NH club rugby
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The TVNZ tv guide doesn't name the exact matches (yet), but it looks like Leinster v Wasps will be the first Champions Cup game to be broadcast by Duke live (Sat 13/10, 7.40am NZT). There's a replay at 2.00pm.
The second live game (Sun 14/10, 5.25.am NZT) seems to be either Scarlets v Racing92 or Ulster v Leicester Tigers.
There is a replacy scheduled for Monday 15/10, 12.10pm
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Interesting article recently on the rugby paper about sponsorships deals up in Europe. A lot of them have been bungled including the Heineken Cup > Not the Heineken Cup > the Not the Heineken Cup sponsored by Heineken > The Heineken Cup (again).
Six Nations cash will drop to just £6m as rugby's sponsorship market shows signs of decline
News, features and match reports from The Rugby Paper, the UK-based newspaper which specialises in rugby union at all levels ready for your viewing every Sunday of the year.
Six NATIONS:
The Six Nations are resigned to taking another hefty hit this season over the depreciating value of their title sponsorship.
Last year the Unions running the tournament rejected an offer of £14m-a-year from RBS after Scotland and Wales objected, claiming the event was worth more. Within months the value had shrivelled by a third to £9m. Now it has fallen again, by as much as a third.
Tournament organisers are ready to accept £6m for this year’s 15 matches.
Only 18 months ago they believed their title sponsorship was worth £100m over six years, the equivalent of £16.6m a year.
Despite talking to more than 100 multi-national companies none was prepared to come anywhere near the RBS £14m. It triggered a chain of events which ended with the resignation of the man who had helped build the tournament into a roaring commercial success, chief executive John Feehan.
heineken cup:
The Six Nations are far from alone in feeling the chill wind of a volatile market. The Champions’ Cup has also suffered from a spectacular devaluation in title sponsorship.
When the clubs wrenched control of the Heineken Cup from the national Unions in 2014, the Dutch beer company was paying £10m-a-year.
The English and French clubs, backed by the four Welsh regions, believed their competition had been under-sold. They wanted six elite sponsors paying £3m each but failed to raise anywhere near the projected £18m.
Heineken stayed in at £3m as one of the few. Now that the organisers, EPCR, have changed their policy, Heineken have been restored as sole sponsors but at £5.5m a year almost half the price they had been paying four years ago.
PREMIERSHIP:
The English domestic game has also suffered. Aviva extended their sponsorship of the Premiership last year at a reduced rate before being succeeded by another insurance company, Gallagher.
rest of the article ......
Paul Vaughan, chief executive of Rugby World Cup 2015 and now senior consultant of global sports media company, ISG Live, has unrivalled experience of the rugby market.
He is not surprised at the decline. “This has nothing to do with Brexit,’’ he said. “The world has changed. The market has changed in a big way accordingly and it probably affects rugby more than any other sports.
“The objectives of sponsors are not necessarily about brand-awareness and exposure as they used to be. Most brands want more connectivity with their consumers.
“The Champions’ Cup was doing very well with its title sponsor when it decided to go down the Champions’ League football route of six-to-eight elite sponsors.
“The football competition delivers massive media coverage on a pan-European scale with advertising guarantees around it. It is very difficult to sell a (rugby) competition which has a limited geography.’’
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@rapido Sounds like a number of people with good commercial acumen strike again!
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@antipodean said in NH club rugby:
@rapido Sounds like a number of people with good commercial acumen strike again!
The Fonterra of Rugby!
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@rapido said in NH club rugby:
Hopefully none of this 'talent' is making its way through the ranks to eventually end up on the IRB boards.
IRB/WR still manage to get good sponsorship for RWC.
John Feehan - who used to manage Six Nations and 4 Lions Tours, and Derek McGrath who used to run the ECR before the Eng/Fra/Wal takeover and moving it from Dublin to Neufchatel in Switzerland, must be sitting there with "Not so easy after all, is it lads?" expressions.
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Those are the sort of guys I'd be happy to see progress through the union paths.
Fortunately Ian Ritchie jumped ship from RFU CEO to EPR CEO, so he is now working against the unions on behalf of English clubs. So he won't be heading down the WR career path. Although TBH I don't know if he was actually a good administrator/executive or not, but he was a hopeless 'diplomat'.
I read on an English rugby message board a rumour that his replacement, current RFU CEO Steve Brown, when he was in his previous position of CFO forgot to account for the fact that Twickenham doesn't host 3 November internationals in a RWC year. This combined with the East Stand cost overruns is the reason for their cashflow crunch at the RFU and all the grassroots staff layoffs.
I'm not sure if this is true or no, but is funny. I think I read it on the Wasps fan site when I was looking up Wasps after they missed their bond conditions earlier this year.
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@antipodean said in NH club rugby:
Connor Murray's secretive neck injury getting more press. Rumours he's off to join mates in France after the RWC.
On the other hand, he may have signed a new 3-year contract last month with Munster/Ireland to play there until at least June 2022.
Who knows...
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The timecode on this is important. Go to 1:34:14 and watch from there.
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James Lowe's Leinster thrashing Brad and Lima's Wasps.
Sopoaga is a pretty average 10 these days, hasn't offered a lot and got himself a YC for a deliberate slap down.
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Leinster were always going to thrash them, they're the best club team in Europe, maybe the world. Wasps are in a rut this season. With soapy, and his honest 'I'm here for the mega bucks for my family', you wonder if the fire isn't there any more. So often it's mental intensity and attitude that make the greatest teams and players, and he showed that living the dream - play making for the ABs in SA. But once it was about the money, that last few percent must go and such players go back into the pack. Not all, but a lot do, I reckon.
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@machpants said in NH club rugby:
Leinster were always going to thrash them, they're the best club team in Europe, maybe the world. Wasps are in a rut this season. With soapy, and his honest 'I'm here for the mega bucks for my family', you wonder if the fire isn't there any more. So often it's mental intensity and attitude that make the greatest teams and players, and he showed that living the dream - play making for the ABs in SA. But once it was about the money, that last few percent must go and such players go back into the pack. Not all, but a lot do, I reckon.
Sopoaga was great about 3 years back...he was pretty poor in his last season in NZ. Wasps signed an expensive lemon I'd say.
Lowe is going great guns for Leinster.
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I thought Hika Elliott was about to retire after Oyonnax couldn't retain him after they were relegated from the Top 14 to the Pro D2. He was without a contract for a while, spent quite some time back in the Bay (even playing club rugby), but now he's signed with Pro D2 club Nevers (injury replacement).
Nevers sit 2nd on the Pro D2 table, one point behind competition leaders Mont-de-Marsan (just beaten by Nevers on Thursday).
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@billy-tell said in NH club rugby:
James Lowe's Leinster thrashing Brad and Lima's Wasps.
Eh, that would be Leo Cullen’s Leinster - make no mistake.
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@billy-tell said in NH club rugby:
James Lowe's Leinster thrashing Brad and Lima's Wasps.
Sopoaga is a pretty average 10 these days, hasn't offered a lot and got himself a YC for a deliberate slap down.
Presumably a slap down which went forwards.
Slapping down itself is legal.
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@chester-draws said in NH club rugby:
@billy-tell said in NH club rugby:
James Lowe's Leinster thrashing Brad and Lima's Wasps.
Sopoaga is a pretty average 10 these days, hasn't offered a lot and got himself a YC for a deliberate slap down.
Presumably a slap down which went forwards.
Slapping down itself is legal.
[semantics]deliberate knock on[\semantics]
