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First topic message reminder :

Breaking News: Gloucester smash their way into the top 4 for the first time this season, beating local rivals Bath at The Rec. Worcester move up one place condemning Wasps to the bottom of the table after a bonus point win over their relegation rivals.

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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.

I love May, not a good defender tho

He is a very tidy defender and is fully fit now. I watch him most weeks and he is the best player gloucester have and has England written all over him.

Ashton brown and may would be tidy attacking threat. May decent under high ball from playing fb for a while

Was dissapointed with Farrell yesterday, ball in hand he made some poor decisions. Think he was a little rattled to be honest, first half we weren't really on the front foot as we had been in the two previous games, French pack were decent and disrupted the breakdown well. Agree that the changes made by Saint-Andre were bizzare - took off the likes of Kayser who was having a really good game.

Lawes was woeful, was expecting a big performance from him at 6, hardly saw him in the loose and he was just slipping off tackles. Really poor from him expect to see him back on the bench. Wood and Robshaw were outstanding but I think Wood needs to play at 6, his control at the back of the scrum was shaky at times. Think our discipline still needs improving, Vunipola could have quite easily been yellow carded for that hand in the ruck on another day.

Tuilagi very good, Barritt improves each time I see him, his defence is superb. Think Goode is ok but would like to see Foden back eventually and also think Brown went missing a few times. Positionally decent but didn't see much of him with the ball in hand, quiet from Ashton so I'm expecting at a least a hat-trick from him against Italy.

Can't agree Matt, I think he's very suspect. Was terrible for Saxons.

Don't think he was fully fit for Saxons been out for a long time. Has been outstanding last few weeks now he has match sharpness.

Just finished watching the game did not notice how good the line speed was yesterday when watching it.

Michalak put in probably the worst 30 minutes I have ever seen

His attacking threat not in question, awesome. I'd bench him against Italians without doubt.

Christian Wade take a bow. Sublime finish. His defence has been excellent against Yarde as well.

He has had the better of yarde today. Disappointing was hoping it would be other way round!

Sounding like Andy Gray there Streve.

His finish is great. Not a massive jinking run but in a few yards on a touch line. Homer's defence not great but excellent from Wade

If we keep Barritt as 12 we need a winger who can score tries instead of Brown - after seeing Wades finish there you've got to call him up for training with full England squad. His finishing is unreal.

May was meant to have plate very well on Friday.

Just hope it isn't Strettle who I think got 2 tries this weekend

Halufia is a liability costs Irish so many games

Halaufia a liability of a player.

Brown should not be dropped. Perhaps moved to 15, but never dropped. Good in an England shirt.

Agree Steve. He should be 15 his defence on wing is average and attack not much. Its not his fault but he is not a winger

Hala'ufia redeemed himself. Man of the match. Yarde quality
2nd half.

Marshall off to a flyer

Two bad passes once he made the break though. One behind Earls and the other ahead of Gilroy.

Jackson started poorly. Don't think he has the basics yet

Not a great game. How is Tom court an international ? Cross not great but destroying court

Sounds like a thriller

Low quality pooly paddy Jackson missed a few kicks and was like a rabbit in the headlights after knocking on first ball he received. Good distribution though.

Marshall looked bright early doors and faded.
Best throwing in been awful hamilton and grey have pressured lineout well.

Laid law a very intelligent player and source of anything decent jocks have done

Lions back row of 6. SOB 7. Robshaw 8. Wood is becoming increasingly more appetizing to me.

Wood has to start for the Lions, probably the one English player I would want in my squad more than any other apart from Tuilagi! Can't believe how well he is playing for us at no8 - imagine Morgan will slot right back in with Wood moving to no6 in the next game?

Wonder if England will make some changes for the Italy game, from what I've read it sounds as though Vunipola and Care have been promised that they will start - would imagine Billy Vunipola could get on the bench if Morgan isn't fit and he recovers. Other than that would like to see either Wade or May start, espc as it is at home.

Wood is no 8 for me.

Top backrower but an 8 needs pace and power off the base which Wood doesn't have. Same reason I wouldn't have Robshaw at 8.

Wood carried well its like having Richard hill.

Found out recently that I coached Alex cuthbert. Did not realise he is English from westbury on Severn.
Known his dad for years.

Want him to go on lions now so i can claim to have coached a lion !!

Well the way players like Aston etc are playing their way out of spots he has a chance.

Would really struggle to name wingers in great form at min. Can see Halfpenny poss put back out there

Maitland has looked good. You can see it in some of the lines today and the past weeks. In Lions terms wouldn't mind seeing May/Wade as a bolter.

Agree Fluxy. He looked sharp. Vissers stock has dropped. He is not great defensively or under the high ball. Think north is definite and after that could be anyone

Players available for transfer for Saints, looking to do deals for next season - probably best to PM me though as I am not 100% sure how to set up new pages on 606v2 and my page is near to its max!

HK TFN (Australia)
HK Motu Matu'u (New Zealand)
PR Logovi'i Mulipola (Samoa) (3)
LK Patricio Albacete (Argentina)
LK Alun Wyn Jones (Wales)
OS Julian Salvi (Australia)
SH Sam Harrison (E)
SH Nick Phipps (Australia)
FH/FB Danny Cipriani (E)
CE Ashley Beck (Wales)
WG Sitiveni Siviatu (NZ)
WG Chris Ashton (E) EPS
FB Niall Morris (Ireland)

http://m.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/feb/23/england-france-players-rated-twickenham

Fair ratings for me if no one else has posted

You like your PM deals Chris

PM for Chris.

Smith coming back http://m.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/wallabies-great-smith-ready-to-play-at-home-in-super-deal-20130224-2ezol.html

Tuloh to play for France http://m.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=10867401

Says Jared Payne could be added to the Ireland squad next year.

3 year residency. Would not get kearneys place but good bench option

They might try him at 13 yet , silky runner and very skill full. Ideal replacement for Drico.

All getting a bit much with these players coming over and playing for other nations - I am ok with it if they are young, moved to the country early etc, but I don't agree with older players changing like this, guys like Waldroum, Botha etc.

Residency should be moved up to 5 years.

100%agree thea article is stupid to cite the Vunipola and Manu examples as they learnt their rugby here and consider themselves English.

Nz have lots of the same

It is stupid - when you see Tuilagi sing the national anthem you see that he considers himself as English and his Leicester accent helps there! It's when you get guys in their mid-late twenties with Aussie accents wanting to play for England I find it a bit strange.

Ireland seem to be pushing it a lot at the moment.

The Ben Botica issue highlighted it very well, he's pretty much said he'd love to play for NZ so in the future we shouldnt be looking to select him when he does qualify.

It's weird with pundits bigging up Sean Maitland's chances of being a Lion this year.

England team for Italy?

1.Mako Vunipola
2.Dylan Hartley
3.Dan Cole
4.Joe Launchbury
5.Geoff Parling
6.James Haskell
7.Chris Robshaw
8.Tom Wood

9.Danny Care
10.Owen Farrell
11.Mike Brown
12.Billy Twelvetrees
13.Manu Tuilagi
14.Ben Foden
15.Alex Goode

Vunipola and Care will definitely start - can't see Lancaster and his team wanting to change too many, Stuart Barnes was saying Barrit should be rested and 36 given a run out.

Would really like to see some out and out wingers playing, Brown wasted on the wing, Foden can do a job there better than Brown as he showed in SA. Can't see Lancaster dropping Goode though. Brown deserves a go at fb though.

Wade or May should be on the bench. Imagine Billy V could get a bench spot too if he is fit and Morgan not available.

I thought Mike Brown played quite well yesterday , covered a lot in defense and made some important tackles.

Can see lawes getting a start at lock maybe

I was thinking that , needs a crack at 4.

Luke Burguss or Jimmy Cowen can leave. Not after the world for them.

Elsom joins Toulon

Weird signing