All this talk of an Anglo French cup, with loads of money and qualification on merit, is very well and good. Any time I hear it though I can't help thinking about the Saracens Toulon semi final last year.

Sky did everything to build it up. The money boys of France against the money boys of England. Farrell against Wilkinson. The two teams near the top of their two leagues. The game set for Twickenham.

It was an absolute disaster. 25k tickets sold and a game that the only scores were 4 penalties for Saracens against 7 penalties and a drop goal for Toulon! If that is an anglo french competition let them see how long it lasts!

I've just read that the comitee that negotiated the new TV deal with sky was chaired by Rene bouscetal of the LNR and had Hayes of the PRL on the comitee. It was then signed by the erc comitee which has Mr bouscetal of LNR and peter wheeler of PRL on it.

rossie wrote: Meanwhile the FFR have told the LNR that they will not give their backing to any competition formed outside of the erc accord so the stupidly named rugby champions cup is dead in the water.

Rossie, the LNR would need not only FFR approval, but French Ministry of Sport approval also. Not going to happen. It's the 98/99 HEC all over again.

As forthe "rugby champions cup", I think "the LV Cup minus the Welsh teams" is a bit wordy, so how about the Nigel Wray Invitational Trophy?

So the English clubs have done what they always intended on doing and have walked away from the erc and Heineken cup. Mcclafferty has stated that they will not be attending meeting on 23/10 and have cut off all communication with erc. Meanwhile the FFR have told the LNR that they will not give their backing to any competition formed outside of the erc accord so the stupidly named rugby champions cup is dead in the water.
It has emerged that a London law firm applied for a trade mark for the rugby champions cup on 21/6/13. I wonder who they represent? Lol.

Erc have announced Canadian graham mew as mediator. He will earn his money

Aren't the talk talk and sky viewers paying for it though while the BT broadband customers get it free?

rossie wrote: ERC CEO Derek mc grath has invited all the partners to attend a meeting in Dublin on 23/10 to sort out the future of the HEC. Why the hell does it have to wait 5 weeks? There had better be a good reason!

I can think of 2:

(1) No further discussions til after the first 2 rounds of the HEC, the ERC will want to focus on how good the competition is, not discuss it's demise the very weeks it's running.

(2) If I were the ERC, I'd be really interested in seeing just how bad BT Sports figures are before going back to the negotiating table. They're getting about half a million (average viewers at one time) for Premier League soccer, but almost all of them (~95%) are getting the service wholesaled through TalkTalk or Virgin or Sky (through Setanta) and so on, and therefore are not classified as BT customers and are not protecting BT's broadband service, which was the whole point of BT Sport. Figures for most programmes are so low as to be almost unmeasurable; BT are claiming a "fantastic" viewership average of ~70K for their first few live rugby broadcasts.

ERC CEO Derek mc grath has invited all the partners to attend a meeting in Dublin on 23/10 to sort out the future of the HEC. Why the hell does it have to wait 5 weeks? There had better be a good reason!

It's Robert Kitson - he has a track record of doing this, and repeating verbatim what Mark McCafferty wants to get across to the ERC. SA are apparently interested in it for time zone and (obviously) cash-based reasons. The Graun's rugby commentary has really dropped a fair bit in standard over the past couple of years, and a lot of the stuff they do is just re-hashing Steven Jones' shite over on the Times or superficial stuff looking at how England are preparing for RWC 15. They give little or no coverage to the Rabies and consistently toe the line behind the Aviva and the RFU. A long way from when Frank Keating wrote from them.

It's not the Guardian per se, probably some business lunch, corporate box loving hack!

I can understand ESPN/BT being used as a propaganda outlet for PRL but I don't get the guardians role in this?

I only read it here:

www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2013/sep/...-cup-premiership-rfu

They have, you're right. I'm starting to think the guy is Walter Mitty.

I thought I had read that the SA union had agreed with NZ and AUS that their 6 franchises could be entered in super rugby season after next?

More importantly the IRB can enforce a ban on any player who plays in this tournament from playing international rugby. It can also stop the referees from officiating in it.
That is all further down the line though and may be the wiser route that court action.

But first the ERC must show that they have exhausted every avenue of negotiation and the pro12 unions must show that they have being willing to compromise. When this is clearly established then the RFU, FFR and finally the IRB can act if necessary. The IRFU must reign in their Leinster branch now as well as irupa. No more loose statements that potentially weaken the irfu position. The reality is any future comp will be more in line of PRL model than current one. Who controls it financially and politically is where its at now.

The proposal also interferes with the Super 15, as it runs from Feb to May. I'm sure NZ and Aus would have soemthing to say about that. Plus, they cannot afford to not have the Autumn Internationals, especially in NZ.

The other issue is that with new TV negotiations due in France, the French clubn will have to be clear what they are tring to sell, Top 14 for sure, but any TV company will want to know what they are getting internationally. Thus they will need to nail something down quickly. Ironically, McCafferty latest comments muddy the water rather than clear it. Will TV not want a long French season to get their return?

The noise in UK claims that SA want out of Championship, due to time zones etc, and are out of contract next year. Sound like shit stirring by buddies of prl owners, but....how SA fans see this I do not know.

Next up, franchising??