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First topic message reminder :

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.

Yea Manu spoiled a few with his blinkers, I sometimes think if he'd make a better sub!

If we can try and match the Boks physicality up front we'll have a chance. Not entirely sure about Johnson in an England shirt, don't think he's physical enough.

Just think we're lacking that spark/playmaker in the backline, we were too pedestrian and slow for my liking yesterday.

Manu offers more ball in hand than any other though - I think Greenwood and Guscott saying they should look at moving him to 12 says that could be a good plan going forward. Thing with

Trouble I noticed watching it again is that he's the only guy who straightens the line, Flood, Barritt and Goode all crabbed across and ate up space. Tuilagi straightened it but didnt pass it out enough, think he missed giving the ball to Ashton twice when he would have run into a lot of space.

Arry think you are spot on with your comments.

Tuilagi straitens it because he knows nothing else and just wants to smash through.

side to play SA

1. Marler
2. Youngs
3. Cole
4. Launchbury
5. Parling
6. Wood
7. Robshaw
8. Morgan
9. Care
10. Flood
11. Brown
12. Barritt
13, Tuilagi
14. Ashton
15. Goode

I think we have to see what happens really. Need to be physical with them hope Care, Flood, Brown and Goode create enough for us.

What would your bench be?

Was impressed with impact that Vunipola, Launch, Wood and Brown had from the bench - not sure why we took Barritt off though.

Driver point I was making about the crabbing runs that our backs make is that we aren't taking out any defenders with 10, 12 or 15 - so our wings and Tuilagi always have tacklers on them - contrast that with the Aussies back play.

You are right though, Tuilagi does need to pass more, wonder if they will shift him out to the wing any time?

To be fair we must be making some progress as we really should and could have won or at least drawn that game and we were shockingly poor. Bring in Corbs, Hartley, Lawes, Wood, Morgan, Foden etc and we;ve got the makings of a good team.

Got Ashley Beck available if anyone is interested?

I am.

Dont think Corbs had a great time againt Tigers yday so wonder whether Lancaster will leave him with Irish for another week. I hope so anyway! we need him.

Takes longer for props to come back to fitness so probably best thing to do. I would stick with Marler he needs experience and to learn

Reading that Cooper has quit Aussie Rugby Union....

I hear he's off to Toulouse

I have heard he is moving to a convent in the austro-Hungarian mountains

Team of the weekend, no English/Welsh shockingly

http://www.rugbyrugby.com/news/more_news/southern_hemisphere/7007176/team_of_the_week__joie_de_vivre

Etzebeth/Maestri is some beastly engine room

Etzbeth was immense vs scotland. got through a lot of lineout work also. they are using him more and more

See Woodward is laying into the England team and Lancaster - Lancaster not picking a physical enough team for internationals in the pack and is going to cause us a lot of problems if it isnt addressed asap.

Watching the france match at the moment (1st half for lunch!) Man the french back row are covering a lot of tackles missed by their backs. Also how hard can Machenaud hit in the tackle!! Fair play.

Looks set to be a huge collision of backrows from what I've seen so far.

If Nyanga or Ouedragao were English they would walk in to our backrow Prop. Both tackle machines and can hit the breakdown well. In fantastic form at the moment! Hard to believe but they have barely missed Dusatoir at all this Autumn

Nyanga's pace off the maul for his try was incredible from a standing start and after breaking a tackle!

Going to watch the 2nd half when I get in from work.not sure why Argentina haven't targetting Michilak yet as you can see he's taken a knock.

anyone else read that article from craig newby about steffon?

interesting read!

think andy hazell has also said armitage was his toughest ever opponent.

Yeah I read that Nick.

Marler out of next game, no citings from Wales match, Ezebeth cited for making contact with the eye.

I read a different article....10 most overrated in rugby.

Steffon, Richie Gray, Parling, Cipriani, Adam Jones, Jenkins, Warburton and s few others.

Was pretty funny reading

Is Adam jones overated!? Not many better 3's about.

Is anyone able to do this weeks match thread for me at all. I am absolutely snowed under this week and struggling to get stuff done.

Can't help I'm afraid Pete. Busy time for me as well!

Nick when it comes to scrums I rate Jones as amongst the World's best. But he needs to add to his loose game more. Carrying in particular.

Working thurs night and fri morning so probably not the man to do it this week, sorry

Heathecote called up by Scotland, ah man when will my luck change?!

Not that bad prop. Better chance at international rugby for jocks than with England

I mean for me on this game, I lose an eq player if he starts! Fair play to the lad for the call up.

Wales v NZ: Halfpenny Cuthbert J Davies Roberts North Priestland Phillips James Rees Jarvis B Davies Charteris Jones Warburton (c), Faletau

Bench: Owens, Jenkins, Andrews, Shingler, Tipuric, Knoyle, Hook, S Williams

Finally sitting down to the ENG vs AUS game. Hate the kit so much.

Good on Lancaster - players he has released:

Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers)
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)
Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Ugo Monye (Harlequins)
George Robson (Harlequins)
Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)
Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)
Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers)

Sharples & Monye....? Brown or Tuilagi out wide?
Don't think Waldrom has done much worng. Top carrier and 2nd highest tackler.

Looks like we are going for a much bigger pack, imagine the team will be:

1. Corbs
2. Youngs/Paice
3. Cole
4. Palmer/Launchbury
5. Parling
6. Wood
7. Robshaw
8. Morgan/Haskell
9. Care
10. Flood
11. Ashton
12. Barritt
13. Tuilagi
14. Brown
15. Goode

Read somewhere we could see a Barritt and Joseph midfield with Tuilagi on the wing. Youngs to come in at 9 as well.

Forgot about JJ there, wonder if Lancaster might consider putting Tuilagi in at 12 and JJ at 13, just like the last test in SA?

I like Waldroum at club level, but he doesnt really have the same impact he does for Leicester at this level - don't think that he has the speed to make it at the highest level. Think Morgan has the potential to be a top, top player and could be that by 2015.

Would be interesting move putting Tuilagi on the wing - could work, but might have problems in defence. Think it will work against SA though.

I didnt think Care was that bad on Saturday, seen a lot of bad reports on him, but thought his passing was pretty good and defended well. Youngs seemed to make quite a few more mistakes.

Havent seen much of London Irish play this season, would be interested to know how JJ has been playing.

Care was decent but Youngs upped tempo but made mistakes trying to rush game.

Tough on Waldroum/TJ they were impressive last game but we need better.

Hope Wood plays in front of Haskell.

Agree with you about Waldroum and TJ Pooly, think both are great club players and ok against teams like Scotland, Italy etc, but Waldroum lacks the pace and TJ lacks the size/physicality to worry the top teams - think it showed against the Aussies.

Much prefer Wood and Morgan - think Wood is possibly our best backrower, or will be. Pooly, was it you who mentioned Calum Clark as a potential? He's been playing well for Saints, think he's been made captain.

For 6Nations we could have a really good team - I know you dont like him, but think Hartley starting and Youngs on the bench as an impact sub could be so good for us. Launchbury and Lawes could well work - and Wood, Robshaw and Morgan backrow.

Launchbury/Lawes would be good but neither lead a line which is an issue. Parling gets a bad rep but I don't think we've lost a throw yet in two games.

Clark could def step up, his physicality is unlike any other back rows we have.

Wood/Robshaw/Morgan could be good v Boks.

Just seen Carlos Teves's monthly wage slip......Jesus

300k in tax!!

Shoot!

Getting free Xbox/PS3 games tomorrow from work! Store them for Ubisoft and the contracts expired so freebies!

So if anyone wants one when i'm done i'll post them on here and take your pick!

Do you get free xbox's too Driver??!!

Nah just the games.

Few decent ones

GTA , Red Dead , Bioshock and Borderlands all in there.

Ah man!! I'd happily take an x-box..........although I could be interested in some ps3 games...my sis' fiancee has one!

I'll see what i can get fella , My Dad has first dibs on them.

I'v just sold my PS3 so lack any sort of game console lol.

Fairy snuff fella

Waldroms stats were impressive against Oz. Whilst I don't think he is the way forward I am surprised he's dropped.

I expect Brown to start on the wing though. He was good when he came on on Saturday.

I got all excited because Burns wasn't on the list of players dropped but wasn't there to begin with!

I believe players should play in positions they are used to. For me Brown is quality but is not a winger. Would prefer him at FB to Goode who was excellent against fiji and not so good against Australia along with every other member of the team.

Where is the out and out pace in the back 3?

Morgan has to come in as he is in great form and is more likely to be the long term solution. There are lots of questions over waldroms defence which is the main reason i think.

Basically the reason that Goode is being picked is that we need a second play making distribution option. this should be a centre but we dont have one so we have gone for this compromise. FB is maybe the most important attacking position where you need a strike runner. Beale, dagg, Dulin, Halfpenny. Kearney, Hogg etc. by having Goode there we dont have that.

We need a 12 so much. dont think having JJ at 13 will make much of a difference as we will not make the holes for him to run in to.

Seriously debating whether to go to the england game or Gloucester vs Sale.

Redpath returning to Glos is making me think i may off load my tickets for the SA game. 12 o clock kick off means very early drinking though!!