Saracens and Billy Vunipola issue separate statements in wake of homophobia controversy

The closest knockout result in 23' was a 14 point win. 24' had a 1, 3 and 12 point margin games, the rest all 30/40 point thrashings by the home team. In every single game.

“We are not disrespecting [the tournament], but we need to get ourselves into a better position. I don’t know how we solve it. It’s like being invited to someone’s birthday party, then complaining about the chips. We are so grateful to be here.

Haha that's a great line, thanks for the share.

The issue is not really solving the itinerary for South African teams, that is easy, the problem is solving it for the teams that are required to come back from South Africa and win the following week. The perfect example of this was La Rochelle last year having to beat Stormers away and then return for a day to France before heading off to Dublin. They consequently but unsurprising got spanked. It's the same problem Super Rugby created when it required higher ranking sides to travel to another countries top team at the pointy end of the season.

As has been discussed in a recent article about England having too many teams in EPCR, the problems are many and varied in general. Combining EPCR and league games into a signle itinerary/season is no problem, both comps simply need to get together at planning stage and be prepared to have flexible weekends where the two comps are swapped around, but is it going to be as easy to suggest that the EPCR just needs a week off from the Ro16 stage to Quarters (or pool to Ro16 I can remember which it was)? What if that LaRvStomers game was a quarter, when is the semi, or the final going to be played?

South Africa's future is, of course, in South Africa. There is talk of a group wanting to create a Super League in America, touring big cities, no doubt some in the Middle East being included, in a World Series type format of the games biggest stars. It's a terrible idea by itself, but especially when there is already Europe, the ME, and all of Africa crying out for more high level rugby, and South Africa's huge abundance of players that can provide it.

You can't get past your obsession with how all wonderful all kiwi coaches are .....it's almost as if you're Welsh ......

Is Ben Herring still their coach? I was hoping he would return to NZ with Fosters addition to the team but a recent article seemed to suggest he was still just an assistant.

Appreciate the player insights for the up and commers. Been a bit dreary watching Champions Cup rugby so can't wait for it to start.

The biggest issue is the fact he was that being the skipper shouldn't have had anything to do with it. Big deal if your chosen skipper is injury for large majorities and you have to use pro's like Whitelock (who would otherwise have been skipper anyway if Razor got the job), and up and comers like Barret and Ardie, is no reason to jettison Cane.

The problem was that the All Black coach didn't even realise this fact, and continually included Cane, because he was skipper, as soon as he was back from injruy. When he should have helped develop some more 7s and only playing Cane with some came time under his belt. He wasn't Riche McCaw after all, though he did play pretty well in that Irish series after coming straight back in. Hell everyone was getting critized by everyone for the fact Foster SUBBED him after 60. It was a ridiculous period as Yeow mentioned.

Selections wise he was just as stubborn and you could have wasted the fact he did give Lomax, EDG, Samisoni, Vaa'i their debuts early. They might not have been used properly until Ryan got his hands on them and injury forced his hand into selecting them for consecutive games, but I don't think you're on topic.

As a side argument, nothing bad with the message in your comment, just a bit rose tinted for me in an article with Fozzie trying to defend (credit) himself for bring these guys through.

This is probably making a point you already understand once it clicks. It's the concept of this article, Wales has four teams, so should have some representation if the EPCR is about the game rather than an Elite super league to allow the rich to get richer. There is of course a midground here were people don't need to get carried away.

But yes, if they keep getting worse it would get harder for them to get places.

No, it wouldn't. It gets harder by simple mathmatics, not just for SA, but for all in URC compared to England in your model. SA have the same league standings in previous years. I'm just picking out SA as an example as they've probably had the biggest share involvement so far, you're getting too fixated on recent results dictating the success of your idea. You need to envision what else might happen.

Gloucester are a great example of your idea going a bit too far in it's randomness. They are coming up but they are not ready for Champions Cup. With your model they would have been excluded for another up and coming team, for example Benneton. So if you like going by recent examples, one lost to a Top 14 new commer, the other beat one of Premierships best sides. The right team has made it into the Champions Cup.