Rugby Union

474 readers

1 users here now

Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby. This instance is for news, analysis and discussion of the sport of rugby.

Rules:

No Advertising or Self Promotion

No NSFW or Disruptive Content

No Disrespect or Drama

No Spamming or Off-Topic Content

Be Respectful

Sister Community:
[email protected]

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Olap

Autumn Nations Series - Week 4 (self.rugby)

submitted 4 weeks ago by Olap to c/[email protected]

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Friday night rugby, with France vs Argentina to kick off things. Then Sat is Ire vs Fiji, Wal vs SA, and Ita vs NZ. Sun is Sco vs Aus, and Eng vs Japan

Been a great 4 weeks, lets hope for some great matches again! Game of the weekend looks to be Scotland vs Australia, and guess who's going?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Olap 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm on Scotland-A vs Chile instead of tgehe Wales match. On a knife edge with 15 to go

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I know Chile are on the improve, but is the Scottish 2nd team really that bad, or were conditions the levelling factor?

[–] Olap 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Conditions were poor, but Scotland A hasn't played in like 5 years either. Got the win, they should be happy

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh wow, we run at least one alternate team every year, does Scotland just not have the players, or is it a money thing?

[–] Olap 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

We used to do it much more frequently. Scotland often play lower tiered nations with the full team, but with loads rested, and the A only coming out when playing the same week. We have the players, nearly 100 professional in Scotland alone. Money and fixtures I suspect more. The 6n has given up on A matches, with the u20 taking its place essentially. And traveling to far flung places means cash, and an invite to a tier 1 with some mid week team to play. Scotland haven't done a summer tour to NZ since like the 90s. SA last invited us and Italy together. And Australia didn't put up a midweek team for us :(

So a few factors, but great to see them last night

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Its definitely expensive, maybe given how close that match was sending the A team around Europe which is a lot cheaper would be a good ploy? Good for those lower tier nations getting experience playing better teams and good for the A players to get proper touring experience together as well, even if its on busses & trains instead of planes ;)

Its a hell of a lot easier to do that than NZ bringing ours all the way up north anyway! I guess we only get away with that as it has the benefit of increasing the ABs touring player pool but Razor's getting away with murder on the squad sizes and given NZRs finances its hard to see how we can sustain the number of players & staff on tour that he wants. For the 2026 SA tour he's already talked about an All Blacks squad 60+ which is probably only viable because SA is likely not super expensive once you manage to get over there.

[–] Olap 1 points 3 weeks ago

For sure. Scotland A vs Georgia, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, NL and Germany would be great to see from my perspective. Even if we invite them over, what's not to love? They are talking about a hotel next to Murrayfield, why not host some visitors in that? The second tier in Europe needs more games anyway, A teams from all the 6n should be stepping up imo