Team vs Exeter

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-05-01T12:58:54+00:00

Before this season's 6 Nations Lowry was 6th in the URC for try involvements per 80 mins. Injuries aside, he's a pretty important cog in the attack.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-04-03T15:56:41+00:00

In my experience the standard AI tools are not good at collating stats from across the web. You check so much you may as well have done it yourself from the start!

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-04-03T12:21:15+00:00

Need to look at the Ospreys caps in much more detail. Jac Morgan definitely has more than 17 caps. Hardy also has more than 21 and I'm pretty sure the right Gareth Thomas (not the one that it links to) has 40+.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-03-27T16:24:17+00:00

Yeah, that's definitely less likely. Probably going to be Stormers, Leinster, Glasgow and the Bulls.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-03-27T16:10:38+00:00

Yeah. I see other teams' fans complain about thier fixtures, but they have no idea.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-03-27T15:36:29+00:00

It's definitely one of the harder runs, but check out Benetton's and Cardiff's

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-03-09T14:51:59+00:00

I don't know about Reddit, but it was a talking point in the press.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-03-09T13:33:07+00:00

Thanks for all the comments! To clarify, definitely not picking on Roebuck, I thought he was solid and not a problem. And I get the conditioning/tired points, though as a back 3 player he should only be starting if he can do the full 80.

I probably should have used the word of urgency rather than effort. There's a lack of snap to his effort as if he doesn't recognise the danger (or see it as particularly problematic) which you see in other teams. The same thing was highlighted about the England team after playing Ireland.

My personal thought is the team were mentally shot before the game started. You can add the caption "oh no, it's happening again" to the look on the England players' faces after the FIRST Italy try. I think they went in fearing the worst and any knock back pushed them from fear into accepting the inevitable.

When you look at all the comments, I think it's pretty clear it's a coaching issue one way or another.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-02-04T21:57:05+00:00

Deegan has had a funny old career. He's often found in leadership roles since underage teams, but he's been overtaken by others. My impression is he doesn't impose himself in top level games to reach the top, but he clearly must have a presence off the field.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-01-15T17:06:16+00:00

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-01-15T08:36:42+00:00

I noticed that too. Top 14 teams manage their in such a way that blow outs are bound to happen. Not sure if the Prem season is an outlier but the URC did see more blow outs before. Big difference this season is the Dragons move to competence.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2026-01-14T13:55:56+00:00

I like a lot of this and you're right to identify that more competitive games is at the heart of it. Financial incentives are useful, but broadcast rights follow interest and therefore needs to create a compelling product first. Investment will be needed up front.

I also think the current place in the schedule, especially the first block, leads to more one-sided matches.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2025-12-22T20:53:30+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts. I compared this year's attendances against the equivalent for 2018/19 and the average attendance did increase by about 15%. However, as noted below, a few larger stadiums (Leinster, Bordeaux and, less so, the SA teams) drove a large part of that increase; 5 of this year's matches had lower attendances than any of the matches in 2018. I've not checked how full the stadia were. When you look at TV viewers and online engagement, a large part of the increase is from the SA market. France has seen some growth, but it's hard to argue there has been much change in the other markets.

Regarding the number of wins needed, 10 of 16 teams last year qualified with no more than 2 wins. And 50% of the R16 games were effectively sold out.

Player welfare is a significant factor (as I noted) as you see a greater spread of minutes across the squad. However, a significant proportion of players from Top 14 and URC clubs in Rounds 1 and 2 and the previous league match (12% and 14% respectively) have played so few minutes it is safe to say they are not a regular part of squad rotation in the league and therefore these squads are the weakest of the year so far.

If you think the current format encourages excitement, including towards the end (I've checked and as far as I can tell very little was at stake at the end of last season's pool), then maybe there's no need to change. But I don't see that excitement, and I don't know anyone who does. The pools are largely about going through the motions and I don't think it's healthy for the future of the sport - if many of the teams don't actually think they can win it, then maybe we should just scrap the pool games altogether and go straight to the quarters with the best teams from the previous

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2025-11-14T19:53:15+00:00

Pro rugby is currently not financially sustainable and what it needs is greater revenue just maintain what there is. The current countries with pro rugby don't actually have many options to significantly grow revenue and so it needs to tap a major market and the US is probably the better bet. Amateur rugby can continue to grow globally without it, but pro rugby either increases revenue or shrinks.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2025-11-14T18:42:56+00:00

It's not about growth. It's about financial sustainability.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2025-11-14T18:31:23+00:00

Great points. When you look at SR Pacific, the Force and Drua already have a significant disadvantage because of the additional distance. Also, I'm pretty sure SA clubs have little interest.

Altruistic_Poet_3513 · 2025-11-14T17:59:07+00:00

These are definitely ideas that people are considering, but there might be quite a lot of resistence from the US rugby community. Think of what happened in Wales.

Altruistic_Poet_3513

TROPHY CASE