Quote ="Sadfish"Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html'" Karma! The ghost of County Past and Salford Future are coming to haunt Sale Present.

Quote ="Sadfish"Interesting to see Sale getting whacked by 62 points today by Toulon . The Premierships only northern team currently bottom of the premiership are going to be lucky to survive this season. Could it be that the Premiership will be without a northern team next season? Newcastle might have other ideas but a Long way to go. www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... 21007.html'" Karma! The ghost of County Past and Salford Future are coming to haunt Sale Present.

The last Aviva crowd Sale got was pretty similar to Salford's average from last season. I'm baffled as to why they turned up in greater numbers at a soccer ground (and a dump of a soccer ground at that) in Cheshire.

More trouble at Sale, John Mitchell quitting as coach after a month in charge to return to South Africa.

There's a tumour eating away at that club from the inside, and it's called Steve Diamond's ego.

Wasps beat London Welsh 34-15

interesting article about the problems RU faces with the scrum and how it is having a damaging effect on skill levels and entertainment in the game. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ja ... ugby-union

interesting article about the problems RU faces with the scrum and how it is having a damaging effect on skill levels and entertainment in the game. www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/ja ... ugby-union

The minute the IRB insisted on the ludicrous "crouch, touch, pause, engage" mantra scrums became an absolute shambles.

Look back at games from the 90s, where teams were allowed to engage on their own terms and the scrum allowed to settle before the scrum half put the ball in. Very few collapses, very few scrums leading to penalties or free-kicks.

The current laws basically allow 240 plus stone of forwards to engage in a "who can hit hardest" contest, with little concentration on getting the binding and engagement correct. That's what leads to scrums continually needing to be reset, as props are too interested in getting a nudge on their opposite number rather than correctly binding to keep the scrum up.

Time the IRB went back to the future if they want to sort out the setpiece.

My understanding with the crouch touch etc was to make the scrum safer to avoid the length of time players were pushing in the scrum causing injuries and also dangerous scrums with lots of pushing and collapses that caused injury.

The reasons for this is that most RU players now have exchanged 70 s and 80 s flab for 2000 muscle and therefore the pressure in the scrums is much higher and the number of shoulder, neck and back injuries was increasing

Given that significantly more scrums are required as each one needs to be reset two or three times, the total time spent by both packs exerting pressure through the front row won't have decreased at all from what it was when most scrums were got right first time.

Disappointing for Hendrie Fourie that his retirement due to injury means he now has to leave the country that he represented at international level.

Hasn't been here long enough to qualify for UK residency, and the cancellation of his Sale contract means he also has his sportsperson's visa revoked despite having an English born son.

So he qualified to represent England, has an English born son but can't live in England? The wonders of International eligibility rules.

"That's the amazing thing - I am not able to claim any benefits in this country. I have always paid my taxes, have represented England, but I have to leave while you hear how they protect the rights of terrorists."

He's not happy.

Saracens defeat Racing Metro 37-28 despite scoring 1 try to the French clubs' 3!

Funny old game.

Racing's tries were all scored in the first half, but Saracens were kept in it by a pernickety refereeing performance which seemed to see them awarded a penalty every time the ball crossed half way (and usually when Racing actually had possession). Yet he only punished a late hit to head of the Racing fly half with a leading elbow with a yellow rather a straight red.

One can see why the French often think they don't get a fair go from referees

I watched a lot of the games this weekend and in the two games that Munster and Leinster had to win by scoring 4 tries to get a bonus point there were some very good attacking plays with ball in hand. They also went a lot less for kicks so as to keep possession and run it.

The skill level of RU backs has also improved ( as well as some of their forwards).

Johnathan Sexton and Tommy Bowe would make excellent RL players and Jamie Heaslip would make an excellent RL prop.

Very impressed with Zebo for Munster today and Eli Walker for Ospreys last week

Zebo's second try seemed to be the sort of imaginative and off the cuff play that if he had being playing for England would have been drilled out of him.

It was good try

While the Irish and French are well and truly on the up, Welsh rugby is sinking fast. Not one Welsh club even got close to the second round.

Leinster and Munster both nowhere near as good as past seasons for me, Ulster are doing very well this season though.

No Aviva/Rabo team can compete with the French when it comes to wages but the Welsh are particularly struggling. There's a healthy contingent of Welsh players over there already and more already confirmed to leave in the summer. I read late last year that they are considering removing one of the Welsh provinces in order to help strengthen the remaining three teams.

Internationally, Wales have lost seven in a row since winning the Grand Slam and they were particularly poor against Samoa but I think they will improve for the Six Nations.

The interest in professional rugby union in Wales doesn't match that in England, France or Ireland. Financially, there's no way they can compete because they simply don't get the crowds.

Cardiff have only registered one home crowd over 10k this season, against the Ospreys who themselves are averaging around 7k. Scarlets have also only broken 10k once this season.

Things are even worse for the Dragons (the likely casualties of any cull) as they didn't make the Heineken Cup. Only 4k attended their Challenge Cup game against Wasps last weekend.

The Welsh regions threw a lot of money at player recruitment when they first came together, and have lived beyond their means since. Concentrating it down to 3 regions won't solve the attendance issue, as fans of whichever one gets folded won't go watch one of the other three. Basically, they're finding their level - unpleasant as that thought may be - and it's not competing with the big boys.

I think you're right about Newport. When you look at the comparative crowds at Newport County, who are in the Conference, they're not a million miles off a team who theoretically play in their sport's top-flight against big-city teams like Cardiff, Swansea and (well you know what I mean) Leinster and Munster, as opposed to Braintree, Barrow and Southport.

The professional era looks like it is coming to claim more casualties, just as it came for Richmond, Rosslyn Park et al, and in our own game the likes of Liversedge and Heckmondwike.

Jonathan Sexton to leave Leinster and the IRU to move to France next season, Racing Metro is being reported as his likely destination.

"The offer he has received is exceptional, even by French standards, but I know that it was still a tough decision for him." Joe Schmidt, Leinster coach.

A perfect illustration of the power of the French money. This guy is Mr Leinster.

£625,000 a year will help cope with missing out on the Guinness in Dublin for a few years.

Something has to be done soon before the French completely strangle the life out of the Pro12.

Long-term, I can see the Pro12 merge with the Aviva. A long way off but it's very possible.

But why would the Aviva want to do that?