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Breaking News: One point now separates the bottom three teams after London Wasps home win against Saracens.

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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.

Funny how some players can come back after injury and be great instantly and others take ages.

Genia back and instantly back to his best yet someone like youngs takes quite a while to hit
Form after injury

You're proper pushing Genia lately Matt, must be business end of the season

I have not played Genia pooly.

He is just so bloody good. Watch the game. Commentators were going nuts over him.

If he is for Australia so much more dangerous. Gill is having a storming season. He has been the best 7 in the tournament.

Reds scrum not great if either Robinson or Alexander get injured then its curtains for Australia.

Paddy Ryan looks decent for tahs though

Ofa tufungisi is on bench for blues tomorrow and will be used more and more. I
Bought him a while ago. He will take some
Beatings in the scrum while learning but is super exciting round the park.

Nz is a conveyor belt of talent. Emery who Steve has looks great at super 15

Genia is a bit like Carter/McCaw etc, they kind of dont need bigging up. He's no Ben Youngs but is a top SH

Not bigging up just commenting on how good he was.


Picking a lions Backrow that deals with Genia will be key. Need intelligent
Backrow to do it.

He kills you on the fringes. Genia vs youngs is like man utd vs accrington Stanley. Think Phillips will be lions 9 and will look to get at Genia

You always go to far....Man Utd v AS

Sgt_Pooly wrote:You always go to far....Man Utd v AS

Thought you would like that one mate !

Watching Nottingham vs Doncaster not great watching.

Basics terrible every pass makes the person stop.
Put it in front of the player.

Duffey the notts hooker on the bench would be a good signing if people need English bench.
Been best hooker in league and in running for player of season in championship.

Can't wait for glos game tonight. Leaving for it in ten minutes and we have an ok side out.

Missing wood who is on bench but not trained all week since dropping out in warm up last week.

Think our scrum will struggle massively.
Surprised If we win

Duffey is linked with us, he's ok.

Lawson & Gopperth dropped for our game, they've been dire.

Duffey ex Leicester and was notts originally I think.

I know quite
a few championship players at bristol and 1 at Jersey and they all speak highly of him.

Had him in this game last year - was at tigers no?

Mat, did you know that Stephen Donald has signed for a Japanese club?

Yeah went to tigers from notts and think back to notts or is on loan from Leicester.

No worldbeater Luke but having a top
Season and would be decent English for bench for teams

dammit_chris wrote:Mat, did you know that Stephen Donald has signed for a Japanese club?

Where did you see that Chris ?

He has been a turkey for me. Was awful in first season and then started to play well this year and hot injured. Had off field booze incidents and been a down. As he has done this for bath i like him.

I will release him at end of season. Have good options at ten Barnes carter goosen Robson also Genia can play there and I have burns jr and pollard who will be the bulls ten with steyn off so a position on depth.

See Biarritz have Bosch at 10 as they have mental injuries

dammit_chris wrote:Mat, did you know that Stephen Donald has signed for a Japanese club?

Where did you see that Chris ?

He has been a turkey for me. Was awful in first season and then started to play well this year and hot injured. Had off field booze incidents and been a down. As he has done this for bath i like him.

I will release him at end of season. Have good options at ten Barnes carter goosen Robson also Genia can play there and I have burns jr and pollard who will be the bulls ten with steyn off so a position on depth.

See Biarritz have Bosch at 10 as they have mental injuries

I think you'd be hammered if you played Robson or Genia at 10.

Duffey never got a game for Tigers I don't think.

Donald....worst AB ever

Old law firm I worked for are Bath's law firm and caught up with a few people last night and they said he'd agreed to go to NEC Green Rockets, who I think are Japanese. Don;t think its been announced just yet, but makes sense with Ford joining.

Donald had some great games for ab's at 10
and 12. Can think of
Many manu worse ab's over time. Johnno Gibbs, Robinson ex nz scrum half and countless 1 cap wonders they have had. The list could go
On. Think jarred hoetah(however you spell it) from highlanders could feature in that list. Bryn evans from Irish got an ab cap also.

Donald won a wc and has been an excellent player for Waikato and chiefs. Not worked out for him over here but a quality player none the less. Remember both nick and me wanted him. Bet nick glad he did not buy him lol.

Robson comfortable at ten and Genia played there for Australia and Reds.

Agree I would not play them there though as a first choice.

Also have mills and lamb. Mills is an excellent ten but a better 12. Lamb is
Good when ground hardens but a liability in wet. Having goal kicking pressure kills him also. Not a fan.

Only position glos have depth is 12 with mills and 36. Most glos fans keen to see 36 given a go at 13 next year as he is physical and a lump. Mills a better footballer and great defender so could see it work.

Tindall has been great this year but will give it up and Trinder can't stay fit. He is starting tonight but there are real worries over him and his hamstrings. Michael Owen and Gerard the footballers had the same issue for years. They changed their cars, beds, Sofas and anything else that affected posture. Gerard got rid of his sports car( Ferrari I think ) and moved to a range rover and never had hamstring issues again.

Trinder has had bio mechanics, gait analysts and everything else and still cannot train fully every week. Dynamite when fit and hopefully can get a Run of games

Still young and growing so fingers crossed

Is that ashfords Chris ? Friends in bristol work for ashfords and burgess salmon and they all do legal work for bath as well.

It's a firm called Thrings, they do the corporate stuff for them - had some great trips to Bath when i was working there.

Is the Gloucester game on the box tonight?

The Wasps one will be a cracker, best defence versus best attack - Sarries are another club we've struggled with over last few seasons as our front five can't quite match their physicality - but it is looking like our best pack of the season tomorrow and AJ has been great for us.

Hardly ever seen Donald have a good game tbh, certainly not in an AB shirt.

Nice touches from Cooper actually, just watching game. Still hide him at FB in defence though, madness.

Not funny now been waiting for train for ages will miss game at this rate. Unbelievable.

I think Donald's a good player and certainly talented but he's lets himself down by not being as professional as he should be, which definitely impacts upon his performance.

Bet Bath will be glad to free up some money though for more signings, they could have a very good team next year if they just get a few more forwards.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Nice touches from Cooper actually, just watching game. Still hide him at FB in defence though, madness.

It's a massive issue pooly.

That said he is good at fb and creating attacks. For me though having to change the
System to accommodate his defence is wrong.

Sarries do it with Hodgson and many other teams do it. I am not a fan.

Glos tried it with burns and had JSD or
Sapolu there but did not work as we target turnovers
And then did not have distribution.

Burns a most willing defender and throws himself in with massive aggression but size means he misses a few. Simple equation a 12 stone bloke will sometimes struggle with some 16 odd stone bloke.

Burns has crazily poor tackle stats.

Heard him called a revolving door(from Gloucester fans) on main board

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Burns has crazily poor tackle stats.

Heard him called a revolving door(from Gloucester fans) on main board

He is so willing and does not bottle like cipriani. He is like cruden Barrett etc in that he is small with poor technique. They all go high . If
You are that small you should go low.

Burns not a revolving door in anyway but he is small like Barrett and cruden so gets targetted
I am a huge fan and his play is worth more than any defensive issues. Also our centres and Backrow are top defenders and help out.

A big runner is always a problem vs a small guy in any position. Look how gear steamrollered earls and how Savea went over Dagg. They tried but their size meant they could not complete tackle.

Tackling gear or Savea must be frightening. Huge and quick.

Gear benchpresses 190kg which is most in AB squad. Apparently thorn went mental and tried furiously to beat it over months and could not.

I have no issues tackling massive men who run straight if they have pace and a step it is a nightmare !

Cruden is small but he has impressive tackle stats, he has no issue really but can be caught by big blokes.

Cooper looking great then really poor, typical Cooper. Mixes the sublime with the ridiculous.

Gill is so good, that bit of bulk has really helped him.

Shipley is really coming on too, looks quality.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Cruden is small but he has impressive tackle stats, he has no issue really but can be caught by big blokes.

Cooper looking great then really poor, typical Cooper. Mixes the sublime with the ridiculous.

Agree to disagree re cruden seen him miss tons. like burns he has great support in centres and Backrow.
That small you will miss tackles. Cruden very good player don't think he is international
Class but great front foot player and goal kicker.

Stats don't back you up.

He'd be first choice 10 for every country bar NZ, at least they now have top backup I guess.

Wood dropped to bench again Matt? He been that poor of late?

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Wood dropped to bench again Matt? He been that poor of late?

Train gets in 8 minutes.

Wood injured in warm up last week and dropped out 10
Minutes beforr welsh game. Not
trained all week and only just right for bench.

Wood struggled to get fit at start of season after long out but been excellent of late. Murphy been great this year but is defo second choice.

Come
On the glaws

mat's going to have fun watching this with JP Doyle in charge! Worst ref in the AP by a ridiculous margin.

Gloucester back play is great

Burns squatted off Buchanan, why can Gloucester backs defend?!?!

Immense break Lowe!!!

Quality game this, 36 has to start for England.

Good turnover Wallace

Gloucester backs soooooo good, quality game.

Great game. Gloucester looking good.

Glos very good Qera immense. Burns dreadful in defence. Pooly how good was may in defence ???

He was over the ball tackled everything and was a first receiver often.

Wallace is a menace at breakdown but missed so many tackles.

Quins rotated and it showed tray foot et al not as good as their best.

Wood immense when he came on. Kalimafoni great.

Trinder getting done by Buchanan and rolled over was embarrassing .

Dave Lewis first good game in years. Robson was throwing up everywhere with concussion.

Come on glos !

dammit_chris wrote:mat's going to have fun watching this with JP Doyle in charge! Worst ref in the AP by a ridiculous margin.

Chris he was dreadful but for once it benefited us. Quins should have been 19-3 instead of 12-3
And he ruined it for them.


For me it was great to see so
Many English players on the pitch. Easter
Was great

Qera of kalamfoni man of match.

May brilliant and Sharples was great also.

Even cook was decent lol

May was ok, thought he got done positionally a few times but great in attack. Was only up against Sam Smith to be fair who gave him a few issues.

I'm a massive May fan but his defense isn't good

He broke up so many attacks not from smith.

On espn in teagues bar healey and Kay just said may at heart of everything

He stepped in so many times to stop attacks and tackled everything.

His positioning is better than any wing in the league it's his best quality after attacking.

Played every back position in ap (had 5 minutes at 9 last year and a bit at 10) that's why his positioning is great . He reads a game. He slows ball so well also as he is over the ball.
He is easily cleared though as he is small.

He was first receiver often today and also had lots of crash ball and showed his strength.

He looks so sleight yet is wiry strong. For me England need him. He is better defensively than wade and gets involved more as he
Has played every position

Tomorrow drybrook and newent are in the national cup semis ( higher and lower tier) with final at twickers

Have many friends in both teams so hope both go through

Drybrook playing in Kent so miles away.


Joys of bank holiday means no trains via reading so my train to London is 3 hours tomorrow.

I rarely get public transport and this weekend confirms why

May quality tonight - all Gloucs backs were. I'd have him replace Ashton if we had a game coming up.

You could just move to London Matt, it's not that bad

Hoping Drybrook win too Matt...got a couple of mates play for them.

We're off to play Ilford Wanderers tomorrow in a 'friendly' our coach's brother coaches them so should be a bit of fun before we have the run in in the cup and for the league title in Wales!

With no 8 doing well in 6n easter must be an option.


So good every week.

When glos changed entire front row we dominated scrum.

Wood always pastes Jj no idea why but he is a
nemisis for him.

Jj murders players much better than wood but cannot
Deal with wood.
Weird.
Marler struggled against knight who
Is very average.
Marler could
Not hit the bind and knights short sleeve top
Did not help

prop_lyd wrote:Hoping Drybrook win too Matt...got a couple of mates play for them.

We're off to play Ilford Wanderers tomorrow in a 'friendly' our coach's brother coaches them so should be a bit of fun before we have the run in in the cup and for the league title in Wales!

Prop many phelps Rawlings Morgan or
Meek in dry brook and I know most of
Them.

Good on them and hope they win.

Prop you will murder ilford they are awful. They have the fattest th ever.
He interviewed for a job with me last week.

He had grease stains on his suit and food in his teeth yet had scored a hat trick 6 weeks earlier.

At cindeford we toured there once and won. 140-nil
After
50 despite being drunk

George chuter was at glos tonight signing for us or Quins ?