RugbyRebels

No thread for this one? Or many European games this weekend. Can tell folks aren’t that engaged which is maybe the format now. Maybe we should have a general Europe thread?

Anyway, Piardi and his TMO a disgrace in this one. Pretty much let French tv ref the game and as usual they were only showing incidents in the French favour. Disgrace this continues to be allowed.

Saints were excellent after first 20 minutes where they dominated but somehow threw away 3 tries. Mitchell superb, Coles very good. Iyogun powerful at scrum off the bench. Hendy hit and miss but scored the winning try.

Hutchinson continues to be a boggling player to me. Some weeks he looks a world beater, others he looks like he won a competition. This week was the latter.

Big win for Saints- Pau don’t really lose at home and their last 2 games were wins away at Bordeaux and home to La Rochelle. Also beat Toulouse at home about a month ago. Saints could have won this by 25 points with some fair reffing.

I would have watched, but they are on some channel I don't have. I'm too old to deal with a 480p dodgy stream unless it's for a team I support. Will the highlights be on youtube anywhere? This game looked fun by the score.

Can anyone share a way of watching Glos v Castre? Whilst I love Toulouse, I dont want to watch any non-european teams

I'd watch some of the games if i had Premier Sports. I daresay a few fall into that category.

Heres the highlights which does feature some cracking tries.

Thanks fivepointer.

fivepointer wrote: ↑Sun Dec 07, 2025 4:33 pm I'd watch some of the games if i had Premier Sports. I daresay a few fall into that category.

Current format of the competition, inclusion of non-European teams, and yet another broadcaster mean that I don't really give a damn.
Only watching Bath or Glos, and then if there are no saffer in our group.

However, Ali seems to have discovered a "Hallmark at Christmas" section of Prime, so... I'm a bit more interested than I have been for a few years.
So I'm off, sailing in the Carribbean...

fivepointer wrote: ↑Sun Dec 07, 2025 4:33 pm I'd watch some of the games if i had Premier Sports. I daresay a few fall into that category.

Yes, I'm in that group. Sky and TNT were my limit. I wonder what the viewing figures are. The coverage must be doing the competition little good, I'd suggest. This will be the first season without the means to watch for me and I'll probably lose interest permanently.

Oakboy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 07, 2025 4:58 pm

fivepointer wrote: ↑Sun Dec 07, 2025 4:33 pm I'd watch some of the games if i had Premier Sports. I daresay a few fall into that category.

Yes, I'm in that group. Sky and TNT were my limit. I wonder what the viewing figures are. The coverage must be doing the competition little good, I'd suggest. This will be the first season without the means to watch for me and I'll probably lose interest permanently.

The new competition layout plus the move away from TNT Sport seems to have killed most interest in the English support and a lot of the clubs.

It's the fact that the clubs have lost interest that has ruined it for me. Practically no point in half of the games because the away team has sacked it off and the pools are even more ridiculously unbalanced based on whether teams care or not.

Puja

Wouldn’t disagree with anything that has been said so far.

Given there is apparently little financial benefit, are we at a point where English clubs should sack Europe off?

It could be replaced by opening the prem back up in terms of clubs without impacting squad size or games played. Maybe a more robust cup competition too.

For future rounds, if anyone has a VPN set to North America, you can watch legitimate versions of the games for free on FloRugby's YouTube channel. They seem to carry all the Champions Cup games and most of the Challenge Cup games:

https://www.youtube.com/@FloRugby/videos

Captainhaircut wrote: ↑Mon Dec 08, 2025 9:42 am Wouldn’t disagree with anything that has been said so far.

Given there is apparently little financial benefit, are we at a point where English clubs should sack Europe off?

It could be replaced by opening the prem back up in terms of clubs without impacting squad size or games played. Maybe a more robust cup competition too.

Oh to be a fly on the wall at the RFU! How are the various influences reacting? Do the fans matter? I suspect many (most?) would go with your suggestion.

Oakboy wrote: ↑Mon Dec 08, 2025 2:18 pm

Captainhaircut wrote: ↑Mon Dec 08, 2025 9:42 am Wouldn’t disagree with anything that has been said so far.

Given there is apparently little financial benefit, are we at a point where English clubs should sack Europe off?

It could be replaced by opening the prem back up in terms of clubs without impacting squad size or games played. Maybe a more robust cup competition too.

Oh to be a fly on the wall at the RFU! How are the various influences reacting? Do the fans matter? I suspect many (most?) would go with your suggestion.

It's nothing really to do with the RFU since the clubs wrestled control away from the unions - pissing off plenty of people in the process, before slaughtering the golden goose