Season 8 Homepage I

First topic message reminder :

Breaking News: London Wasps regain their crown following playoff final victory. 
 

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Welcome to Season 8 of the Aviva Premiership fantasy 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 (SJE) 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 (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 23 players.  Players who are in the academy must be born on or after 1st September 1993. 

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. Worcester Warriors & London Wasps will receive two additional bids to be used exclusively on academy age players. These players must be bid for on the National League Bidding page, and each bid will be considered by the RFU 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 the RFU 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.
  Player Draft
  Worcester Warriors & London Wasps will participate in a player draft beginning the week of June 22nd. Both sides will be allowed to draft two players each. The draft picks will go as follows; 1. Worcester 2. Wasps 3. Wasps 4. Worcester.
  
  Round Bidding
  There will be two rounds of bidding. The first window will run the week starting June 29th and the second the week starting July 3rd. All sides will be allowed to sign one player each during the window. These bids are not protected if you do not have the funds in place to bid during the window you will lose the bid.     
  
  Open Bidding
  From July 13th the foreign market will be open to all bids similar to previous seasons. Due to the world cup the window will remain open till the end of September. 
  

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 20:00 hours on Sunday. Managers will pm 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
Bonuses will be awarded on a scaled basis i.e. 2m for 5 games, 1.6m for 4 games and so on
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.

Great game to watch so open. Breakdown is a mess though. Tacklers lying over it, players coming in from the side all over the place.

It's certainly a bit of a free for all, Naholo has Savea in his pocket so far, has that extra gas that Savea can't exploit

Agree there. Fekitoa & Naholo having great games defensively. So destructive. Barrett having the yips on kicking.

Barrett shouldn't be kicking. No range on first then forced the 2nd, similar to last week.

Cains line out is a shambles.

Milner Skudder is a lovely runner, everybody looks knackered! Cains mess up again!

Love Milner Skudder makes something from nothing. Canes will be kicking themselves there. Accuracy just not there as they get to the try line

Great tackle by Smith on TJ. Forced the knock on as well as it looked a certain try if he got the offload off

Canes needed that for all their work this half

They had to score there

Dixon straight through TJ there

Lovely pass from Perenara for Nonu's try

Dixon was unbelievable there, dragged about 4 players with him, don't think he got it down but got the benefit of the doubt

Top play from Landers

Great game. Highlanders killing them up front at breakdown. Barret not fit and forwards not giving the highlanders any platform

Meant
Not giving hurricanes a platform

Breakdown been a free for all with turnovers galore for both sides. Landers defence getting on top in this half though. If Barrett had his kicking boots on Canes would have the lead here

Taxi for Savea!

Wasn't the greatest of passes but he should have took it, they're having a mare

All the momentum with Canes at the moment

Execution by the pack is terrible though. If they just kept hold of the bloody ball they'd be in front, was too many poor offloads

What a game this is!

Great double tackle from Barrett & Savea!

Has TJ kicked at all in this game? Savea has had a stinker by his standards.

Masterclass from Smith on how to control a game.

Can't believe they won that, Cains just pushed it too much and became too predictable. Poor execution from the pack, too many poor offloads and losing the ball in contact.

Landers defence won that. Fekitoa, Naholo, Osbourne all immense on defence and had the better of their opposite numbers. Canes will be cursing Barretts kicking though

Great play highlanders. Played finals rugby and kicked their goals. Most finals are decided by a small margin and if you don't kick your goals then you lose.

Totally agree Johnny, Barrett shouldn't have been kicking really as he's obviously not right.

They had plenty of chances to bag the try though and fluffed it, they left a lot of chances out there.

Highlanders were very professional and defended extremely well. When the opposition 9 never kicks you can push up and create a tough wall to break to down.

Both teams missed kicks at goal, 50% and 67% are poor returns from a final.

How many shots at goal did each team have???

Barret usually a good kicker. I know you always say he is a better impact sub and not great when he starts for all blacks pooly but I think Barrett could be a star for years as starting 10 for blacks when Carter retires

anonmattyt wrote:Great play highlanders. Played finals rugby and kicked their goals. Most finals are decided by a small margin and if you don't kick your goals then you lose.

That makes no sense.

If both teams kicked their goals Highlanders would have won 26-21 instead of of 21-14. At very best Hurricanes could only get a draw with their shots at goal.

They had more than enough chances to score but fluffed it when they got to the line.

anonmattyt wrote:How many shots at goal did each team have???

Barret usually a good kicker. I know you always say he is a better impact sub and not great when he starts for all blacks pooly but I think Barrett could be a star for years as starting 10 for blacks when Carter retires

Totally agree, Barrett has had a great year. My opinion of him has went through the roof since he became my player

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

anonmattyt wrote:How many shots at goal did each team have???

Barret usually a good kicker. I know you always say he is a better impact sub and not great when he starts for all blacks pooly but I think Barrett could be a star for years as starting 10 for blacks when Carter retires

Totally agree, Barrett has had a great year. My opinion of him has went through the roof since he became my player

Thought it would lol

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

anonmattyt wrote:Great play highlanders. Played finals rugby and kicked their goals. Most finals are decided by a small margin and if you don't kick your goals then you lose.

That makes no sense.

If both teams kicked their goals Highlanders would have won 26-21 instead of of 21-14. At very best Hurricanes could only get a draw with their shots at goal.

They had more than enough chances to score but fluffed it when they got to the line.

My point is most finals are decided by small margins. Generally the team that kicks their goals win finals. Pretty much every World Cup final been decided that way.

That was a great final today and very open for a final. They are usually cagey affairs but even so the team that kicked their goals won.

The fitness of those players is insane it was so end to end. Hopefully we will have some proper English weather in the World Cup

Re watching s15 final on sky. Having a child with chicken Pox means I am housebound on probably the only saturday of the year when there was no sport worth watching after the rugby.

Broad hurst and Vito only hurricane forwards to turn up. Broad hurst most offloads in s15 this year for what stats are worth.

Hurricanes could have won but it would have been robbery as they were second best throughout. Agree with all the reports on PR, guardian and telegraph that canes missed ardie savea as he is so quick and first to breakdown which allows them to recycle and attack. Last week vs brumbies they had clean ball all day until he got injured which allowed pocock to get involved after being anonymous for previous 50 minutes.

Also think highlanders clever and did what I said they would on Friday when I thought they would win and targeted breakdown and kicks in behind. Canes have no kicking game on request of coach Boyd and run everything. A great side but may lack a plan B.

Landers so close to offside defensively but peyper allowed it. You play the ref. Landers pressured Coles at line out and got results which encourages us for WC as he is the only hooker anywhere near decent in NZ. Sopoanga looks a Bolter and much better 3rd choice than Slade.

Even better game when watching second time. Buckman and Dixon at 6 and 12 for landers unsung heroes week in week out

Rumours that glos have signed jack lam and are in for Lydiate.

Why sign Lydiate when we
Have moriarty Evans and kalamafoni

Savea would have made little to zero impact in that game at the breakdown imo. He offers very little there anyway and it was a complete free for all, there was no reffing of this area. They did miss his carrying though.

Canes very predictable, I don't think TJ kicked once in that game, such an odd tactic.

Have following available, ideally looking for back three players, open side and front row - also southern hem no10.

PR Trevor Nyakane (South Africa) (1)
PR Adam Jones (Wales) (3)
PR Martin Castrogiovanni (Italy) (3)
N8 CJ Stander (South Africa)
SH Cobus Reinach (South Africa)
FH Rhys Priestland (Wales)
FH James Hook (Wales)
WG Nick Cummins (Australia)
PR Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi - (England) - 07/03/1994.
FH Will Hooley (England u20s) - 28/11/1993.
WG Howard Packman (England u20s) - 18/04/1994.

Doing predos now. Been to a wedding in Poland.

Good call on Moala, Johnny, see he's set for his cap

Regretted the recommendation as soon as the Allen retirement was announced CJ!

Players available

Soane Tonga'huia
Vincent Debaty
Luc Ducalcon
Juandre Kruger
Luke Jones
Richie McCaw
Greig Laidlaw
Dave Lewis
Tommasso Allan
Gareth Anscombe
Luke Marshall
Jean De Villiers
Rob Miller
Charlie Sharples

Props would need props back my way

Moore named Oz captain. Not surprising.

Has anyone picked up Josua Tuisova yet?

He's currently being bid on in foreign.

Top 10 FH's in rugby at the minute? This isn't my opinion, it's took from a site, I'll post the others later.

1. Beauden Barrett
2. Jon Sexton
3. Handre Pollard
4. Aaron Cruden
5. Dan Carter
6. George Ford
7. Bernard Foley
8. Pat Lambie
9. Morne Steyn
10. FTD

I would lose Steyn for Finn Russell. Surprised Nicolas Sanchez isn't mentioned.

Yea I'd probably get Sanchez in for FTD or Steyn

Soapoaga is probably also a fair swap for Lambie who has been injured.

Now I've got him..

Huw jones was born in Scotland but is qualified to play for England. Is he eq or Scottish as he hasn't committed yet.

He counts as EQ until he takes a cap and becomes locked into another country Prop

Ok cool cheers fella!!