Hey man. Here's to a new season!

Ding!

Scrummaging fuel....

Yeah bring it on im sick of having to watch football and pretending to care

Hi there

Ok whats to watch for next season, the English and French drop out from the Heineken Cup seems to have gone quiet fortunately, its O'Drsicolls last season so will he go out with a bang? Are Wales as good as everyone thinks they are? Who will win the Six Nations and who will the rising stars be? Who will win the domestic leagues and the Heineken Cup, what will be the great games to watch, and how fired up will everyone who was dropped by Gatland be?

Backing home talent I think that Freddie Burns will be the man to watch, yes I would say that, I also think its time for France to fire at last and win the Six Nations and I think Wales vs Ireland will be the game of the season, also Saracens, Glasgow and Toulon to take the leagues and Clermont the H Cup

Shock of the year, Wales to come fifth in the Six Nations and Scotland finally to be rejuvenated

Hey SARS whats the news on the HC next year. As far as i know nothing has been solved. France want concessions made regarding the qualifications and number of games. This i fell is easily remedied, Where the AP sold the TV rights to Virgin. This is not at all easily remedied.

So in fact to rumblings i have heard are that the HC will be over hauled a wee bit to allow for the French, but there is little that can be done regarding the AP teams and so we could certainly see a couple of years without English teams in the competition.

What have you heard?

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England v NZ at HQ should be a real grudge match these AI, I am looking forward to that. I don't know if anyone noticed but we are actually ranked 3rd now after Aus lost last weekend.
NZ to win the tri-nations (with a public training session against a pub side) after a brilliant performance in SA. England to win the 6N after nearly losing to Scotland in horrible conditions. Clermont to lift the HC, Leicester the Prem. Kyle Eastmond is my player to watch.
Shock of the year? Henson and Cips exiled to St Helena for crimes against humanity.

Aristo... I wouldn't be so hard on Cips at least he had genuine talent and p¡$$€D it away rather than just being a load of over hyped rubbish like the other fella

The Heineken Cup thing seems to have been kicked into the long grass (pun kind of intended) and seemed to be being brought to a head at the meeting in Dublin in about Feb or March but has since gone quiet, perhaps as a way of letting the English and French clubs to have an exit without appearing to back down, though it might re-emerge I guess - hopefully not.

Anyway, on Cipriani and Henson where will they be in May next year?

a) Lifting the Heineken Cup as winners

b) Lifting the Aviva Premiership as winners

c) Mid table mediocrity after a solid season

d) On the bench

e) Retired and commentating for Sky

f) Lifting the Heineken Cup as Security Guards

g) On the dole

h) In a religious cult

i) Dead

j) In a reality TV programme

The HC is in serious trouble mate. Its not an "Ignore" and it will go away kinda thing. Virgin have the rights the all AP games including European games. They paid for these rights ad that deal is done. But the ERC sold the TV rights to the HC to Sky. Again a deal that can't be changed. It's done and dusted. Now Virgin and Sky are direct rivals so no concessions are going to be given.

Either way you look at it, it seems quite impossible for the AP teams to compete in the HC.

The French are not in the same situation. They just want the qualification system tweaked in order to suit themselves and their extended regular season. But It's an easy remedy really.

As for the 2 lads. hahaha

I recon something close to option c) tho i'm not sure what qualifies as a "Solid season" i mean. A solid season for lets say Jonny Wilkinson would be the greatest season of Henson's life hahaha

I think J is more likely

The HC business is a mess, lets just hope they sort something out.

Yours truly managed to get injured 10 minutes in to the new season. Made it to half time but was in too much pain to continue.

Good first weekend in the AP gutted I missed the quins wasps game it sounds exciting

Andy Goode- how's your luck, the poor sod, great debut, deserved to win

Ouch, what happened Sporty?

Could be worse, Gloucester somehow conspired to lose on the first day, at home, to Sale

Or worse still ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-24017417

bad luck sporty. how long you gonna be sidelined? (if at all)

my side of the water. Leinster put the hurt on Scarlets. trashed them in and amazing second half. Well totally one-sided but Scarlets were thundering a long in the first half. They had us looking beaten. But Leinster are masters at soaking up the pressure and then firing on 12 cylinders in the second 40. Also should be noted there were no Leinsters stars playing. Was pretty much a 2nd string side. Really happy over here :D

BTW. how is the conversion over to BT vision for you guys?

Hey lads,

I got my hand bent back and trapped the wrong way in a maul, thought I'd broke my wrist but it looks like it's just a sprain...should be back next week.

Was pleased with the BT switch as I'm a BT Broadband user so it was free...I'm paying the little extra for HD though...not really listened to their presenters yet but I notice they're doing really long pre match analysis...

Big news coming out of England and France regarding European rugby...is this the end or more posturing?

Richard measuring I believe Sporty.

That's my gut feeling too Aristo

Ye they said yesterday that they were looking to setup a France England tourney. But the ERC now announced today that ALL PARTIES are onboard to find a resolution.

Sorry guys but your AP lot are being @R$€ holes plain and simple. And the French are following them for reasons im not sure of. To get what they want i suppose. Which is always more cash! Which they actually spent on their own league

Ding - whilst I'm sure cash is part of the problem I do think the English and French clubs are genuinely unhappy about the current qualification inequalities.

Clearly the English and French clubs are unhappy, what we all need is a tournament that works for all and hopefully by putting together everyone's best ideas that can be accomodated

I do like the idea that it would be a competition run by the clubs rather than the unions, but I don't like the idea of dropping it to 20 sides - I'd worry that it would end up with the same clubs year after year and I don't like the Amlin being dropped to 20 as I think its great that some of the less developed Rugby nations play the bigger sides - that should help them develop and promote the sport for years to come.

How that all goes forward I don't know, but I'm hopeful that something can be brought together which is fair for all

Perhaps a tournament of the top 7 from each of the 3 leagues, the Heineken and Amlin winners and an Italian side if none has finished in the Aviva top 7 giving a 24 team tournament with the same structure as currently.

The other alternative could be a staright forward tournamet where every side is in at the start and progresses through a series of single match drawn from the hat games. Admittedly you could get Leiceste Vs Toulouse in Round One, but that might add some spice to it

Decent points of view indeed. but lets look at this from another perspective. There are 6 countries involved in the HC and 2 of those countries are demanding 66% of the profits.

Please explain to me how that's fair?

From my viewing of the Bath-Leicester game it seems the lottery of the front row collapse appears to have been replaced with the lottery of the "early push".

And how Stringer was putting it in straight but Mele was putting it in crooked... sheesh