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       #Post#: 1289--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: BedfordshireBoy
       Date: July 14, 2018, 12:41 pm
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       "They" clearly have no better idea, hence the delays.
       #Post#: 1291--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Spitfire
       Date: July 14, 2018, 4:56 pm
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       Really confused as to the point of this compared to the A League
       (or "Shield" as they now insist on calling it.) If it were
       expanded to include all the english league I think it would make
       sense.
       #Post#: 1293--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Fearless Fred
       Date: July 14, 2018, 5:06 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote from: Spitfire link ---
       >
       > Really confused as to the point of this compared to the A
       League (or "Shield" as they now insist on calling it.) If it
       were expanded to include all the english league I think it would
       make sense.
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       The problem is that the Welsh regions decided that they'd be
       better off not playing in the A/W cup, as some English teams
       were playing almost full strength first teams agains the Welsh
       who generally stuck to the unwritten rule of using the A/W as a
       development competition. That meant that the English clubs were
       suddenly left with two home games of income & fallow weeks in
       the AI & 6N windows to fill. Hence their attempt to come up with
       something. If they'd been able to have just 3 rounds of pool
       games, each team playing the other teams in the pool once, that
       would at least make it easy to justify the top of each pool &
       best runner up going through to the S/F & Final. However, as the
       clubs want guaranteed 2 home games in the pool stages for
       financial reasons, you have to shoe-horn in the "derby" game
       round. That's pretty unfair. We'll always face Sarries for that
       round, while Gloucester will no doubt have to face Worcester.
       Our game v Sarries is most likely to be harder than a Gloucs v
       Worcs game, so if we were in the same pool as Gloucs (with, say,
       Sale & Saints) and second place to qualify as highest placed
       runner up rested on the two derby games, Gloucs would almost
       have a built-in advantage. This is why I think that the system
       that appears to be coming is a complete dog's breakfast of a
       fudge, even more so than the old A/W system.
       #Post#: 1337--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Fearless Fred
       Date: July 16, 2018, 9:12 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Okay, so we know who we're playing
  HTML https://www.quins.co.uk/news/premiership-rugby-cup-draw-revealed/,<br
       />at least. I assume that our pool is Bath, Chiefs & Falcons,
       with
       Sarries in a different pool.
       No-one has yet posted more about the format, though, with even
       the Premiership website still listing the old A/W system...
       #Post#: 1338--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Adrian
       Date: July 16, 2018, 9:38 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote from: Fearless Fred link ---
       >
       > Okay, so we know who we're playing
  HTML https://www.quins.co.uk/news/premiership-rugby-cup-draw-revealed/,<br
       />at least. I assume that our pool is Bath, Chiefs & Falcons,
       with
       Sarries in a different pool.
       >
       > No-one has yet posted more about the format, though, with even
       the Premiership website still listing the old A/W system...
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       This fits with what I assumed above, and interesting that we
       will play 3 consecutive rounds in Oct and Nov, then just the one
       final round in Jan.
       #Post#: 1339--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Fearless Fred
       Date: July 16, 2018, 9:45 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       The Derby games are:
       Bristol Bears v Exeter Chiefs
       Harlequins v Saracens
       Northampton Saints v Leicester Tigers
       Worcester Warriors v Wasps
       Sale Sharks v Newcastle Falcons
       Bath Rugby v Gloucester Rugby
       Of those, Wasps must be chuffed, as must Sarries & Chiefs. The
       others are more tightly matched. I know we've beaten Sarries in
       the AW last year, but that was seen as an upset (quite rightly).
       If these fixtures are kept the same each year (with a minor
       change for the promoted team), then it means a built-in bias
       towards certain teams...
       #Post#: 1340--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Boonie
       Date: July 16, 2018, 9:51 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Going back to the issue of player safety - the old Tetley Bitter
       Cup seemed to work just fine, with the Prem teams coming in
       later in the competition. Is it beyond the wit of man to have an
       FA Cup style competition to get some money down into the lower
       leagues?
       #Post#: 1346--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Fearless Fred
       Date: July 16, 2018, 10:19 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote from: Boonie link ---
       >
       > Going back to the issue of player safety - the old Tetley
       Bitter Cup seemed to work just fine, with the Prem teams coming
       in later in the competition. Is it beyond the wit of man to have
       an FA Cup style competition to get some money down into the
       lower leagues?
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       You'd struggle to fit in games for the early rounds, unless we
       have a root & branch shake up of the complete calendar,
       including European games, 6 Nations, Internationals, etc.
       #Post#: 1347--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Adrian
       Date: July 16, 2018, 10:20 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
  HTML https://www.premiershiprugby.com/2018-2019/premiership-rugby-cup-fixtures-launched/
       Round 4 split over 2 weekends.
       #Post#: 1348--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Draw for Premiership Cup is 6th July
   DIR By: Boonie
       Date: July 16, 2018, 10:59 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote from: Fearless Fred link ---
       >
       > [quote author=Boonie link=topic=15.msg1340#msg1340
       date=1531752707]
       > Going back to the issue of player safety - the old Tetley
       Bitter Cup seemed to work just fine, with the Prem teams coming
       in later in the competition. Is it beyond the wit of man to have
       an FA Cup style competition to get some money down into the
       lower leagues?
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       You'd struggle to fit in games for the early rounds, unless we
       have a root & branch shake up of the complete calendar,
       including European games, 6 Nations, Internationals, etc.
       [/quote]
       True, but it seemed to work OK in years gone by. Just needs
       someone with a bit of organisational nous. For the lower
       leagues, date clashes would be less of an issue than for Prem
       clubs who would only come into the competition later on. And
       Prem clubs would likely deal with that as an A team competition,
       at least to start with.
       Not simple, but not impossible.
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