Is anyone else struggling to buy tickets? I've queued and got to my turn and it's asking me for my credentials again but they aren't working??

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Hello, your fellow mexican rugby fan here. Since last year I got flosports and now I have been watching leagues and tournaments I didn't have aceess to previously. I followed Toulouse last season and pretty much watched the complete WC. Now I want to follow a team on the URC but I know next to nothing about the clubs on this league. So what are your suggestions? What team should I follow this year?

Thanks everybody!

Been a few posts lately about the best players of the pro era. This got me thinking about some of the greats from before the game went pro in August 1995.

There was a century of rugby before the pro era and I feel like it is often overlooked when discussing the greats… so I’ve done a little research and put together this team.

Any oldies here with some opinions on this team?

(Honourable mentions in brackets)

1. G Price
2. B Windsor
3. A Vaquerin
4. C Meads
5. W John-Mcbride
6. F Du Preez (I Kirkpatrick)
7. M Jones (JP Rives)
8. M Davies (B Shelford)
9. G Edwards
10. N Botha (P Bennett, B John, J Kyle, G Fox, H Porta, M Ella)
11. B Williams
12. P Sella (T Horan)
13. D Gerber (M Gibson)
14. D Campese (J Kirwan, G Davies)
15. S Blanco (JPR Williams, G Hastings)

It’s worth noting that some of these guys played into the pro era. For these picks, I’ve only considered their performances / influence / achievements prior to 1996.

When I was 14 I was competing in a Western Province athletics schools meet. My discipline was 1,500m steeplechase. On the day of the event the 100m hurdles only had three people show up. Bad rain etc. So they asked me to take part just so they can at least have more lanes with people running. One kid pulled a hammy as we took off. Another kid fell over a hurdle. I came second. By a long shot. But I showed up in the day. Guy called Ireland won even though he didn’t even run.

But seriously, I just need to shitpost. Ireland has been THE team for the last couple of years and it is well deserved. They took us on in SA and that alone should’ve been enough. But I am a Saffa and can’t admit that in public without giving them shit.

https://tbrrugby.com/news/fiji-rugby-union-comes-under-fire-again-from-waisea-nayacalevu/

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Got the double.

Top 14 Player of the Year

French International of the Year

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So I take it TRC applies the rule of the head to head result determining the final ranking for the teams. Here if ARG win with the BP and SA are denied any point in this match, they both end with 19pts for the tournament but since ARG beat SA they get the advantage even if SA finish with a higher overall Pts Diff on the tournament.

When speaking about rugby coaches and some club coaches are talked about for potentially trying their luck at the international level, it is - with reason - met with the argument that club rugby is a different exercise. Different =/= easier, so let's talk about the greatest club coaches in our sport.

If we had to rank the greatests to ever have led a club from the bench/tribune, I think there are only two guys right now competing for first and second :

• Guy Novès (Stade Toulousain, 1988-1990 and 1993-2015) : 10 Brennus shields, 4 H Cups, and some early wins in French domestic cups that do not exist anymore. He consistently maintained Toulouse at the top of French rugby while other behemoths raised and fell, anchoring the club status.
• Scott Robertson (Canterbury, 2013-2016 ; Crusaders 2017-2023) : 7 SR titles, 3 NPC titles. That's less silverware, but the 7 Super Rugby wins were consecutive, and his carreer as head coach was cut by his nomination for the international job. He took on a historically underachieving Crusaders team and led them to a dictatorship over NZ rugby throne.

In the end what put one in front of another is how you weigh the consecutiveness of Razor's wins, and both the HCup wins of Novès (who have no equivalent in Oceania) and Razor's NPCs wins (in a lesser comp). The future will tell, but if Razor was to fall out of favor in the ABs he could rack up some more club titles.

As for who is coming for their spot right now, I have Toulouse-tinted glasses but I think Ugo Mola (Stade Toulousain, 2015 - ) is the most credible candidate right now. He is the one who inherited Novès' spot at the helm of Toulouse, and let's say the transition after letting go the guy who captained the side was harsh. The 2016-2017 season was the club's worse one since the seventies. However, Mola managed to rebuild a team through both recruitment and using academy lads to fight on both domestic and european sides. He is right now at 4 Brennus and two Champions Cup wins, with the club entering every season now as one of the main favorites in both comps.

What coaches would you put amongst the best leaders in the history of club rugby ? Who do you think could become a great one ?