Season 7 Homepage 2

First topic message reminder :

Breaking News: Saints continue to set the pace with win at defending champions while the Chiefs remain unbeaten after toppling the Tigers 
 

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Welcome to Season 7 of the Aviva Premiership fantasy rugby game.  Below are the rules of the game which must be adhered to.  If there are any situations that arise in the course of the game which are not covered by the rules, a final decision will be made by the RFU (SJE) as to how the situation will be resolved.
 
 

Senior Squads wrote:
The maximum squad size is 40 senior players.  If a team has more than 40 players in their squad then they will be fined £1 million per player over the permitted amounts per day for the first seven days. If after 7 consecutive days a team still has more than the permitted number of players then the team will be fined £2 million per player per day, and fined 1 league point per player per day for the next seven days. If after this time a team still has more than the permitted number of players in their squad, the RFU (SJE) will remove players at its discretion to bring them back under the permitted numbers. There will be no right of appeal to players being removed.

Be aware that all tier one international matches which are played during the season will count in the game, and players selected in the match day 23's for those matches will not be eligible to play for their clubs on that weekend, therefore you must give due consideration to the make-up of your squad.

Academy Rules wrote:
Each team will be allowed to have an academy squad of 20 players.  Players who are in the academy must be born on or after 1st September 1992. 

Any player, who is at any Premiership club in real life, either in their senior, academy or AASE squads, can be bid for on the domestic bidding page. Players who are at your own club in real life and are coming through the academy system must be bid for if you want them in your own academy.

Transfers wrote:

• Domestic (other AP Teams)
  Each team has a budget to use in the purchase of players. Domestic transfers between AP clubs, regardless of nationality of player, should be negotiated between the respective managers, and then confirmed on the Domestic Transfer Confirmation Page.
  
• Domestic (Championship and below)
  Each team may during the season purchase no more than 5 players from the Championship or the National Leagues. These players must be bid for on the National League Bidding page, and each bid will be considered by me on its own merits before being accepted or rejected.  No bid will be accepted until a minimum of 24 hours has elapsed from the time the bid was made, in order to afford other managers the opportunity to make a counter bid.
  
• Foreign
  To make a foreign transfer (i.e. from any club outside of the AP, regardless of whether the player is English) a bid should be made on the Foreign Transfers Page, which will be considered by me against the posted guidelines for purchase prices before being accepted or rejected. No bid will be accepted until a minimum of 24 hours has elapsed from the time the bid was made, in order to afford other managers the opportunity to make a counter bid.
  
  There will be a summer foreign transfer window, which will run as follows.
  
  Open Window
  
  Open transfer window, teams have unlimited bids provided they have the financial resources to cover them.  Teams may only bid for one player at a time.
  
  The window will open from the 9th of June but only to those sides that finish 8th and below at first. They will have a week to make one signing each before the window is open to all.     
  

Player Releases wrote: 
Managers may choose to release players from their clubs, for which they will be offered compensation

Compensation will be paid as follows

£2 million – current international (must have played international rugby in the previous 12 months)
£1.5 million – former international
£1m – top flight experience
£0.5m – other

All released players will be deemed to have joined a Championship side and can be bid for on the National League Bidding page.

Retirements wrote:
There will be no compensation for retiring players.  Should a player who retires decide to come out of retirement and play again, then he will automatically go back to the club who he was playing for in the game when he retired.

Fixtures wrote:
There will be 22 Aviva Premiership games per season, plus the play offs. There will also be European Rugby Champions Cup, European Rugby Challenge Cup and Anglo Welsh Cup matches.  These games will take place once a week. A match thread will be put up every Monday. Home teams must be named by midnight on Tuesday. Away teams must be named by midnight on Wednesday. Failure to meet these deadlines is punishable by the addition of three match points to the oppositions final score, unless both sides fail to do so. Both teams must provide tactics by midnight on Thursday. Predictions will be open from 00:01 hours on Friday and remain open until 15:00 hours on Sunday. Managers will post the scores that they think will happen from these games (apart from games in which they are involved).  An average of all predictions will be taken, and then 0.5 points added to each teams score for each prediction that had them as the winner, and that will then be the final score.

Managers are asked to provide detail as to why they have predicted a result.  To be considered a descriptive prediction this must be a full 3 lines long when entered into the text box. 

Teams wrote:
When naming your team, not only should you put the starting XV and replacements, but also tactics that your team will employ. Results will be affected by the tactics described.

In addition, each team must have the following:-

For domestic competition at least 8 England qualified players in your match day 23, and at least 4 of those must be in your starting XV.

For European competition at least 8 England qualified players in your match day 23, and at least 6 of those must be in your starting XV.

At least 2 props and 1 hooker on the bench.

All players must be eligible (not injured or banned).

Failure to comply with these rules will result in a 1 league point deduction.

If you fail to submit a team for a match, then the other team will be automatically awarded a 30-0 bonus point win. If both teams fail to submit a team, then it will be scored as a 0-0 draw.

Injuries and Suspensions wrote:
Injuries in this game do NOT reflect real life, they will be generated by me.

Players banned in real life will be ineligible for selection in this game for the duration of the ban.

Inclusion of injured/banned players will result in them being replaced by players on the bench, and the bench not having eight players, which may result in punishment if it concerns the front-row.

Punishment for fielding an ineligible player will be loss of one match point.

Financial Rewards wrote:
There will be no rewards for the result of an individual match, instead the managers will receive cash for predicting.

£2m for descriptive predictions 
£0.25m for scores on the doors predictions
If you fail to predict without first advising me that you are unable to do so that week, you will be fined £1m for a first offence, £2m for a second offence, £3m for a third offence etc upto a maximum of £5m per fine.

AP finishing positions.

Champions: 8m
Runners Up: 6m
Playoff Semi Finalist Losers: 5m
5th: 4m
6th: 3.5m
7th: 3m
8th: 2.5m
9th: 2m
10th: 1.5m
11th: 1m
12th: 0.5m

Heineken Cup

Losing Quarter Finalists - £2 million each
Losing Semi Finalists - £3 million each
Runners Up - £4 million
Champions - £5 million

Amlin Challenge Cup

Losing Quarter Finalists - £1 million each
Losing Semi Finalists - £2 million each
Runners Up - £3 million
Champions - £4 million

Anglo-Welsh Cup

Losing Semi Finalist - £1 million each
Runners Up - £2 million
Champions - £3 million


If your budgets falls below minus £10 million for any reason, the administrators (SJE) will step in and players from within your squad will be released for the relevant financial compensation (foreign transfer value) in order to bring your budget back above minus £10 million.

CJ if you have enough cash I reckon Jake Ball isn't a bad shout!

England training squad for this week


Loose-head props 
Alex Corbisiero (Northampton Saints) 
Joe Marler (Harlequins) 
Matt Mullan (Wasps) 
Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
Tight-head props 
Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons) 
Henry Thomas (Bath Rugby) 
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Hookers 
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs) 
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints) 
Rob Webber (Bath Rugby) 
Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Locks 
Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby) 
Joe Launchbury (Wasps) 
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) 
Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers) 
Ed Slater (Leicester Tigers)
Back rows 
Calum Clark (Northampton Saints) 
Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers) 
Will Fraser (Saracens) 
James Haskell (Wasps) 
Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs) 
Matt Kvesic (Gloucester Rugby) 
Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby) 
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins) 
Billy Vunipola (Saracens) 
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints) 
Jackson Wray (Saracens)
Scrum halves 
Danny Care (Harlequins) 
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints) 
Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens) 
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Fly halves 
Freddie Burns (Leicester Tigers) 
Danny Cipriani (Sale Sharks) 
Owen Farrell (Saracens) 
George Ford (Bath Rugby) 
Stephen Myler (Northampton Saints) 
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
Centres 
Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers) 
Brad Barritt (Saracens) 
Luther Burrell (Northampton Saints) 
Kyle Eastmond (Bath Rugby) 
Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby) 
Henry Trinder (Gloucester Rugby) 
Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers) 
Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby)
Back threes 
Chris Ashton (Saracens) 
Mike Brown (Harlequins) 
Ben Foden (Northampton Saints) 
Alex Goode (Saracens) 
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby) 
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs) 
Chris Pennell (Worcester Warriors) 
Marland Yarde (Harlequins) 
Christian Wade (Wasps) 
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)
The following players will not join the training squad this week due to injury: 
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers) 
Sam Dickinson (Northampton Saints) 
Ollie Devoto (Bath Rugby)

Jackson Wray? I'm starting to get why Steffon Armitage is annoyed about not being picked.

Are you all thinking what I'm thinking and that Garvey must have physically punched Lancaster?

I reckon they must have had an altercation when Lancaster was in the age groups

Maybe he's simply not a better 4 than Launchbury , Lawes and Slater? He's not a better 6 than Wood , Croft and Haskell.

I'd say he's about the same as Clark.

He offers something different though, he adds power and workrate and meanness, I'd equate him more to slater.

Good to see Fraser back, IMO he's the real contender for Robshaw's shirt

Fraser is cracking , beast over the ball.

If we have 6 backrow slots for the RWC initial squad, let's say, I'd like to see Robshaw, Wood, Haskell, Fraser, Billy, Morgan. Happy with our depth with that

I would not  have Garvey near the England set up. A good club player and no more to me. Lacks pace for backrow and not good enough second row.

Looks like Lancaster agrees with you. Could do with more power in our pack for certain opponents though

I'd like to see what would happen if we went with

6.Billy V
7.Wood
8.Morgan

Some serious wrecking ball going on.

Just bring Banahan back onto the wing and we'll be fine

I've wanted to see that backrow for a while, but with Robshaw. However I imagine Wood would be needed for the line-out. 

Banahan was supposedly being tried out back in his original position of back row for Bath in pre-season.

only room for one of Billy and Morgan for me in the back row

I reckon it is worth an attempt. But only with a second row of Launch and Lawes. 

If we need to bulk up I would look at Attwood for Lawes in some games.

I think we'd be better off starting with Morgan and Billy from the bench if i'm honest.

Looking for a good loose head who can possibly cover tighthead but not essential. Any ideas for forgeins?

After a creative centre guys.

Prop, CJ van der Linde???

Driver, I've got bags of centres

Genia to Stade

http://www.espn.co.uk/australia/rugby/story/236755.html

Would he get passed Dupey?

Amazed that Wray has been called up to the England setup - coached him at my old club when he was younger, but don't really see him as an England player - solid club player but can't see him stepping up at all.

Really surprised Daly isn't there at all - some of Lancaster's calls are a bit odd as you could see Daly in the right environment really pushing on and developing, even if he were included in the Saxons.

Nice to see Deveto included though.

Wray is really not the standard we need, he'd not be in if at a lower club.

Daly isn't in because there's so many FB options I imagine.

Haha....Johnny, I'm not wrong though!

How much do we get for full predictions in the Summer tournament SJE/anyone?

I know it was stated but can't find it.

3m

Adam Jones currently training with Neath

It's getting worse for him really, I wonder if he'll just retire??

Australia (XV v New Zealand): I Folau; P McCabe, A Ashley-Cooper, M Toomua, R Horne; K Beale, N White; W Palu, M Hooper, S Fardy; R Simmons, S Carter; S Kepu, N Charles, J Slipper.

Replacements: J Hanson, P Cowan, B Alexander, W Skelton, B McCalman, S Higginbotham, N Phipps, B Foley, T Kuridrani.

Beale at 10 is strange

The world beater Kuridrani dropped for AAC??? Bizarre

Sounds like someone has a bit of an OCD issue with Kuridrani...

WRU need to sort themselves out, they are going to destroy Welsh regional rugby if they arent careful. How you can have Jones and Warburton without clubs is incredible.

Can't understand that team.

Dropping foley and Kurindrani is very odd indeed.

Have gone for defensive options in back 5 is the way it looks.

Assume Beale and toomua will interchange with Beale and cooper a known pairing that will work with folau? Seems to have stuck as many tahs in as possible.

Horne was not seen as a wing option by any of the Aussie press.

Baffled by dropping foley and Kurindrani

AAC has been in great form for Tahs. Although surprised they didn't go with the Tahs midfield.

I suppose there is a defensive issue with that though

Horne has been outstanding on the wing when I've seen him.

I can't fathom McCabe on the wing at all.

You were always trying to fit in 3 players in great form into 10 /12.

I myself would have gone Foley/Toomua but understand Beale's inclusion giving his experience.

Hooper an excellent choice as captain. Not sure anyone will wrestle that armband off him. Such a top class player.

The form choice is obvious:

10. Foley
12. Beale
13. AAC

Kurindrani possibly adding impact from the bench.

Horne has been amazing on the wing, he's the only choice really.

Toomua has been excellent for Oz of late. Their best back after Folau and possibly Cummins for me

Toomua is a solid option, he'll do the basics well but won't pull up tress. I'd prefer Beale at 12, think he's great there

Can't play Beale and foley together at 10/12 in int level due to both being pretty average defenders. 

Mckenzie concluded this after watching the tahs get smashed by brumbies at start of season.

Toomua one of the first names on the sheet for Mckenzie. Defence leader/captain I believe. Also gives them that second kicking option at 12. 

That said would rather Beale 12 Toomoua 10 if you are not playing foley. May see this happen Saturday despite numbers on their back

Toomau just doesn't offer much going forward though, he's very like Brad Barritt, very similar players

I hugely disagree with that last comment Pooly.

He is a 10 by nature and creates a lot for his team mates.

Compared to the worlds best perhaps he is limited but comparing him to Barritt is tremendously unfair for me. Also Barritt wouldn't like the comparison as he isn't close to Barritt as a defender.

I think Barritt is massively underated Steve, I think it's a complimentary comparison. Toomua is a decent player, I don't think him and Kurindrani make a good combo though.

Toomua is streets and streets ahead of Barritt in a creative sense for my money. Rate him very highly.

You reckon? Quite surprised with that, both decent players. I'd rate them pretty similar I think.

You'd never ever have guessed that Toomua had gone to Mat's team.

If Barritt was as creative as Toomua we would have a solution for England in the no12 shirt, especially considering his defence. Toomua is very creative and has come on leaps and bounds this year for Australia, not like a Quade Cooper, but would have him over any of the current England 12 options by a country mile.

I'm hardly saying he's rubbish, stop making something out of nothing. People have opinions on players.

I'd have Burrell ahead of him, possibly 36. Barritt about a similar level (with similar ability)

 Haha, just on this page there are comments about Genia, Kurindrani and Toomua - will get you a year's worth of beer if you can make it through the season without one argument kicking off over a Gloucester player.

Here we go again......

I like Toomau, me and Steve were discussing him.

Beale is the perfect impact sub. Covers several positions well, breaks up a game, kicking option. If I were Aus, I'd keep him on the bench and explain to him that that role is just as vital as the starting 15

Agree with you completely CJ - bit of an odd selection in their backline when you consider who they could have played. Surprised AAC isn't out on the wing instead of McCabe.

I think AAC is better at 13, indeed exceptional at 13, but wouldn't start him on the wing.

You can see mckenzies point really in that Beale and AAC were outstanding towards end of season and that toomua is a playmaker and will play that second playmaker role. Kurindrani and foley were exceptional against France but in a crunch match he has gone for experience and form.

Not saying I agree with it but it's not without logic.


" "Bernard hasn't put a foot wrong since we chose him in June, but Kurtley has really stepped up his game over the past few months and he's consistently been one of the Waratahs best players every week," he said.

"He'll bring some additional x-factor to our game. We feel that will suit our two-playmaker framework and ensure we have the right balance in those positions along with Matt Toomua.

"Kurtley's also an experienced guy who has played 42 Tests, so he will enjoy the added responsibility of wearing the number 10 jersey.

"He's got a proven track record at the position at a provincial and Test level, and he has been involved in a number of important wins at fly-half for Australia over the years.

"Shifting Adam from the wing to the centres has been for much the same reason - he's been in outstanding form for the Waratahs and was a real point of difference for them at the back-end of the Super Rugby season."