ERC 1/4s

[Neils]

Pleased to see a La Rochelle win but something has to be done about French TV and the use of it for officiating. Several contentious things ignored with the potential to benefit Sarries and Woolstencrofts incident replayed endlessly. It?s basically cheating.

No with that particular team the TV officials were excellent.

[Shugs]

It?s a fair point!

[St Bruno]

Not so sure about the TMO - Joy Neville? Mind you, she was probably hampered by the television editor not showing her what she needed to see. Brace was OK, as were the ARs.

Delighted to see that Foxtons were well beaten.

La Rochelle are going to be very hard to beat.

[JF]

It's good to know that I'm not the only one who can't watch Prem rugby. To be honest European rugby is pushing it a bit as well.

I was also cheering for La Rochelle but it didn't feel right, to have only negative feelings about a game.

[westwaleswasp]

Did not watch it- only saw a bit of Cardiff's match vs Benetton fro the whole weekend. Struggling to see how TV rights will go up when people like me have plenty of other things I can watch. For the record, I watched Middlesex vs Essex, it was free, had a crowd of 2500 in on day 4 and 1 to 2k online, the players would be picking up 30k a year on average- plus any sponsorship deals, - have a think about that when Itoje et al are on 500k-   and nobody was breaking a salary cap. 

[Neils]

Did not watch it- only saw a bit of Cardiff's match vs Benetton fro the whole weekend. Struggling to see how TV rights will go up when people like me have plenty of other things I can watch. For the record, I watched Middlesex vs Essex, it was free, had a crowd of 2500 in on day 4 and 1 to 2k online, the players would be picking up 30k a year on average- plus any sponsorship deals, - have a think about that when Itoje et al are on 500k-   and nobody was breaking a salary cap.

According to TRP yesterday Itoje is on 900k plus 25k per game for Engerland.

[backdoc]

I don't think Itoje's real estate deal with Wray has been included.

[westwaleswasp]

We can not afford this bullshit.
It is rugby, we are paying salaries the game cannot afford. There is only international money and tv money and sponsorship and it is pathetically small compared to so many sports. It is nuts. Cricket has the IPL - the second or most valuable sports league in the world. That includes our prem football. We are paying rugby players as if we are top table, when we are small fry.

[Shugs]

Cap has to come down to approx ?3m. Also, backroom staff quotas have become totally ridiculous. It?s indulgence, and it makes little difference. I?ve lost count of the myriad of coaches it is possible to have : Forwards, backs, attack, defence, scrum, line out, transition, kicking, skills etc etc etc.

[BlackAndGoldSunglasses]

So, in the Champions Cup:

Leinster v Toulouse (at the Aviva, of course, 29th April)
La Rochelle v Exeter (at Std. Matmut, Bordeaux, 30th April)

And in the Challenge Cup:

Scarlets v Glasgow (at Parc y Scarlets, 29th April)
Toulon v Benetton (at Std. Felix Mayol, 30th April)

La Rochelle game at Std. Matmut (capacity 42,115) rather than Std. Marcel-Deflandre (capacity 16,000).

So... Jack in the Toulouse side, Jacob and Marcus in the Benetton side, and Exeter have a few ex-Wasps, but I imagine only Frosty likely to play.