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No room for South African or Italian sides in PRO14 team of the season

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Irish and Scottish sides dominate the Guinness PRO14 team of the season so far, making up 13 of the 15 players selected.

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No South African or Italian franchise players made the cut, which was selected off the back of Opta stats. The selection was based on players’ performances over 80 minutes, with a minimum of 400 minutes required for selection.

This meant many big-name international players will not have made the list, having simply not played the pre-requisite five matches worth of minutes. Ireland flyhalf Jonny Sexton – f0r example – didn’t play a minute of PRO14 rugby this season.

Just two Welshman made the cut, Cardiff Blues fullback Hallam Amos and Ospreys hooker Scott Otten. In total, six of the competitions 14 teams were represented.

The best-represented team were Ulster Rugby and Edinburgh Rugby with four, while Leinster managed three and Glasgow Warriors two.

Statistically, no one from the Cheetahs, South Kings, Zebre Rugby, Treviso, Munster, Connacht, Dragons, Scarlets made the fifteen.

The selected reflects the fine form of both sides. Edinburgh are two points clear of Munster at the top of Conferene B, while Ulster sit in second in Conference A behind Irish rivals Leinster.

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PRO14 TEAM OF THE SEASON SO FAR:

Hallam Amos (Cardiff)

Robert Baloucoune (Ulster)

Nick Grigg (Glasgow)

Matt Scott (Edinburgh)

David Kearney (Leinster);

Peter Horne (Glasgow)

John Cooney (Ulster)

Peter Dooley (Leinster)

Scott Otten (Ospreys)

Tom O’Toole (Ulster)

Lewis Carmichael (Edinburgh)

Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh)

Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh)

Will Connors (Leinster)

Marcell Coetzee (Ulster).

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Bull Shark 2 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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