Europe next Season

European rugby is more or less dead. Not because we aren't particularly good anymore. It's just a closed shop with the same old teams with huge budgets in the semi finals every year.

Different nations having different salary caps in their leagues and having to use the same squads in Europe is ludicrous. It's 2022 and rugby union is absolutely ridiculous considering it's a professional sport.

Wasp wrote: I see it's only 4 rounds in the group stages again, and seems like the home/away KO round has been killed off too. All the group fixtures in the depths of winter doesn't help our style of play - or make for a nice away trip  In the good old 3 home/ 3 away days, we used to have 2 rounds in late October when the weather was a bit better. https://www.epcrugby.com/2022/05/10/epcr-2022-23-season-dates-announced/ 2022/23 weekends Round 1 – 9/10/11 December 2022 Round 2 – 16/17/18 December 2022 Round 3 – 13/14/15 January 2023 Round 4 – 20/21/22 January 2023 Round of 16 – 31 March/ 1/2 April 2023 Quarter-finals – 7/8/9 April 2023 Semi-finals – 28/29/30 April 2023 EPCR Challenge Cup final – Friday 19 May 2023 Heineken Champions Cup final – Saturday 20 May 2023

minded wrote: Jones2004 wrote: Wasp wrote: I see it's only 4 rounds in the group stages again, and seems like the home/away KO round has been killed off too. All the group fixtures in the depths of winter doesn't help our style of play - or make for a nice away trip  In the good old 3 home/ 3 away days, we used to have 2 rounds in late October when the weather was a bit better. https://www.epcrugby.com/2022/05/10/epcr-2022-23-season-dates-announced/ 2022/23 weekends Round 1 – 9/10/11 December 2022 Round 2 – 16/17/18 December 2022 Round 3 – 13/14/15 January 2023 Round 4 – 20/21/22 January 2023 Round of 16 – 31 March/ 1/2 April 2023 Quarter-finals – 7/8/9 April 2023 Semi-finals – 28/29/30 April 2023 EPCR Challenge Cup final – Friday 19 May 2023 Heineken Champions Cup final – Saturday 20 May 2023 The ridiculous thing is this format only saves one weekend over the old format. Utterly mind boggling that they’ve wrecked the group stages just to save one weekend. Part of the appeal of Europe was that you were guaranteed to play at least one English and one French side home and away (while maintaining a format that doesn’t take 2 hours to understand!). And to think EPCR was formed because the old ECR wasn’t considered professional and competent enough! Not trying to be pedantic, as i obviously prefer the old format because it involves more pool games, but this current format does guarantee playing a French and English side home and away, while making it impossible to play against other URC team in the pool stages.

minded wrote: Also worth noting that if i've worked it out currently:  Original format had a 67 game total. Current format with H/A round of 16 has a 73 game total. Removing that H/A but keepiing Ro16 has a 63 game total. So maybe the TV companies have been convinced that 4 less games is probably worth it if the Ro16 is better value for money and viewership that the dead rubber pool games.

Wasp wrote: minded wrote: Also worth noting that if i've worked it out currently:  Original format had a 67 game total. Current format with H/A round of 16 has a 73 game total. Removing that H/A but keepiing Ro16 has a 63 game total. So maybe the TV companies have been convinced that 4 less games is probably worth it if the Ro16 is better value for money and viewership that the dead rubber pool games. Round of 16 is an ok addition. But it comes at the cost of a guaranteed home fixture and the much needed revenue that accompanies that

My point was more that despite BT Sport at one point sponsoring our jersey, and then the barn, they don't really give a toss about clubs at our level if they can get 63 games of better quality than 67.

I think I would prefer a seeded draw in the round of 16, then a non seeded draw from there. 

Was chatting with an esteemed colleague yesterday and he burped out this stat:


Value of our season ticket at Scarlets-

A few years ago:
11 home league games
3 European home games
2 Anglo Welsh games
TOTAL - 16


Next season:
9 league home games
2 European home games
TOTAL: 11

If my dodgy maths is correct, that is a reduction in guaranteed home games of 32 %.

Has this been raised at Crys meetings? Is this the continued direction of travel? Are we just content with this as a club? Do supporters have a say?

Edited by KID A - 12 May 2022 at 11:23am

Wasp wrote: minded wrote: Wasp wrote: minded wrote: Also worth noting that if i've worked it out currently:  Original format had a 67 game total. Current format with H/A round of 16 has a 73 game total. Removing that H/A but keeping Ro16 has a 63 game total. So maybe the TV companies have been convinced that 4 less games is probably worth it if the Ro16 is better value for money and viewership that the dead rubber pool games. Round of 16 is an ok addition. But it comes at the cost of a guaranteed home fixture and the much needed revenue that accompanies that My point was more that despite BT Sport at one point sponsoring our jersey, and then the barn, they don't really give a toss about clubs at our level if they can get 63 games of better quality than 67. They just care for the product. That’s no surprise, is it?