Always a Wasp

I recall some very shit teams, like Saints circa 2011, or Tigers in their glory years, who offered nothing outside of the set piece. Set piece dominance should earn the right to good ball and the chance  to play rugby. That is the reward.

If you base your whole game on set piece dominance you deserve to lose.  3 points for winning a scrum is a blight on the game. The full points for collapsing one repeatedly on the 5m line, sure.  3 points for a knock on on the half way followed by a ref's guess? Bollocks.

Uncontested scrums is on field, I always draw the difference between on and off field cheating. Drugs, financial shenanigans etc. are a world away from on field using of laws or indeed blood capsules. You can sanction one, but not the off field stuff.

That said I am not naive enough to think all our players would have been blameless on the drugs front at the dawn of professionalism, by all accounts there were a lot more 90s performance enhancers in Athletics, and once the money rolled in to rugby I would be shocked if no anabolics were in the sport back then....

The interesting thing for me is that the French clubs actually want English players. Given that they have quite strict rules on foreign players in each squad & all of the southern hemisphere to chose from I wonder if English players are relatively cheap compared to others & what that says about salaries in the prem!

The SH players are offered more closer to home in Japan. That is why English players are the new All Blacks vis-a-vis French teams. Ready made source over the channel to replace the one that has been diverted to Japan.

He has been doing Sarries a favour for a long, long time. He knows where the bread is buttered, and if it is buttered in our direction then great.

Thing is, even if the RFU win the hand, and they do hold all the cards regarding the championship, they still have to get those in the prem to agree to something that makes it work. In other words, relegation. And not just for Newcastle, for any  bastard at the bottom- Bath, Cheetahs, whoever. Otherwise it still is not in our interests to join.

I would rather 1 than 2, unless 2 actually has promotion, ensured, regardless of stadium.
It won't.

And as long as those loses don't include excessive salary over the cap, which is not the case for at least a couple of clubs.

Pretty obvious overall figures will be up as it is now on terrestrial, it doesn't say more on TNT.

Take those away and compare to a few seasons ago.

Moreover, with every game to be televised they will be claiming records next year.

Saw Glasgow Cardiff at the weekend.
Game had some ambition, despite very poor weather. Not much kicking all told.
6n had some good stuff, but it was diminished for me as I was not seeing players in white that I had been watching all year.

To each their own, but I won't be watching prem rugby again unless Wasps are in it. Not so much as a second.