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Saracens move off the bottom of the table after picking up a losing bonus point against Gloucester.

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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).

Failure to comply with these rules will result in forfeiting the match and a 1 league point deduction.

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 Finalist - £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.

NZ playing Scotland

good point

Right so I'm round london area tomorrow....wales top or fiji one....tough decision

Prop, maybe before you decide you could re-watch the 2007 world cup match between Wales and Fiji. Cracking game that.

Or he could watch Wales drub then 66-0 last year?

Prefer the 2007 match Driver, far more entertaining.

Fijian rugby is in such a mess at the moment, a lot of their top players decided not to go to the 2011 WC because their clubs paid them and the Fijian RFU couldn't/wouldn't guarantee they'd be paid what was agreed.

They've got so many good players around and should really be the best team out of the Pacific Islands, but they are run so badly. Real shame, but hopefully the money that they make from the Twickenham game will go a long way to supporting their world cup run for 2015 - apparently they could generate as much as £1million for the game.

Yeah chris: almost as good as wales vs england in feb

They were saying on the Rugby Club last night how most of the Fiji squad are amateurs. Be a massive experience for them to play at Twickenham and be in the UK in general.

On the subject of Tonga'uhia being on the bench for Tonga. I think it's purely down to rotation with Tonga'uhia playing a lot lately and Soana haveing a few months off after super rugby.

Loved that game Prop , proper test match.

Disappointed by the result but a great game to watch.

Behave yourself prop, you know that we English only count games between 2001-2003 as those that we talk about

Driver - Soana has been playing in the Top14 I think, so not having time away from rugby as far as I'm aware, can't remember who he signed for though.

Oh shi t yeah he's at Clermount , full of flu on my day off. Terrible times.

Hes at Perpignan sharing the LH duties with Schuster this season

I need Fiji to come within 32 points as part of my accumulator so hopefully England don't play too well!

Not my day lol.

Oh well Falcons vs Nottingham tonight , should be a corker.

Saw that Nottingham got over 60 points versus Bristol last week - they are looking a pretty good team, got some good youngsters there from AP team too - could be match of the season!

You liking Gopperth this year yet Driver?

He's been miles better since Russell took over the backs , if he can produce the likes of Dagg and Nonu he's clearly doing something right with Gopperth,

Played mainly 15 this season with Joel Hodgson (19 year old) at 10 this season and Hodgson has been ripping up trees.

Didn't make much of Leeds when we played them , Joe Ford is sooooo poor on the attack but his field kicking is decent. Charlie Walker there 7 looked a decent player.

All the youngsters will really benefit from a year in the championship - trouble is the play off system never guarantees that you go straight back up, but Newcastle look far, far stronger than any team - assuming they are still unbeaten in the league?

Has anyone been to Hamburg before? Off there for the weekend and looking for any recommendations.

Still unbeaten , I think it's 4 more wins and we're already in the play offs?

Nottingham have just signed Shaun Malton from Irish on loan. Supposed to be a reasonably decent young SA hooker. Think he used to play for the Sharks.

Who else is doing well in the Championship?
You been to many Falcons games Driver?

Bedford doing well, we beat them last week away. We're 11pts clear, think we've only dropped 2 or 3 TBP's

Falcons , Bedford and Notts are the stand out Nick.

I try to get through but they play all there home games on a Friday night now so getting to the games is a challenge. I usually go with Pooly but if he's busy i sometimes go with the rugby lads.

Been twice this season , £25 for a championship game. Far too expensive considering one of our stands doesn't have a roof!

I'v done Edinbourgh and Leeds so far along with Nottingham tonight. Play Tonga on Tuesday night which is a big game.

Saxons play Scotland A there in Feb so trying to go to that.

You and pooly been having some man dates?!

Lol, he's the bitch lol.

Matt Tait returns for Tigers this weekend.


All Blacks name there squad.

New Zealand: Israel Dagg; Cory Jane, Ben Smith, Tamati Ellison, Julian Savea; Daniel Carter, Piri Weepu; Victor Vito, Richie McCaw (captain), Adam Thomson, Sam Whitelock, Luke Romano, Owen Franks, Andrew Hore, Wyatt Crockett.

Replacements: Dane Coles, Tony Woodcock, Ben Franks, Ali Williams, Sam Cane, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Beauden Barrett, Ma'a Nonu.

dammit_chris wrote:Behave yourself prop, you know that we English only count games between 2001-2003 as those that we talk about

Didn't rugby cease to exist after 2003 in England?!

Pretty much spot on there Prop! Has been an awful decade - though I am always happy to see things like this...

http://www.irb.com/rankings/full.html

Still have no idea how the table is formed at all, we must get bonus points for having a nice pitch.

Pretty sure we won the 6N's last year.....

Yeah I tend to ignore them! Good year for welsh rugby (w.c and 6n not the summer) yeah we're still so low!!

Pooly: that was the women's one

2nd in the 6N with a brand new squad and coming close to beating the Boks on there own turf which is one of the hardest things to do in rugby.

U20s constantly winning and impressing JWC , More top 2 finishes in 6N that any other team?

Yes it's been a awful 9 years.

We also won in Aus ;-)

Hmmm not many English making the BBC's Lions teams at the moment - surprise, surprise Guscott doesnt pick a single one!

Jeremy Guscott's Lions XV: Halfpenny (Wales), Cuthbert (Wales), O'Driscoll (Ireland), Roberts (Wales), North (Wales); Sexton (Ireland), Phillips (Wales); Jenkins (Wales), Best (Ireland), A Jones (Wales), Charteris (Wales), Gray (Scotland), Ferris (Ireland), Warburton (Wales), Heaslip (Ireland).

Keith Wood's Lions XV: Halfpenny (Wales), Bowe (Ireland), J Davies (Wales), O'Driscoll (Ireland), North (Wales); Sexton (Ireland), Phillips (Wales); Jenkins (Wales), Best (Ireland), A Jones (Wales), Gray (Scotland), AW Jones (Wales), O'Brien (Ireland), Warburton (Wales), Ferris (Ireland).

Andy Nicol's Lions XV: Halfpenny (Wales), Bowe (Ireland), Tuilagi (England), Roberts (Wales), Visser (Scotland); Sexton (Ireland), Phillips (Wales); Jenkins (Wales), Hartley (England), A Jones (Wales), Gray (Scotland), Lawes (England), Ferris (Ireland), Warburton (Wales), Faletau (Wales).

Jonathan Davies's Lions XV: Kearney (Ireland), Bowe (Ireland), O'Driscoll (Ireland), Tuilagi (England), North (Wales); Sexton (Ireland), Care (England); Sheridan (England), Best (Ireland), Cole (England), AW Jones (Wales), Lawes (England), Ferris (Ireland), Tipuric (Wales), Heaslip (Ireland).

If you were picking on club form so far this season (given we've not had the internationals yet) then for me the team would be…

15. Mike Brown 14. Tommy Bowe 13. Manu Tuilagi 12. Jonathan Davies 11. Tim Visser 10. Johnny Sexton 9. Danny Care
1. Cian Healy 2. Rory Best 3. Dan Cole 4 & 5 anyones guess nobody has been that great 6. Chris Robshaw 7. Steffon Armitage 8. Jamie Heaslip

I will be amazed if more than 6 of them actually start the first test against the Aussies. I guess my point is that Lions speculation at this time of the season is utterly pointless.

Watching Lancaster on rugby club. Guy is a joke can't think of
An England coach I have liked less.

Just sets us up for mediocrity

Pint of guiness with 2 eggs in it for driver's birthday!! Have a good one fella!!

Happy Birthday Driver....21 you old bugger

Cheers lads.

Catching up to you lot now....

Aye he's knocking on isn't he pooly....unlike you, you young pup

Only as old as the girl you feel Prop, ask Saville

Oooo he did not go there!!!! Man St Albans has juge houses...my fact of the day

Yachvili back for Biaritz today. Wonder if he'll get shoehorned into the French side over the next few weeks.

Stuck a £10 on Sharples first try scorer today. Was torn between him and Care...

Garbage start.

Care tip tackle yet Fiji lock has one foot on floor??? We're lying all over the place at the breakdown, should be getting pinged more.

Youngs impressive, carrying more than Hartley ever has. Throwing so far(big one) is spot on. Dylan will be worrying!

Goode's service at 9 is better than half the 9's in the prem!

Happy with that Luke!!!

Get in!

Goode has been superb.

So unlucky Sharples, great work.

This is a shockingly poor Fiji side. If England don't put 60 points on them then this has to go down as a poor performance.

After that first 20 I was worried Pete tbh but past carrying they've got little.

Barritt has been very impressive. For no attacking skills, he's carried, passed and offloaded superbly. Tuilagi has even showed a decent passing game.

Rusty but encouraging

Pooly, your man love for Barritt is far too strong. First half his offloading was non existent and almost everytime he got hands on the ball he carried and went to ground which invariably slowed our attacking momentum.

He has been better second half, but he is not the long term answer at 12 for England.

It could be worse, we could be Welsh