Rugby Union

[honestly united]

51 minutes ago, come on shire said:

Very fair point but I think Blair Cowan's international days are past him.  He was getting a game when we were competing with Italy to avoid the wooden spoon.

The other guys you have mentioned have far more quality than the Cowan, Brown, Beattie etc days. 

Interestingly though, he's been getting some game time for Saracens recently.  He's been loaned out to them from London Irish.  I don't know if it's to cover England call ups or maybe he hasn't been getting game time for Irish?

Im sure he has played for Irish most weeks, and probably been there player of the season. I think its more a case of Irish are now resigned to going down, Sarries have a few injuries and international call ups so win win for everyone. Irish save some cash, Sarries get cover, and Cowan gets to showcase his talents at the top of the table rather than the bottom, as I am assuming he will be moving on from Irish at the end of the season.

[peasy23]

Somebody better arrange to have Tom English sectioned, he's written another positive Scottish rugby article, and to be fair it's a good one.

Six Nations: Scotland centre Peter Horne leaves setbacks behind to 'cherish every opportunity' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/43289114

[Jaggy Snake]

11 hours ago, peasy23 said:

Somebody better arrange to have Tom English sectioned, he's written another positive Scottish rugby article, and to be fair it's a good one.

Six Nations: Scotland centre Peter Horne leaves setbacks behind to 'cherish every opportunity' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/43289114

I'm sure he'll revert to type by Saturday for the Ireland game.

[honestly united]

to be fair, a lot of the time Tom English writes what everyone else is feeling. It must be really frustrating  as a journalistic and as a fan) to have your hopes built up every summer tour and autumn international (and he has written some positive columns over the years about how we have turned the corner etc), only to have them utterly crushed come the first 6 Nations game.

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by honestly united

[Jaggy Snake]

I don’t actually have a problem with the vast majority of Tom English’s views until, Scotland play Ireland, or sometimes when Glasgow play an Irish side in the Pro 14, in which case I think he loses all perspective.

[come on shire]

20 hours ago, honestly united said:

Im sure he has played for Irish most weeks, and probably been there player of the season. I think its more a case of Irish are now resigned to going down, Sarries have a few injuries and international call ups so win win for everyone. Irish save some cash, Sarries get cover, and Cowan gets to showcase his talents at the top of the table rather than the bottom, as I am assuming he will be moving on from Irish at the end of the season.

I think moving on would be a sensible decision for him.  I think he'll just be a squad player should he go to Sarries (a bit like Brown I think).  However, it will be a lot better than going for away trips to Yorkshire Carnegie, Bedford Blues, Jersey etc. 

[ddfg]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/little-known-pay-tv-channel-14157733.amp

[honestly united]

Sounds like its more money for Pro14, but less access to games. Doesn't mention Alba which I assume is a separate contract to BBC Wales?

[come on shire]

19 minutes ago, honestly united said:

Sounds like its more money for Pro14, but less access to games. Doesn't mention Alba which I assume is a separate contract to BBC Wales?

Tweet from Hugh Dan Maclennan confirms that Alba's losing it too. We're just not as important as the fans in England or France it seems

Edited March 6, 2018 by come on shire

[topcat(The most tip top)]

formed by Irish businessman Michael O’Rourke, a joint CEO and part owner of Setanta Sports,

Anyone else getting deja vu

[ddfg]

formed by Irish businessman Michael O’Rourke, a joint CEO and part owner of Setanta Sports,

Anyone else getting deja vu

About Setanta going belly up or the Pro14 having its offices in Ireland, being sponsored by an Irish company, playing the final two years in a row in Ireland and now agreeing a tv deal with a company headed up by an Irishman.

[Salvo Montalbano]

Tweet from Hugh Dan Maclennan confirms that Alba's losing it too. We're just not as important as the fans in England or France it seems [emoji20]

As much as I dislike losing BBC Alba's coverage, I don't get your last sentence. The English and French rugby tournaments are both shown on Pay-TV.

[H Wragg]

As much as I dislike losing BBC Alba's coverage, I don't get your last sentence. The English and French rugby tournaments are both shown on Pay-TV.

The English one is at least on ‘mainstream’ PPV in UK terms.

[HoBNob]

On 26/02/2018 at 11:46, Savage Henry said:

I genuinely don't remember MacLeod, Kerr,  or Douglas.

 

On 27/02/2018 at 19:36, ajwffc said:

 

 

On 05/03/2018 at 23:18, peasy23 said:

Somebody better arrange to have Tom English sectioned, he's written another positive Scottish rugby article, and to be fair it's a good one.

Six Nations: Scotland centre Peter Horne leaves setbacks behind to 'cherish every opportunity' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/43289114

Some balls on the bloke to describe a ruptured ACL as a little setback. 

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

6 hours ago, honestly united said:

Sounds like its more money for Pro14, but less access to games. Doesn't mention Alba which I assume is a separate contract to BBC Wales?

I'm not sure about the more money thing. They probably got more but really it looks like they fucked themselves in the way it was done.

They sold the Irish rights before the UK rights rather than at the same time which took Sky Sports out of the running.  Once Sky were outbid by Eir Sport they didn't bid for the UK rights although PRO 14 is pretty far down Sky's priority list it took a very large potential buyer completely out of the running.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/full-story-behind-bbc-losing-14376276

https://www.the42.ie/eir-sport-pro14-tv-rights-3793899-Jan2018/

Those articles value the PRO 12/14 TV deal at around £12m + whatever SA bring to the table.

The BBC were paying £4.5m for their UK rights which they claim they substantially increased. So Premier Sport must have bid well in excess of that since there is going to be lost value on not being on free to air tv, even if it was with non-English commentary. 

[Bully Wee Villa]

Seems like an exercise in nose-cutting to spite face. Moving to a channel that has fewer viewers than a Lost Prophets reunion tour can't be good for the promotion of the sport.

[GAD]

5 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Seems like an exercise in nose-cutting to spite face. Moving to a channel that has fewer viewers than a Lost Prophets reunion tour can't be good for the promotion of the sport.

Yeah, I agree. To be honest, I'll probably ditch Sky sports now and go with BT and Premier as I'm with Virgin, but I expect I will be in a massive minority.

For Glasgow at least it seems a really bad move. With such a small ground I think the fact games were pretty easily accessible on tv through BBC and to a lesser extent Sky was actually pretty important in growing the fanbase, especially amongst people who are traditionally football fans. I just can't see many of these folk paying the extra tenner a month to carry on watching. 

[Mark Connolly]

Premier Sports surely won't have the capacity to show as many live games as the previous deal either. On a good night, you could have had games on BBC NI, BBC Wales, Alba and Sky.

I would hope they could come to a similar arrangement to the English League and have a FTA highlights package available, but I won't hold my breath.

[same_ol_g35]

Scotland team for Ireland. Only one change to the XV Seymour misses out and is replaced by Kinghorn.

[come on shire]

A Pro14 statement on their website said that discussions were still continuing and hadn't yet been finalised.  It's BBC English language channels that are getting cut aswell as BBC Alba.  The free-to-air Welsh language channel S4C (BBC owned I believe) may still be ok.  Even in ROI they're getting it taken off TG4 (we don't get that anyway as it's an Irish channel) and put onto Eir Sport which is PPV.  Also, when it goes to Premier Sports we may still see cover age on Freesports as that's a sister channel to Premier Sports I believe. 

In my last post I was possibly a bit flippant as I hadn't yet read the Pro14's statement.  It's disappointing but maybe not a complete disaster.  Yet.

I think we'll get Premier Sports as we all watch the Pro14 in the house.  They may have additional games via the red button or stagger kick-off times maybe?  My dad watches rugby league and watches the Super League on Sky.  Since Premier Sports shows the NRL in Oz this may be an additional incentive lol. 

15 hours ago, ddfg said:

playing the final two years in a row in Ireland

 

 

 The Pro14's HQ is in Dublin so having the last ever Pro12 final and the first ever Pro14 final was always a strong possibility imho.

10 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Seems like an exercise in nose-cutting to spite face. Moving to a channel that has fewer viewers than a Lost Prophets reunion tour can't be good for the promotion of the sport.

Well, we'll have to wait and see on that comparison lol.  Lostprophets have reformed with a new singer (Thursday's Geoff Rickley) and call themselves No Devotion.