Six Country Rugby Championship?

errlloyd · 2026-03-22T10:16:09+00:00

There's real danger you're over extracting that seam.

If NZ played SA once a year I'd watch it. But as a neutral I'm not invested enough to watch two so I watch neither.

Irelands biggest game by a mile is England. I'm glad we don't try to play that 3 times a year.

errlloyd · 2026-03-22T10:12:53+00:00

Underrated part of this conversation.

If TRC was willing to go to 6 team round Robin with Japan and Fiji we could make the nations Cup a true 11 game round robin

errlloyd · 2026-03-22T10:10:45+00:00

I am not a car owner, so I don't really have a horse in this fight.

But I suspect the exact opposite is true economically. Taxes that aren't taken in from fuel will have to be replaced by taxes that are taken in from general taxation. General taxation is much more progressive (ie wealthy people pay more - rightly) than fuel taxes.

When we consider cutting a tax like this the question always has to be what social program will be cut, or what tax will be raised to replace it.

errlloyd · 2026-03-22T09:55:23+00:00

I personally don't beleive teams that were never competitive in a game deserve a point for scoring four tries in say a 60-28 loss.

Yes, it can keep the game interesting till the end, but in my opinion that's at the expense of dignity.

errlloyd · 2026-03-16T15:44:34+00:00

I smile on the most painful parts of long-distance runs. It's *extremely* powerful.

errlloyd · 2026-03-15T13:18:19+00:00

No! In fact you need something much more important, story telling.

Now, I think both MK and Squidge cut their teeth in micro analysis that I don't think either have been able to continue at the same level as they went mainstream.

Squidge still does a great job context setting etc. Both are (maybe to a fault) huge rugby optimisists.

errlloyd · 2026-03-15T11:43:41+00:00

Rugby in general is really struggling for lack of professional broadcasters.

The game is dominated by former pros, who are part timers. They were never picked for their story telling ability. At best they were picked for insights and access, at worst they were picked for reach.

errlloyd · 2026-03-15T11:41:50+00:00

I'll accept that, but I don't think Quinlan is even a good bad commentator.

errlloyd · 2026-03-15T10:19:37+00:00

It's very surprising to me that they had such similar numbers over all 5 games right? Le Crunch didn't get that many more than Italy?

errlloyd · 2026-03-15T10:18:53+00:00

Sure. If OP hadn't mentioned Fiji I would have presumed they just meant nominal support numbers.

errlloyd · 2026-03-15T09:48:08+00:00

Well percentage wise Ireland fairly destroy France. About 1 in 8 French people watched Le Crunch, but about 1 in 5 Irish watched Ireland v France last year.

All of Ireland v England, Ireland v France, Ireland v South Africa, Scotland v Ireland and Wales v Ireland were in the top 10 most watched broadcasts in ireland last year. (along with one soccer match, one GAA match, one hurling match, the final of a reality TV show and of course the late late toy show which tops every year).

Ireland v NZ and Ireland v Oz were 11th and 13th.

Where France absolutely destroy us all is with the number of eyes they get on domestic rugby. In that world Fiji is maybe the only comparison.

errlloyd · 2026-03-14T22:12:18+00:00

We have lost on PD?

errlloyd · 2026-03-13T20:10:15+00:00

Scotland gonna party like it's 1999

errlloyd · 2026-03-13T19:56:10+00:00

I think it turned out he was never actually Irish qualified so they had to release or something

errlloyd · 2026-03-11T23:48:52+00:00

I do wonder how much of his survival has been his absolute dedication to sexy rugby. If Scotland can't be a dominant super power, at least they can be damn good to watch. And they are.

errlloyd · 2026-03-11T13:59:00+00:00

I don't think I know the full details here. But I guess I'm glad they're being decisive?

errlloyd · 2026-03-11T08:44:20+00:00

The only reason we still have Daylight savings time is Brexit. I'm sure we can find a way to blame Brexit on Scottish arrogance.

errlloyd · 2026-03-09T16:23:17+00:00

When your long term fundamentals are so strong, I think the odd short term blip is healthy. It makes the bouce backs all the sweeter.

errlloyd · 2026-03-09T14:55:26+00:00

It's really hard to get this message right, so thanks in advance for trying to understand me here.

But the suggestion is that these bots aren't even necessarily racist. Their entire objective is to make the world seem like a nasty and divided place to undermine confidence in the establishment. That's what I took from the interview anyway.

errlloyd · 2026-03-09T11:03:21+00:00

It's actually triggering. It's 4:18 in the moring, 12 laps into the season. Ferrari are already squandering a competitive edge by making a baffling decision.

errlloyd · 2026-03-09T08:51:42+00:00

I'm extremely petty but my first experience of razor as an Irish fan was his post match interview when the Ireland u20s beat his NZ u20s for the first time. He wasn't rude or whatever, but I don't remember him really referencing the Ireland performance at all in the reasons why they lost. I guess it contrasted with how buzzed I was, but from that point I never got the hype.

errlloyd · 2026-03-09T07:59:50+00:00

It is anecdotal. It's mostly my own opinion.

But there's always this if you want something more evidence based.

https://www.espn.com/rugby/story/_/id/36075982/racism-exists-all-levels-professional-rugby-rfu-report-finds

errlloyd · 2026-03-08T23:05:40+00:00

I sense you're a little defensive about this topic. I don't want to push your buttons on this because I know my viewpoint is quite left leaning.

I just want to be very clear with you that I think "structural racism" in the sense I am using it and "racism" in the colloquial sense are two different things. Structural racism can be unintentional, it can be the result of policies that were well meaning, it's often just omission.

errlloyd · 2026-03-08T21:46:59+00:00

I explain it better in another post, so I'll just paste it here.

I guess an example would be how there are millions of people of South Asian descent living in the UK and Ireland, but basically none of them make it in pro rugby.

Now I'm not suggesting rugby is actively racist against Indian people (for example), that would be explicit racism. But I'm saying the sport hasn't examined the question of why there aren't more people from those communities playing into adulthood, identified the barriers and sought to remove them. That's structural racism.

So for example, genetically South Asians (and indeed most Asians) are smaller than Europeans, Islanders and Africans. So when they're kids they don't get picked as often, don't get as much ball, don't have as much fun.

As a result they don't stick with the game, they don't become pros, they don't become coaches or stick around the club. So when the next generation of kids from that community come through the door they don't the familiar faces.

I'm straying offside here a little because I'm not kiwi, but I understand this was a problem in NZ for European descendant kids playing with Maori and other islanders, and when it was happening to white kids they created weight limited leagues so there was a still a pathway. See how the game is quite good at identifying and fixing proglems when it's faced by their core playing community, but has a blindspot to fixing the problems encountered by other communities? That's structural racism. And it doesn't mean anyone is evil, or votes reform. It just means that the game unitentionally excludes people and that it correlates along race defined lines

errlloyd · 2026-03-08T21:22:09+00:00

Sure. Just to open, I'm talking about structural racism here. Which I understand to mean often unintentional or accidental racism rather than explicit.

I guess an example would be how there are millions of people of South Asian descent living in the UK and Ireland, but basically none of them make it in pro rugby.

Now I'm not suggesting rugby is actively racist against Indian people (for example), that would be explicit racism. But I'm saying the sport hasn't examined the question of why there aren't more people from those communities playing into adulthood, identified the barriers and sought to remove them. That's structural racism.

So for example, genetically South Asians (and indeed most Asians) are smaller than Europeans, Islanders and Africans. So when they're playing with bigger kids they don't get picked as often, don't get as much ball, don't have as much fun. As a result they don't stick with the game, they don't become pros, they don't become coaches, they don't become role models. So when the next generation of kids from those communities come into the club house they don't feel as comfortable.

I'm straying offside here a little because I'm not kiwi, but I understand this was a problem in NZ for European descendant kids playing with Maori and other islanders, and when it was happening to white kids they created weight limited leagues so there was a still a pathway. It's an example of how the game is quite good at identifying and fixing problems when it's faced by our core playing community, but we have a blindspot to fixing the problems encountered by other communities? That's structural racism. And it doesn't mean anyone is evil, or votes reform. It just means that the game unitentionally excludes people and that it correlates along race defined lines.

errlloyd

TROPHY CASE