Caught the end of the Ospreys/Gloucster game. The internationals in the Ospreys side looked a bit knackered. Some poor decisions making by the Ospreys in the danger area.

Dont think may give two hoots about the EDF Energy Cup. Seemed like the RFU trying to have a "magic weekend - lite." Backfired a bit.

There has been a push to get Coventry rugby union to grow with a few high profile union games being held there.
Plus Coventry is bang in the middle of the Leicester-Northampton-Worcester triangle making it a perfectly sensible place to have union events.
This and the fact that the English fans were at most an hour away make the attendance all the more disappointing.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 972036.stm Saracens rugby union club are losing between two and £3 million per year and according to Nigel Wray all of the other rugby union premiership clubs will be doing the same. I don't care what walk of life you come from or what planet you may live on, any entity whether it's a business, an individual or a top flight sports club you cannot continue to trade for long losing this amount of money.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 972036.stm Saracens rugby union club are losing between two and £3 million per year and according to Nigel Wray all of the other rugby union premiership clubs will be doing the same. I don't care what walk of life you come from or what planet you may live on, any entity whether it's a business, an individual or a top flight sports club you cannot continue to trade for long losing this amount of money.

[iWray denied Saracens would effectively become a South African club in exile, although he cited Arsenal as a football club that has continued to thrive despite a paucity of English players in the first team.

He said: "How many Arsenal fans are worried that there's one Englishman in their side? The answer is they sell out every week. It's about winning, the fans don't care.

"I'm not in the slightest bit worried because we've got nothing to lose. We are not sustainable as we are at the moment." [/i

What planet is this guy on? Utter disregard for the fans and the history of the club.
As a poster on the BBC forum said '[iI hope they get what they deserve - an empty stadium and relegation, they're going to ruin a great club'[/i

They should have been held at the millennium stadium, but the date clashed with the Wales _ Finland Football. Given the respective crowds perhaps the fottlball should have been played in Coventry & the Rugby in Cardiff.

The football drew less than 30,000?

yep. approx 22000 & they're considering a class action under the trades description act.

Still doesn't mean that four 'top' rugby union teams drawing an average of 7,500 fans each for the semi finals of an important competition is anything less than embarrassing.

In this case I think the location didn't help. Had the semis been at the Millennium Stadium you could have added at least 10,000 to the crowd. There was 24500 in there for the Blues - Gloucester game in the Heineken cup.

As I've said, it was bang in the middle of Northampton, Worcester and Leicester (the best supported rugby union club in England).

The EDF is an important competition to the bank manager, but that's it.

It falls well below the Heineken Cup and the Premiership on the players and fans radar.

As we saw at the weekend.