2017-18 Continental Shield

[amz Profile]

Other streams available?
LE: find it , HRK - Calvisano

https://www.facebook.com/HRK.Rugby/vide ... PgaCsHJYVg

[GeoRugby Profile]

Missed the game , but according to comments didnt miss much.

I'd say you missed an epileptic seizure.

Good. Batumi achieved more than enough in their debut. I am happy with that. Getting thrashed in Challenge Cup on weekly basis doesn't excite me. Like I said before this little comp is very good start for Georgian clubs.

[RugbyLiebe Profile]

Heidelberger RK beats Calvisano 34:29 (6:10).
Bitter sweet that they were up 34:17 with just 3 minutes to go.
Just saw the 1st half on the fb-livestream. Calvisano was clearly dominant then.

[olivier]

HRK missed the almost qualification with a disastrous end !
Lead 15-13 at the 60th, they scored three converted tries to put Calvisano on the brink of a whitewash.
Schulte scored three personal tries.

[RugbyLiebe Profile]

To be fair, they scored their last try with just 14 men (1 yellow card according to totalrugby.de) and then conceded two. To concede, if you count those actions together, one try with one man down is not desastrous. Still unneccesary.

[Bogdan_DC Profile]

HRK makes big progress and looks very good but Calvisano is more composed team and the 5 points difference is a fair score.Probably the Italians will progress in the next round but HRK are the big achievers of this edition for me.

[olivier]

Crazy second half :
https://www.facebook.com/HRK.Rugby/vide ... 1581805508

[Canalina Profile]

I realized that writing in english is quite hard for me. If I post in the Continental Shield fb page just a photo or a link or a table, ok, no great problems... but if I've to write something longer and more complex I start to sweat my soul out. So I re-ask to you: if someone wants to collaborate with that page I can quickly make also you "admin" of the page. Then you may insert all that you want and when you want, even once every four months. No obligations of course.
The aim is to help the tournament to be stronger and to grow up and I fear that my basic english could be not a great promo for the tournament, if some readers think that that is the official page of the competition

https://www.facebook.com/Continental-Sh ... 631533059/

[iul Profile]

I realized that writing in english is quite hard for me. If I post in the Continental Shield fb page just a photo or a link or a table, ok, no great problems... but if I've to write something longer and more complex I start to sweat my soul out. So I re-ask to you: if someone wants to collaborate with that page I can quickly make also you "admin" of the page. Then you may insert all that you want and when you want, even once every four months. No obligations of course.
The aim is to help the tournament to be stronger and to grow up and I fear that my basic english could be not a great promo for the tournament, if some readers think that that is the official page of the competition

https://www.facebook.com/Continental-Sh ... 631533059/

You could use IFTTT.com to autopublish news from RSS feeds straight to the facebook page. It's suuuper easy to set up and then you no longer have to worry about it. You could also use it to search twitter for posts in English containing "#ContinentalShield" and autopost those as well. It'll make your page more active without much effort.

[FLIDTA RISXVA Profile Website]

CANALINA, what's the try count for HDL-CLV ?

It could be vital. as with BTM-TMS 0/1

[Canalina Profile]

@ Iul: thank you for the suggestions

@ Flidta: it was 4-4, I'd say

[Canalina Profile]

Calvisano v Heidelberg will be live on line on http://www.therugbychannel.it

Very probably it's available also outside Italy

[Canalina Profile]

Tomorrow's games involving Continental Shield teams, with kick-off times in various time zones
All the four matches should be available live on line

[amz Profile]

Timisoara XV:

1. Badiu
2. Radoi
3. Pungea
4. Poparlan
5. Drenceanu (C)
6. Morrison
7. Rus
8. Stewart
9. Seniloli
10. Rose
11. Sheenan
12. Umaga
13. Manumua
14. Lemnaru
15. Fercu

16. Sabau
17. Apoua
18. Doge
19. Muresan
20. Doyle
21. Luiters
22. Simionescu
23. Conache

[Canalina Profile]

Tomorrow italian the rugby channel shows live Timisoara-Batumi, Zebre-Agen and Calvi-Heidelberg
Nice effort!

[Tobar Profile]

So I've never really followed any of this before....is the Continental Shield basically one tier lower than the Challenge Cup? It looks like the teams in this are semi-pro/pro clubs in Tier 2 nations.

[4N Profile]

Yes. It's a new competition. The two Krasnoyarsk clubs and the top Romanian clubs are fully pro afaik.

[Silver Fox Profile]

So I've never really followed any of this before....is the Continental Shield basically one tier lower than the Challenge Cup? It looks like the teams in this are semi-pro/pro clubs in Tier 2 nations.

http://epcrugby.com/europeanrugbychallengecup/2017-2018-continental_shield.php

I did a quick analysis on the evolution of the competiton:

Code: Select all

season        #teams   #nations   #matches   #matches per team
                involved   involved                      (pool-knock out)
14-15                 8           5           10           2-4
15-16               10           7           20           4-6
16-17               10           6           21           4-6-7
17-18               10           6           25          4-6-8-9
            
Challenge cup       20        7           67           6-7-8-9


My analysis is that the competition might appear not to have expanded that much, but if you take look at the numbers of matches played, especially for the teams progressing through the knock-out phases, this has risen significantly. Up to the amount that is played in the Challenge cup.
Note that half of these are away fixtures, covering distances that clubs are generally not used to in their domestic leagues.
This number of extra, high level fixtures requires quite a step up in the organizational level of the clubs. 4, 6, or even 8 extra, high level games on top of the 20-odd domestic league games is quit something. Think of planning, funding, preparation, player base needed, etc.

Furthermore the unions also need time to adapt/reorganise especially with creating space for these fixtures in the national calendar.

I think that the current structure of the Continental Shield is just fine. It gives 6 to 8 quality games for the top teams while the lesser/starting/emerging teams/nations have the opportunity to settle in with only 4 games.
Next step imo would be to expand to 14 teams (4 pools of 3, plus the 2 qualifiers in the challenge cup).
I hope nations like Russia, Romania and Georgia are raising their structures and level of professionalism enough to bring in an extra team shortly.
Of course it would be good if Spain and eventually teams from the likes of Belgium and the Netherlands also jump on the bandwagon. But better to take it a step at the time and so far I think it is shaping up just nicely.

[amz Profile]

Tomorrow italian the rugby channel shows live Timisoara-Batumi, Zebre-Agen and Calvi-Heidelberg
Nice effort!

very nice but kick-off hour for Timisoara - Batumi is wrong. Streams shows will start in 85 minutes and actually the game will start in 25 minutes so 1 hour earlier...

LE: however stream from Cluj started to show live
http://www.therugbychannel.it/continental-shield

[iul Profile]

that .it website doesn't load for me at all. Is there any other stream for the Timisoara game?

[Canalina Profile]

Yes, they didn't considerate the different time zone
Direct link

[olivier]

http://bresciasettegiorni.it/sport/calv ... ger-dentro
It seems Calvisano lost a lot of players in the first leg. HRK only lost Cameron-Dow.

[STMKY Profile]

I hope nations like Russia, Romania and Georgia are raising their structures and level of professionalism enough to bring in an extra team shortly.

In Russia there are two more clubs that are able to play at a good level in the Continental Shield. The most progressive club in Russia Kuban from Krasnodar. Krasnodar is located in the south of Russia. They last year for the first time in history beat Krasny Yar. In the home semi-final 35-27. They can play home games at the Kuban stadium, where the Russian national team will play home matches with Spain, Belgium and Georgia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxjjG_noFM8
The second team of VVA from Monino. This is the Moscow Region. They will complete the new stadium by 8160 seats by the end of the year. They really want an international match to open the arena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFFBQn4dp2M

[STMKY Profile]

Now I thought, but for the greater number of teams in the Continental Shield, we can apply the Olympic system! Then you can invite 16 teams. Count the rating for the last season of the Continental Shield for all clubs. Based on the ranking draw draw. Then the Olympic system, the game at home and away. Round 16 in October, Round 8 in December, Round 4 in January, Round 2 in April. The winner enters the Challenge Cup and in May plays the final of the Continental Shield.

[STMKY Profile]

But you need to rank the clubs. And the rating of countries, so that new clubs also had a rating. As in the system of UEFA. Then we will not get a game like Timisoara - Calvizano in Round 16.
https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations ... index.html
https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations ... index.html