RFU cancels rest of season (all but Prem)

[TRF_Olyy]

RFU have officially pulled the plug on the rest of the season for all but the premiership, which they're still in discussions with.

Newcastle currently top of the table in the Championship, 15 - 0, and 18pts clear so you'd hope they just get promoted.

Feel like it's only a matter of time before the Prem gets the plug pulled, but there's so much money involved that I can understand why they're attempting to find a way to play it.
They should just do 1st vs 2nd, behind closed doors, for the cup...




https://www.englandrugby.com/news/article/rfu-ends-the-201920-rugby-season-in-england

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Wage drama
https://twitter.com/FoyChris/status/1240749914000424960

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Not really surprising, its long been known that most prem clubs have been living well beyond their means. No-one wants to take a pay cut but player salaries have rocketed and most should be OK on the reduced amounts for a while. That may not be the case for some of the lower paid staff.

These are exceptional times but the number of businesses and individuals that we hear are living pretty much hand to mouth is shocking.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Hmmm.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-midweek-games-and-cut-break-to-finish-season

 

[EdBirch]

If they scrapped the play-offs for this season, that would save two weeks.

 

[higgik]

What about 'splitting' into two groups of 6 and then reduce the number of games to 16. Home and away in group and home or away v rest.
This saves 6 rounds.
Haven't investigated who has played who yet, but will be interesting to see if the idea would be possible.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Newcastle have now been promoted

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Newcastle have now been promoted

So will Ealing take them to court or were they just chatting ****...

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Not an unreasonable decision, but far from ideal with a third of the season unplayed. At least there were weren't two clubs neck and neck.

 

[Scotty]

Premiership season further delayed but intention is to complete campaign in full - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/52219200


Would iy work finishing it and pushing the start of next season and chinning off the prem cup. That would be my suggestion.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Times suggesting Premiership season will resume on August 15th ending in October with next season beginning in December.

When does the Championship season start? Will Sarries need to be in 2 places at once?

 

[RedruthRFC]

Times suggesting Premiership season will resume on August 15th ending in October with next season beginning in December.

When does the Championship season start? Will Sarries need to be in 2 places at once?

Very good point. The Championship falls under the auspices of the Professional Game Board, so clubs are able to return to training in the same way as Premiership clubs, but unlike the Premiership clubs, they have no season to return to.

AFAIK, The Championship is administered by the chairmen of the member clubs who as far as I can see have done nothing to improve their lot over the past ten years. That being the case, it comes as no surprise that they haven't made any kind of statement about plans for a return to play. They have less incentive to get back to play given that there is little or no TV money to worry about missing out on, so games behind closed doors would have little financial benefit. My guess would be that they will knock their Mickey Mouse cup on the head and aim to play their season out with a slightly delayed start and maybe a later finish to improve the chance of getting crowds in.

As Sarries won't be involved in playoffs, their Premiership will obviously end two weeks earlier than for 2 teams, so if I'm guessing right, they wouldn't need to be in two places at once. It would mean a slightly longer season for Sarries players than anyone else, but 9 Premiership 19/20 games plus 22 Championship 20/21 games would be less of a load than the 22 Premiership + 7-9 European + 6-8 Premiership Cup games that they would have been in line for if they had continued to get away with their rule breaking.

If something has to give, IMO the fair solution would be to wipe out their Premiership results (they're demoted anyway) and send them to The Championship. Obviously that wouldn't be popular with TV companies and those who might miss out on a home gate though.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Times suggesting Premiership season will resume on August 15th ending in October with next season beginning in December.

When does the Championship season start? Will Sarries need to be in 2 places at once?

Surely the most sensible thing is just bin off the rest of the this season and start next at the regular time?
This season was always a bit of a mess because of the RWC, but now we're going to mangle next years as well

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Surely the most sensible thing is just bin off the rest of the this season and start next at the regular time?
This season was always a bit of a mess because of the RWC, but now we're going to mangle next years as well

From all perspectives except TV money it's farcical.

 

[RedruthRFC]

From all perspectives except TV money it's farcical.

I suspect that there's an element of self interest from clubs who think that they're in with a shout too. As someone in the weird / hypocritical position of liking Chiefs, but not liking Tony Rowe, it would be quite fun to watch his head explode if the season can't be completed and Chiefs lose out on another Premiership ***le because of circumstances out of their control.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Times suggesting Premiership season will resume on August 15th

Confirmed this morning, so long as all the hoops are jumped through etc

wtf happens with players contracts? They usually run till june?

Like...does Sinckler play for Quins or Bristol now?

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Confirmed this morning, so long as all the hoops are jumped through etc

wtf happens with players contracts? They usually run till june?

Like...does Sinckler play for Quins or Bristol now?

Bristol, I think the rhetoric from clubs (and landsdown on the BBC podcast last week) is that all player transfers will be completed (inc those from abroad)

 

[Al Bangor]

Kudos to Newcastle on being promoted. I'm not a Falcons fan, but they were undefeated and deserve it.

 

[RedruthRFC]

Kudos to Newcastle on being promoted. I'm not a Falcons fan, but they were undefeated and deserve it.

Agreed. Ealing didn't in the first place, but reading between the lines, they were told to wind their necks in and rightly so. Assuming a 5 pointer in the game in hand against Leeds, I'd have wanted a very long price to back them to make up the 13 remaining points in 7 games.

Stroke of luck for all involved that it wasn't tighter to be honest.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I just realised, in the Euros thread:

Championship 20/21 is due to start early September
Premiership 19/20 is due to restart mid August, with 9 rounds left that's a bare minimum end date of the regular season of October 17th.

WTF are Sarries going to do for that month when they're in both leagues?
They can't drop out of the prem because that's 9 games where the opposition get a walkover, which isn't fair on the sides that actually played them (plus I doubt Sarries would be happy to lose the increased crowds/sponsorship/exposure from the prem) - but then they can't join the Championship 6 weeks late for the same reasons (6 games where the opposition get a walkover on them, when in all likelihood Sarries will be comfortably the best team in the league).

What a car crash.