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Fantasy Aviva Premiership Current League Table

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Waiting List
1. pullthestrings
2. Bathite

Welcome to Season 5 of the Aviva Premiership fantasty rugby game. Below are the rules of the game which must be adhered to. If there are any situations that arise in the course of the game which are not covered by the rules, a final decision will be made by the RFU (Ozzy3213) as to how the situation will be resolved.

Senior Squads wrote:
The maximum squad size is 40 senior players. If a team has more than 40 players in their squad then they will be fined £1 million per player over the permitted amounts per day for the first seven days. If after 7 consecutive days a team still has more than the permitted number of players then the team will be fined £2 million per player per day, and fined 1 league point per player per day for the next seven days. If after this time a team still has more than the permitted number of players in their squad, the RFU (me) will remove players at it’s discretion to bring them back under the permitted numbers. There will be no right of appeal to players being removed.

Be aware that all tier one international matches which are played during the season will count in the game, and players selected in the matchday 22's for those matches will not be eligible to play for their clubs on that weekend, therefore you must give due consideration to the make up of your squad.

Academy Rules wrote:
Each team will be allowed to have a listed senior academy squad of 20 players. Players who are in the senior academy must be under 22 years of age as of 1st September 2012 (therefore must have been born on or after 1st Septmber 1990). Players who are under the age of 20 (so born after 1st September 1992) AND are in the academy of the club that you are managing in real life, DO NOT need to be listed as senior academy players as part of your 20, but are available to you in this game and cannot be poached by other clubs without paying you a fee.

Should a player not listed in your 20 senior academy players, but part of the clubs academy in real life move clubs in real life, then you will have first option of promoting him to your listed senior academy. If you choose not to take this option he will become property of the club that he moves to in real life in this game.

Transfers wrote:

• Domestic (other AP Teams)
  Each team has a budget to use in the purchase of players. Domestic transfers between AP clubs, regardless of nationality of player, should be negotiated between the respective managers, and then confirmed on the Domestic Transfer Confirmation Page.
  
  
• Domestic (Championship and below)
  Each team may during the season purchase no more than 3 players from the Championship or the National Leagues. These players must be bid for on the Championship/National League bidding page, and each bid will be considered by me on it's own merits before being accepted or rejected. No bid will be accepted until a minimum of 24 hours has elapsed from the time the bid was made, in order to afford other managers the opportunity to make a counter bid.
  
  
• Foreign
  To make a foreign transfer (i.e from any club outside of the AP, regardless of whether the player is English) a bid should be made on the Foreign Transfers Page, which will be considered by me against the posted guidelines for purchase prices before being accepted or rejected. No bid will be accepted until a minimum of 24 hours has elapsed from the time the bid was made, in order to afford other managers the opportunity to make a counter bid.
  
  Foreign transfers will unlimited during the off season and 2 during the season. The exact dates of the two transfer windows during the season is to be confirmed.
  

Player Releases wrote:
Managers may choose to release players from their clubs, for which they will be offered compensation

Compensation will be paid as follows

£2 million – current international (must have played international rugby in the previous 12 months)
£1.5 million – former international
£1m – top flight experience
£0.5m – other

If a released player plays in real life for a team outside of this game he will be deemed to have returned to that team. If not then he will be deemed to have signed for a Championship side. If another manager wants to pick a released player up, they will have to bid for him in the same way as for a foreign or Championship/National League player.

Retirements wrote:
There will be no compensation for retiring players. Should a player who retires decide to come out of retirement and play again, then he will automatically go back to the club who he was playing for in the game when he retired.

Fixtures wrote:
There will be 22 Aviva Premiership games per season, plus the play offs. There will also be Heineken Cup, Amlin Challenge Cup and Anglo Welsh Cup matches. These games will take place once a week. A thread will be put up for managers to name their teams on Thursdays, then on Fridays, managers will post the scores that they think will happen from these games (apart from games in which they are involved). An average of all predictions will be taken, and then 0.5 points added to each teams score for each prediction that had them as the winner, and that will then be the final score.

Teams wrote:
When naming your team, not only should you put the starting XV and replacements, but also tactics that your team will employ. Results will be affected by the tactics described.

In addition, each team must have the following:-

At least 10 England qualified players in your matchday 23, and at least 5 of those must be in your starting XV.

At least 2 props and 1 hooker on the bench.

All players must be eligible (not injured or banned).

If you fail to submit a team for a match, then the other team will be automatically awarded a 30-0 bonus point win. If both teams fail to submit a team, then it will be scored as a 0-0 draw.

Injuries and Suspensions wrote:
Injuries in this game do NOT reflect real life, they will be generated by me.

Players banned in real life will be ineligible for selection in this game for the duration of the ban.

Inclusion of injured/banned players will result in them being replaced by players on the bench, and the bench not having eight players, which may result in punishment if it concerns the front-row.

Punishment for fielding an ineligible player will be loss of one match point for a first offence, two for a second offence and so on.

Financial Rewards wrote:
There will be no rewards for the result of an individual match, instead the managers will receive cash for predicting.

£1.5m for descriptive predictions
£0.25m for scores on the doors predictions
If you fail to predict without first advising me that you are unable to do so that week, you will be fined £1m for a first offence, £2m for a second offence, £3m for a third offence etc.

AP finishing positions.

Champions: 8m
Runners Up: 6m
Playoff Semi Finalist Losers: 5m
5th: 4m
6th: 3.5m
7th: 3m
8th: 2.5m
9th: 2m
10th: 1.5m
11th: 1m
12th: 0.5m

Heineken Cup

Losing Quarter Finalists - £2 million each
Losing Semi Finalists - £3 million each
Runners Up - £4 million
Champions - £5 million

Amlin Challenge Cup

Losing Quarter Finalists - £1 million each
Losing Semi Finalists - £2 million each
Runners Up - £3 million
Champions - £4 million

Anglo-Welsh Cup

Losing Semi Finalisst - £1 million each
Runners Up - £2 million
Champions - £3 million


If your budgets falls below minus £10 million for any reason, the administrators (ozzy3213) will step in and players from within your squad will be released for the relevant financial compensation in order to bring your budget back above minus £10 million.

rather have haskell.
not a big fearns fan.

anyone want aguella on the cheap?

Fearns is very physical but has had a poor tour. Was the best back row in AP for the last month or so. He really was magnificent.

I prefer him as a 6.

Sorry haven't been on much lads , night shifts are murder and spent all day yesterday on pub crawl so pretty tired today.

Anybody watch Arg/France game? Just d/l it now

Youngs out of tour. Karl Dickson called up

Big loss after last game, reckon SL will go with Care?

No idea to be honest. He is very hard to 2nd guess

I think I'd prefer Dickson with Flood, don't think Care/Flood used to really click that well pre-Youngs

hopefully care we need pace and tempo which he brings

Interesting wonder how bad injury is ?

Dickson brings more tempo than Care for me.

Tempo isn't about the speed of the scrum half with ball in hand but the speed he gets the ball out of the ruck which creates the tempo.

For me anyway.

Shoulder injury apparently, Cockerill will be happy

No Fran Steyn in 3rd test, Alberts & Lambie doubtful

Jan Serfontein is a hell of a player

Who's he then??

SA under 20's. They are turning it on at the right time to win this tournament.

Haven't seen them play this tournament, lose interest as soon as we go out

Steven_Sharks wrote:Jan Serfontein is a hell of a player

Was my next target.

Mine too how did Pollard the young lad I bought go at ten?? He is just 18

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/18440208

Think i have about the same chance as going as him

I think he's going into standup

I'm guessing thats about Banahan, as I saw that yesterday and it made me laugh

I am going to the tour as a punter so may bump in to banahan if he decides to come along as a fan.

I would rather Dowson went as a player than Banahan. Now have to go and wash after typing that

Following are available guys, not looking for much - would swap Lapandry for a no8.

PR Ben Moon (E) (3)
OS Alexander Lapandy (France)
BS/OS Jake Abbott (E)
SH Charlie Davies (E)
SH Sam Harrison (E)
WG Oliver Cicognini (E) - (haven't got dob, but he's 17) - Eng u18 = free

PlanetRugby team of the week:


15 Leigh Halfpenny (Wales) - Thirteen points from him as he made a watching Neil Jenkins proud from the tee in Melbourne on Saturday.
14 JP Pietersen (South Africa) - He is such an intelligent winger. Pietersen demonstrated his power and pace in making four clean breaks while he also won a turnover for his side as both he and Bryan Habana once again stood tall for the Springbok cause in Jo'burg. Two quality players.
13 Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland) - It seems as though Waratahs and Australia centre Rob Horne has been around for ages but he is still only 22. His score and general effort was good but what can we say about O'Driscoll? All heart, his post-match interview with Scotty Stevenson summed up both his hunger and disappointment over the result.
12 Felipe Contepomi (Argentina) - Their game against France was never going to be pretty, but with Contepomi helping control matters outside Ignacio Mieres, the Pumas ultimately made it eight wins in their last eleven meetings with les Bleus. Freedom of Córdoba?
11 Tim Visser (Scotland) - The wait finally ended for Andy Robinson on Saturday as Visser was an eligible Scotland international. Two tries in his first Test and judging from his PRO12 scoring rate, we can expect plenty more crossings for the Dutch-born finisher.
10 Berrick Barnes (Australia) - Firstly a mention for Greig Laidlaw for another impressive performance while Dan Carter's drop-goal broke Irish hearts. But, after flying back to Sydney for the birth of his child, Barnes more than earned his money for nappies in Melbourne.
9 Ben Youngs (England) - No doubt that Leicester scrum-half Youngs was England's best player in Johannesburg. He scored two tries and also had a hand in how Toby Flood got his five-pointer so it is unlucky for Stuart Lancaster that he is now on his way home injured.
8 Thomas Waldrom (England) - Jamie Heaslip was excellent on his 50th cap for Ireland while the dynamic Louis Picamoles also put in some shift for France in their defeat, again, to Argentina. However, we look past the fact he played one-and-a-half games this week as Waldrom did more in that aforementioned 20 minutes in Johannesburg that a lot of his team-mates did. He was also man-of-the-match in the midweek game in Kimberley.
7 Sam Cane (New Zealand) - This was a tough selection as while Australia's David Pocock was solid enough and Ireland's Sean O'Brien did well, we decided that for a debut showing like this, Cane deserves his inclusion. Was a big part of turning the game in Christchurch.
6 Willem Alberts (South Africa) - 52 minutes on the field but what a 52 minutes. He carried like a Trojan once again, brushing off tacklers in a strong showing. We will look past the fact that the scrum should have been reset when he capitalised on the loose ball early on.
5 Donnacha Ryan (Ireland) - Week after week we come across Geoff Parling's name in the statistic column. The Tiger topped the England tackle count but we just felt Ryan did a bit more around the field in a pack that had plenty of dog about it. Credit too to Dan Tuohy.
4 Eben Etzebeth (South Africa) - Playing in only his second international for the Springboks, Etzebeth further enhanced his reputation in the rugby world by putting in a commanding shift in the engine room. Remind yourselves that the Stormers second-row is only 20 years old.
3 Mike Ross (Ireland) - Dropping Declan Fitzpatrick seemed a tad harsh after the Ulster prop's strong effort in Auckland. But after Ross' shift, Declan Kidney proved he made the right call. Ross was a rock at scrum-time and, like his front-row mates, played a full game.
2 Bismarck du Plessis (South Africa) - We challenge anyone to find a hooker who can do what Du Plessis does. A colossal for the Springboks on Saturday with a key try to boot.
1 Cian Healy (Ireland) - While the Beast racked up some running metres at Coca-Cola Park, it was a certain Irishman who got our vote this weekend. Healy also carried strongly but add to that him making thirteen tackles and scrummaging well and we came across our winner.

I would have Spies over Waldrom.

Anyone about to do some deals including EQ players?

Hartley named captain for the final test.

Midweek team:

England: Nick Abendanon (Bath Rugby); Christian Wade (London Wasps), Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers), Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins), Ugo Monye (Harlequins); Charlie Hodgson (Saracens), Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints); Matt Mullan (Worcester Warriors), Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Paul Doran Jones (Northampton Saints), Graham Kitchener (Leicester Tigers), George Robson (capt, Harlequins), Jamie Gibson (London Irish), Carl Fearns (Bath Rugby), Ben Morgan (Scarlets)

Replacements: Joe Gray (Harlequins), Rupert Harden (Gloucester Rugby), Mouritz Botha (Saracens), James Haskell (Otago Highlanders), Karl Dickson (Harlequins), David Strettle (Saracens), Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)

Morgan dropped eh

So reading into that would that make the England team be:

1. Cole
2. Hartley
3. Corbs (what a scrummaging performance by him!)
4. Palmer
5. Parling
6. Johnson
7. Robshaw
8. Waldroum
9. Care
10. Flood
11. Ashton
12. Tuilagi
13. JJ
14. Strettle
15. Foden

With a bench of

16. Mears (not sure why though, assume just the experience)
17. Marler
18. Botha
19. Haskell/Morgan (assume Dowson injured)
20. Dickson
21. Farrell
22. Goode

Sure ive just read on saints twitter that Hartley will captain england on sat

Robshaw injured...

6. Johnson
7. Haskell
8. Waldrom

???

Chris props wrong way round again. Well done mate.

Remember barrit is available for Saturday as well

I'd go

Corbisero
Hartley
Cole
Palmer
Parling
Haskell
Johnson
Waldrom

Care
Flood
Tuilagi
Barritt
Joseph
Ashton
Foden

I have a feeling Barritt will come back in and Tuilagi will move back to OC. JJ needs to be eased in and could be better from the bench at this stage.

Corbs for Marler
Haskell for Robshaw (although I'd prefer someone more adept at the breakdown)
Waldrom for Morgan

I don't want Barritt back in unless JJ or Manu injured, and still I'd like to see Allen.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/rugbynation/rugby-news/2012/06/18/wales-fans-call-for-sam-warburton-to-be-dropped-in-selection-poll-91466-31210249/

Welsh fans wanting Warburton dropped! Can be very fickle rugby fans

Tipuric would be massacred by Pocock who is currently the best 7 in the world.

Warburton not doing much wrong just can't get into the game against a guy in supreme form.

I myself wouldn't have to say Warburton making 20 tackles on saturday was still doing a decent job.

Carrying or turnovers needs to improve

I've never thought Warburton was a pure turnover flanker tbh, he gets the odd one but not his biggest strength. I really like Tupuric though. Warbs is more like a McCaw type player in he can do most things.

Pocock is very strong at the breakdown.

I'd want Warburton to stay one to be honest.....think we should have brought Tips on with 10 to go on Sat as he can seem to get turnovers from any situation and would slow down the Ozzy ball!!

Seen that about 6 Bristol players have signed for 'Nevers Rugby' in France....seems a bit odd unless they were just released and BBC fancied putting that on or they're off for a 'jolly' in France?! In fact ignore that it's just Matty James signed....bit of drop from prem with Sale to 3rd tier French rugby!!

was so close with the props, so close.

what's Robshaw done? I guess Haskell will add physicality but was good to have Robshaws breakdown work. They seem to be converting him quite nicely to a no7, didnt think he would have it in him. Nice to be proved wrong though!

quite a few Boks are injured too arent they?

I really hope Lindsay can come through next season. Rate him very highly in scrum and loose, can't think of an English hook that could match his physicality around the park.

Hooker is a major issue for us.

Hartley - decent option currently but I'm really not sure he has what it takes to go to next level and seems to have went backwards, esp carrying wise
Gray - A little leightweight but decent carrier, needs a run
Mears - had his chance and just doesn't offer enough physicality at Int, need to move on
Youngs - could be quality, very powerful carrier but awful throw at times
Lindsay - Loads of physicality but again throw isn't good enough
George - like the look of him but needs regular rugby, possible fitness issues?
Paice - solid all rounder but could he cut it at Int?
Webber - just never seen enough from him and throw can go to pieces

Thoughts on future??

How about Whitehead? Or from a Glos perspective: Dawiduk or Britton?

Did you see Britton in the U20's??? Major issues with his throw.

Dawiduk looks pretty solid actually, Whitehead looks tidy too. Need a big unit to come through

I like Rob Hawkins.

Have to say I think it is very difficult to see how good a hooker is in the scrum unless you are up against them.

George has it all just needs to move club.

Gray is a good allrounder. Only 22 which is young. He should be bench.

George has more potential than gray though.


Lindsay throw so bad same with youngs.

Dawiduik and whitehead good players but more Saxons

What's your honest opinion on Lindsay Matt? If he nailed his throwing?

I think he's got bags of potential. Similar with George but needs a good 10 AP starts next season