Prem & URC merger?

[Mellsblue]

https://x.com/telegraphrugby/status/171 ... MV3j-SK8yQ

Did anyone have this in the predictions thread?

[Which Tyler]

FFS

[Oakboy]

What is the point of any 'super league' without French clubs?

[Mikey Brown]

What is the point of any 'super league' without French clubs?

I mean yeah, but then you’ve got like 40 teams and 1000 games. Maybe include everyone, but drop the number of teams per region/country down to about 1. Maybe just do this competition every 4 years or so to keep an element of prestige and occasion to it.

[Puja]

We have literally just got the league down to a functional number of teams...

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Agreed that it’s far too unwieldy plus it just makes the Euro comp URC + France. Not a huge point of difference.
If PR do want to merge with someone I’d go for the Wales regions. Tell them to dump the Dragons - which they’re rumoured to be contemplating anyway - promote Doncaster and have a seven team South West & Wales conference and a seven team East & North conference. Play those in your conference home and away, and those in the other conference home or away. Top two from each conference into the playoffs. I’m sure the URC might object but we are England and we do what we want.

[FKAS]

Is it this time of year again. I'm sure something comes up every year re a club world cup or some/all of the URC joining the Prem.

[jimKRFC]

Not sure where it fits, on th eboard, but some interesting comments from Pichot in the DailyMail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby ... e-12646893

‘After three years of keeping his counsel, Agustin Pichot is finally ready to break his silence. ‘Talk soon,’ he says over WhatsApp, before boarding a flight from Buenos Aires to France. He agrees to meet at his hotel in Marseille’s old port. It is the morning after Argentina’s riotous victory over Wales — in what has been acclaimed as the greatest rugby weekend of all time — but the mood is not one of celebration for the former Pumas captain.
“I was here in 2007”, he says, stirring a cup of mate — Argentina’s national drink — on the terrace overlooking the harbour. ‘We were in a hotel here and we were third in the world. It is déjà vu, I promise.’
It is a loaded comment. Pichot is not referring to the panoramic views of the pretty boats bobbing in the water. He has decided it is time to expose rugby’s damaging refusal to grow into a global game, having stayed silent since losing out to Sir Bill Beaumont in the World Rugby chairman election in May 2020.

[jimKRFC]

Some comments as well from Steve Lansdown on rugby as well:

https://www.bristol247.com/sport/rugby/ ... xxN5QqOZuk

Sounding like Bristol, Quins, Saints & Sarries being pro-cap increases and the others not...

[Slater582]

That concept of "two conferences – a Premiership and URC one, to qualify for knockout stages" sounds rubbish. Pretending the two leagues are connected and then bolting on some play off games between them at the end of the season.

Anyway Sweeney Todd confirms the RFU will hold talks next month.

“I think you’d expect us to talk about anything really, the way the game needs to grow, the game needs to be financially stronger,”

“We want to attract more investment coming in, so all sorts of conversations take place in terms of different options. That one (British and Irish League) is not fully developed by any means. So it’s a very tentative, hypothetical conversation at this stage but it has certain merits, but it also has certain challenges. It doesn’t affect the PGP, we will go ahead with a PGP in parallel, and just do that. But it’s one of a number of things that people talk about in terms of how do you take the game forward.”

Asked if the RFU could support the proposal if it is good for the English game, Sweeney added: “It is fraught with challenges, I tend to think about what happened in football with the European Super League, so fans are going to be taken into consideration on this.‌ What does that mean in terms of the overall structure? Some very big, significant questions are going to be asked on it, which is why I say at this stage, it’s very tentative but we consider all conversations.”

[Mellsblue]

That concept of "two conferences – a Premiership and URC one, to qualify for knockout stages" sounds rubbish.

Sounds brilliant, to me. You could ask the Top 14 to join as well and call the knockout stages the Champions C… ah, hang on a second.