Season 8 Homepage I

First topic message reminder :

Breaking News: London Wasps regain their crown following playoff final victory. 
 

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Welcome to Season 8 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 23 players.  Players who are in the academy must be born on or after 1st September 1993. 

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. Worcester Warriors & London Wasps will receive two additional bids to be used exclusively on academy age players. These players must be bid for on the National League Bidding page, and each bid will be considered by the RFU 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 the RFU 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.
  Player Draft
  Worcester Warriors & London Wasps will participate in a player draft beginning the week of June 22nd. Both sides will be allowed to draft two players each. The draft picks will go as follows; 1. Worcester 2. Wasps 3. Wasps 4. Worcester.
  
  Round Bidding
  There will be two rounds of bidding. The first window will run the week starting June 29th and the second the week starting July 3rd. All sides will be allowed to sign one player each during the window. These bids are not protected if you do not have the funds in place to bid during the window you will lose the bid.     
  
  Open Bidding
  From July 13th the foreign market will be open to all bids similar to previous seasons. Due to the world cup the window will remain open till the end of September. 
  

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 20:00 hours on Sunday. Managers will pm 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
Bonuses will be awarded on a scaled basis i.e. 2m for 5 games, 1.6m for 4 games and so on
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.

Pocock playing really well.

Stormers line out is a shambles, they really miss having a top option

The amount of times Kurindrani drops the ball....he must apply Vaseline to his palms pre-match. Good break though, he has some power and gas, just no hands.

Tomane unlucky as it was a great finish.

Terrible play from Speight, what was he thinking?!??

Foolish that.

Tomane should go to world cup. Oz have so many options on wings though.

Last warnings folks,
Squad checks will be this week. Random releases for those that are over.

Great start by England

Max Clark looked Englands best player. Ran some great lines and carried hard

Really like the look of Ludlam too

A lot of quality for England. There is a lot of future all blacks in that NZ side

You see the politics in sa rugby when you see that stormers
Side.

Hooker so
Bad and would not play national league over here but he is a cape coloured and their are very few playing in SA. He was replaced by ntubeni who is Xhosa and less political.

They missed vermaulen and burger and were light experience wise. Etzbeth had most loneout wins in last RC but needs players around him like anyone else.

Thought Etzbeth and Allende were top but brumbies much smarter. Brumbies lineout 94% over a season which is insane. Allende arguably best player in s15 this year

They work so hard and fardy Moore etc do work you don't expect. Fardy hugely underrated and a dog.

Great u20 final and lots of future AB's I agree Steve.

England wise I like ludlam. Walker the hooker has a real future. His darts are dreadful but like LCD he has potential to make it. Assume he is a converted flanker or centre hence his darts?? At youth level england have loads of coaches who go to schools and advise lads to play certain positions based on tests and observations.

Hill looks a player and saints move is great. Love Tompkins and both loose heads are proper. 

My nephew is england u13 8
And been measured, weighed etc and told to move to second row. I think they are right but even so
Would rather kids play and work out where they play.

Storners had a real mare at the line out but they have no top target to hit. Etzebeth ok but he's no 5, they struggled to get any momentum off the set piece, I think they missed 6/7??

Goosen still getting a hard time at Racing, very harsh to slate him in public, what's he going to prove? What is it with SA fly halfs flopping in France??

http://m.news24.com/sport24/Rugby/Super15/Racing-coach-hits-out-at-Goosen-20150612

Messam and SBW won't be playing for the Chiefs in 2016 as both look to get into the Olympic 7s squad

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3551_56630,00.html

Must be very tempting for guys like Wade, Simpson to give it a go for GB (its only English guys they are selected for GB squad I think).

I get cash for releasing academy aged players, right?

0.5m if not played AP, 1m if have an AP game

Draft is open for Prop/CJ. Prop first up. Make your picks on the foreign page please

Pick made, will update releases etc hopefully this afternoon as am in and out of meetings

NZ have named a preliminary 41 man squad for the RWC

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=11468913

Forwards:
Hookers
Dane Coles - Hurricanes / Wellington (27)
Hikawera Elliot - Chiefs / Poverty Bay (3)
Keven Mealamu - Blues / Auckland (123)
Codie Taylor - Crusaders / Canterbury *

Props
Wyatt Crockett - Crusaders / Canterbury (27)
Charlie Faumuina - Blues / Auckland (20)
Ben Franks - Hurricanes / Hawke's Bay (31)
Owen Franks - Crusaders / Canterbury (57)
Joe Moody - Crusaders / Canterbury (8)
Tony Woodcock - Blues /North Harbour (110)

Locks
James Broadhurst - Hurricanes / Taranaki *
Brodie Retallick - Chiefs / Bay of Plenty (36)
Luke Romano - Crusaders / Canterbury (17)
Jeremy Thrush - Hurricanes / Wellington (11)
Samuel Whitelock - Crusaders / Canterbury (62)

Loose forwards
Sam Cane - Chiefs / Bay of Plenty (22)
Jerome Kaino - Blues /Auckland (56)
Richie McCaw (captain) - Crusaders / Canterbury (137)
Liam Messam - Chiefs / Waikato (40)
Kieran Read - Crusaders / Canterbury (72)
Matt Todd - Crusaders / Canterbury (2)
Victor Vito - Hurricanes / Wellington (26)


Backs:
Halfbacks
Tawera Kerr-Barlow - Chiefs / Waikato (15)
TJ Perenara - Hurricanes / Wellington (11)
Aaron Smith - Highlanders / Manawatu (38)

First five-eighths
Beauden Barrett - Hurricanes / Taranaki (28)
Daniel Carter - Crusaders / Canterbury (102)
Colin Slade - Crusaders /Canterbury (17)
Lima Sopoaga - Highlanders / Southland *

Midfielders
Ryan Crotty - Crusaders / Canterbury (13)
Malakai Fekitoa - Highlanders / Auckland (8)
Ma'a Nonu - Hurricanes / Wellington (94)
Conrad Smith - Hurricanes / Wellington (85)
Sonny Bill Williams - Chiefs / Counties Manukau (23)

Outside backs
Israel Dagg - Crusaders /Hawke's Bay (46)
Cory Jane - Hurricanes / Wellington (48)
Nehe Milner-Skudder - Hurricanes / Manawatu *
Waisake Naholo - Highlanders / Taranaki *
Charles Piutau - Blues /Auckland (14)
Julian Savea - Hurricanes / Wellington (33)
Ben Smith - Highlanders / Otago (38)

Injured players

Nathan Harris (Hooker)
Aaron Cruden (1st V)
Augustine Pulu (halfback)
Steven Luatua (Blindside/Lock)
Patrick Tuipolotu (Lock)

Are we gonna wait until Monday to open the foreigns?

Why the delay?

Would people rate vuna or agulla higher? Need to release one of them!

Tough one Prop as both offer something different, with Agulla joining the Argentinian S15 team he might not be seen as much whereas Vuna could be excellent in the AP (but Worcester pack might struggle to give him the ball). One thing is that Agulla can play at no15 as well, so could give him an advantage in that he covers a few positions.

Bearing in mind I have Payne, tait, dulin and Milner skudder now at fb!

Is the Argentinian S15 team starting next season? I saw they had added Aguila and Sanchez, are many other of the big names heading back?

Vuna is very good on front foot but a liability in defence. Probably due to him being about 3 stone over weight.

Agulla good player and would be the one I kept personally.

Vuna a joy to watch ball in hand

Yeah Bam. Creevy, Herrera, Matera all signed on. The giant wing Montero too

Just reading up on it and Cubelli the SH has signed as well. Always liked the look of him but was playing Argentine club rugby so was never worth picking up on here. Be interested to see how he gets on.

Going to be great for Argentinian rugby having that team - Montero could be a cracking signing on here, he's been excellent when I've seen him for Argentina.

Will do wonders for their ratings on here Chris. Montero looks a real talent so will be good to see him week in week out

Is he the no9 who turns out for the BaaBaas SJE? They've got some good half backs coming through.

Yeah Chris. Did the chip over the top off the tap last year

Is good to see that there are so many Argentinians leaving France to go and play for their s15 team as well, complete reversal from the other nations.

Didn't realise barrow gone to tigers, kick in the teeth for falcons

I would have been furious last year but he's hardly played this season Prop and has slipped down the pecking order when fit.

Lad has bags of potential, a move will do him good and we have Witty coming along nicely.

Yeah I think he's got some real potential, hopefully Tigers can help him kick on

Neither are going to make the world cup squad but Strettle has pulled out of the initial camp and Rokoduguni replaces him.

Pollard to Japan following World Cup

Loads of Boks doing short stints in Japan post world cup before Super 17 next year. Surprised Pollard had the clause in his contract when so young.

Only for 3 months I think CJB, it's becoming a regular thing for a lot of SA's

It's impossible to stop as they get paid so poorly in South Africa. They earn more than double their annual salary in a 3 month stint.

It's why the Boks have changed their view on overseas players

Yeah its smart business practise really from the SARU just surprised it was used for a 21 year old no matter how much potential he has. Would expect it to be a motivator for those guys in the mid/late 20s who are undecided on sticking around for another world cup cycle.

Life in South Africa is getting tougher with an ever rising crime rate etc.

Many people want to earn as much as possible and then try and leave the country. The rate of migration out of SA by white people Is insane.

Unfortunately that great country has some serious issues. My favourite place in the world to visit.

Was a strange one with Strettle SJE, rate him as a good winger but was surprised he got in ahead of either Roko or Wade. Get the impression Lancaster isn't a big fan of Wade!

Don't think I'm being biased to say it is astounding how far down Wade is on the pecking order. It is not like he picking a young player who could be more in the future than Wade. Why does Strettle offer more in the training squad than Wade? He is not going to the World Cup why not get Wade in with the squad? It doesn't make sense to me. On the plus side, means I get him all season

Wade has a lot of glaring weaknesses that would be easily targeted against top sides. He's a top little finisher and exciting ball in hand but I doubt he'll ever quite have the game to be an Int winger.

I'm a huge fan of Wade, but agree with Pooly, the importance of the kicking game and aerial contests in international rugby mean that its tough to see him getting a shot

It's the top few inches that make a top AP player an Int player. It's obvious Wade has issues, if we can see them the top coaches obviously can.

I do like him but he needs a lot of work.

Wade's defence has improved a lot for Wasps this year, they have a great defence coach and you don't really get many instances where Wade gets caught out with cross field kicks or one on one tackles - issue with him is that he still gets sucked in on the defensive line and leaves people out wide, he got better in final half of the season but still needs a lot of work.

I still don't see one English wing though who has really put his hand up to claim a spot or put in a performance that says England are better without Wade there - the guys the best finisher in Europe, should have been in the 50 man squad imo.

But why not have him in the squad and get him acclimatised. I'd bet big money on Strettle never making an England 23 again. Wade might, why not get him practising with the coaches

Agree CJB, I'd have had him in ahead of Strettle, especially knowing that he was off to France. Either Wade or Roko should have got that spot to begin with

Perhaps they don't think he's good enough? A few weeks in a training camp aren't going to iron out his flaws, this is done at club level.