European Club Rugby
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Bovidae" data-cid="592920" data-time="1467241777"><p>
Perhaps for a club game. The 2 Bledisloe Cup games at Stadium Australia in 1999 and 2000 had 100,000+ in attendance.</p></blockquote>
Oh yeah, of course.<br><br>
The reason I though this was last year during RWC the NZ v Arg game at Wembley was trumpeted as a record crowd, then broken by Ireland v Rumania.<br><br>
I don't recall any of the media I read about those records limiting the conditions to record World Cup crowds. -
<p>The 2000 Bledisloe "Best Game Ever Played" was in front of 109,874.</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://stats.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/records/team/highest_attendance.html?id=1;type=class'>http://stats.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/records/team/highest_attendance.html?id=1;type=class</a></p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="592869" data-time="1467226746">
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<p>Ali Williams unretired for Racing 92</p>
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<p>They will have to rename it Nanterland soon if this keeps up</p> -
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Some interesting stats from the 2015-16 Top14 season in an AGM report adopted by the French rugby union:</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">- the Top 14 final in Barcelona had a world record crowd for a <strong>club </strong>game of 99,124</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">- the total number of spectators for the entire season was 2,620,870 for the Top 14 (an average of 13,425 per round robin game) and 1,197,000 for the Pro D2 (an average of 4,816 per round robin game)</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">- the average number of tries scored per match in the Top 14 was 4.5 (an increase of 36% since 2014) and in the Pro D2 4.1 (an increase of 12% since 2014)</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">They're also going to change the promotion-relegation procedure between the Top14 and Pro D2 from the 2017-18 season.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.lnr.fr/ligue-nationale-de-rugby/actualites-ligue-nationale-de-rugby/assemblee-generale-du-9-juillet-2016'>http://www.lnr.fr/ligue-nationale-de-rugby/actualites-ligue-nationale-de-rugby/assemblee-generale-du-9-juillet-2016</a></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Top 14 semi finals in 2017 (26, 27 or 28 May) will be played in Marseille. l’Orange Vélodrome has 67,404 seats.</span></span></p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.lnr.fr/rugby-pro-d2/actualites-rugby-pro-d2/top-14-marseille-accueillera-les-demi-finales-2017'>http://www.lnr.fr/rugby-pro-d2/actualites-rugby-pro-d2/top-14-marseille-accueillera-les-demi-finales-2017</a></p>
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<p>The Top 14 final will be played in Stade de France (Paris, 81,338 seats) on 4 June 2017.</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.lnr.fr/ligue-nationale-rugby/actualites-ligue-nationale-rugby/top-14-finale-2017-places-en-vente'>http://www.lnr.fr/ligue-nationale-rugby/actualites-ligue-nationale-rugby/top-14-finale-2017-places-en-vente</a></p> -
<p>Interesting development, which will promote the development of local French players:</p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Major rule change in Top 14 regarding young players</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Date published: July 11 2016</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) have ruled that foreign players signed to youth contracts will no longer be considered as JIFF players from next season.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">JIFF players – <em>joueurs issus des filières de formation</em>, otherwise known as academy-trained players – are required to have either been registered with the FFR for five years by the age of 23, or to have spent three years in an FFR-approved training centre by 21.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Each team last season was required to have 55 percent of their matchday squad (12 out of 23) made up of JIFF players.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">However the law change now means that the number of young French players featuring on a regular basis is set for a substantial increase, with those young players from overseas now set to be listed as foreigners rather than JIFF players from 2017, according to <em>Midi Olympique</em>.</span></span></p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.planetrugby.com/news/major-rule-change-in-top-14-regarding-young-players/'>http://www.planetrugby.com/news/major-rule-change-in-top-14-regarding-young-players/</a></p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Stargazer" data-cid="595920" data-time="1468242487">
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<p>Interesting development, which will promote the development of local French players:</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.planetrugby.com/news/major-rule-change-in-top-14-regarding-young-players/'>http://www.planetrugby.com/news/major-rule-change-in-top-14-regarding-young-players/</a></p>
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<p>That has to be good news for French rugby.</p> -
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So the first player (Jourdain, 23) got red - as I understand it from the media - for punching Taumalolo. Taumalolo got red for lifting Jourdain in the scrum (by lifting his leg). And Hunt, did he punch someone as well?
I find it a bit strange how the ref and AR just watch it unfold and don't do anything. In NZ (and Oz), the refs blow their whistle (twice) and tell them to stop. Not that that always helps, and sometimes they repeat it several times, but these Frenchies don't do anything at all.
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In more interesting NH club rugby news: the French Top 14 season is now 4 weeks underway and there have been some surprising results.
La Rochelle, the club of Victor Vito and Jason Eaton has won 3 and drew 1 of their 4 games. This sees them top the table, but they have only played one of the stronger teams - Clermont. That was the draw at home.
Clermont comes 2nd, with two wins and two draws. One of their wins was away against Nemani Nadolo's Montpellier, and the two draws were also in away games, including a game against 2015 Champions Stade Francais. On Sunday, they smashed Racing 92 (without Carter who has taken up sailing) 47-10. Hosea Gear and Isaia Toeava haven't played yet this season because of injury (knee and shoulder, respectively).
Stade Francais and Toulon come next on equal points, but Toulon already having lost two games, against lowly Bayonne (promoted from Pro D2; NZ players incl Tanerau Latimer, Adam Whitelock, Thom Donelly) and -at home- against Brive, and two away wins against Pau and Toulouse. Ma'a Nonu started for Toulon in all four games.
Racing 92 (Dan Carter, Chris Masoe, Ben Tameifuna, Casey Laulala) sits 8th on the table, also with two wins and two losses, but with fewer bonus points.
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He's been given 13 weeks on first biting charge. Second charge was dismissed.
Some media saying he might appeal but that's conjecture for the moment.
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@Siam said in NH club rugby:
Jaysus he seems to get into a lot of wierd trouble
Unlucky or perhaps a bit not right in the head (maybe just rugby gods karma for those ridiculous dives)
He combines being very stroppy & excited on the pitch, with being a little bitch. So he gets done for cheap shots, eye gouges, biting, talking back to players / refs etc.
I've given up on my number 1 wish in rugby which was him swan diving in to win the world cup & dropping the fucking ball mid dive.
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The video was not really conclusive and you could well ask questions of Waller with his hand and arm all over Ashton's face but to me it just looks like a rugby incident and nothing much to be concerned about. Having said that though, Ashton's growing rep as a tool cannot help him in circumstances like these and he is unlikely to get much sympathy. FWIW I thought the eye gouge last year was questionable too.
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@Catogrande If that was the case, you'd think the other player would say it didn't happen?
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@Bones
Not sure if you mean the biting or the gouging incident? Assuming it is the former, you would need to add context - the match itself was pretty brutal and there was a lot of niggle. Both sides were up for it and there was plenty of bitch play going on. In the context of the match it wouldn't surprise me that someone had got bitten or that someone could claim a bite when another time they might just wash it off as something and nothing. But yeah I would like to assume that if a guy had claimed he'd been bitten that there was some sound reason for doing so..During the game Waller (not alone by any means) was playing the tool card at every opportunity and got yellowed himself for a stupid off the ball dump tackle at one point. In itself the tackle was not much of anything other than being plain stupid. Does that have a bearing on his claims? Who knows but the video posted below doesn't show much to me - certainly not 13 weeks.
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@Catogrande It's a dirty filthy bite! 13 weeks is pretty sweet.
