Season 7 Homepage VII

2013/2014 – London Wasps
2012/2013 – Leicester Tigers 
2011/2012 – Newcastle Falcons 
2010/2011 - Newcastle Falcons 
2009/2010 – Saracens 
2008/2009 - London Irish

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POS		Aviva Premiership	PLAYED	WON	DREW	LOST	P F	P A	P D	T F	T A	TBP	LBP	POINTS
1		Sale Sharks *	18	14	0	4	501	445	56	56	40	6	4	65
2		London Wasps *	18	14	1	3	512	461	51	55	42	6	2	65
3		Northampton Saints	18	13	0	5	495	451	44	51	42	7	5	64
4		Harlequins *	18	10	2	6	499	454	45	50	42	3	6	52
5		Leicester Tigers	18	9	1	8	444	442	2	37	39	0	8	46
6		Exeter Chiefs *	18	7	4	7	435	454	-19	36	40	0	7	42
7		Bath Rugby *	18	8	1	9	459	468	-9	44	44	1	9	39
8		Gloucester *	18	7	1	10	468	466	2	44	42	1	10	39
9		Newcastle Falcons *	18	7	1	10	449	472	-23	41	42	2	8	39
10		Saracens	18	7	1	10	443	476	-33	38	45	0	9	38
11		London Welsh	18	4	0	14	418	481	-63	34	49	0	9	25
12		London Irish	18	2	2	14	431	488	-57	36	52	1	12	23

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 (SJE) will remove players at its 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 match day 23'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 an academy squad of 20 players.  Players who are in the academy must be born on or after 1st September 1992. 

Any player, who is at any Premiership club in real life, either in their senior, academy or AASE squads, can be bid for on the domestic bidding page. Players who are at your own club in real life and are coming through the academy system must be bid for if you want them in your own academy.

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 5 players from the Championship or the National Leagues. These players must be bid for on the National League Bidding page, and each bid will be considered by me on its 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.
  
  There will be a summer foreign transfer window, which will run as follows.
  
  Open Window
  
  Open transfer window, teams have unlimited bids provided they have the financial resources to cover them.  Teams may only bid for one player at a time.
  
  The window will open from the 9th of June but only to those sides that finish 8th and below at first. They will have a week to make one signing each before the window is open to all.     
  

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

All released players will be deemed to have joined a Championship side and can be bid for on the National League Bidding page.

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 European Rugby Champions Cup, European Rugby Challenge Cup and Anglo Welsh Cup matches.  These games will take place once a week. A match thread will be put up every Monday. Home teams must be named by midnight on Tuesday. Away teams must be named by midnight on Wednesday. Failure to meet these deadlines is punishable by the addition of three match points to the oppositions final score, unless both sides fail to do so. Both teams must provide tactics by midnight on Thursday. Predictions will be open from 00:01 hours on Friday and remain open until 15:00 hours on Sunday. 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.

Managers are asked to provide detail as to why they have predicted a result.  To be considered a descriptive prediction this must be a full 3 lines long when entered into the text box. 

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:-

For domestic competition at least 8 England qualified players in your match day 23, and at least 4 of those must be in your starting XV.

For European competition at least 8 England qualified players in your match day 23, and at least 6 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 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.

Financial Rewards wrote:
There will be no rewards for the result of an individual match, instead the managers will receive cash for predicting.

£2m 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 upto a maximum of £5m per fine.

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 (SJE) will step in and players from within your squad will be released for the relevant financial compensation (foreign transfer value) in order to bring your budget back above minus £10 million.

Fluxy wrote:Matt was waiting for you to bring up that team of the week

To be fair the lad had a good game, but was going to mention if he has been so good, why aren't him and TJ starting for you? 

Driver wrote:https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walesonline.co.uk%2Fsport%2Frugby%2Frugby-news%2Ftwo-wales-brightest-u20-rugby-8786109&ei=ysD9VNbBJMvmasmvgcAC&usg=AFQjCNH-sKYBbH1ofnzIgokYOFzf6OYwCg


Two of Wales U20s withdraw because they want to play for England.

anonmattyt wrote:Very sad really. I could not play for another country as I am such an England fan. Those guys If they are passionate Welsh fans should be playing for Wales

dammit_chris wrote:Just seen the England squad, what on earth do Wade and Daly have to do to get into the England training squad!? Bizarre to not include then even in the training which they've done with Burgess - espc when wasps don't have any games for next 2 weeks.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

dammit_chris wrote:Just seen the England squad, what on earth do Wade and Daly have to do to get into the England training squad!? Bizarre to not include then even in the training which they've done with Burgess - espc when wasps don't have any games for next 2 weeks.

Get a decent defence I'm afraid Chris, just not good enough either of them.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:I rate Yarde much higher than May when in form, even out of form tbh.

Slater is the best 4 in England behind Launchbury, he was a shoe in for Int rugby before injury and has been invited to attend sessions whilst injured along with Tuilagi.

dammit_chris wrote:Think Slater is a little too small to really become a top class international and he won't get in because of injury, Kruis, Parling, Attwood will be the ones competing for the 2 lock spaces.

Thing with wings is that we probably shouldn't be debating who should be starting as this close to the WC we should know - Watson for me is only guaranteed starter with any of the others suggested could feature - imagine Lancaster views it currently Nowell, May, Yarde, Ashton, Wade.

Tuilagi could easily shift to no12 with Ford at flyhalf and a creative 13 like Joseph. Better to get our only back who scares the big teams on for 80 minutes - not like there's anyone putting their hand up to stop him playing there atm.

anonmattyt wrote:The problem is that is basically the side he picks and it is not good enough.

Watson unproven as is Nowell. Burrell has been shown to not be good enough.Etc etc/

Not sure what the answer is but I still think Robshaw should not be captain. Never wanted him to be and just don't think he is good enough as a player in the position he is picked to play. Kvesic is in fine form and is so much better at the breakdown than Robshaw but I am not sure he is int level

How slater can be on that list is a mystery

If you moan about May then how can you pick Yarde?? He is lazy and a poor defender who does not work back.

When you put all these players in a list it becomes fairly obvious that lots of them are pretty average compared to other teams in the world.

If fit in Corbs and Wilson we have the best scrummaging props going which is a start and in Marler and Cole we have a decent back up off the bench

It's after that it becomes challenging. I see 9 as a huge issue

Steven_Sharks wrote:Robshaw s breakdown work is average at best at international level

ChequeredJersey wrote:

Steven_Sharks wrote:Robshaw s breakdown work is average at best at international level

Prior to last week, the buzz line was that he was good at slowing ball and ruck work but poor at getting turnovers. He's now leading the 6N in terms of turnovers, so magically he's now bad at both?

ChequeredJersey wrote:

anonmattyt wrote:The problem is that is basically the side he picks and it is not good enough.

Watson unproven as is Nowell. Burrell has been shown to not be good enough.Etc etc/

Not sure what the answer is but I still think Robshaw should not be captain. Never wanted him to be and just don't think he is good enough as a player in the position he is picked to play. Kvesic is in fine form and is so much better at the breakdown than Robshaw but I am not sure he is int level

How slater can be on that list is a mystery

If you moan about May then how can you pick Yarde?? He is lazy and a poor defender who does not work back.

When you put all these players in a list it becomes fairly obvious that lots of them are pretty average compared to other teams in the world.

If fit in Corbs and Wilson we have the best scrummaging props going which is a start and in Marler and Cole we have a decent back up off the bench

It's after that it becomes challenging. I see 9 as a huge issue

I genuinely don't understand how one can think Kvesic is better at the breakdown than Robshaw at any level

Sgt_Pooly wrote:I've not seen Kvesic ever do this past AP level. I'd agree to a point that Robshaw is an average breakdown 7 at Int level but I can't think of anybody better and he brings different qualities.

Slater & Tuilagi travelled to Ireland with the squad to keep them involved. This is obviously different from involving players not ready for the odd training session.

Slater is 6'6" and around 19st, he's a lump who does a proper 4 role. There's not many players in England who offer these qualities to the level he does. If he was fit he'd be so starting ahead of Kruis imo.

dammit_chris wrote:Not sure about Armitage, has the assault case he's involved in been finished yet? If he's not a bad influence on the group then it would be worth having a look at him to see if he could repllicate his club form, he gets an incredible platform at Toulon.