the young french 20 year old centre was assalted in new zealand . flying back home now . not playing again on tour

Lions vs Emerging Springboks, Tuesday 18.10.

A few places up for grabs in Saturday's Test.

and only -6 on handicap.

The Emerging Boks scored a 79th minute converted try to draw 13-13

Lucky escape! If I'd had more time and put that bet on I'd need a good few beers now.

Anyway got to go. I'm off to the local beer festival for a few beers

Surely the Lions should have stuffed the Emerging Boks ? I actually did watch it for a change.

They did 13-13 i forgot to mention i stopped watching after 10-15 minutes

London Welsh in administration and say they need between £1m and £1.5m a season to operate.


Has the world gone mad I can understand a top level club spending that sort of cash (and more besides) but for a second tier club with no TV revenue coming and gates around the 1,500 mark in it's well OTT.

A mate of mine runs a local rugby union club up here in the North East equivalent to NL2. They pay there players good win bonuses and recruit two or three overseas players on £30000 wages. Their crowds are in the low hundreds. They get money from sponsorship , bar takings and a big fat wadge from the RFU every season.

That figures. I think it was a similar story in Wales pre the Regions but now the clubs at NL2 equivalent level are back to basically amateur status as clubs just could not keep forking out for players contracts/wages.

A good mate of my dad's is a union ref. He's been sent to Singapore, Malaysia, Georgia and many other locations on reffing duty (RFU jollies).
He's adamant that union clubs rely on sponsorship rather than crowds and that clubs attracting a thousand or less can easily survive as long as the sponsorship money is coming in.

I don't know why anyone at all is surprised by the fact that crowds - and the revnues they bring - are not the be all and end all for sports teams.