Rugby Union

Lions hype begins! The currently longest serving fly-halves in the Lions nations pairing up? Who doesn't want to see that?

• Australia v South Africa in Perth
• New Zealand v Argentina in Auckland

Also, an expansion to 24 teams. 6 pools of 4, top 2 go forward automatically, next 4 highest winners, with a knock out of 16 to look forward to too

Table:

Fixtures:

Friday 16/08:

• Otago v Auckland

Saturday 17/08:

• Northland v Manawatū
• Tasman v Canterbury
• Hawke's Bay v Southland (Ranfurly Shield Challenge)

Sunday 18/08:

• BoP v North Harbour
• Wellington v Taranaki
• Counties-Manukau v Waikato

My Predictions:

• Auckland 13+
• Northland 21+
• Tasman 6-
• Hawkes-Bay 6+ (Hoping to make it to McLean Park for this one)
• BoP 13+
• Taranaki 6-
• Waikato 13-

Seeing as I care more about the NPC than any other Rugby I feel like I ought to start a thread for this too, even though i'm the only person here that probably has any interest :)

Round 1 Fixtures:

• Taranaki v Counties-Manukau
• Auckland v Wellington
• Canterbury v Northland
• Southland v Otago
• Waikato v Bay of Plenty
• North Harbour v Hawkes Bay
• Manawatū v Tasman
• Bay of Plenty v Counties-Manukau*

*Due to the compressed nature of the competition every team has what's called a storm week where they end up playing 3 times in about 10 days which is why this match is marked as the 2nd game in round 1 for these two teams

• Australia v South Africa in Brisbane
• New Zealand v Argentina in Wellington

But not Allianz Twickenham. Just another Allianz stadium. I hope they got a big paycheck for that

This could have major repercussions for the game as we know it. The RFU has already reduced the amount of contact allowed in the grassroots of the game. Will the product we all love survive a legal tsunami if this ends in a court ruling?

I always wonder if you could get players to sign away their rights to sue but I'm pretty certain that would not be legally enforceable, alongside being totally exploitative.

Forgetting that Scotland were playing yesterday due to the Olympics but 4 from 4 in their Americas tour will beg the question "why not Argentina?" once again. With NZ choosing to play the softer touch England and Wales in November, is everyone running scared from the mighty Scots? Well done to the team anyhow, and fantastic to see dooey with the try record

Mens medals today! Kicking off 1:30 BST, with the semis at 2:30 & 3:00 boks v the french, and fijians vs ozzies. Ceremony bit of a miss last night imo, but I was drinking. Quarters was amazing Thursday night, hopefully a fantastic spectacle again today

Bit niche I thought when I saw this. So of course I have to share it with a niche community :)

Day 2 of the mens competition and what a great showcase yesterday was. Loads of offloads, skip passes, individual skills, and team wonder tries on show and a fantastic crowd. Personally a game every 30 minutes is too bloody slow to watch live, and the highlights were slow, but good for du biere if you were in the stadium I'm sure. Actually last time I was in SdF I couldn't buy a beer... Sarkozy!

Anyway, today we venture into knock out territory, so enjoy folks!

Mens Sevens in the Stade de France from 2:30pm BST today. I have to confess as to not have watched much sevens since Scotland dumped their national team, but France rested DuPont over the 6n for today.

In the UK, only highlights and limited live on the beeb again this Olympics, but eurosport is pretty cheap for a whole month for those that would like to see 6 days of uniterrupted Sevens, and a whole host of other sporting goods

EASTERN
New England vs DC
https://youtu.be/x796E28Kx7Q
NOLA vs Chicago
https://youtu.be/N6WXjicQE6E

WESTERN
Houston vs Dallas
https://youtu.be/d4IwXIkUdm4
Seattle vs San Diego
https://youtu.be/xyD_RjVEuCs

Massive news for Moana Pasifika, probably the biggest signing announcement in the entire history of Super Rugby.

No idea how they can afford him, but I've seen some people suggest they picked up some new finance from somewhere. It'll be interesting to see where he plays, possibly at 7 given Inisi had such a huge season at 8 for them this year.

Times in BST. Sorry SH. Wales already won by a point, so probably best match already done. Anyone want to predict score lines for the rest? Think I'll watch the Chile on iplayer later, not feeling the need to watch that one live

My analysis: about bloody time. This should have been a wake up call years ago. The big worry: most these players had extensive super6 time. Will 'A' fixtures and academy matches yield something equivalent?

Things I'd love to see!

France to the rescue, fingers crossed he kicks on and makes a full Scotland cap. But what is really interesting (to me) is the use of facebook to get a job, not LinkedIn or an agent, and certainly not the SRU which have invested in him, and should have been able to offer a USA slot, but no super6 any more either. Anyway, I hope he enjoys D2

Wow, some big accusations here. Some French players in 2018 had something similar in Edinburgh.

Decided to tweak it from Summer Internationals bc its been freezing & frosty down here in my part of New Zealand!

• Tonga vs Italy
• Samoa vs Spain
• USA vs Scotland
• Canada vs Romania
• New Zealand vs England
• Australia vs Wales
• Japan vs Georgia
• Namibia vs Portugal
• South Africa vs Ireland
• Argentina vs France

A feast of rugby tomorrow, anyone attending? Predictions welcomed, reviews also appreciate

Anyone want to have a stab at a banner for us? 2023 makes us look a touch stale

Consultation in the UK is a euphamism for a foregone conclusion btw. This must be Dodson's last act before he goes. It's also in the press release that pints and food are about to go up again too, in more words. And given a 3million black hole last year - it looks necessary.

The SRU are investing heavily in both pro teams, and it's paid off at one end of the M8. This should result in more season tickets for Glasgow next year, and there is a fourth home game in the november series. And the Super6 is gone, so another cost reduced. And surely a big boost with Taylor Swift at Murrayfield too. Personally I'd have stuck with a hiring freeze for a couple of years, and been a bit ruthless with some performance reviews rather than redundancies. That isn't a good look ever, and smacks of incompetence with hiring and strategy