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First topic message reminder :

Breaking News: Leicester Tigers secure top spot and a home semi-final with their first bonus point win of the league season against Bath at The Rec.

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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 Barritt will be lucky, real lack of quality 12's.

Given the lack of quality alternatives at 12 Roberts is probably nailed on for the test jersey. Only question is who plays outside him. I would imagine it will either be Davies as they know each others game well, or BOD, as he seemed to work with Roberts in '09. Manu I would think could well be consigned to the dirt trackers and be a bench option for the tests.

They could look at shifting Tuilagi to 12 - wasn't Roberts a 13 originally before his first Lions tour?

Big game for a few of the Sarries boys, beat Toulon and could well put themselves up for selection.

Think they could do it - Toulon don't have enough out wide for me and can see Sarries trying to play quite wide.

Jd has not had the greatest of seasons and bod whilst still quality is not what he was. Could see manu challenging

Would like to see Scott tour as 12. Big fan

I would like to see Scott tour, as he is a different option in the centres than the others, who with the exception of BOD are essentially bosh merchants.

I think madigan and tuilagi would be a great midfield. Won't happen though.

Goode is so slow

Don't rate Scott at all, very average

Sarries really poor so far

Goode straight threw Giteau there!

C'mon Sarries!!

JMF such and immense talent. One of the very best in the world. Mako struggling today in my view.

Steven_Sharks wrote:Goode is so slow

It's like he is running in treacle. Like my fullbacks to have gas. Fb a crucial
Attacking position

Never a yellow

As I say that he produces a monster carry

Immense from Mako, he's been v good today

That was butchered by farrell

Awful from Farrell

If only Hodgson had been brought on before Farrell gave that pass!

Lobbe is having a fantastic game.

Wilkinson for me is still the best flyhalf in Europe.

Tomkins is bloody awful

Goode having a mare also

Is Ashton even playing?!?!

Oh there he is missing another tackle

England miss not having Delon in the squad. He is a complete tool but a very good player

Quality from Goode there, saved a try

Problem is sarries pack generating poor ball. Hard for sarries wings to do anything.

Contrast Owens and Rolland and you can see why Owens games flow and Roland's don't

Masoe & Lobbe have been immense

Go Johnny. Legend

Farrell stinking today, looks lost in attack

Taping it. Worth watching later?

Sarries kick way too much - they panic and haven't got a clue, Goode does this a lot and Farrell too.

Wilko surely should go on the plane if Jenkins is.

Farrell looks like old Farrell, not an attacking bone in his body

Not really luke. A bit if a bitty game not helped by Rolland

Sarries backline was awful and they badly missed Fraser. Wray out of his depth completely. Wilko class thought giteau and delon good too.

Luke not the best game to watch, just a demonstration of how good Wilkinson is at kicking and drop goals. Rolland whistled every two seconds and stopped any flow.

Wilkinson needs to go on the Lions tour!

Cheers. Quotes from Wilko on twitter sounds like he doesn't want to go?

They interviewed him at the end, pretty much said he would want to go, but believes it isn't his time anymore and there are a lot more deserving younger players who should go.

I don't think Gatland will pick him.

Good chat on Talk sport tonight with Moody & Dallaglio.

Lol reckons 8's should be Faletau & probably SOB. Reckons Heaslip has had a poor season and lacks the carrying of a top 8.

He isn't a big carrier in the tight but is quick and in space can cause damage. Faletau not a huge carrier either.

Faletua does the gritty carrying though. First phase stuff and ties numbers in. Vital for the Lions I think.

Faletau not huge carrier but step up on Heaslip, better all round player imo and in better form.

Him or Moody didn't mention Beattie which was surprising, just both said that Heaslip had been poor this season. Moods reckons he possibly can't handle the captaincy.

Sheridan ruled himself out too

I'm not convinced that Faletau carries any better in the tight than Heaslip does to be honest. They both strike me as doing their better work further out and with a bit a of space.

I think Falatau is a good carrier, typical power house 8.

Gets labelled as a wrecking ball being of island decent me thinks

The Mail is saying Wood, Vinipola and Wilko could well be on the Lions tour - as much as I don't like that paper their rugby reporters very rarely get a squad wrong! No Robshaw though.

Faletau is brainless and offers nothing in terms of reading the game.

Watch heaslip against Biarritz on the weekend and you will see his class..

What is this crusade against heaslip pooly. ? It never existed until I owned him. You have also massively distorted what was discussed on talk sport.

As you have not played the game you may be mistake in the role of the. 8.

Yes the 8 is required for making good yards off the back of the scrum but the most important thing 8s do after that is the reading of the game hence why when the ball is often kicked you will find the 8 fielding it back in the 22 and initiating attacks etc. This also works on defence when you will find the 8 making a tackle in a position you would not expect as they had anticipated what was going to happen and positioned themselves accordingly.


Faletau plays like a flanker and I actually think he would be a very good one. Sob has shown he carries really well but has poor hands and discipline in terms of giving away pens.

Hands are a vital part of. 8 and Leinster and ireland use heaslip for running moves and also he initiates attacks.


Probably the best carrying 8 in the world is picamoles but the one thing he is always criticised for is his work rate and positioning without the ball. SOB would be the same. He has never played 8 internationally so why pick him there for the lions you need proven talent playing in their correct positions .

I am not really going to add anything else but thoughts
It may do you well to understand the role of 8 better.

I understand the role thanks, no need to be patronising again.

Dallaglio understands the role I imagine and he seems to think Heaslip has had a poor season.

I've not rated Heaslip for years.

"As you have not played the game you may be mistake in the role of the. 8."

Love that comment, typical Matt lol.

In that thinking you haven't played to a high standard so surely you don't understand the role of a top 8???

Beale is back, he missed 6 games.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_8679405,00.html

Sgt_Pooly wrote:"As you have not played the game you may be mistake in the role of the. 8."

Love that comment, typical Matt lol.

In that thinking you haven't played to a high standard so surely you don't understand the role of a top 8???

Not at all pooly I don't think you have to have played to understand the game but i think it does help with regards to the technical aspects if playing positions such as 8.

I thought your comments re number. 8s were naive at best.

Look at the top 3 8s in the world lobbe parisse and read. They are all rounders and offer everything including hands. Heaslip is an all rounder.

He is often first receiver off rucks for hard yards but also comes alive out wide and brings other players in.

A great example of his hard yards was against nz in June in the second test where he was man of match along with healey.

8 is a technical position that is crucial and not one to try and put flankers in to play it.
Like hooker 9 and 10 you don't mess around with key positions
He got injured in this test I believe and it hindered Ireland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/ireland-new-zealand-player-ratings-2nd-test

He is back after 3 months out. So many players coming back at the moment.
http://www.planet-rugby.co.za/story/0,25883,3551_8680005,00.html