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18 minutes ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

What is the consensus on here regarding international selection of players who play club rugby outside of their domestic league?

Have seen a bit of debate around it and the All Blacks’ refusal to change tact on it and being happy to give up on players who’ve moved abroad. Seems mental to me to potentially exclude your best players, but I guess they can get away with it due to their depth more than most. I hadn’t thought about it much as SRU allow it, but I’d be a seething mess if Russell for example was blacklisted because he’d gone onto a higher level. 

The All Blacks can get away with such a policy. They are likely doing it to protect their domestic game and it also ensures that their players are not travelling thousands of miles for training camps. 
 

Scotland most definitely cannot. How many of our top players down the years have played “abroad” (including England)?

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5 hours ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

What is the consensus on here regarding international selection of players who play club rugby outside of their domestic league?

Have seen a bit of debate around it and the All Blacks’ refusal to change tact on it and being happy to give up on players who’ve moved abroad. Seems mental to me to potentially exclude your best players, but I guess they can get away with it due to their depth more than most. I hadn’t thought about it much as SRU allow it, but I’d be a seething mess if Russell for example was blacklisted because he’d gone onto a higher level. 

Ireland do it too and you can see the benefits in how familiar their players are with one another in transitioning from domestic to international games but I guess this probably wouldn’t work as well were Leinster not as absolutely stacked as they are.

Would be absolutely madness for Scotland (or any country) with only two pro teams to go down this route.
 

On the positive side, I don’t think going to England from the URC is in any way the step up in level it perhaps has been in the past (though France probably still is though also comes with its own challenges).

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5 hours ago, Honest_Man#1 said:

What is the consensus on here regarding international selection of players who play club rugby outside of their domestic league?

Have seen a bit of debate around it and the All Blacks’ refusal to change tact on it and being happy to give up on players who’ve moved abroad. Seems mental to me to potentially exclude your best players, but I guess they can get away with it due to their depth more than most. I hadn’t thought about it much as SRU allow it, but I’d be a seething mess if Russell for example was blacklisted because he’d gone onto a higher level. 

Rugby is the 2nd sport in Scotland which wouldn't be an issue but we're not a big country so we need to be open to our national players wanting to play outside Scotland or the URC. 

Other countries probably choose to have an internal selection as it makes it easier for coaches to keep track of players form and injury. Also, they'll have sway in managing game time ahead of international games. NZ could probably afford to select overseas players as rugby competes with cricket to be the first sport there...

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Wales and Australia have a hybrid where you have to have so many caps before you will be selected if you move abroad.

There are pro's and cons to both approaches. However you need enough clubs to ensure you dont block youngsters coming through, centralised contracts for your internationals so that clubs are not bearing the burden of not being able to play players when they want, that are also high enough that the players are not looking elsewhere.

 

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1 hour ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

Six Nations 2023: Johnny Sexton insists he will be fit for Ireland's France game - BBC Sport

Feels like every year there's an instance of Ireland saying "no Johnny definitely did NOT have a HIA he does NOT have concussion thank you".

Wales did the same right? Old man AWJ apparently failed a HIA and was out for this weekend but this has since unsurprisingly been downgraded to a “neck injury”.

 

Not that he did anything at all against Ireland.

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14 hours ago, AngusTheBull said:

Wales did the same right? Old man AWJ apparently failed a HIA and was out for this weekend but this has since unsurprisingly been downgraded to a “neck injury”.

 

Not that he did anything at all against Ireland.

Dropped anyway.  Playing the kids apparently. 

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1 hour ago, honestly united said:

May be an image of 1 person and text that says "SCOTLAND VWALES TEAM T11EBRUARY 4.45PM GMT BTMURRAY EDINBURGH GU UINNESS SIXNATIONS STUART HOGG KYLE STEYN HUW JONES SIONE TUIPULOTU DUHAN VAN DER MERWE FINN RUSSELL BEN WHITE SCOTLAND WRU PIERRE SCHOEMAN GEORGE TURNER ZANDER FAGERSON RICHIE GRAY GRANT GILCHRIST (VC) JAMIE RITCHIE (C) LUKE CROSBIE MATT FAGERSON EE Peter Vardy REPLACEMENTS One As FRASER BROWN JAMIE BHATTI EL JONNYGRAY JACKDEMPSEY GEORGEHORNE HORNE BLAIRKINGHORN CHRIS HARRIS"

Just the one change from last week

Strong team. The only change is Nel on the bench with Fagerson starting. I thought it would be the other way about as Zander's just back from long term injury and Nel has credit in the bank after Twickenham. However Nel is mid 30's...

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1 hour ago, come on shire said:

Strong team. The only change is Nel on the bench with Fagerson starting. I thought it would be the other way about as Zander's just back from long term injury and Nel has credit in the bank after Twickenham. However Nel is mid 30's...

To be honest, I always think in rugby you should start with the risky one, if Fagerson breaks down after 20 mins, Nel will come on and see out the 60, everyone knows he can do that. If you start with Nel, then bring Fagerson on with 30 mins to go and he has to come off, you've got to bring Nel back on, not only after playing 50 mins, but having warmed down, I think they'd rather not do that.

To be honest, I can feel the fear building now. We really should win on Saturday, but then you see the names Biggar, North, Owens, Williams, Adams, Jones, Beard, all these guys that have punished us in the past. The big obstacle is going to be mental!

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As said above, against Wales is always a tricky fixture for us..... against Gatland's Wales this has always been a Wales win.

If we end up winners in this game I reckon we can start to think of ourselves as contenders in the championship, too soon to win it, but maybe sneak a 2nd place.

Edited by Self-raising Lazarus
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2 hours ago, peasy23 said:

"London" Wasps close to agreeing a deal to move into Worcester's home ground ahead of their planned return to the Championship next season.

I thought they had agreed a ground share with Solihul moors for next year?

I had heard Stourbridge were using Sixways this season, while a new club is started in worcester

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1 hour ago, honestly united said:

I thought they had agreed a ground share with Solihul moors for next year?

I had heard Stourbridge were using Sixways this season, while a new club is started in worcester

Solihull not completely off the table, but with today's news that Worcester won't be coming back a move to play at Sixways looks more likely. At the rate they have moved West, they'll be playing in Donegal by 2030.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2023/02/09/wasps-play-sixways-worcester-warriors-merge-stourbridge-rfc/

 

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, peasy23 said:

Solihull not completely off the table, but with today's news that Worcester won't be coming back a move to play at Sixways looks more likely. At the rate they have moved West, they'll be playing in Donegal by 2030.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2023/02/09/wasps-play-sixways-worcester-warriors-merge-stourbridge-rfc/

 

 

 

 

Stourbridge are a really good club, with a nice ground of there own - I nearly joined them when I moved down to the west midlands many moons ago. As a proper club I hope they dont get dragged down by any shady dealings. It sounds more like the new owners just wanted a quicker route back to the top league but cant commit to RFU for next season in the 2nd tier. Lets not forget there is already a worcester team in the league system, the amateur section (what was their 3rd team about 10/15 years ago) split off as a new club. Obviously they either knocked them back or the owners decided they didnt want to drop down that far and weren't up for the "journey". Rugby Lions are in the middle of their own after going bust as have a few others like London Scottish.

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