14-04-2024, 05:14 PM
The Champions Cup and Challenge Cup rugby union semi-finals schedules have been announced. Leinster v. Northampton live on RTÉ on the Saturday with Toulouse v. Harlequins on ITV on the Sunday. The two Challenge Cup semi-finals are on the Saturday preceding the game in Dublin. S4C's involvement is now over with Ospreys eliminated.
pbs.twimg.com
pbs.twimg.com
The quarter-finals thankfully did have good attendance all round - I think the Aviva Stadium in Dublin was near to full cappacity, and the other games were rocking as well. The travel combined with the short turnaround did cause issues though, with the two teams that won in South Africa last week (La Rochelle and Bulls) failing to score a point between them in their second halves. La Rochelle had organised their travel before qualifying for the quarters, travelling to Cork via Paris on Monday. The Bulls on the other hand were not prebooked, meaning they had to travel via eight different indirect flights to Europe, not arriving until Thursday and SA Rugby spending over £180 000 - amateur hour there' they also rested a few of their biggest names. Interesting to see that Sharks' home semi-final will be in London; I think this is a competition rule, but maybe should be introduced for earlier knockouts if we have to have back-to-back knockout ties.
There is a lot of moaning and rose-tinted spectacles about continental rugby, but th format and the schedule is by far its biggest flaw.
pbs.twimg.com
pbs.twimg.com
The quarter-finals thankfully did have good attendance all round - I think the Aviva Stadium in Dublin was near to full cappacity, and the other games were rocking as well. The travel combined with the short turnaround did cause issues though, with the two teams that won in South Africa last week (La Rochelle and Bulls) failing to score a point between them in their second halves. La Rochelle had organised their travel before qualifying for the quarters, travelling to Cork via Paris on Monday. The Bulls on the other hand were not prebooked, meaning they had to travel via eight different indirect flights to Europe, not arriving until Thursday and SA Rugby spending over £180 000 - amateur hour there' they also rested a few of their biggest names. Interesting to see that Sharks' home semi-final will be in London; I think this is a competition rule, but maybe should be introduced for earlier knockouts if we have to have back-to-back knockout ties.
There is a lot of moaning and rose-tinted spectacles about continental rugby, but th format and the schedule is by far its biggest flaw.