Any Galway man, living in Dublin, who obsesses over Munster rubby, clearly has issues.
2 Likes
Youâd have to put any Limerick man, living in Cork, who obsesses over Liverpool in that bracket too I suppose.
8 Likes
Ouch
1 Like
That was a tap in. Bravo.
1 Like
Thanks guys.
1 Like
You got there eventually.
Saracens choose relegation over a forensic audit of their books. They must be bent as fuck.
I suspect both the club and the players would have been liable to tax penalties for all the sideline/sweetheart deals. Lesser of two hard rocks to be stuck against.
Surely the UK revenue would be looking into that anyway
Id say the co investment stuff is ok from revenue perspective. Saracens made little effort to hide that it was an open secret for years. They juat didnât think it was a factor in salary cap calculation.
Stephen Jones more or less staked the last of his reputation on Saracens innocence. Never has one man been so wrong about everything for his whole career
2 Likes
He was right about Irish Rugby
4 Likes
Heâs pretty much made a career out of being steadfastly and spectacularly wrong about things
1 Like
Heâs world class at being a fat cunt though.
This is the end of Saracens, the greatest club team ever
Stephen Jones
A ridiculous end to a nonsensical process, which will leave plenty of people much the worse for it
So Saracens are officially relegated. Perhaps we should first look at rugbyâs overall landscape and assess how profoundly that has changed everything. Then we can deal with the murky depths into which the game has sunk, and ponder how rugby became one of the worldâs most embittered and secret of societies.
And we can try to detect the sportâs supposed values in the fact that no one implicated in imposing the punishment on Saracens can summon up one word for the innocents â their players, followers, those who may now be left unemployed. They have expressed no concern about the ill effects on England of relegating the national teamâs core; or the effect on the Saracens academy, the most successful production line for English talent.
Apparently, as long as Premiership Rugby and its members got Sarries in the end, all this is subjugated, the injured innocents mere collateral damage. Any explanation? Premiership Rugby is almost silent, its chief executive and chairman apparently almost mute, refusing to share with the public until the briefest of statements last night.
The Premiership is palpably diminished for next season. Some of us have seen some club rugby: Cardiff and Newport, Bath and Leicester and Wasps, Leinster and Munster, Toulouse, Brive and Stade Francais in their greatest years. None can touch Saracens. In this era, they have been the greatest club team I have seen. Without Saracens for a season, there will be one excellent team (Exeter), three clubs improving but nowhere remotely near there yet (Gloucester, Sale and Northampton) but above all, a mid-table of inconsistent clubs who can all lose to anyone on the day.
With relegation now decided, all the energy, panic, bigger crowds and drama are drained away. Most of the rest of this season will be as dull as ditchwater. A priceless lesson for anyone wanting to ring-fence the competition.
It will also be easy to say that the landscape will change for a vast number of the disabled, indisposed, mentally unwell, lonely and the ageing, by any cut in the Saracens finances. But the umbrella for the unfortunate will not go away. I am positive that Nigel Wray will continue the Saracens Foundation, because it is arguably a bigger part of his life than Saracens rugby ever was.
But back to changes. Everyone knows that rugby is strangling itself by a lack of independence in its officialdom. Premiership Rugby, like all other rugby institutions, still consists of a bunch of blokes with a massive vested interest calling shots to suit themselves. It is nonsensical that the people who have sat in judgment recently on Saracens are their rivals. Will the penny drop? Rugby is unfit to govern itself.
Last week, we read about 10 different estimates of how far Saracens were over the salary cap. In the world of secrecy you can make up your own figure. The real problem for the clubâs rivals was that the savagery of the original punishment was not enough. It did not kill them off. So the new âtrialsâ began, completed processes were reactivated.
As the days went by, Saracens apparently received more letters from on high, demanding this and that and even reparations, which were completely outside the regulations. Then another investigation was called, which Premier Rugbyâs chief executive declared could well introduce even more swingeing measures.
At the Saracens end, the very able Edward Griffiths had been brought in to clean up the mess. He had been away from the club scene for a long time but, by all accounts, quickly tried to sort things, fired off apologies, committed to reduce Saracensâ salaries if needed. Naturally, any players he tried to offload held no interest for the Premiership clubs, because it suited them not to do business with Saracens. But suddenly, Saracens were being pressed almost instantaneously to prove that they were under the salary cap for this season, which is halfway through, and to do so within days. Within days.
Their opponents realised that, under the regulations, they could not relegate Saracens. No way. So they made relegation impossible to avoid by punishing Saracens for a season half over. You would not have to be a Saracen to find some of this reprehensible.
Even those of us who, after the initial two years, never believed in the salary cap, realise that the laws must be adhered to. Only last week I was regaled by one of the attendees at the original meeting where the salary cap was passed, by 7-5, after which most of the delegates emerged laughing at how ineffective the move was likely to be. Even now it is still laughably easy to get round it if you want to.
And the confidentiality? The secrecy in rugby now has gone beyond all reason. Media officers are not allowed to spread anything in the way of information. Everything has become a secret.
Some matters are in the open, however. Saracens infringed the salary cap, an offence which deserved, say, a 10-point penalty. They are relegated. There will be enormous problems which the club are trying to fix. On a final note, I will go to my grave believing that no payment to a single Saracens player made a blind bit of difference to any match at any time. And that frankly, Saracens have just been too good.
Jonesy not taking the news well.
Probably be a heap of Irish rugby fans abusing him on Twitter for the stance he had taken
1 Like
Thatâs an absolutely pathetic article
2 Likes
He has protected Tweets and if your bio is Irish, he wonât approve you to look at them.
Most English fans hate him just as much now as he has gone from just being an English rugby shill to thinking that Saracens is England and above reproach.
For FFS sake
http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2020/0127/1111326-kobes-death-minds-of-major-mentor-closer-to-home/
From deviant tendencies to pledging allegiance to the queen this chap ticks a lot of rugby boxes. All he needs is a South African passport and heâd surely get a cap before the 5 nations are over.
4 Likes
Disgraceful conduct and thankfully we never see such thuggish scenes at Harty Cup matches.
From The Leader.
ST MUNCHINâS College have described the ban being placed on their pupils attending two of the Corbally sideâs upcoming Munster Schools Cup games as âunduly harshâ.
St Munchinâs are one of a number of schools who are faced with playing Cup fixtures, minus their own student supporters, as a result of pyrotechnics being let off and fans encroaching onto the playing pitch at fixtures last season.
The well-known rugby nursery has received a fine and two-match ban on their students attending two upcoming fixtures, tomorrowâs (Wednesday) Clayton Hotels Munster Schools Senior Cup clash with Ărdscoil RĂs at Thomond Park, 2pm, and the Clayton Hotels Munster Schools Junior Cup fixture against CBC, of Cork at Musgrave Park on Wednesday, February 5, 2.30pm.
Gamesmaster at St Munchinâs College Eric Nelligan said they were disappointed with the âseverity of the sanctionsâ imposed on the school. He estimated that St Munchinâs would have expected to have about 400 students attending tomorrowâs Senior Cup derby clash with Ardscoil.
CBC, of Cork, have also been hit with a ban on supporters attending their Senior Cup clash with Castletroy College at Musgrave Park tomorrow, Wednesday, following a pitch invasion by their fans at the end of their Senior Cup final win last season.
It is also understood that Crescent College Comprehensive are facing a ban on their supporters attending their Junior Cup fixture with Bandon Grammar School at Thomond Park this Friday and Rockwell College are facing a similar ban on supporters for an upcoming Junior Cup fixture.
Competition organisers say they are working to ensure a positive, safe environment exists for schools cup games. Ensuring the health and safety of all attendees, including students and families, remains a priority.
A letter outlining a zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour, including pitch invasions and the use of flares, was previously issued to all schools participating in the Munster Schools Cup competitions.
The decision to issue the latter was made due to the âpersistent use of pyrotechnicsâ at games in previous years.
Schools were informed that should a pyrotechnic/flare be ignited within the designated school section, the offending school, should they win that game, would be subject to a fine and a one match ban for the next game.
However, St Munchinâs College Gamesmaster Eric Nelligan told Leader Sport: "We are extremely disappointed. We feel itâs harsh. Two of our students went onto the field at half-time in a Senior Cup match (last season) and they were off of it within 30 seconds and we got a ban for that.
"One of our supporters left off a smoke bomb at the Junior Cup final. In all of our five matches last year, one student left off one smoke bomb and we got a ban for that.
"We also had to pay a monetary fine.
"We are extremely disappointed for the boys who were going to attend the match tomorrow as well as the players who trained for months and if the senior team lose tomorrow they are out and they will have played in front of none of their supporters.
"We feel the decision made was unduly harsh and we have expressed this to the powers that be.
"When the boy last year let off the smoke bomb, our teachers were over to him within seconds and took it off him, before throwing it into a safe place.
"We did everything we possibly could to minimise any disruption and once something happened we shut it down within seconds.
"We have spoken to the kids about being respectful and spoke to them about not going onto the pitch, we did all that, but two boys decided to do their own thing.
âOnce it happened we resolved it within seconds on both occasions. We are disappointed with the severity of our sanctions.â
St Munchinâs students who turn up accompanied by a parent or guardian for tomorrowâs game at Thomond Park look set to be granted access to the match venue.
Eric Nelligan said he remained hopeful that some resolution could be found in the coming days that would allow students from the school attend next weekâs Junior Cup game.