DBWI : The USA not a big force in rugby?

Well, over here in England we've been getting a bit of AFL on the telly (it's all early in the morning stuff on Saturdays on Channel 4), it's nothing more than a curiosity but supposedly in Ireland it's been taking fans away from GAA, supposedly rugby has benefited, while the talent isn't coming through in Connacht their provincial team gets good gates, even though most of the players are from the other provinces.

Out of interest, any CentroLeague fans here? Surely we've got someone from Sweden, Austria or Germany in das haus? What do we make of the plans to add some Romanian teams? The jungle drums say they could bring an influx of TV money and a new title sponsor. Staua Bucharest and Farul Constanta get huge gates (bigger than football!) but the rest of the league is a bit mickey mouse.
 
Also, the CentroLeague now has a title sponsor lined up, it's going to be the Motorola League, IIRC Veltins wanted to sponsor it but the Swedish and Austrian alcohol advertising bans put pay to that. The licences to participate are going back up for application for the 2012-13 season.

RVFC Berlin, Chemie Leipzig, Dinamo Dresden and RVFC Hamburg are likely to stay in as the four German teams, Salzburg and Vienna look are going to stay as they've been quality in the Carlsberg Cup, and as for Malmo and the Stockholm Elks they are by far the best options. It's just the last two slots, Gothenberg have been underperforming and Linz are in financial difficulties. That big Austrian energy drinks guy, what's his name Mateschitz or something? - well, he has bought Oesterreicher-Bundesliga club Graz, they're destroying everyone now, surely they're favourite to take over Linz's slot, rugby has only been a big thing in the Eastern bits of Austria for some reason.

I said earlier about Romania, there's conflicting reports now, some in the RRFU want to join up with Ukraine and probably Georgia. There's talk about that the Ukrainians want to have Russia in, but of course Georgia wouldn't participate in that case, and the Russian teams are very happy with their own league, that CSKA-Dinamo match that started last season could have filled up the Olimpysky stadium twice!
 
So what do we make of the first round of warmup friendlies? England-South Africa was a quality match, we just scraped the win there, that Cueto try in the last minute was great. Germany beating France was surprising to say the least, especially in the Stade de la Republique, although Podolski is a penalty machine, the Germans didn't score a single try, wasn't that exciting a match. Romania-Wales, that Mutu conversion that tied it up almost from the touchline, well, that's something special. Got to be gutted for Wales there.

OOC : Bump after first round of European warmup friendlies IRL.
 
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OOC: This makes them a bit smaller than the OTL NFL, doesn't it? And really small if you just count those in the U.S. I know nothing about Rugby organization, though, is there another layer of majors that wouldn't get to play in the world cup? Certainly, I'd expect at least another conference with some of the big OTL NFL cities in the Midwest... unless they focus on the college leagues, which I could believe.
 
OOC: This makes them a bit smaller than the OTL NFL, doesn't it? And really small if you just count those in the U.S. I know nothing about Rugby organization, though, is there another layer of majors that wouldn't get to play in the world cup? Certainly, I'd expect at least another conference with some of the big OTL NFL cities in the Midwest... unless they focus on the college leagues, which I could believe.

OOC : Yes, that is smaller than the OTL NFL. This is because the second tier league is popular, and the Panamerica 20 is a league that has been running since 1996, when IRL MLS was set up. Before that, the Panamerica 15 teams were part of the second tier. I'm going to cover the possibility of Panamerica 20 expansion now. The Rugby World Cup is a competition of national teams. IOTL it started in 1987, ITTL it started four years earlier (amongst many PODs, these include somehow the sport becoming popular in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Ukraine and Jamaica and more than it is in Romania, Georgia, Russia and Japan). There is no world club championship IRL, and no mention of one ITTL.

IC : Pro Rugby USA have got the schedules for the new season out. I guess Cincinatti Tigers, Indy Impalas, Charlotte Tar Heels and the Milwaukee Bulls are the favourites, after their great playoff runs last year. They've also put in applications for Panamerica 20 places with the San Francisco Iron. It certainly seems odd that the Mid-West have so few teams in PanAmerica 20 - OK, it's a hotbed of the college games, but only about a third of the players in Panamerica 20 go through the college system rather than club academies. It's a great shop window for players that get dropped by the academies aged 17 or so, mind. A 25 team league is doable, it would just need bye weeks. Of course, not every team would have to play every team, the 26 game cap in the CBA (and that counts playing matches with teams with players away on international duty) is just sensible with player burnout.

OOC : Yes, IRL some rounds of the English Premiership, Magners League and Top 14 are played with teams with a four or five players missing due to being off representing their country. It's because players can't really physically do more than a game a week, think NFL in terms of schedules but round far more of the year.

The CentroLeague licences have been confirmed too, no change (still Gothenberg) apart from Linz being replaced by Graz, as expected. Also, Romania, Ukraine and Georgia have now confirmed their joint league for 2012-2013. The Continental League is the working title but they're trying to line up a title sponsor. It's going to be four teams from each country.
 
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