Season 9 Homepage I

2016/2017 - Newcastle Falcons
2015/2016 - Sale Sharks
2014/2015 – London Wasps

2013/2014 – London Wasps
2012/2013 – Leicester Tigers 
2011/2012 – Newcastle Falcons 
2010/2011 - Newcastle Falcons 
2009/2010 – Saracens 
2008/2009 - London Irish

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POS		Aviva Premiership	PLAYED	WON	DREW	LOST	P F	P A	P D	T F	T A	TBP	LBP	POINTS
1		Sale Sharks*	22	19	1	2	628	535	93	74	54	9	2	88
2		Northampton Saints*	22	15	1	6	614	551	63	72	58	7	6	74
3		Harlequins*	22	15	2	5	602	552	50	68	58	3	5	71
4		Newcastle Falcons	22	15	2	5	580	534	46	63	56	2	5	71
5		Saracens**	22	11	3	8	563	541	22	61	55	3	8	59
6		Exeter Chiefs *	22	8	2	12	543	570	-27	53	61	0	12	47
7		Leicester Tigers*	22	7	4	11	533	569	-36	54	63	0	10	45
8		Wasps*****	22	9	2	11	543	587	-44	61	60	2	7	44
9		Bristol Rugby	22	6	1	15	528	570	-42	55	61	0	15	41
10		Worcester Warriors*	22	7	0	15	539	578	-39	52	61	0	14	41
11		Bath Rugby****	22	7	0	15	540	579	-39	53	67	0	14	38
12		Gloucester	22	4	0	18	539	577	-38	54	57	0	17	33

Links

Senior Squads wrote:
The maximum squad size is 40 senior players.  If a team has more than 40 players in their squad then they will be fined £1 million per player over the permitted amounts per day for the first seven days. If after 7 consecutive days a team still has more than the permitted number of players then the team will be fined £2 million per player per day, and fined 1 league point per player per day for the next seven days. If after this time a team still has more than the permitted number of players in their squad, the RFU (Fluxy) will remove players at its discretion to bring them back under the permitted numbers. There will be no right of appeal to players being removed.

Be aware that all tier one international matches which are played during the season will count in the game, and players selected in the match day 23's for those matches will not be eligible to play for their clubs on that weekend, therefore you must give due consideration to the make-up of your squad.

Academy Rules wrote:
Each team will be allowed to have an academy squad of 23 players.  Players who are in the academy must be born on or after 1st September 1994. 

Any player, who is at any Premiership club in real life, either in their senior, academy or AASE squads, can be bid for on the domestic bidding page. Players who are at your own club in real life and are coming through the academy system must be bid for if you want them in your own academy.

Transfers wrote:

• Domestic (other AP Teams)
  Each team has a budget to use in the purchase of players. Domestic transfers between AP clubs, regardless of nationality of player, should be negotiated between the respective managers, and then confirmed on the Domestic Transfer Confirmation Page.
  
• Domestic (Championship and below)
  Each team may during the season purchase no more than 5 players from the Championship or the National Leagues. Worcester Warriors & London Wasps will receive two additional bids to be used exclusively on academy age players. These players must be bid for on the National League Bidding page, and each bid will be considered by the RFU on its own merits before being accepted or rejected.  No bid will be accepted until a minimum of 24 hours has elapsed from the time the bid was made, in order to afford other managers the opportunity to make a counter bid.
  
• Foreign
  To make a foreign transfer (i.e. from any club outside of the AP, regardless of whether the player is English) a bid should be made by sending a PM to the RFU (Fluxy) and it will be considered by the RFU against the posted guidelines for purchase prices before being accepted or rejected. No bid will be accepted until a minimum of 24 hours has elapsed from the time the bid was made, in order to afford other managers the opportunity to make a counter bid.
  
  There will be a summer foreign transfer window, which will run as follows.
  
  Round Bidding 
  
  Open Bidding
  
  

Player Releases wrote:
Managers may choose to release players from their clubs, for which they will be offered compensation

Compensation will be paid as follows

£2 million – current international (must have played international rugby in the previous 12 months)
£1.5 million – former international
£1m – top flight experience
£0.5m – other

All released players will be deemed to have joined a Championship side and can be bid for on the National League Bidding page.

Retirements wrote:
There will be no compensation for retiring players. Should a player who retires decide to come out of retirement and play again, then he will automatically go back to the club who he was playing for in the game when he retired.

Fixtures wrote:
There will be 22 Aviva Premiership games per season, plus the play offs. There will also be European Rugby Champions Cup, European Rugby Challenge Cup and Anglo Welsh Cup matches. These games will take place once a week. A match thread will be put up every Monday. Home teams must be named by midnight on Tuesday. Away teams must be named by midnight on Wednesday. Failure to meet these deadlines is punishable by the addition of three match points to the oppositions final score, unless both sides fail to do so. Both teams must provide tactics by midnight on Thursday. Predictions will be open from 00:01 hours on Friday and remain open until 20:00 hours on Sunday. Managers will pm the scores that they think will happen from these games (apart from games in which they are involved). An average of all predictions will be taken, and then 0.5 points added to each teams score for each prediction that had them as the winner, and that will then be the final score.

Managers are asked to provide detail as to why they have predicted a result. To be considered a descriptive prediction this must be a full 3 lines long when entered into the text box. 

Teams wrote:
When naming your team, not only should you put the starting XV and replacements, but also tactics that your team will employ. Results will be affected by the tactics described.

In addition, each team must have the following:-

For domestic competition at least 8 England qualified players in your match day 23, and at least 4 of those must be in your starting XV.

For European competition at least 8 England qualified players in your match day 23, and at least 6 of those must be in your starting XV.

At least 2 props and 1 hooker on the bench.

All players must be eligible (not injured or banned).

Failure to comply with these rules will result in a 1 league point deduction.

If you fail to submit a team for a match, then the other team will be automatically awarded a 30-0 bonus point win. If both teams fail to submit a team, then it will be scored as a 0-0 draw.

Injuries and Suspensions wrote:
Injuries in this game do NOT reflect real life, they will be generated by me.

Players banned in real life will be ineligible for selection in this game for the duration of the ban.

Inclusion of injured/banned players will result in them being replaced by players on the bench, and the bench not having eight players, which may result in punishment if it concerns the front-row.

Punishment for fielding an ineligible player will be loss of one match point.

Financial Rewards wrote:
There will be no rewards for the result of an individual match, instead the managers will receive cash for predicting.

£2m for descriptive predictions 
£0.25m for scores on the doors predictions
Bonuses will be awarded on a scaled basis i.e. £2m for 5 games, £1.6m for 4 games and so on
If you fail to predict without first advising me that you are unable to do so that week, you will be fined £1m for a first offence, £2m for a second offence, £3m for a third offence etc upto a maximum of £5m per fine.

AP finishing positions.

Champions: £8m
Runners Up: £6m
Playoff Semi Finalist Losers: £5m
5th: £4m
6th: £3.5m
7th: £3m
8th: £2.5m
9th: £2m
10th: £1.5m
11th: £1m
12th: £0.5m

Heineken Cup

Losing Quarter Finalists - £2 million each
Losing Semi Finalists - £3 million each
Runners Up - £4 million
Champions - £5 million

Amlin Challenge Cup

Losing Quarter Finalists - £1 million each
Losing Semi Finalists - £2 million each
Runners Up - £3 million
Champions - £4 million

Anglo-Welsh Cup

Losing Semi Finalist - £1 million each
Runners Up - £2 million
Champions - £3 million

If your budgets falls below minus £10 million for any reason, the administrators (Fluxy) will step in and players from within your squad will be released for the relevant financial compensation (foreign transfer value) in order to bring your budget back above minus £10 million.

SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:Personally love Etzebeth. Throwback to the old style compared to some of the new locks. Poor 12 months doesn't take away from what hes done since bursting onto the scene for me

SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:Might as well join in.

LH

1. McGrath
2. EBA
3. Mako
4. Moody
5. Marler
6. Sio
7. Kitchoff
8. Paz
9. Healy
10. Beast

HK

1. Coles
2. Moore
3. Guirado
4. Creevey
5. Best
6. Hartley
7. Strauss
8. Montoya
9. George
10. Marx

TH

1. Slimani
2. Franks
3. Nel
4. Kepu
5. Furlong
6. Cole
7. Herrera
8. Zirka
9. Koch
10. Antonio

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:1. Retalick
2. Whitelock
3. Itoje
4. Etzebeth
5. J Gray
6. Kruis
7. PSDT
8. Launchbury
9. De Jager
10. Henderson

Surprised to see Etzebeth up there Johnny. When he first came on the scene he looked like he'd be a star for years but has really went off the boil the last year or so. Seems more interested in roughing people up than actually playing rugby, I think he's trying too hard to be the tough man. I've got him just scraping a top 10 at the minute but he's nowhere near the NZ and probably the English options.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Having an opinion is not "ruining the game Matt", lighten up pal. We're discussing top 10's and Etzebeth is a relevant discussion.

BamBam wrote:Jesus, leave work on time for once and it all kicks off

Matt, I try not to get involved with the "debates" that you, Pooly and Chris have, but to call other people who may share an opinon with Pooly "morons" and "dim" is out of line

Pooly listed Etzebeth 7th, I listed him 5th and SJE put him 4th, are we equally moronic for not putting him top?

Its a bloody game, treat it like one

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Oldest bloke in the game.......amazing

BamBam wrote:Jesus, leave work on time for once and it all kicks off

Matt, I try not to get involved with the "debates" that you, Pooly and Chris have, but to call other people who may share an opinon with Pooly "morons" and "dim" is out of line

Pooly listed Etzebeth 7th, I listed him 5th and SJE put him 4th, are we equally moronic for not putting him top?

Its a bloody game, treat it like one

SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:Glossing over the above... I see Isa has signed for Toulon for 2 years. Wonder if Argentina will bend their eligibility rules for him. If not hes very young to be giving up on internationals. Must be a huge contract.

BamBam wrote:

SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:Glossing over the above... I see Isa has signed for Toulon for 2 years. Wonder if Argentina will bend their eligibility rules for him. If not hes very young to be giving up on internationals. Must be a huge contract.

I agree, but if they do its probably going to lead to the likes of Matera/Cordero/Sanchez doing the same