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Premiership Cup 21/22

I really want Bath to win but they won't sadly.. The Shed celebrating like its the Prem final
 
Our most senior player on the pitch making an absolutely rookie error... Bit of an excuse for a newbie making mistakes like that but not for Dunn.
 
Celebrating like they've won the world cup as they maul over vs players who have never played pro rugby before

I don't even see the benefit for Gloucester.

They won't be playing against teams like this in the league, and youngsters not getting game time

Even Borthwick chuck ours young lads to the lions den losing to Gloucester, Bath and Wasps heavily but he found out which players had fight and the likes of Kelly, Steward, Chessum, etc have done really well since
 
I don't even see the benefit for Gloucester.

They won't be playing against teams like this in the league, and youngsters not getting game time

Even Borthwick chuck ours young lads to the lions den losing to Gloucester, Bath and Wasps heavily but he found out which players had fight and the likes of Kelly, Steward, Chessum, etc have done really well since
That's what most teams are looking for.... an opportunity to test players out. Skivington won't learn anything about Morgan from this match for example.
 
I guess they want to try and build momentum, having just had the bye week?

Or maybe want/need the gate - they've been promoting this as a big derby game and have apparently got a big crowd for it

That's all I can think of, really - you won't get a better opportunity to blood youngsters than this
 
Reckon this could be a red.... he lands shoulder and head and Clarke pulls out.
 
Lucky not to be IMHO... it looked more should and head than back
Yeah, shoulder technically touched the ground first but it was head and neck that took the impact cause he was rotating

Of course the shed boos the yellow
 
Yeah, shoulder technically touched the ground first but it was head and neck that took the impact cause he was rotating

Of course the shed boos the yellow
The shed would boo most things. also the 9 for Glaws kicked out at Spencer on the floor... fairly sure you can't stamp/kick out at a player on the floor anymore?

The shed/glaws celebrating like they have won a cup... pretty poor form.
 
Ah that's enough for me, I'm gonna watch MasterChef instead
Yh it's pretty torrid tbf. If Clarke was red carded it could have been a little more competitive but this is going to be nasty.
 
So a bunch of Bath academy players who may already have had low confidence have just had it take a good wallop.

This year is a complete write off for us I think. Club morale must be in the toilet.
 
So a bunch of Bath academy players who may already have had low confidence have just had it take a good wallop.

This year is a complete write off for us I think. Club morale must be in the toilet.
But also shows that something must be done about number of 1st team and academy can be playing.

A limit on both would at least make things more competitive, would not penalise international call ups and would be a good way of getting younger players to experience big crowds and a higher standard.

Personally, I would like to see a world calendar where internationals are all played in Sept and Oct, with a development comp during this time for clubs.
 
I agree something needs to be done, but I don't hold out any hopes for a global calendar. It's been suggested and shot down so many times, I think you're flogging a dead horse.

The simplest way of tackling this kind of mismatch is simply to tighten-up the competition rules and put a limit on how many senior players can feature in a match day 23. That should be achievable as it doesn't require multiple unions and competitions to agree, but I suspect the main issue is branding. Premiership Rugby probably don't want to formally brand the cup as a development competition because it takes away any sense of prestige it has and they don't want the risk of there being even less interest in it than there already is.

Thankfully most clubs are treating it as an opportunity to rest their front line players whilst giving game time to development players and those rehabbing from injuries.
 
And it's pretty simple as well - barring an injury crisis, anyone who's played more than 3 of the last 9 matches is ineligible to start (or 4 of the last 8 or whatever, but 3 of 9 feels right to me).
The point is to give game time to those who aren't getting much; so not purely academy, not purely U24, but also those 3rd choice players who train without playing, those players returning from injury.
 
Glos fan here, I believe the reason for putting that team out last night was because of a couple of things. Having the bye in the Premiership last week and not wanting to be the first side to lose to Bath this season. Skivington did say earlier in the week that there will be a very different side out next week v Exeter so I'm assuming that'll mean that we'll have more of a youth team out rather than the first team.
 

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