The Rugby Thread- Merged Over The Years

[TSpoon]

It turns out that the NZ-Italy game wasn't too shabby. While the Kiwis led throughout, Italy definitely showed up to play; the score was similar to our trouncing by Samoa, but the play was completely different.

Next Friday Canada plays the All-Blacks' tier 2 team, which probably won't be pretty, then Saturday's another all-day rugby fest, with:

Ireland vs Argentina
England vs South Africa
Scotland vs Tonga
France vs Samoa
Wales vs New Zealand
Italy vs Australia
                                        ;D

What Channel are the rest of those games on Journeyman ? if you don't mind me asking.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Sportsnet World

 

[Journeyman]

What Channel are the rest of those games on Journeyman ? if you don't mind me asking.

The local tavern.  :dunno:

I assume that they pay extra for specific sports packages. Here, the local provider is Cogeco, and I'm pretty sure that the channel number is up in the 700s

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

The local tavern.  :dunno:

I assume that they pay extra for specific sports packages. Here, the local provider is Cogeco, and I'm pretty sure that the channel number is up in the 700s

Yah rugby is broadcast through Sportsnet World (used to be called Setanta)  Its pretty expensive but I love rugby so its worth it. 

They broadcast:

International Rugby League
Test Rugby
Rugby Championship
Six Nations
IRB Sevens
Bledisloe Cup
Pacific Nations Cup

Also Broadcast Pro Leagues which include:

Heineken Cup (European Championship (England, France, Wales, Scotland, Italy, Ireland))
Amlin Challenge Cup (2nd Tier Euro Championship (England, France, Italy, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Romania, Spain, Portugal)
Aviva Premiership (England)
Rabo Direct Pro 12 (Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Italy)  GO MUNSTER!
Top 14 (France)
Super 15 (Australia, South Africa, New Zealand)
Currie Cup (South Africa)
ITM Cup (New Zealand)
NRL (Australia (Rugby League))
Engage Super League (England, France (Rugby League))

On top of this the channel also broadcasts extensive amounts of Soccer, Cricket, Hurling, Gaelic Football and Australian Rules Football.

 

[TSpoon]

Thanks for the info...I'll look into prescribing to it before next weekend  ;D

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/world/sport_rugby/

Here is the website for sportsnet world

 

[TSpoon]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/world/sport_rugby/

Here is the website for sportsnet world

Thanks for the link.  :cheers:

 

[Journeyman]

They broadcast:

International Rugby League...

Not sure why anyone would watch League though. 

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Not sure why anyone would watch League though. 

Haha I am not a big league fan myself but you have to admit league does produce guys with pretty good ball handling skills like Sonny Bill Williams.  I do enjoy a good State of Origin tilt though!

 

[Journeyman]

I have never seen the All-Blacks play so poorly.  :not-again:

England 38 - New Zealand 21

England was up 15-0 at the half, but within the first 10 or so minutes of the second half, it was 15-14. But the Kiwis seemed to have run out of steam by that point.

What Channel are the rest of those games on Journeyman ? if you don't mind me asking.

You can also catch streaming on your computer at  firstrowsports.eu  for the non-televised games like this one

 

[dimsum]

I have never seen the All-Blacks play so poorly.  :not-again:

England 38 - New Zealand 21

England was up 15-0 at the half, but within the first 10 or so minutes of the second half, it was 15-14. But the Kiwis seemed to have run out of steam by that point.

Yep, that was certainly fun to point out to the ex-Kiwi, now ADF folks while at the NAAFI surrounded by a bunch of Poms.  >

Getting back on topic, why is it that Rugby seems to be a big uni sport in Canada but not a professional one?  I've been asked that quite a few times in Oz (apparently our team does well?) and I don't know how to answer that.

 

[JorgSlice]

Yep, that was certainly fun to point out to the ex-Kiwi, now ADF folks while at the NAAFI surrounded by a bunch of Poms.  >

Getting back on topic, why is it that Rugby seems to be a big uni sport in Canada but not a professional one?  I've been asked that quite a few times in Oz (apparently our team does well?) and I don't know how to answer that.

I love the sport, especially the Brits and Australian leagues, it's crazy stuff.

However, the average population of this country does not understand even the basics of the sport, many find it too complication and hard to follow. It can't compete with Television ratings and marketing of other sports like CFL, NHL, lacrosse, Olympics, hell... even Curling. Just not a big enough market to dump all kinds of money into to turn it Pro here in Canada which is a damn shame.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Rugby has a cult following in Canada, their are after all 73,000 registered players which is a fairly substantial number and it is supported at the school level.  The problem is geography, it costs a lot of money to bring players together as they are forced to travel long distances.  Their is also not a high level junior league to feed into a pro-league.  We have the Canadian Rugby Championship which I think is as close to a pro league as we are going to get for the forseeable future.  its semi-pro with travel costs for the players covered, has 4 regional teams (Pacific Tyee, Prairie Wolfpack, Ontario Blues and Newfoundland Rock)  with Eastern Ontario/Quebec scheduled to add their team the Lower Canada Voyageurs next year.

I think what would be best for us is to keep developing players to a high enough standard that they can make the pro leagues in Europe right now we have playing overseas:

Top Level Pro Leagues

DTH Van Der Merwe - Glasgow Warriors
Taylor Paris - Glasgow Warriors
Jamie Cudmore - Clermont-Auvergne
Jebb Sinclair - London Irish
Phil Mackenzie - London Welsh

Second-Tier Pro Leagues

Sean-Michael Stephen - Plymouth Albion
Matt Evans - Cornish Pirates
Tyler Hotson - London Scottish
Brett Beukeboom - Plymouth Albion
Matt Evans - Cornish Pirates
James Pritchard - Bedford Blues
Jason Marshall - Stade Aurillac
Andrew Tiedemann - RFC Auch Gers
Connor Braid - Doncaster Knights
Joshua Jackson - Stade Montois

Really out of that list our world class players are DTH Van Der Merwe, Jamie Cudmore and Jebb Sinclair.  These are guys who would start on all but the creme de la creme of teams.  Van Der Merwe was the top scorer in the Pro 12 a couple of years ago just to give you an idea of how highly rated he is and Cudmore is a rugby icon in France.

If we want to compete with the big boys we need to work on developing more players of this calibre and tap into our nation's athletic potential which is quite high.  Right now we are producing some very good athletes in our rugby program just not a lot of very good rugby players.  We suffer from the same problem the Americans suffer from in that we start playing the game too late and our players peak too late or never reach their full potential because of it.  This is beginning to change but it will take awhile and we need to develop more elite rugby at the junior level because this is where we need to focus our energy if we want to start taking some scalps from the big boys.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Anyone have any predictions for the upcoming Lions tour ? 

I see the Lions going 2-1 over the Wallabies...

http://www.lionsrugby.com/2013tour/fixtures.php

Quickly approaching!  One the sports great show cases.

 

[devil39]

Tokyo Sevens is tonight....starting in one hour.  Preview at the Rugby Canada site

http://www.rugbycanada.ca/leagues/newsletter.cfm?clientID=3817&leagueID=0&page=78786

The Men's team has been in excellent form since January placing 3rd in Vegas and 8th in NZ.  The team looks really, really strong, only Phil Mack unavailable is a concern in my opinion.  But this is definitely the strongest squad we've fielded in 2014. 

It should be streaming live at www.irbsevens.com  http://www.irbsevens.com/liveblog/blogid=1871.html

 

[devil39]

Highlights from yesterday's Tokyo Sevens.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrNCUAe_550

The Canadian men have qualified for the Cup quarter finals for the third tournament in a row.  The Cup is the top half of the tournament after the first day's pool play.  Tournament recommences in 40 minutes and will be streamed live at http://www.irbsevens.com/  Feed is up now at http://www.irbsevens.com/liveblog/blogid=1872.html

 

[devil39]

Hong Kong Sevens final day today.  Starting in 1 hour.  Yet again the Canadian men have advanced to the top half pool of the competition for the final day. 

Very high quality streaming at http://www.irbsevens.com/

Canada plays Australia in the Quarter final at 2234 h Mtn time.  We've beaten Australia 2 of the last three times we've played this year, but both teams are looking good in Hong Kong right now. 

 

[Journeyman]

Yet again the Canadian men have advanced to the top half pool of the competition for the final day.

Notwithstanding not being a 7s aficionado.....yes, top half---but a chant of "we're #9! We're #9!" doesn't really cut it.

Currently watching Wales - NZ (streaming via Sky 3 - eDigitalPlace dot com is well worth the $40/yr)  [If that's advertising Mike, please delete]

Edit.....and thinking that even with that Welsh try, they're done....


Damn.......we played well

 

[devil39]

Damn did we ever....

 

[devil39]

Notwithstanding not being a 7s aficionado.....yes, top half---but a chant of "we're #9! We're #9!" doesn't really cut it.

Currently watching Wales - NZ (streaming via Sky 3 - eDigitalPlace dot com is well worth the $40/yr)  [If that's advertising Mike, please delete]

Edit.....and thinking that even with that Welsh try, they're done....


Damn.......we played well

We are consistently challenging the very best teams  this year, often with a less than 5 point difference.  Number 9 is pretty damn good, and far better than our 15s ranking since professionalization (or forever?).  Worst we will finish is 8th in this tournament....Wales next.....