Rugby Europe Super Cup (RESC)

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Georgian Black Lion easily beat Spanish Iberians in the first semi. Tel Aviv pull off an upset to win in Lisbon in the other one.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Highlights of the final.



The end of Tier2 for 2022. What a year to be a shvili!

 

[Umaga's Witness]

What was the penalty try and yellow card for?

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

What was the penalty try and yellow card for?

From looking at it again it looks like the Tel Aviv winger tackles/pushes a man without the ball, which makes that player fall into the ball carrier and dislodge the ball to prevent a certain try.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Good for the BL and the Heat did not shame themselves in the final. Batumi did reasonably and Romanian Wolves can improve sharply with the available player pool.

Everything on the field seems relatively positive. But off the field I think this was an extremely disappointing season by almost any metric. There were lower crowds despite Covid restrictions being lifted this season. Strangely the Dutch and Belgians, with less to cheer about, seem to have more fan interest.

Lots and lots of hard work to do to secure a long term future for the competition. Some do not think much of the MLR but they were way ahead of the RESC in year two in terms of crowds, viewing figures and (I would be very confident) sponsorship.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

For anyone wanting to see what some the Portuguese stars get up to outside of the RWC this may be for you. All games streamed by Rugby Europe in a fortnight's time.

Rugby Europe Super Cup

The Rugby Europe Super Cup 2023 will take place from November to December.

www.rugbyeurope.eu

Issues this year
- shorter season (allegedly due to RWC)
- probably won't play any games in Israel given current situation
- Spanish side taken over by their union and reportedly to be used as a national u23 side (they will get hammered). Any hope of further teams from Spain seems dead and this strikes me as a big backward step.
- Romanian Wolves will largely be based on one domestic Romanian team (which is a bit weird)
- a new Czech side makes their debut
- new coach for Portuguese Lusitanos
- Black Lion/Georgian coach being sacked and is acting as caretaker
- Romanian coach being retained despite RWC performance and hopefully will coach Wolves here (I still have some hope for him, but I may be mad!)

In summary the tournament continues to really struggle and I would argue gets further away from being a viable long term proposition each year. Now only 3 sides out of 8 will take it seriously and the rest are using it as some kind of youth development session or something.

Rugby Europe appears to have sensibly responded by putting the development teams in one group and the serious ones in the other group. 3 of the teams from the serious group will qualify for the semis and only one from the weak group. This should help minimise meaningless blowouts that benefit no-one but it kind of betrays that it is all a bit messy.

 

[spursindevon]

For anyone wanting to see what some the Portuguese stars get up to outside of the RWC this may be for you. All games streamed by Rugby Europe in a fortnight's time.

Rugby Europe Super Cup

The Rugby Europe Super Cup 2023 will take place from November to December.

www.rugbyeurope.eu

Issues this year
- shorter season (allegedly due to RWC)
- probably won't play any games in Israel given current situation
- Spanish side taken over by their union and reportedly to be used as a national u23 side (they will get hammered). Any hope of further teams from Spain seems dead and this strikes me as a big backward step.
- Romanian Wolves will largely be based on one domestic Romanian team (which is a bit weird)
- a new Czech side makes their debut
- new coach for Portuguese Lusitanos
- Black Lion/Georgian coach being sacked and is acting as caretaker
- Romanian coach being retained despite RWC performance and hopefully will coach Wolves here (I still have some hope for him, but I may be mad!)

In summary the tournament continues to really struggle and I would argue gets further away from being a viable long term proposition each year. Now only 3 sides out of 8 will take it seriously and the rest are using it as some kind of youth development session or something.

Rugby Europe appears to have sensibly responded by putting the development teams in one group and the serious ones in the other group. 3 of the teams from the serious group will qualify for the semis and only one from the weak group. This should help minimise meaningless blowouts that benefit no-one but it kind of betrays that it is all a bit messy.

Maybe the winner of the weaker group also gets promoted the following season (just an idea)

 

[Yulia]

I was much more excited about RESC during previous years, but...good news anyway. Have to choose who I support now

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Maybe the winner of the weaker group also gets promoted the following season (just an idea)

I think that is the intention. Hopefully Romania step up and take it more seriously. I don't see the logic on more successful Tier2 setups like Spain and Romania paying to travel and participate in this tournament with developmental sides. Their younger players have plenty opportunity to develop at an okayish environment in their domestic leagues.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

The Iberians squad will have 15 players aged 23+, so I may have been misinformed about them being an u23 side. They could potentially put up a fight but it clashes with a couple of friendly internatonals Spain are hosting at the same time (mini tournament with Brazil,, US and Canada). Hopefully a sign Spain is not effectively giving up on the RESC