HEC Quarter Finals Predictions (Ymlaen Scarlets!)

[bendeus]

AFAIK it's pretty much as Juice puts it - sponsors have get out clauses if the competition morphs into any other shape/format than the one it currently has. TV and advertising drop off, as do crowds - after all, it'll just be the Magners' league sides, plus some shite English/French ones and some equally shite Italian ones. That's no tournament, and I'd be surprised if the Welsh or Irish clubs would even stay in the competition if that's all that's on offer.

Juice is also pretty much on the button that we could be seeing an English/French competition next year, which will be deliciously ironic if the Scarlets win it this year.

The possibility of a breakaway international side featuring England players who feature in the GP is also there - as Juice says, we could see an England side featuring division 1 players in the WC (not that it would affect their chances overmuch )

The whole debacle could be utterly, utterly ruinous for NH rugby, but it's the weaker/poorer clubs and unions, i.e. the Celtic ones, that stand to lose out most. The only compensation would be that the Irish provinces would start to take the ML a bit more seriously and field competitive sides for league fixtures, which would improve the competition no end.

 

[Juice Terry]

The pro game in England could completely implode, and I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing, I think rebuilding a viable professional structure has to start from scratch otherwise there are too many longstanding petty squabbles blocking progress.

We need to set up a completely fresh Super12/14/16/20 type competion in Europe to run after the club season has finished and prior to the six nations starting. Stop all this ridiculous overlap of fixtures which is killing the NH game.

The only thing that really fucking annoys me is that it would have been so much easier and less painful doing this 12 years ago but instead the RFU told everyone to wait, the clubs seized the initiative and here we are today in a total bloody mess.

 

[The Boy]

The pro game in England could completely implode, and I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing, I think rebuilding a viable professional structure has to start from scratch otherwise there are too many longstanding petty squabbles blocking progress.

We need to set up a completely fresh Super12/14/16/20 type competion in Europe to run after the club season has finished and prior to the six nations starting. Stop all this ridiculous overlap of fixtures which is killing the NH game.

The only thing that really fucking annoys me is that it would have been so much easier and less painful doing this 12 years ago but instead the RFU told everyone to wait, the clubs seized the initiative and here we are today in a total bloody mess.

What would be really good would be if their was a standard rugby season for the world to follow. Don't see that happening anytime, though.

 

[Juice Terry]

What would be really good would be if their was a standard rugby season for the world to follow. Don't see that happening anytime, though.

I really hope not cos that would mean half the world have to play rugby in summer which is just wrong for so many reasons.

 

[1927]

I can't see there being an English/ French tournament next year as the main gripe of the French clubs is the number of games in a World Cup season. Why opt out of the H cup and enter another one?

 

[bendeus]

I can't see there being an English/ French tournament next year as the main gripe of the French clubs is the number of games in a World Cup season. Why opt out of the H cup and enter another one?

Apparently Blanco has come out and said that the French clubs will not be seeking any further cross-border competition in the coming season due to their originally stated reason of fixture congestion in the WC year. Where does that leave the English clubs, then?

 

[Red Faction]

i cant see them coming back cap in hand

 

[Red Faction]

according to the BBC

each welsh region will lost half a million pounds

the scottish rugby union, already 20 million pounds in debt
will lose a further 2 million- this is having axed borders already

but there will be no exclusive england-france tournament...

 

[bendeus]

Here we go then.

The mighty Sgarlads will clash with the inexorable Tiggers today in what should be a memorable match. The side with the strongest forwards in the tournament up against the side with the best backs. Tiggers shorn of Castrogiovanni and Ayerza(?) should offer less grunt up front while the Turks are at full strength.

A lot will be decided by how the half backs play as well as the front 5. I reckon Scarlets: Castro's loss will be a big one for the Tiggers - a totemic player if ever I saw one - and in the second half of the EDF the Ospreys showed the Scarlets exactly how to beat the English side. Do not expect a Phil Davies coached Llanelli to collapse in the way the Os did in the first half, either. There's also the small matter of the weight of history bearing down in the Scarlets favour as far as HC semis go - especially against those cheating Leicester bastards.

Meanwhile, in the other match, I'm getting a strange old feeling telling me that Northampton are going to become the shittest side ever to reach the final of a Heineken cup, thus gifting a triumphant Scarlets side the victory in the final.

 

[Mr Retro]

Scarlets bottle it again. Beaten easily by a side 10 times more hungry.

 

[tarannau]

Leicester pretty much destroyed the Scarlets there. Once they'd adapted to the borderline 'scragging' techniques at the breakdown they just ploughed big holes in the midfield and kept going.

 

[Red Faction]

thats a real shame

wanted the scarlets to win the tournament
now the two teams in the final are the two teams i hate the most

what makes it worse- my housemate is a die hard tigers fan

 

[bendeus]

Scarlets bottle it again. Beaten easily by a side 10 times more hungry.

Leicester pretty much destroyed the Scarlets there

I wouldn't quite go that far. Scarlets were hardly 'destroyed'. Beaten by the better team, yes, beaten 'easily', no. If it was so 'easy' how come they were in the lead with 20 to go, and within a converted try with about 10 to go. 2 tries to 3 is beaten, it certainly isn't fucked over.

Scarlets lost because they made too many handling errors, lost too many lineouts, because Dafydd James inexplicably decided to seek contact rather than the four man overlap outside him, and because Wellies' kicking to touch was non existent/woeful.

Tiggers a very beatable, numbingly tedious side. Both the Os and the Turks could have taken them on another day but sadly didn't. There's very little between top Welsh and top English sides now save for a bit of big match intensity and a drop of big match savvy, i.e. how to hold leads and close the game out.

Fucking gutted, mind

 

[Mr Retro]

There's very little between top Welsh and top English sides now save for a bit of big match intensity and a drop of big match savvy, i.e. how to hold leads and close the game out.

Some, like me, would call that bottle

 

[bendeus]

Some, like me, would call that bottle

I'll defer to your superior knowledge. I'd imagine you'd be an expert on the subject, what with all that choking and all

 

[Mr Retro]

I'll defer to your superior knowledge. I'd imagine you'd be an expert on the subject, what with all that choking and all

Fuck the fuck off

 

[bendeus]

Raw nerve?

 

[Mr Retro]

Raw nerve?

I SAID FUCK OOOOOFFFFFFF



<forgot ;~) but you knew that I hope?>

 

[bendeus]

Of course. We're nice on here, not like the howwible football threads.

Anyway, what have non-GP 10 man bish-bash-bosh rugby loving types to do now that Tedious XV and Turgid XV are to meet in the HEC.

I suppose there's the pre WC tours to get vaguely excited about, particularly the prospect of an understrength development England getting horribly and viciously pwned by the Saffas

 

[Buds]

I think the Turks will get the result but I can see them bricking it in the semis just like the Llanelli of old.

Looks like I was right again