Conference League

[bags]

Was wondering if anyone knew what was happening with the conference legue this year?

I play for a q3 team and it's not something that seems to have worked... What do people think?

Our fixtures have been issued and there's no sign of any conference fixtures...yet!

[rocky]

Quite a few Q3 and Q4 clubs were not happy with the conference league (and some were refusing to fulfil fixtures on a pretty frequent basis) so the Clubs Committee decided to change things. The Q1 and Q2 leagues worked well and will stay. However, they wanted to move the other leagues into Junior 1 and 2. This would have meant that the senior 2s would not have had live scrummaging and they were unhappy with that. Therefore, the bottom eight senior second 15s will have a league of their own for this season

[cjp]

Those changes make sense, who are the senior teams involved in the conference league then?

[bags]

Thanks for info - to be fair that seems to make a bit more sense - are the scrumaging rules that different to senior rugby in the junior league?

do they not have same problem in the junior cup - do senior teams not play in that?

[Aird]

Junior cup involves senior 2xv's and Qualfying 1 & 2 teams, junior League is next level down.

[LadyP]

Quite a few Q3 and Q4 clubs were not happy with the conference league (and some were refusing to fulfil fixtures on a pretty frequent basis) so the Clubs Committee decided to change things. The Q1 and Q2 leagues worked well and will stay. However, they wanted to move the other leagues into Junior 1 and 2. This would have meant that the senior 2s would not have had live scrummaging and they were unhappy with that. Therefore, the bottom eight senior second 15s will have a league of their own for this season

So next season 2013-14 they will all be back to a 2nd XV league, I just can't see how this league prepares players to move up to the 1st, my take is that the clubs (Snr) who forced this upon the Qualifying clubs now want out of it.

[rocky]

Au contraire, the senior clubs were pretty happy with it and fulfilled all their fixtures - it was the Qualy clubs who scratched. You have to be fairly sympathetic to some of them because they were getting beaten quite heavily and were sustaining injuries. The thought was that the top clubs in the Junior League were probably better that the bottom clubs in Q3 and Q4. The problem is that there is no "live" scrummaging in Junior league - you're only allowed to move the scrum 1.5 metres, which is poor preparation for props who may be playing in the AIL the next weekend.
The Conference in Q1 has Armagh and Ballymena 2s. I think, and in Q2 they have Hinch and Banbridge, i.e., the top four seconds sides from last season. The rest of the seconds sides will play in their own league this coming season, which is seen as the best option for now.

[Kofi Annan]

Au contraire, the senior clubs were pretty happy with it and fulfilled all their fixtures

Not factually correct Rocky, I believe Quins several (one against the might of Newry) and Ards failed to fulfil fixtures as well,

rest of the seconds sides will play in their own league this coming season, which is seen as the best option for now.

agree with the good lady that next year will see a return of a 2ndXV league, I believe that last year was a better year for Conference league as Malone for once completed every 2ndXV game as compared to 2010-11

[rocky]

Not factually correct, Kofi. The only Conference matches Malone did not play were those where the Q3 sides cancelled (sometimes without even bothering to let the Malone 2s manager know beforehand. Can't speak for Quins and Ards and you may be right there but I think it is still true that the great majority of cancelled matches were caused by the Q3 and Q4 sides. As I said, there was a good deal of sympathy towards many(but not all) of them.

[Kofi Annan]

[quote="rocky"]Not factually correct, Kofi. The only Conference matches Malone did not play were those where the Q3 sides cancelled (sometimes without even bothering to let the Malone 2s manager know beforehand. Can't speak for Quins and Ards and you may be right there but I think it is still true that the great majority of cancelled matches were caused by the Q3 and Q4 sides. As I said, there was a good deal of sympathy towards many(but not all) of them.[/]

Sorry I meant the last season of 2xv league Malane failed to fulfil fixtures ie 09-10 season so the conference league was , I believe pushed very hard by them despite the majority of Q clubs voting against it, so if your a Malone man Rocky that's why your an big fan of it.

[rocky]

Yes, that' is correct, although Malone were by no means the only side to default. There were some specific problems that season, with a disastrous raft of injuries, especially to the front row players. You will also have noticed that Malone 2nds have fulfilled each and every fixture in the last two seasons.
Where you are still incorrect is in suggesting that Malone was any more active in pushing the Conference league than any other senior club. I can assure you that the others were every bit as keen on it as was Malone. The reason for this was the huge spread in quality of the various 2nds sides over several seasons and the Conference was an attempt to get appropriate quality opposition for the 2nds sides. This was largely successful for the top two leagues but not as good in the lower two, as I said. That's why it has changed again this season coming. Don't know where you got that idea about Malone but I assure you it was not correct.