I don't have any problem with this. It makes the competition more competitive and saves the WRFU money in it only has to help 4 teams compete in the Cup.

Reduction in teams next year to 24 as below which will make it even tougher. Haven't got to any of the B&I Cup games this year, however having watched the game against the Russians a few weeks back the team looked more confident playing with each other in an attacking sense and in terms of going through phases than I had seen in other years with the A side, that's not to say things were perfect, defensively I'd have some big question marks on that display.

However, I think its a long term process, you aren't going to get a rake of players in one year, Henshaw, Marmion and Layden would have been 3 expected players for the A side at the start of the year in most people's eyes.

There were benefits the likes of Tadhg Leader, Steve McCauley, Conor Finn, Jack Carty, Aaron Conneely, Matt Healy, even Mick Kearney and Eoin McKeown got some game time while they were outside the first 23. JP Cooney and Rodney, Finlay Bealham, Fa'fita in the back row experiment, David Heffernan at hooker.

It gives that extra step up from AIL and imo prepares the players to be ready for the next step up. Its useful to ease players back from injury and an opportunity to provide leadership to those on the edge of the first 23. That's not to say AIL isn't important and has a major role to play in player development but the AIL is a bit limited now in terms of contracted players which makes these games even more important. This competition will always be relatively limited in what it can achieve but its growing steadily and I'd hate to see Connacht on the outside looking in.


The British & Irish Cup will undergo a revision to the competition's current structure for the 2013/14 season, moving from 32 teams to 24 sides playing in six pools of four.

Following the restructure, four Principality Premiership teams will now represent Wales in the competition, joining the four Irish provinces, 12 clubs from the English Championship as well as four sides from Scotland.
Selection of the Welsh teams will be based on regional play-offs at the start of next season, with final positions in this season's Principality Premiership giving teams 'home field advantage'.

RFU professional rugby director Rob Andrew commented: "The British & Irish Cup organising committee agreed that the reduction in clubs would make for a more competitive league competition.

"The regional play-offs are a positive way of ensuring an appropriate regional spread combined with the best teams representing Wales in the competition, while the top four finishers in the Scottish domestic leagues will be automatically included alongside the 12 RFU Championship clubs."

WRU gead of rugby Joe Lydon added: "The British & Irish Cup is a fantastic competition and the restructure will give four Principality Premiership clubs every chance of being highly competitive.

"It will again give Premiership and select regional players the opportunity to play in this cross-border tournament which is not only a great way to develop player talent but also an opportunity for the respective clubs to grow and test themselves.

"We firmly believe that the system of regionally based play-offs determining participation in the British & Irish Cup is the fairest way of selecting the best teams to represent Wales while reflecting the geography of Welsh semi-professional and professional rugby.

"Our clubs have more than held their own in this competition which sees them compete with full time, professional clubs and provinces, with Cross Keys reaching last season's final, Pontypridd reaching last year's semi-final and Llanelli reaching the quarters on three occasions.

"We are confident that this move will enhance our competitiveness in the British & Irish Cup and we look forward to some thrilling encounters in the battle for places come September."

2013/14 BRITISH & IRISH CUP STRUCTURE:

Teams -

* 12 English RFU Championship clubs
* 4 Welsh Principality Premiership clubs
* 4 Irish provinces - Connacht Eagles, Munster 'A', Leinster 'A' and Ulster Ravens
* 4 Scottish teams - top 4 finishers in RBS Premier Division: Ayr, Gala, Stirling County and Edinburgh Academicals

Pool Stages -

* 6 pools of 4 teams playing home and away
* 4 points for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 bonus point for a) scoring 4 or more tries and/or b) losing by 7 points or less

Quarter-Finals -

* Top side in each pool progress to knock-out stages, including two best runners-up
* 8 quarter-finalists ranked with teams ranked 1-4 having home advantage

Semi-Finals/Final -

* 4 winning quarter finalists progress to semi-final draw
* Winning semi-finalists progress to final

Sweet! Glad to have your son aboard. Rory is a great talent and I'm super glad he decided on Connacht. Think he'll do well he too. If you look at Frank Murphy/Parks/Nikora all of them are going in the next season or two and there will be chances for him and some of the younger guys to stake a place in the seniors sooner rather than later. Do you know anyone else we've signed for the academy?

connachtexile wrote: I'm assuming by your surname paratro your sons Rory Paratta? Has he signed for us then?


For me. Not only is it gametime and experience but new/young players are learning the same calls, defensive system and doing the same attacking plays as the senior team that makes it that little bit easier when your going into the senior team. That definitely helps.

Your right on all counts. Learning the systems can only help in times of injury and then the younger lads can fall in without to much trouble. And yes your right Rory Parata is my son and yes he has signed with the Academy. He had a choice between Munster and Connacht, but I suppose playing with the under 19's last year and then the guidance of Nigel with the Ireland 19's sure helped him make his decision.

I'm assuming by your surname paratro your sons Rory Paratta? Has he signed for us then?


For me. Not only is it gametime and experience but new/young players are learning the same calls, defensive system and doing the same attacking plays as the senior team that makes it that little bit easier when your going into the senior team. That definitely helps.

sea_point wrote:

phatguerilla wrote: Obviously this competition wasn't a success for us this year but is it something that could be targeted next year? Its only a new competition and obviously isn't regarded very well by the other provinces but personally I wouldn't mind seeing a few more first team players in the eagles squad next year if it gave us a good chance of reaching a semi or the final. its described on the wiki page as a competition for semi-pro clubs, which newcastle for instance clearly are not. But then I wonder would it even be worth it, I don't know if the cup has any sponsorship and it doesn't have a dedicated website, so does it actually cost a province money to play in it?

Anyone have any thoughts on the relative merits of the cup?

It's not only game time, it's game time within the Connacht system and a step up for most from the bread and butter of AIL. For those in the wider group it's also good experience in dealing with the travel and preparation issues that don't occur playing domestic competition.

The pro game is all about good routines leading to good performance, stuff you can get away with at AIL level you cannot at Pro and it's good for keeping the players (younger ones especially) minded of that ...

No problem with the merits of the cup.But I think that Connacht have got it right in terms of whom should be playing in this cup. When my son was considering the merits of signing for Munster or Connacht one of the major factors was game time in the system. we looked at what Munster was doing with their academy kids and game time with the next step. The next step being the step from AIL into the next level. You can see the movement in Connacht with Academy players and the game time in the B&I cup and this can only mean good things for the senior team. And so it came about for my son with 20 minutes against Newport. Now thats not bad for a boy at school and only signed a week before.

phatguerilla wrote: Obviously this competition wasn't a success for us this year but is it something that could be targeted next year? Its only a new competition and obviously isn't regarded very well by the other provinces but personally I wouldn't mind seeing a few more first team players in the eagles squad next year if it gave us a good chance of reaching a semi or the final. its described on the wiki page as a competition for semi-pro clubs, which newcastle for instance clearly are not. But then I wonder would it even be worth it, I don't know if the cup has any sponsorship and it doesn't have a dedicated website, so does it actually cost a province money to play in it?

Anyone have any thoughts on the relative merits of the cup?

It's not only game time, it's game time within the Connacht system and a step up for most from the bread and butter of AIL. For those in the wider group it's also good experience in dealing with the travel and preparation issues that don't occur playing domestic competition.

The pro game is all about good routines leading to good performance, stuff you can get away with at AIL level you cannot at Pro and it's good for keeping the players (younger ones especially) minded of that ...

i guess this is the best place for it, eagles and all that

CONNACHT EAGLES PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by Elverys; Presented by Jimmy Staunton, Chairman, Elverys Sports
Matt Healy

Game time. Simple as that.

Brian Murphy aside though, it hasn't provided us with as many options as I would have hoped at the start of the season, which just goes to show that we still don't have anywhere near the kind of depth required in the squad.

Obviously this competition wasn't a success for us this year but is it something that could be targeted next year? Its only a new competition and obviously isn't regarded very well by the other provinces but personally I wouldn't mind seeing a few more first team players in the eagles squad next year if it gave us a good chance of reaching a semi or the final. its described on the wiki page as a competition for semi-pro clubs, which newcastle for instance clearly are not. But then I wonder would it even be worth it, I don't know if the cup has any sponsorship and it doesn't have a dedicated website, so does it actually cost a province money to play in it?

Anyone have any thoughts on the relative merits of the cup?

CONNACHT EAGLES 25 NEWPORT RFC 27 (HT:22-3)

Connacht scorers:

Tries: Steve Macauley (5 mins); Darragh Leader (10 mins); Mata Fifita (30 mins)

Con: Jack Carty (2)

Pen: Jack Carty (25 mins, 70 mins)

Newport scorers:

Tries : Dan Robinson, Geraint O'Driscoll, Owen Broad

Geraint O'Driscoll 3c, 2p.

i wonder what happened in the second half, winning 22-3 at half time and only scoring 3points in the second is not good. losing a game with 19 point head start is unforgivable.
i guess thats the best match report we'll get

Its a diffucult one but i think its good for the region to have a presence in athlone. While geographically in leinster afaik athlone has always been a connacht town rugby wise. Buccs, marist, garbally and even gallen comunity college ferbane have all made contributions to the acadamy etc in recent years. Now that sligo have a presence in senior rugby again and given that sligo grammer make regular contributions to acadamy perhaps 1 b+i can be played there also.

rossie wrote:

swift4prez wrote:

The Connacht Eagles were pipped 25 - 27 by Newport RFC during today's rearranged B&I Cup at Dubarry Park

rossie must be home soon to give us a report unless he'll be too busy looking at munster

didnt get to game. I was in limerick for the munster match.

rossie i think you went to the other 2 games in athlone. if you were in charge in the connacht branch, for next season would you have the B+I games in athlone or galway?
it makes sense putting it in the city/town with the most people but having it in athlone are we winning over any new supporters who have watch 3rd/4th choice players and will travel over an hour to galway to watch us play in the rabo?

i been to a few eagles friendly matches vs ulster and leinster and there was a big enough crowd for a friendly with 4th 5th and even 6th choice players. if we had the B+I cup in galway it might make few €€€€ for the branch

swift4prez wrote:

The Connacht Eagles were pipped 25 - 27 by Newport RFC during today's rearranged B&I Cup at Dubarry Park

rossie must be home soon to give us a report unless he'll be too busy looking at munster

didnt get to game. I was in limerick for the munster match.

The Connacht Eagles were pipped 25 - 27 by Newport RFC during today's rearranged B&I Cup at Dubarry Park

rossie must be home soon to give us a report unless he'll be too busy looking at munster

Leinster A edge out Munster A in Dooradoyle. JJ Hanrahan missing a late kick to win it for Munster. Dubious prize for Leinster though, an away trip to more than likely Newcastle in the final!!