Why are the English Rugby Championship Semis and Final not being shown on TV

[nickurat]

Why are these matches not being shown on terrestrial TV or otherwise?

[TRF_Olyy]

I thought the finals at least were on Sky?
Could be/probably mistaken though

[durbutter]

They're on ESPN i think

[Versus]

Sky is a monopoly, go to justin.tv or myp2p.eu to watch them online.

But I didn't say that.

[TRF_SelimNiai]

1 semi was on Sky, the Exeter game. The 2-legged final (a ridiculous idea) will be on consecutive Wednesdays (another ridiculous idea) and will be played home and away with the higher seed choosing to play home or away first (we have gone for the away game first.)

Why can't the final be played at Twickers before the Premiership final? Makes sense to me.

[DuncTheDoodle]

1 semi was on Sky, the Exeter game. The 2-legged final (a ridiculous idea) will be on consecutive Wednesdays (another ridiculous idea) and will be played home and away with the higher seed choosing to play home or away first (we have gone for the away game first.)

That is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Please make it stop there!

[nickurat]

I'm not a Sky subscriber so I missed that the games were being shown on SS4 but I guess it's good to see Sky giving some coverage to the English second tier.

I thought that the first home leg was very easy on the eye and should have been attractive to the neutrals. Good to see two teams going at each other with very little aimless kicking and lots of running from deep. Not sure that Exe would have been better advised to have taken the penalty kicks to get a 15-6 lead to take away with them but I thought that backing themselves for the tries was noble (that will probably disappear in the harsh reality of the GP if they go up!).

Got tickets for the Bristol match next Wednesday; really looking forward to a tight and tense game with an Exe victory but I suspect that Bristol will turn on the style.

[nickurat]

That is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Please make it stop there!

Agreed. A single match final played at a neutral venue would have been much better; with the group stages and the two leg final the Winners and Runners Up will have played an additional nine games on top of the normal league season! The RFU needs to have a word with itself.

C'mon Exe!

[nickurat]

1 semi was on Sky, the Exeter game. The 2-legged final (a ridiculous idea) will be on consecutive Wednesdays (another ridiculous idea) and will be played home and away with the higher seed choosing to play home or away first (we have gone for the away game first.)

Why can't the final be played at Twickers before the Premiership final? Makes sense to me.

I don't agree with playing it before the GP final, that just relegates it to a sideshow when the Championship has real value as a tournament in its own right.

I think that a better arrangement would have been to select a neutral ground outside of London with good access.