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First topic message reminder :

Upcoming Fixtures: AP R1 - Newcastle Falcons v Sale Sharks, Gloucester v Northampton Saints, London Welsh v Leicester Tigers, Saracens v London Irish, London Wasps v Harlequins, Worcester Warriors v Bath Rugby

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Waiting List
1. pullthestrings
2. Bathite

Welcome to Season 5 of the Aviva Premiership fantasty 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 (Ozzy3213) 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 (me) will remove players at it’s 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 matchday 22'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 a listed senior academy squad of 20 players. Players who are in the senior academy must be under 22 years of age as of 1st September 2012 (therefore must have been born on or after 1st Septmber 1990). Players who are under the age of 20 (so born after 1st September 1992) AND are in the academy of the club that you are managing in real life, DO NOT need to be listed as senior academy players as part of your 20, but are available to you in this game and cannot be poached by other clubs without paying you a fee.

Should a player not listed in your 20 senior academy players, but part of the clubs academy in real life move clubs in real life, then you will have first option of promoting him to your listed senior academy. If you choose not to take this option he will become property of the club that he moves to in real life in this game.

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 3 players from the Championship or the National Leagues. These players must be bid for on the Championship/National League bidding page, and each bid will be considered by me on it's 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.
  
  Foreign transfers will unlimited during the off season and 2 during the season. The exact dates of the two transfer windows during the season is to be confirmed.
  

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

If a released player plays in real life for a team outside of this game he will be deemed to have returned to that team. If not then he will be deemed to have signed for a Championship side. If another manager wants to pick a released player up, they will have to bid for him in the same way as for a foreign or Championship/National League player.

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 Heineken Cup, Amlin Challenge Cup and Anglo Welsh Cup matches. These games will take place once a week. A thread will be put up for managers to name their teams on Thursdays, then on Fridays, 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.

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:-

At least 10 England qualified players in your matchday 23, and at least 5 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 forfeiting the match and 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 for a first offence, two for a second offence and so on.

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

£1.5m 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.

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 Finalisst - £1 million each
Runners Up - £2 million
Champions - £3 million


If your budgets falls below minus £10 million for any reason, the administrators (ozzy3213) will step in and players from within your squad will be released for the relevant financial compensation in order to bring your budget back above minus £10 million.

Will have a look at it once the season begins Mat, and see how we are all looking numbers wise. Bit of an unknown how everyone will be effected with the smaller squads.

Be a tough season I think, I'm not expecting to win anything tbh

I am fairly confident on being top 4 as I have decent English and mix of nh and sh


However a few form issues in certain positions could be bad. Glad i signed Lapandry as with burger out and saull not back until sept could have been light.

If jdj selected for rc I have issues at 13

I think it will be the most evenly competitive season we've had so far. Wouldn't like to predict the winners of any trophy.

Really close all round think most teams at top will lose about 6-8 games. Real life form is the biggie

Imagine my London Welsh players will have belly full of fire prior to every game.

Pete you mentioned Waldouck yesterday and he's handed in a transfer request this morning!

Going to Saints I believe.

Good signing for them, did they sign a 12 too?

What a signing for them that would be - think they could turn him into an England potential.

He's stagnated at Wasps as we've had crap coaches who don't know hwo to get the best of him - you can't get someone playing a different position each week.

Not a big fan of Dae Young at all - losing Waldouck effectively for Lee Robinson and Chris Mayor...

Anyone about for some deals?

Haskell dropped to the Saxons...not sure about that one

FORWARDS (17)

Mouritz Botha (Saracens)

Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)

Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)

Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers)

Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)

Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)

Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs)

Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)

Joe Marler (Harlequins)

Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby)

Tom Palmer (London Wasps)

Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)

Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)

Matt Stevens (Saracens)

Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers)

Rob Webber (Bath Rugby)

Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)

BACKS (15)

Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers)

Chris Ashton (Saracens)

Brad Barritt (Saracens)

Mike Brown (Harlequins)

Danny Care (Harlequins)

Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)

Owen Farrell (Saracens)

Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)

Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)

Alex Goode (Saracens)

Jonathan Joseph (London Irish)

Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)

Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)

Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)

Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

England Saxons Squad:

FORWARDS (18)

Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby)

Calum Clark (Northampton Saints)

Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers)

Paul Doran Jones (Northampton Saints)

Carl Fearns (Bath Rugby)

James Gaskell (Sale Sharks)

Jamie Gibson (London Irish)

Joe Gray (Harlequins)

James Haskell (London Wasps)

Graham Kitchener (Leicester Tigers)

Matt Kvesic (Worcester Warriors)

Joe Launchbury (London Wasps)

Matt Mullan (Worcester Warriors)

David Paice (London Irish)

George Robson (Harlequins)

Henry Thomas (Sale Sharks)

David Wilson (Bath Rugby)

Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

BACKS (14)

Nick Abendanon (Bath Rugby)

Miles Benjamin (Leicester Tigers)

Tom Biggs (Bath Rugby)

Freddie Burns (Gloucester Rugby)

George Ford (Leicester Tigers)

George Lowe (Harlequins)

Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)

Rob Miller (Sale Sharks)

Ugo Monye (Harlequins)

Joe Simpson (London Wasps)

David Strettle (Saracens)

Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby)

Christian Wade (London Wasps)

Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens)

Steffon not even in Saxons. crazy. should be in the EPS.
Dowson and Johnson over him is laughable.

But same time Nick, Armitage would have known that by moving to France he wouldnt play for England.

Really want some top talent to come through this year, think the one I think could be one of the most exciting is Teimana Harrison at Saints, if Wood is injured at start of the season and Clark unavailable then he'll start and be very good. England honours definitely in the future for him!

Doesn't he have dreadlocks???? No way can he play for England

Just watching 2nd Ba's game, Johnny May gives me a semi on

He may have dreadlocks...makes him run faster.

Haha....is it a similar effect to when you get new trainers?

Some really odd selections in that EPS from Lancaster.

Glad to see sharples in it. Should be fully fit after op and offers something different

No nick wood in saxons bizarre and mullan should be eps

How Dowson is in over Haskell is just baffling to me.

How dowson is a pro rugby player baffles me. A backrow who misses countless tackles

anonmattyt wrote:How dowson is a pro rugby player baffles me. A backrow who misses countless tackles

What's with the Dowson digs Matt? He's a professional rugby player because he's good at what he does and when you'v played in 2 Aviva Premiership semi finals , Heineken Cup runner up and now an established member of the England set up you can't be that bad? Granted he's no Schalk Burger but he is a solid AP and International player.

I remember reading that he's sin binning against Leinster in HC final was the reason they got back in the game, infact i'v went and found it.

telegraph player ratings wrote:P Dowson
Finished off try with great determination and tireless worker at the breakdown game was lost while he was in sin bin in second-half

Chiefs look up for this one!

Tore them to bits from the start , could be a classic this one.

Cruden's dummy throw is sick!!!!!

Lovely cross field from Carter, great finish Read! This is a cracker

Dagg holding the ball up to send Read in , Dagg is so clever with the rugby ball!

Toeova joins the J-League

http://www.espnscrum.com/newzealand/rugby/story/166639.html

Kieron Read is on fire!

Crusaders pack too strong

NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loosehead 50 metre breaks!

Driver - RIP 606 wrote:NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loosehead 50 metre breaks!

That's wjhat all us front rowers can do

Some finish SBW

Read man of match

By a distance, not a better 8 in world rugby.

Crusaders set piece was fantastic, great defence too

Arguably Parisse....

What a pass Quade!

I think Read has stepped up to a whole new level this season Nick, his work in the air is like Harinordoquy (leads Crusaders & AB lineout) and he carries as good as any 8 out there. I'd say he's probably the AB's most important forward.

I don't think there is much in it. Parisse has better hands, his link play is superb. But Read is probably a bit more physical and better carrier.

Both amazing players.

Read best 8 in the world for me. His work in the air is nowhere near as good as hari but he is superb elsewhere.

He's no Hari in lineout but very strong there, his restart work is amazing. Just upped his game this year

He is on a different planet to any 8 at the moment. AB's best player for the last year.

Parisse is my favourite forward around - his rugby brain is awesome!

I was surprised that we only had Hartley and Webber in the EPS as hookers, think that might show how lacking we are in that area right now.

Am so surprised that Haskell didnt make the cut, thought he put in a great shift against SA and did more in that game then Dowson ever could for England. I do rate Dowson, think he's very intelligent and a good leader, but he just isnt physical enough to be a top class international - if you had Haskells physique with Dowson's brain you;d have a top player. We should splice them...

Driver my issues with Dowson is that he is so average.

SCW did a great article saying how england manages to produce great volume of players and not quality.

There are loads of players in england at Dowsons level. He will never be a decent international and is a club player. For me Lancaster is a clown for picking him. I would rather play somebody raw but with potential than someone who will never be good enough for international

He really does get up my nose. Everybody has players they loathe and banahan dowson etc are mine. so mediocre its untrue

There are still too many average players in that squad for me, think we need to start pushing good youngsters through again - all the other nations do it, reckon if Johnny May was an Aussie he'd have at least 10 caps by now.

Wonder how Tom Wood fits into the team now, I did think Robshaw was just an AP player before last season, but really impressed me.

May was awesome in 2nd midweek game....will Wood come back from injury?

You could play wood and robshaw at 6 and 7. need a big carrying 8 with them though, and a big carrying lock which in our current squad we dont really have!

wood seems to be having injury problems though so most likely will be croft at 6 with robshaw at 7.

If you play Croft I think you can easily play Palmer and Lawes, I think we have to make sure that Lawes starts as he's easily got the most potential and adds so much to the defence.

Was a bit surprised that Skivington didnt feature at all in the Saxons, really like him.