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First topic message reminder :

Saracens move off the bottom of the table after picking up a losing bonus point against Gloucester.

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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 Finalist - £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.

I quite like that back 3 against the Boks. Gives us plenty of kicking options and balance. Brown looked good on the wing when he came on and he's not slow.

As much as Sharples is rapid he's a revolving door in defence, if he faced JP he'd get mullered. He is a real talent but needs a lot of defensive coaching to get up to Int standard.

JSD out for 4 months. you cant be pleased with that matt.

Revolving door !!!!!!

Is this your latest campaign pooly?

I think anyone who watched him play would not say he is a revolving door. Absolute garbage of the highest order.

Gutted re JSD nick. He must worry every time he shaves. he is so bloody injury prone and again was in mint form.
At least we have sharples back and hopefully May

A campaign???

Sharples got tortured all game by Cummins Matt. Most of Aus attacks came down his wing and he was to blame for Aus 1st try. He was found out defensively, no campaign, it was plain to see.

"tortured" ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Worst thing about JSD is he is used so much at second receiver and also used quite a bit for hard yards these days. Our backline so much more fluid with him in it

Cummins completely dominated him and he's hardly top draw! You thought he made 12 successful tackles lol. He made 5 and missed 3!

Main board posts to show I'm not alone:

"Sharples IMO was the weakest link in the backline. Defensively he was totally out of his depth."

"11.Sharples-5-Didnt get much ball but defensively was poor stepped in too many times"

"Sharples - 5 (same as Ashton had no space on the rare occasion he saw the ball. Needs to work on defensive allignment)"

"11. Sharples - 5 - Poor defence and limited in attack, to be fair though he was given nothing."

SA:

South Africa team: Z Kirchner (Blue Bulls); JP Pietersen (Sharks), J de Jongh (Western Province), J de Villiers (Western Province, captain), F Hougaard (Blue Bulls); P Lambie (Sharks), R Pienaar (Ulster); G Steenkamp (Toulouse), A Strauss (Cheetahs), J du Plessis (Sharks), E Etzebeth (Western Province), J Kruger (Blue Bulls), F Louw (Bath), W Alberts (Sharks), D Vermeulen (Western Province).

Replacements: S Brits (Saracens), H van der Merwe (Leinster), P Cilliers (Western Province), F van der Merwe (Blue Bulls), M Coetzee (Sharks), E Jantjies (Golden Lions), J Taute (Golden Lions), L Mvovo (Sharks).

Half of your players there Matt

Pooly if you use your stats from Espn Sharples made 3 succesful and missed 2. He made lots more tackles than that . how they do them is weird as they are always amiss

It also says Ben youngs missed 50% OF his tackles and also turned over the ball 3 times which is more than anyone else despite being on 20 minutes. Again nonsense stats as he was trying to force the game and take chances and raise tempo. although he would probably admit himself he was average like the rest of the team

Got to question how these stats are done. Ie when a player chases the ball flat out on a 10/90 chance and gets stepped that is a missed tackle when in reality the defender was attempting a shot to nothing. Stats need context. Cummins made 2 clean breaks all game so how did he torture Sharples?

To be fair Matt I can remmember at least two times Cummins just ran over Sharples. One was very early on in the match. Remember posting as it happened on here. Sharples was decent ball in hand but defensively he was fairly poor

Good Boks team that. will take some beating. Best centre pairing Boks have. JDJ offers something different

It's turned over Matt not turn overs so reads about right.

If Sharples was solid he'd be playing on Saturday.

Can you honestly tell me, no bias, that you thought Sharples held up well defensively against Aus?

Watching championship vs maori, this Hayter's pretty handy! I wonder how a championship representative side would do in the amlin....

I meant turned over.

I Thought sharples was was fine.. Same as ashton really.

That time cummins ran over him he did stop him. as i posted he acted as a speed bump.

We should be more worried by getting quick ball and utilising our backs to attack.

Sharples needs to work on his alignment a little but thats the same as any international wing new to the international scene. Habana's Alignement was a mare to start with as were Ioane, Gear and all the others. Sharples alignment is not bad its just at international level everything is much more precise.

Taken Ashton about 2 years to get his alignment correct at international level

That's fair enough.

I personally thought he was out of his depth one on one and positionally. He was a liability throughout for me.

Happy to just agree to disagree.

starts for Launch, Brown (on wing), Corbs, Youngs, Wood and Morgan.

JJ and Haskell on bench

That 6 changes? Possibly the ones that I would have done, but would ahve kept Care at no9 as didnt think he was overly bad, but a lot of pundits were very critical of him. Be interesting to see how Youngs goes, always seems to play quite well against SA.

I do like how Lancaster was all about making the team tougher and stronger and then names Botha on the bench - would have kept Palmer there I think.

France: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Wesley Fofana, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Vincent Clerc, 10 Frederic Michalak, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Pascal Papé (c), 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Thomas Domingo
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Yannick Forestier, 18 Vincent Debaty, 19 Jocelino Suta, 20 Damien Chouly, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Francois Trinh-Duc, 23 Yoann Huget

New Zealand: 15 Israel Dagg, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (c), 6 Liam Messam, 5 Sam Whitelock, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock. Replacements: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Brodie Retallick, 20 Victor Vito, 21 Piri Weepu, 22 Aaron Cruden, 23 Ben Smith.

Australia: 15 Berrick Barnes, 14 Nick Cummins, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Brett Sheehan, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements:16 Tatafu Polota Nau, 17 James Slipper, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Dave Dennis, 20 Liam Gill, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Mike Harris, 23 Digby Ioane

agree Chris Youngs probably the luckiest of the changes. I still think he is a little way behind Care, especially when it comes to consistency

FFS I thought Higginbotham wasn't on the tour??!! Ah man I am royally screwed now!!

Youngs has got all the talent in the world, but for whatever reason it isnt just clicking for him.

Good to see Launchbury getting his chance, his injury at Wasps last year was a major reason we did so poorly - brings a lot of tempo to a pack and tackles everything that moves.

When we bring back Hartley, Lawes, and Croft we are going to have a really good pack - can see Wood taking Robshaw's place when Croft is back and the pack being Corbs, Hartley, Cole, Launch, Lawes, Croft, Wood and Morgan - could be one of the best come 2015!

Anyone got a backrower I can loan for two games please?!

Have James Craig, Ben Nutley and Jake Abbott available, but I think the latter has just got a nice ban for doing something to someon!

Jerome Kaino?

Is kaino playing in Japan or still injured???? He was immense and is missed by the AB's

Not sure he I'd missed all that nice

for me he had a real steel that messam does not add. Like messam just think Kaino was a real warrior type that gave them even more physicality. like they need it!!

I'll take Kaino for 2 games if that's ok?

yeh go for it mate stick it on confirms.

he was the best blindiside last year. not sure the AB's miss him as such but he certainly improves them. will be back next year i think.

1-Davit Khinchagishvili (CA Brive - ProD2)
2-Irakli Natriashvili (CA Brive - ProD2)
3-Davit Kubriashvili (RC Toulon - Top14)
4-Levan Datunashvili (Stade Aurillacois - ProD2)
5-Konstantin Mikautadze (RC Toulon - Top14)
6-Shalva Sutiashvili (RC Massy - ProD2)
7-Vito Kolelishvili (ASM Clermont - Top14)
8-Mamuka Gorgodze (Montpellier HRC - Top14)
9-Irakli Abuseridze (RC Auxerre - Federale2)
10-Merab Kvirikashvili (AS St. Junien - Federale1)
11-Irakli Machkhaneli (Armazi - Georgian Premiership)
12-Merab Sharikadze (Hartpury College - BUCS)
13-Davit Kacharava (Stade Rodez - Federale1)
14-Sandro Todua (SC Albi - ProD2)
15-Irakli Kiasashvili (Lelo Tbilissi - Georgian Premiership)

16-Shalva Mamukashvili (Army Tbilissi - Georgian Premiership)
17-Mikheil Nariashvili (Montpellier HRC - Top14)
18-Davit Zirakashvili (ASM Clermont - Top14)
19-Vakhtang Maisuradze (SC Albi - ProD2)
20-Giorgi Begadze (Kharebi Bulls - Georgian Premiership)
21-Beka Bitsadze (Army Tbilissi - Georgian Premiership)
22-Lasha Khmaladze (Lelo Tbilissi - Georgian Premiership)
23-Tedo Zibzibadze (CA Perigueux - Fédérale 1)

if your name does not end in Vili or adze you cant play.

Kubriashvili has had a poor season by his standards this year. no longer first choice

Cheers Nick

SOB back for Leinster tomorrow. Wonder if he'll go straight into the Irish side next week.

Ireland don't have a game next weekend. Only games are England vs. New Zealand and Wales vs. Australia, which will hit some sides in this game more than others I suspect.

Oh balls...good job most of my first team isnt England or Wales then!

As I sit here in Bristol with sandbags against front and back doors and flood water getting higher and higher and the rain continuing I fail to see how the glos game on here is played in perfect conditions. Bbc 5day forecast is always way off

Murphy vs Buckley tomorrow. Last year this was a battle of 2 of the worst scrummagers....this year both seem to have come a long way so should be a good battle.

Pleased with our side prop.

Harrison Taylor Buckley McKenzie Myall Vernon Seymour Powell
Peel, Cipriani, Cueto, Tuitupou, Addison, Amesbury, Miller

I don't expect a win but we have a good chance after numerous heavy beatings at Gloucester in recent seasons.

Irish are missing Corbs, Paice, Yanuyanutawa, Lawson, Aulika, Skivington, Treviranus, Fisher, O'Leary, Sa, Ansbro, Yarde, Sinclair.

Exeter seem to be full strength.

Think we might lose.

Heavily.

Hate to say it Steve but I do hope we smash you....nothing personal unless your Brian Redpath!!

I am not sure you will smash us. Diamond's side should be competitive at least.

I don't think we will but I'd like to think we'll stop you getting the losing bonus point. Will be a good front row battle.

Harrison and Taylor very highly thought of. Backrow battle will be huge to. Powell been in fine for this season

I am off to kingsholm tomorrow and hope we smash sale due to red path. I wanted him to leave as I thought he was dross but the manner he did it grated.


It will be a white hot atmosphere tomorrow. Cannot wait

I'm trying to get there tomorrow Matt.....all depends if I can get the missus to come too or to go with the old dear to shop!

I know I asked before but could I get some clarity that if I wanted to call someone up who could be in someone's academy but isn't named am I allowed to bid for them?

I have no idea mate. Depends if there academy is full I suppose

I think they have first dibs and if they say no then It's fair game.

I have a few I need to call up. If its one of mine prop ask and I may let you have them

prop

PM me and I will work out for you if you can bid on him. The rules around academies are in the OP but if not clear then let me know.

I'm quitting, don't have enough time to give this my full commitment, it's been fun but all the enjoyment of the game has gone for me, also think the issue of tactical predos needs to be sorted out properly. Anyway cheers.