132-3 currently. Stirling and Balbirnie paired well - according to the experts. Stirling just went - lbw after 36. Kevin O'Brien comes out.

Good to see a local boy lift the World Cup for England.

@sparky said in CWC Final - Black Caps v England:

Proud of the Black Caps. Beaten by a bizarre format.

Congratulations to England. Enjoy!

Shame not to win, but there is the Rugby World Cup coming up to unleash our terrible vengeance.....

There’s a World Cup in rugby as well?

Great.

Great game for the neutral. What a cliffhanger - a margin of 6 inches or so.

Congrats England.
Commiserations NZ.

Rugby
GAA Football
Hurling
SH Rugby
Soccer

@mofitzy_ said in World League Rugby / Nations Championship:

@Derm-McCrum
Shouldn't need to explain this but here we go: this would have been a massive cash injection into national unions which means more money could be spent holding on to players which obviously makes them harder to buy.

That’s true in any scenario where there’s a substantial uplift in income. Meaning player costs would inflate even further across the board as agents seek a slice of the pie for their clients.

With the WR proposal off the table, the proposed alternative investment in 6N by CVC or another sports rights agency will also do this and player costs will rise and foreign players will cost more too. And again I’d argue that this is mainly an issue for some of the clubs, not all 66 of them.

@mofitzy_ said in World League Rugby / Nations Championship:

@Derm-McCrum
Cheaper foreign players too.

There’s no ‘too’. Since we’ve just established that it would not benefit the vast majority of European clubs, particularly those in the PRO14, Championship and PROD2.

Cheaper foreign players - how and why?

@mofitzy_ said in World League Rugby / Nations Championship:

@Derm-McCrum
If they have international players on their books then it does.

The European clubs supplying test players that would be involved in playing additional games beyond the normal 3-test Nov games would be pretty small out of 66 clubs.

@mofitzy_ said in World League Rugby / Nations Championship:

@Derm-McCrum
Less international games and cheaper foreign players for a start.

Makes no difference to them.

@mofitzy_ said in World League Rugby / Nations Championship:

Tier 2 nations would be getting more money and the chance (eventually) to become tier 1.

Don't see how this benefits anyone except the European clubs and I suppose any country that is scared of being included in competition on merit.

There are 66 European professional clubs. How does it benefit the likes of Connacht, Zebre, Ealing Trailfinders, Dragons, Biarritz, amongst a lot of others?