What will season 2014/2015 bring?

First topic message reminder :

I think it's fair to say 2014/2015 will herald a new dawn in professional rugby.

Between the new Euro championships, mega sponsorship deals with BT Sport and TV rights being split between them and Sky, the professional game is going to look very different come next season. Also worth mentioning that Sky will be showing a lot of Pro 12 games, and I'm not sure how this will affect the local broadcasters like S4C, RTE and BBC Alba.

The Pro 12 is also in need of a new sponsor, and I wouldn't be surprised if BT step up their quest for rugby domination, with the Sky broadcasts having to mention the BT Sport Pro 12 all the time!

So given that rugby will have much more money than it is ever had before, how do people see the game panning out in the future? Will we turn into the ways of football, with corporate greed ripping the heart and soul out of the game, or will the money lead to a positive outcome, with clubs and countries able to invest more in youth development and raise the quality of the game across the board?


p.s. there will be a strict zero-tolerance on this thread to wumming or brining up repetitive arguments from the past!   

beshocked wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:What has brought about your Damascene conversion, beshocked?

I have become disenchanted with Saracens (no it's not because of the two lost finals, nowhere near as trivial as that). This could well be my last post.

Blydi hell Beshocked - what brought that on? i'm up at Allianz later today is there something going on that I need to watch my P's and Q's about?

Irish Londoner best if I don't say to be honest.

You shouldn't worry about it if you're on the community side. Just make sure that the club treats you right - that's the main thing.

It's Saracens who need to watch their P's and Qs not you.

What the outstanding issues Beshocked?

It must be the Stand up for Saracens song finally got to him. God that's annoying.

Gee Beshocked, come and support Ulster instead - we have nearly as many saffers as you so you'll hardly know the difference!

rodders wrote:Gee Beshocked, come and support Ulster instead - we have nearly as many saffers as you so you'll hardly know the difference!

Aye c'cmon and join us Ulstarmen, we have Saffers and even have our own irritating song   

Seriously though, please don't give up in the forum, you'd be missed.

P.S. Mods, can we have a Red Hand emoticon please?

I don't know much about emoticons, but there are websites that provides emoticons where you can copy and paste a link into your post and it puts them in. I think you basically insert an image of the emoticon.

George Carlin is the man to ask on this - you'll notice he has access to way more emoticons than the forum provides!

An example -

Irish Londoner wrote:

rodders wrote:Gee Beshocked, come and support Ulster instead - we have nearly as many saffers as you so you'll hardly know the difference!

Aye c'cmon and join us Ulstarmen, we have Saffers and even have our own irritating song   

Seriously though, please don't give up in the forum, you'd be missed.

P.S. Mods, can we have a Red Hand emoticon please?

. Will see what I can do. In the meantime, I have a picture of Father Dougall McGuire of Craggy Island that you can have.

Best I can do for Ulster fans is this 'Jared Payne smiley':



Too soon? Too soon?  

Ah no come and join the Falcons brigade mate.

Two pint pitchers, sit and freeze in the North East weather and then we can go to the Bigg Market to forget about the rugby    

One for the Edinburgh fans?

Totallybiasedscarlet wrote:

Welshmushroom wrote:Also from a neutrals perspective I'm looking forward to seeing Regan back in the Pro 12.  He could really add some creativity to the Scarlets backline as at times they are a little direct of late and King certainly will create for others around him.

... just a shame Priestland is still kicking about PYS. He's as likely to put the opposition in for a try as he is his own centres. Every game he seems to throw an interception out there. Only kicker I've seen to whom people turn their backs with their head in their hands saying "I can't watch!" Flaky doesn't begin to describe him. Losing Owen Williams was a kick in the guts last summer!   

Yep seems strange they fought off Gloucester for his services by improving his contract significantly.  Had they dumped him it could have opened the door for either Matthew Morgan or James Hook who both would have been better signings for them.

Added Bonus would have been that despite all the money Gloucester have thrown at forwards it would have rendered them useless with Priestland running the show.

A political argument in Welsh rugby. About something. For certain. And it will get sorted out and then a new argument emerge.

England to win the 6 nations, with Ireland or Wales second place.

Wales finally get rid of Mike 'McDonalds' Phillips.

France continue to be rubbish with bizarre selections.

NZ are the best team by a long but don't win the world cup going out in an arm wrestle in the mud.

English media demand Jonny Wilkinson becomes the England coach

The scrum gets ' sorted out' with another new engagement ' protocol '. For 2 weeks till the refs ignore it.

More money than ever before was mentioned in the Original post as a starting point for a discussion on this one.

Okay:

2013 - Let's say average wage of average player = 300,000

Post 2014 - Loadsa money!!!!!!!!  Average wage of average player perhaps rising to 600,000 or 700,000. (Top dogs might begin to hit the After Millions)

Anyway - conclusion; what will happen when loadsa money hits next season and the years after that?  Nothing much.  Same players earning bigger wages.

nathan wrote:

TJ wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Do people think the extra money in the game will make the gap between those that 'have' and those that 'have not' even bigger or will it level the playing field more?

Yes hugely increase the gap - this was after all the aim of the Prl.  French and english teams will have hugely greater budgets, no one else will.  Its the beggining of the end of competitive pan european rugby.  Scots, Italians and welsh will not be competative at all and ireland will struggle as the english and french clubs will be able to bid up the price of the players

Well the English won't be able to do that, they have a salary cap and they also get rewards for playing English players. Not that any of that will stop the anti PRL crap from you.

the salary cap is ignored and will be increased. Its been the aim of the PRL all along. It will take a few years to fully work thru. we already have had PRL mouthpieces stating they want it lifted or removed completely.

If there was any proof that the salary cap was being ignored don't you think there'd be a fair few clubs jumping up and down to point it out? At present isn't more of a case of envious eyes?