G
Gavin
Guest
The Guiness Premiership to the Magner's League is what gammon is to bacon - thicker, juicier and harder to get into.
Oooh, nice analogy. [/b]
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Would you suggest that Munster only do enough to qualify for the HEC? Does that detract from the hard work Leinster, Ulster and Connacht put in?
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Thats the problem with Dean Richards, hell bent on amassing the biggest collection of backs the world has ever seen.
Fear the might of the Gloucester black helicopters, coming to take away your backs whether you like it or not! [/b]
How much of a difference do you think end of year playoffs would make to the Mangers league. Rumor was after the EDF runs out they might be going for something like that.
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Instead of having league play-offs, the 3 dominating european leagues (GP, ML and Top14) should get together and should discuss having the top 2 teams from each league in a Heineken Cup seeding play-off, but league format.
So lets say these teams are.. Gloucester, Wasps, Cardiff, Munster, Toulouse and Stade Francais.
So you have 6 teams, they all play each other once league format and their position (1-6) determines their group seeding for the Heineken Cup the following season.
So lets say it looks like this after the play-off.. toulouse winning and Stade coming last.
Toulouse
Wasps
Gloucester
Munster
Cardiff
Stade Francais
You could go down another two play-off/European places and do the same with lets say.. Leicester, Harlequins, Leinster, Ospreys, Perpignan and Biarritz. The same rule applies and the play-off positions decide what group they will go into. The winners of the play-offs would not be put in with the other winner, so lets say Leicester can't be paired with Toulouse, but they will be paired with Stade. Like the 1st plays 6th.
So now you have..
Toulouse, Ospreys
Wasps, Biarritz
Gloucester, Leinster
Munster, Harlequins
Cardiff, Perpignan
Stade Francais, Leicester
Add any other Heineken Cup teams (i.e Treviso, Montauban, Sale.. etc) would have to win their league or finish in a Heineken cup slot. The draw would be random for 3rd and 4th group seeds.
Then add last Euro slot teams.. drawn randomly to the 3rd and 4th places in the group (seeds 13-24)
So now you get..
Toulouse, Ospreys, Sale, Treviso.
Wasps, Biarritz, Edinburgh, Newport Dragons.
Gloucester, Leinster, Clermont, Calvisano.
Munster, Harlequins, Montauban, Ulster.
Cardiff, Perpignan, Bath, Llanelli Scarlets.
Stade Francais, Leicester, Glasgow, Castres.
As you can see, very fair groups and on current form.
I can see more European rugby as the way forward.[/b]