Does RU have access to far more corporate sponsors? we are talking way beyond mere shirt sponsors etc Could we benefit? especially given how good our marketing dept is?
Incidentally, fans should read IL's view on Joel, wildly contrasts with Dave O
We are not talking about RU but Sarries. Wigan have not linked up with the RFU but with an R U club and the question is what if anything we could learn from that particular club. I have told you who their sponsors are and how they are owned and run. Normally even you would admit there is nothing special there but instead you are on a childish crusade to disagree with everything I post even it that means having to change the subject to do so.
I presume you have every Saracens Corporate Link. Of course not but you still make wild assumptions and claims. You ignore the possibility that Wigan RLFC can benefit from Union exposure. You ignore IL's view on Joel because it wildly contradicts with your own view.
TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:IL is no mug, the notable comments from IL that have stuck with me is where players can be developed or recruited from.
If the link with sarries is such that there is an involvement with the SA backers then my own opinion is IL is clearly looking at that area for players with along with wales IL is obviously attemting to open up a bigger pool of players rather than sticking to NRL and lower UK leagues.
IL will not be signing any first grade RU players of note. Any we get will be from the lower leagues there as well. Think about who we used to sign before RU went pro and think if we could sign them now. A good example would be Frano Botica. He could not get into the All Black international side despite being a top RU player so he came to Wigan and RL. Players such as him these days would be playing in a Super 15 RU side and would be a star in that league. Not an nternational player but a top player in a professional sport earning more than we could pay. So that means we would only be able to get lower grade players unless we were very fortunate to find one who wanted to come to the UK but who could not find a pro RU club to take him. Not very likely IMO.
In any case I think people are reading far too much into this link up. IL has already said its just backroom coaching staff swapping ideas at this point in time so talk of some major commercial link up is not even on the table and IMO this will quietly fade away as most proposed link ups with the likes of NRL sides have done.
TonyH wrote:Can we arrange something for charity, CP vs Dave in a charity boxing, MMA or handbag swinging fight? Settle it once and for all. I'll be ref!
maybe they could have a charity Quoteathon Tony, my moneys on DaveO
TonyH wrote:Can we arrange something for charity, CP vs Dave in a charity boxing, MMA or handbag swinging fight? Settle it once and for all. I'll be ref!
Someone arrange a poll, whoever gets most votes, the other one must apologise, in public, wearing only a nappy and sucking a dummy. They can of course spit the dummy out whilst they apologise but for no other reason.
Does RU have access to far more corporate sponsors? we are talking way beyond mere shirt sponsors etc Could we benefit? especially given how good our marketing dept is?
Incidentally, fans should read IL's view on Joel, wildly contrasts with Dave O
Joel is a top class rugby player and will be sorely missed by the club next year. Given that he is a genuine second row forward I think he did a remarkable job for us in the centre position last year. His commitment and competitiveness is second to none (he comes from the same mould as Faz and Giz). He was destined, in my view, to become a future captain of the team.
I will always remember the try he scored at Wembley - one of the best ever.
A class player and a quality guy. Good luck Joel.
Winning is down to 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration - Shaun Edwards
shaunedwardsfanclub wrote:
Joel is a top class rugby player and will be sorely missed by the club next year. Given that he is a genuine second row forward I think he did a remarkable job for us in the centre position last year. His commitment and competitiveness is second to none (he comes from the same mould as Faz and Giz). He was destined, in my view, to become a future captain of the team.
I will always remember the try he scored at Wembley - one of the best ever.
A class player and a quality guy. Good luck Joel.
Well said :eusa2: :eusa2:
Anyone can support a team when it is winning, that takes no courage.
But to stand behind a team, to defend a team when it is down and really needs you,
that takes a lot of courage. #18thMan
Someone arrange a poll, whoever gets most votes, the other one must apologise, in public, wearing only a nappy and sucking a dummy. They can of course spit the dummy out whilst they apologise but for no other reason. [/quote]
Saracens plan to face Wigan Warriors in a 13-a-side match under revolutionary "hybrid" rules mixing elements of union and league. The Aviva Premiership champions would stage the match against league's Challenge Cup holders at Watford, Wigan or a neutral venue before the end of this season as part of the clubs' new link-up.
Saracens confirmed to The Independent on Sunday their interest in playing under the so-called Hybrid Code invented in Australia by a group including the former Wallaby World Cup-winning coach Bob Dwyer, who had talks with the club on a visit to Britain last week when he also watched the league Four Nations Tests at Wembley.
Under hybrid rules the team in possession uses league's "play the ball" in their own half and switches to union's ruck and maul when they cross halfway, with a 60-second limit on possession to avoid long series of phases such as the 45 defended by Saracens at Twickenham last May when they won the Premiership title against Leicester.
Dwyer's code has so far been played only by schools in Australia, and he says no match would take place without the approval of the governing bodies in league and union. But an inaugural professional outing in England is being lined up by Saracens for a date in March or April, dependent on their performance in cups and Wigan's commitments. It would be quite different from the two matches – one league, one union – played by Wigan and Bath in 1996 and the half-league, half-union game between Sale and St Helens in January 2003.
Andy Farrell, Saracens' assistant coach and the former Wigan captain, has been pivotal in the link-up that will see him and his coaching and conditioning colleagues visit their counterparts at his old club, and vice versa, in the next few weeks. Farrell also helped broker Sarries' £250,000 signing of Wigan centre Joel Tomkins, and he said player swaps at academy level were likely.
"A guy who hasn't made it in the Wigan academy may suit us," Farrell said. "A loose forward in our academy may be suited to the front row in league.Saracens have had a remarkable two and a half years, and Wigan are back to the old fashioned glory days. It makes sense to see how we can help each other, and a cross-code match would be part of that."
Some union devotees have viewed the demise of rucking after the tackle and the adoption of league's defence techniques as creeping steps towards the eventual merger of the codes. The All Blacks won the recent World Cup with a notably less structured style than of old. Farrell said cautiously: "There will always be things tried that people will turn their noses up at. For the time being, union is a worldwide sport and I can't see them merging. Maybe some time in the future it will happen, if they keep trying things like this."
Saracens are determined innovators. They visited the NFL's Miami Dolphins in April and hosted coaches from the Hawthorn Aussie Rules club a fortnight ago. The priority is today's Heineken Cup opener with Treviso, which offers another chance for the Premiership player of the month Owen Farrell – Andy's son – to start at centre outside fly-half Charlie Hodgson. The old-young pair orchestrated a first home Premiership defeat for Gloucester in two years two weeks ago, when Farrell Jnr's kick through the defensive line for Brad Barritt's winning try was a classic league ploy.
The 20-year-old, whom Sarries supporters like to call "Fazlet", was prominent in last season's title-winning campaign and is worthy of an England call-up when the Six Nations squad is named on 1 January, according to both Saracens' director of rugby Mark McCall and Farrell Snr.
"The England Saxons only play twice a year now," said Farrell, who gave up coaching England's second string last season to concentrate on his club. "So what do you get judged on? You can only go off players being involved in big club games – you get judged on doing as well as you can in the Premiership and Heineken Cup. A lot of our players, including Owen, have been involved in big games at Wembley with decent crowds, and getting through to the final twice and winning one. As a squad we can't do any more than we're doing. It's only right our guys individually will get honours for their country."
And how about the coaches, Saracens' all-English trio of assistants to the Ulsterman McCall, comprising Farrell, Paul Gustard and Alex Sanderson? Even if Leicester are out of fashion as England consider changes, there appears to be little press clamour for Twickenham to look towards the success story based at St Albans. "It seems to go with the territory as far as Saracens is concerned," Farrell said. "We can only change that perception by keeping on doing what we're doing. Of course we're ambitious as a coaching staff. We're ambitious for Saracens to do well."
Basics of the 'hybrid code'
Thirteen players on each side, and two referees. Possession is "play the ball" with no tackle count in a team's own half and "ruck and maul" in the attacking half, subject to a 60-second "shot clock" during which teams must score or kick or be turned over.
"50-20" rule stipulates that a team earns an attacking scrum by kicking the ball from their half to touch within 20 metres of the goalline without it going out on the full.
Six players each in scrum, no flankers.
Try worth five points, conversions and penalty goals two, field goals one.
Dave O or IL
