Northern Hemishpere Rugby 2013

[Highlander35]

Regardless of the politics of the Saracens, Kelly Brown sounds hungry. Very very Hungry.

Sarries by 6.

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[qwerty51]

Saracens for me. Toulon have one too many oldies.

 

[Bairdy]

Absolutely can't stand Farrell and Ashton, but would rather see the Sarries get one over the manufactured, Galacticos-esque team of European Rugby.

 

[qwerty51]

So Bryan Habana apologised on twitter for his dive, well that doesn't change anything the guy is still a dick. He was a serial diver in Super Rugby and Tests too.

 

[Bardon]

Yeah the dive was a bit silly, maybe Habana will be looking to the WWE once he retired. I thought Rolland handled it well.

Don't want more of that creeping into the game. I'm sure it will eventually, but hopefully it's progress can be slowed for now.

 

[qwerty51]

I'd like to see referees take affirmative action, even though Farrell did check him the penalty should be reversed Saracens way.

 

[KevinO]

Saracens for me. Toulon have one too many oldies.

Too many oldies where fairly impressive.

Sad to see the Heineken Cup go and the death of Scottish and Walsh clubs being any bit competitive in the future.

 

[Gnostic]

I'd like to see referees take affirmative action, even though Farrell did check him the penalty should be reversed Saracens way.

I'd go further, it is unsportsman like behaviour and I would like to see a yellow card for it. Off field if it is judged after the event. It is just cheating of a different kind, it shows the ethics of the individual.

 

[JSRF10]

Absolutely can't stand Farrell and Ashton, but would rather see the Sarries get one over the manufactured, Galacticos-esque team of European Rugby.

Saracens are as plastic and manufactured as they come, at least Toulon have a proud history or rugby passion their town. Saracens are soulless in every sense

 

[boyo]

Danny Cipriani eager to settle back into the England routine

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...-routine-new-zealand-sale?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

 

[Henry]

Giteau and Mitchell combined pretty well for Toulons first try against Saracens. (1min 15 in the highlights)

It's good to the them playing well in Europe.

 

[qwerty51]

So I see Engand have started complaining about the timing of this tour already. I do not understand this at all.

Both England and France have their domestic competition finals this week and are using that as an excuse. Well it's not like Australia and New Zealand have their players available to them this weekend either! In fact I'd say we're the ones disadvantage since ALL our Test players are still in competition this weekend and have the backup to a Test next week. Only some of their players are involved with a final the rest are already in the country training and preparing.

 

[JSRF10]

Some interesting rumours coming out about Stuart Hoggs dropping from the Glasgow team and his impending release from his contract. Apparently there was some major betting on him scoring two tries against Zebre, which he achieved in 20 minutes leading to numerous bombed opportunities. Will be interesting to see if we hear anything publicly going forward, if its true he should be looking at a long ban. We can't be going down crickets road of letting ourselves be open to spot fixing.

 

[qwerty51]

That makes this even funnier

That said wouldn't Zebre be the ones to spot fix that market if true? I'm all aboard players betting on themselves to score.

 

[JSRF10]

That said wouldn't Zebre be the ones to spot fix that market if true? I'm all aboard players betting on themselves to score.

If ever you're guaranteed to score tries as a pacy outside back it would be against one of the worst teams in the league with little to play for, would make sense if the money went on that game.

Can't say I'd be too happy with players betting on themselves, can't be great for team morale and getting involved in gambling is a slippery slope. First it might be to score a couple of tries then a few bad decisions later it could be attempting to fix a major international

 

[qwerty51]

I'd have no problem with players betting on their team to win through a transparent process.

 

[Highlander35]

Meh. If Hogg leaves it's because he's O'Connor 2.0.

But if it's to Ulster, it won't be this year. Glasgow want a 6 figure payout, what's require to trigger a release clause in his contract. And there's no way Ulster will pay that. Sarries are apparently interested at the price though, as are a couple of French sides.

He's also being left out of the side, because, well, he's been shocking. Combination of injury, national selection, suspension and bad form has impacted him.

Townsend makes selections on the cumulative group of form, combinations and experience. That's why Murchie's played fullback. That's why Harley's playing blindside flanker instead of Strauss with Nakarawa at 8. Why he played Bennett and Dunbar instead of a 2nd five-eighth.

Anyway, Go Glasgow.

 

[Bardon]

Steffon Armitage has won the ERC player of the year. It's very well deserved. The guys played really well since joining Toulon but he's been on another level this year. Don't think there's much more he can do to be selected for England other than move back to an AP club.

 

[Bardon]

Robbie Henshaw is out of Ireland's tour to Argentina with a hand injury which is a real pity. He's had a pretty good season and this tour would have been excellent for his development at test level.

 

[Bardon]

Here are the teams for tonights Pro12 final:

Leinster: Rob Kearney, Fergus McFadden, Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy, Zane Kirchner, Jimmy Gopperth, Eoin Reddan, Cian Healy, Sean Cronin, Mike Ross, Devin Toner, Mike McCarthy, Rhys Ruddock, Shane Jennings, Jamie Heaslip.
Replacements: Aaron Dundon, Jack McGrath, Martin Moore, Leo Cullen, Sean O'Brien, Isaac Boss, Ian Madigan, Darragh Fanning.

Glasgow Warriors: Peter Murchie, Sean Maitland, Alex Dunbar, Peter Horne, Tommy Seymour, Finn Russell, Chris Cusiter, Gordon Reid, Dougie Hall, Jon Welsh, Jonny Gray, Al Kellock (capt), Rob Harley, Chris Fusaro, Josh Strauss.
Replacements: Pat MacArthur, Ryan Grant, Moray Low, Tim Swinson, Leone Nakarawa, Niko Matawalu, Ruaridh Jackson, Sean Lamont.

Should be a pretty good game. Leinster will want to give BOD and Leo a good send off. But Glasgow will be looking to spoil the party. It's great to see Glasgow doing well with so many Scots in their squad.

Hopefully Edinburgh take a leaf out of their book and more Scottish qualified players can play regularly in the Pro12 in the coming years.