game was v good this evening. Surprising to see the English clubs do so well, the concentration of talent this season as a result of two clubs going bust may have something to do with it.
Apart from the quality of the rugby though, another thing stands out and that’s just how low the attendances are. Scary really. I blame the English clubs for fucking up the Heineken Cup in the first place but I think there is something more worrying going on. After 8 rounds of the Premiership the attendances are way way down on last season. Could be the World Cup causing fatigue but I doubt it, could be cost of living issues, could be price gouging by the likes of Bath and Quins, but the fact that Northampton vs Leicester wasn’t sold out a few weeks ago is a huge concern
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@Dodge For comparison, if possible, could you post a few of those crowd numbers?
I found these crowd numbers of the first round of the Japan League One competition (Division 1). I have no idea whether those crowd numbers are high, or not, as I have no idea what the numbers were in previous years.
Kobelco Kobe Steelers 80-15 Mie Honda Heat (11,419 spectators)
Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars 30-29 Hanazono Kintetsu Liners (7,852)
Brave Lupus Tokyo 43-30 Shizuoka Blue Revs (11,553)
Toyota Verblitz 15-8 Black Rams Tokyo (9,059)
Kubota Spears Tokyo-Bay 26-52 Tokyo Sungoliath (18,110)
Saitama Wild Knights 53-12 Yokohama Canon Eagles (12,582)
What would be interesting to know is whether the lower crowd numbers in the Premiership are offset by increased tv viewership, similar to what happened in Super Rugby. With the high cost of living and expensive ticket prices, watching from home is attractive financially as you can watch more games for less. -
Not just Bath and Quins. Dearest available ticket for Exeter v Munster is £70. Plus of course we are top of the expensive pasty table.
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🏴 Leicester 19,439
☘️ Munster 18,908
🇫🇷 Toulouse 18,750
🇫🇷 La Rochelle 16,700
🇿🇦 Bulls 15,157
🏴 Bath 13,918
🇫🇷 Toulon 13,033
🏴 Bristol 12,446
🇫🇷 Racing 9,385
🏴 Glasgow 6,579
🏴 Sale 6,432
☘️ Connacht 6,024Bath had the closest to capacity crowd I think. I saw a stat about Ospreys, apparently only c3,500 turned up, they used to get >10k at home in Europe.
Those numbers are in the same ball park as English League 1 football - the third tier. Can’t speak to tv viewers but my guess is that there are fewer TNT subscribers than there were Sky subscribers when they used to cover the rugby.
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@Dodge , I caught a couple of those games on weekend, Sarries ,Quins and I think Tigers playing their matches, I have to say do enjoy the comp up there (mind you I pushed to not enjoy any rugby) and even Mrs who saw bits was commenting that crowds looked bloody good.
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@Machpants said in NH club rugby:
Arundel turns down larger offer first ever dual contact from RFU/Bath, and stays with racing. For less money and no option of an England shirt. A bit of a slap in the face
Says a lot about the current England environment I feel.
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Big Lesters first start (on the right wing) for Toulon v Northampton Saints, live Sky Sport 1 Saturday morning at 8:55am.
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I watched the Stormers-La Rochelle game from Cape Town over the weekend. The main (controversial) point in this match was the influence of the home TV producer who showed head-on-head contact on the big screen which caught the attention of the ref. While the correct decision was eventually made you can clearly hear Christophe Ridley say everything had been checked off by the TMO prior to this. This resulted in a La Rochelle try being disallowed, and eventually the Stormers scored late with a clutch sideline conversion from Libbok to win the game with time up.
WR needs to sort out the correct procedure ASAP as it's not the first time this has happened in SA. I've no idea why the TMO wasn't shown the video footage first.
I can only imagine what ROG had to say post-game.
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Was at the Quins game yesterday, I have never been in a stadium live and seen a team play as well as Toulouse did. They were magnificent. Huge power, work off the ball, pace, offloads, just absolutely class. Their fans were a joy too. Quins were good in patches but just couldn’t keep up with the intensity. Cadan Murley looked injured in the warm up, can’t believe he got through as long as he did and was on crutches at the end - weird decision by the Quins coaching staff to play him. Oh and Ramos is a dick
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@Bones said in NH club rugby:
@Dodge said in NH club rugby:
Oh and Ramos is a dick
Is that because he attacked Smith? Because if so, I'm surprised it took this long and I like him even more now.
If I was Smith I’d head to Super Rugby
He’d excel
Once games turn Test like, he becomes anonymous
