I reckon the fixtures should be announced on Mon 10th July (as per usual) but with the potential addition of the two SA teams it may delay things

Does anyone know when they will be announcing the fixtures for the pro 12? I presume it should be soon enough as The English premiership has announced theirs.

pinky wrote: They're confirmed out of Super Rugby and the way they are talking the deal is more or less done with the Pro12.
www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/SuperRugby/confi...super-rugby-20170707

Meanwhile Munster have signed Chris Cloete from the Kings - not a great start to their Pro14 future if their players are getting snapped up ...
munsterrugby.ie/2017/07/07/new-additions-confirmed/

Apparently Raymond Rhule and Seargal Peterson are on their way out of the Cheetahs too. I saw somewhere that their entry in the Pro12 would be conditional on the SARU moving internationals to the two teams, not sure how realistic that is though.

pinky wrote: Meanwhile Munster have signed Chris Cloete from the Kings - not a great start to their Pro14 future if their players are getting snapped up ...
munsterrugby.ie/2017/07/07/new-additions-confirmed/

In fairness this was probably agreed months ago, maybe as far back as after the November internationals.

They're confirmed out of Super Rugby and the way they are talking the deal is more or less done with the Pro12.
www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/SuperRugby/confi...super-rugby-20170707

Meanwhile Munster have signed Chris Cloete from the Kings - not a great start to their Pro14 future if their players are getting snapped up ...
munsterrugby.ie/2017/07/07/new-additions-confirmed/

Diverging slightly -
Marnitz couldn't be waiting to see if he would get a couple of free trips home in the season, could he?

There would be no immediate need for anyone to make room. 18 teams works just as well (or badly) as 14. In fact I think it would work out better. 3 x 6 teams with teams from the same country kept together.
What would concern me is that the whole thing is indicative of uncertainty all across the pro game that will inevitably mean teams go to the wall. It could be the Force tomorrow but who knows who's next.

pinky wrote: I would have thought that if the two South African teams join, and that works out well, the next move would be to get the other SA teams on board. ..

That is my biggest fear with this whole theory. Who makes room?

Moy wrote: I have to admit that I have NO IDEA how reputable a source this is.

It's not a source at all. The source is The Scotsman - it's linked in the first line of the article
www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby-union/guinn...join-pro12-1-4491808

I would have thought that if the two South African teams join, and that works out well, the next move would be to get the other SA teams on board. I suppose there's so much uncertainty around Super Rugby, etc. that they're talking to anyone who's interested. The whole rugby landscape could change fairly drastically over the next few seasons. There seems to be a whole lot of money sloshing about but not a whole lot in the way of sustainable business models ...

RogueXV wrote: Just don't think the TV money is there for this

They're looking for local TV money not national. DC is ranked in the top 10 US TV markets by all bodies/companies who measure this stuff, generally just ahead of Houston (about 167% the size of the Irish tv market by homes and more than twice the value). Plus it's East coast and has a mild winter (averages less than 10 days' snow annually) so I can see why they'd look into it. An uneven number of teams is no problem if you play 3 conferences of 5 (play the other 4 teams in your conference home and away and the others either home or away gives 18 games). This might look like it's years off but I expect it'll happen quite fast; 12 months ago the idea Connacht would be playing Bloemfentein and Port Elizabeth teams in a few weeks would have seemed laughable.

Just don't think the TV money is there for this and moving to an odd number of teams creates a minor headache. Perhaps the Canadian couldn't come close to getting the numbers to workout, but two North American teams make more sense. Personally would give the SA addition 2-3 years before adding more variables.

Unless I'm mistaken the same site was convinced a team from Houston and somewhere else(Canada maybe?) Were joining the pro12 not too long ago, I'd take it with a grain of salt.

just when you thought things got confusing enough...one team in Washington DC would really foul up any divisions/tiers/pools/conferences.

www.americasrugbynews.com/2017/07/05/was...uinness-pro-12-2018/


I have to admit that I have NO IDEA how reputable a source this is.

Podge57 wrote: Just wondering is the free to air actually "live coverage" or highlights as TG4 had previously.

Live, but by the sounds of it, they've just reserved the right to sell a few games free-to-air, but presumably won't part with them unless the price is right.

Just wondering is the free to air actually "live coverage" or highlights as TG4 had previously.

Not entirely on-topic but as salmson confidently predicted above, BT are the sole EPCR pay broadcaster from 2018 on.
www.epcrugby.com/news/36051.php#.WVu2U-lJlaQ
So they either won a ferocious bidding war with Sky and the EPCR get loadsa cash or (much more likely) Sky didn't bother and BT picked it up on the cheap.
When does the Pro12's deal on guaranteed share of the revenue run out?
The positive here is the talk of free to air coverage. That will presumably be on Channel 5 in the UK (they have some Premiership games from next season) so that opens up the possibility of TG4 picking up a few games.