Homepage

First topic message reminder :

Fantasy Aviva Premiership Current League Table

---

---

---

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.

Farrell you should never don an England shirt again, I hate you

I'd take that draw. Besides the Oz tour when Youngs stepped up that is a decent series to take us forward.

Manu looks a 12 going forward, the battle for who gets the 13 shirt outside him will be intense. Joseph was steady, he just doesn't make mistakes and will grow into the shirt.

Care and Youngs will be a hell of a battle for the 9 shirt.

Marler and Corbs will also be very interesting.

JJ is worth sticking with, thought he look steady. Marler has grew through the series, although I prefer Corbs he's a good alternitive and will only get better.

Tuilagi a work in progress but again worth sticking with, outstanding ball in hand but god does he cause problems for the backline when he rushes out in defence. A freakish talent though and with an offload could be best 13 in world.

Farrell needs to play 10 for Saracens, he is nowhere near good enough (sorry Pete). I really dislike him as a player and doesn't seem to know how to do anything but kick. People talk of composure but he just wasted one of our few chances to win in the SA with one of the worst attempts of a drop goal I've ever seen. Boy needs serious work.

TJ was a success and had a good game, Haskell wasn't great though. Wood & Croft coming back will give us good competition, Waldroum was pretty good too as was Care.

Draw is a good result but I'm still fuming as we should have won.

Tj misses too many tackles generally. Played well though. Waldron excellent as was care.

Tuilagi and Joc 2 wc talents at 12 yet both suspect defensively. It's no surprise as they have barely played there. Stick with them
And you will have 2 of the best 12s you are likely to see. For me Manu great. Expecting him to be error free is unreal as he never plays there.

The amount of exciting young talent in world rugby immense.

Coetzee,goosen,Kitschoff, tj perenara, savea, jj, Joc,etzbeth, cane etc etc great generation emerging

Watching Wales game. Horne excellent as
Is tpn, halfpenny Barnes genia. Awj dreadful and priest land shot to pieced. Welsh restart so bad.

Kepu middle name Miami as parents lived Miami vice. How council house is that.

Warbs so injury prone. Such a shame. 25 minutes in and hornes running lines killing Wales

www.keo.co.za/.../mitchell-set-for- ...
24 May 2012 – Hurricanes scrumhalf TJ Perenara has broken his ankle and will be out of action for at least four months. .... injury that was initially thought to be career- threatening.

I stand corrected.

I was trying to find where I read about TJ injury career threatening and it was this. Was just just an article snippet on Google and is actually going on about Drew Mitchell and his previous injury not TJ.

I was suspicious because I was national sales manager for stryker the biggest orthopaedics company in the world. I spent 3 days a week with my account managers who worked for me in surgery with consultants every dayand clots were so common.

Particularly in athletes. No idea why supremely fit people get clots so often ???

May be because they are always flat out

Pooly

No need to apologise about Farrell mate, he's had a poor series. You do go a little OTT about him though as he is clearly a good player. He seems to have gone backwards the last few months of the season, not sure why, but he needs to go away and work hard and he will come good again.

You are right though that if he is going to be a 10 he needs to be playing there regularly for his club.

Pack still an issue for me for England. Yesterday was a real opportunity for them to put in a big performance and although it was better than the week before I don't think we went far enough and a full strength Bok side would still have mashed us!

Farrell's decision making is highly questionable atm. Whilst I understand he is part of a Sarries machine which requires kicking, he seems to do so much of at for England as well.

In the last 20 mins of the game yesterday I saw Farrell being a geniune threat on the gainline, but this seemed to be when he tried to kick but couldn't so was forced inside.

He will be with the squad for a long time. They need to decide what we want him to do. Agree something with Sarries and Farrell himself as to where he is to play for club and country.

With regards to the pack Pete we simply need some go forward.

We are lacking obvious go forward across the land when it comes to forwards. Palmer, Corbs, Haskell, Waldrom, Marler all get over the gainline with ease in AP but struggling to get to the next level.

The likes of Fearns offer a high physicality in the AP but he was struggling against SA baabaas to get any go forward. I don't know what the issue is, gym work is streets ahead of SH across the board, Perhaps an issue of what weights are being done. Need to find some dynamism from somewhere.

Farrell has shown in glimpses that he can attack the line and be a threat, but his first instinct at the moment is to sit deep and try to hit the corners with the boot. This is Sarries gameplan and appears to be ingrained in him.

I think it is unlikely to happen, but for him to really flourish and reach his full potential he may need to move clubs.

Kahui out till next season with shoulder injury, shame as he was playing well

http://m.watoday.com.au/breaking-news-sport/all-black-kahui-out-for-season-20120624-20w1r.html

Kahui seems to be really injury prone. shame as he's a class player. Destined through injuries to never quite hit the heights he should I reckon.

Yea Farrell had a really promising couple of mins in the SA half but just picks the wrong option too much.

Really like Kahui, he should have a lot more caps than he does. I know Matt bigs Rob Horne up a lot but Kahui for example is on a different planet to Horne.

More likely he will move clubs with his Dad gone.

Not sure what Ashton see's for himself at Sarries, unless we are about to see a radical game plan switch.

Stuart Barnes calling for Henry Thomas to be called up. I myself reckon Cole is the only position Iam 90% happy with.

Thomas not good in enough in the set piece yet, needs another season to progress a bit like Marler did.

agree. His loose work as good as any other TH though.

Props need to scrummage first, loose work is a bonus really. I like the look of Snickler at Quins, he seems to hold his own quite well. Imagine he'll get some game time next season.

Steven_Sharks wrote:With regards to the pack Pete we simply need some go forward.

We are lacking obvious go forward across the land when it comes to forwards. Palmer, Corbs, Haskell, Waldrom, Marler all get over the gainline with ease in AP but struggling to get to the next level.

The likes of Fearns offer a high physicality in the AP but he was struggling against SA baabaas to get any go forward. I don't know what the issue is, gym work is streets ahead of SH across the board, Perhaps an issue of what weights are being done. Need to find some dynamism from somewhere.

I think this is a mental thing rather than physical one to be honest. We have big, heavy guys who do not make the yards they should. If you look at how we take contact it is markedly different to how the Saffas do. We hit the contact area and look to go to ground. We also seem to decelerate into the tackle, whereas if you look at the Saffas and take the JDV try in the first test as an example, they accelerate into the point of contact. They seem to relish it more than we do. JDV saw Brown and made a conscious decision I am going through him and accelerated at him, aiming for a point 5 yards beyond him. We do not do that and until we get players mindsets right about it we will always be behind the SH teams.

Thomas is 20 or 21. Not like we are talking about Tony Buckley. If his scrumagging gets sorted he will be pushing Cole mighty close.

Horne was brilliant yesterday pooly and for me equally as good as kahui.

Kahui is so physical he will always get injured.

Haven't seen the Wales game Matt, Horne is a decent centre no more for me. Kahui is much better, has a bit of class about him whilst Horne is just steady.

Horne only 22 as well will get a heap of caps. Benefitting from being injury free. In times Alex Goode and palmer got highest ratings.

Just watched the England game, some really good positives have come out the series. Thought Care was very good and Haskell added so much in the tackle area - stopped the Boks smashing over the gain line - we really did miss that in previous tests.

Think we can challenge most sides if we can sort out a few issues

- getting some physicality in second row, am sure Lawes is that person. wouldn't play Botha again, good player he is but won't make it as a top international.

- get Ben Morgan off the Adam Jones diet, could be a top class player if he sorts out his fitness - would like to see Croft, Robshaw and Morgan with Haskell on the bench.

- stop playing Foden on the wing, think he's wasted there.

- bring youngsters into the set up to train with Full team, mainly Johnny May and George Ford. May should be on bench by AIs and Ford by 6Nations

- Look at youngsters instead of guys who won't cut it at highest level so set for 2015, wouldn't play Dowson, Mears, Botha and Johnson again.

dammit_chris wrote:
- Look at youngsters instead of guys who won't cut it at highest level so set for 2015, wouldn't play Dowson, Mears, Botha and Johnson again.

Harsh on Johnson. For a man making his debut I thought he did very well. His tackle count was right up there and he grafted his nuts off. He is worth keeping around the squad, albeit not a first choice when everyone is fit. The others I agree with you.

I thought tj had a good series but will never be first choice. He made loads of tackles but missed some key tackles.

Our lack of physicality was noticeable. Lawes will walk back in. We need a 5 with some athleticism. Lots of the Sunday papers pointing this out saying Parlings work rate very good but lacks athleticism and presence and palmer being too old to take us to world cup.

Nobody really coming through either

Parling would be fine if we had a big carrying 4, we need balance. Engine room looked a little better yesterday tbh.

I like TJ, he's definitely got a future around the England set up although possibly not physical enough to be first choice going forward.

Lawes for me will never be a proper 4, but could be a very good 5 with his physicality and athleticism. England need a proper 4. A big horrible bugger who carries well and has some dog about him. There are very few around in that mould and I think that Lancaster needs to have a good look at both Attwood and Garvey to see if the can fill that role going forward.

The only issue with that is one of the back row will have to call the lineout as Lawes is none of those locks do it for their clubs.

Wood, Croft or Robshaw could call it and all are decent jumpers giving us options.

It will be interesting to see who is in the new EPS when it is announced in early July.

Parling for me looks like being another one who is a top AP player but just doesn't have that extra bit that you need on the international stage. Does a job, but England need more if we are going to challenge the SH teams.

I look at our players and think would they get in any of the top sides.

Parling would not get in any of the top sides or in any of the 6 nation teams. 5 is a strong position for most countries apart from England.

Attwood is def worth a look although does lack dog

We have a lot of players like that....TJ, Palmer, Dowson, Botha

Thats my point. It shows how inadequate we are in so many positions

We have all three SANZAR teams in the autumn and also Fiji. Against Fiji which is the first game I would like to see this pack.

1. Corbisiero
2. Hartley
3. Cole
4. Garvey
5. Lawes
6. Croft
7. Robshaw
8. Haskell

16. George 17. Marler 18. Attwood 19. Waldrom

We need to see if either Garvey or Attwood can cut it so I would give them 40 minutes each, and likewise I would give George a 20 minute run out to see if he looks at home at this level, as although we have lots of options at hooker I am not convinced by any of them really.

CaN see this happening http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_7838954,00.html

He pretty much plays that way these days anyway, with Kaino away it would make sense.

Best way of using all their talent. If read is injured they use vito or messam at 8

Didn't Jones move to 6 late on in his career?

Yes and became the best 6 ever for about 3 years. Jones for me best rugby player ever and a different league to anyone playing today.

He was a much more physical player than mccaw. He was a freak of a ball carrier.

Samoas loss was nz gain.

Guys, I'm moving into my flat this week (get the keys tomorrow) so may not be too active till a week Tues just so you all know

Summer tournament will start next week - so teams to be named by midnight on Thursday 5th July.

Predos will stay open all weekend and I'll do results on the Sunday evening. Might get the match thread up at some point this week to give everyone loads of time to get their team in.

Yoann Huget had a big game for France v Argentina.

Apparently Argentine players who played in June Internationals won't play for them in the RC.

Be good to have Contepomi back!

Contepomi has retired from Int I think now Steve

No he hasn't. He said he'd be available if allowed but he didn't think he would be. Arg have a different squad preparing for RC.

Apparently huget and Lapandry played well. Domingo back also. To be fair it was a reserve Argentina side

Two B teams played in the series.

I only recognize two Argentines (Contepomi and Tucalet) and don't recognize two of the french.

Very true although France's team slightly less b.

Argentina have some serious talent just need a infrastructure for player development

Morning gents,

Firstly i'd like to apolagise for my recent lack of activity, been a pretty mad week in my life and haven't had the time or energy to get about here. I'v also been working nights at work which has screwed my sleep pattern up big time.


But back to rugby related matters what do people think my weaknesses and strengths are.

1.Sturgess/Lewis-Roberts
2.Elliot/Whitehead/Varley
3.Alexander/Kruger/Tameifuna/Mitchell/Tui
4.Schofield/Flip/Swinson
5.Williams/Hudson
6.McLaughlin/Ruddock/Dowsen
7.Dowsen/Jennings/Welch
8.Narraway/Lakafia/Beattie
9.Williams/Thomas/Lawson
10.ROG/Butch/Jackson/Catterick
11.Visser/M Smith/Thompstone
12.Downey/Jauzion/Butch
13.Cave/Tindall/Bell
14.Turner/Robinson/Lamount
15.Smith/Byrne

Out of interest what players would you like to see come into the England team by the time of the AI's and then the 6Nations?

I would really like to see the following five:

Johnny May on the bench, if he was an Aussie or NZ'er he'd be in and around their setup and could light up our backline with the wheels he has! One of my favourite AP players by some distance.

George Ford around the training set up, with a view to potentially giving him some gametime against Italy/Scotland come the 6Nations - personally think he's already England's best tactical kicker and am sure they started playing Wilko for England when he wasnt first choice for Falcons?

Henry Thomas - looks really good prospect at Sale, with the signings they've made this season can see him coming on and getting himself into the setup pretty quickly. Sure Stuart Barnes was saying he should definitely be there.

Joe Launchbury - might have some Wasps biased here, but really rate the guy, he was easily Wasps best forward last year and our bad run of form started when he got injured for 3months. Tackles anything that moves, intelligent and covers ground quickly. Hopefully he will start alongside Palmer next season, as Wasps should have a pretty decent pack (at last!).

Tom Youngs - although I think he's 24/25 I think that he could be turned into a top impact replacement for England, really dynamic and a great ball carrier. Richard Cockerill has been singing his praises, so expect him to start as Tigers first choice next year.

Johnny May definatley needs to brought in and we need more options at hooker than just Hartley, Youngs is a good shout.

Thomas is nowhere near imo, he's not looked great in the set piece and needs to get a few AP seasons under his belt before making that step up.

I'd get Ford involved asap and lose Farrell also.