Training system change from the 1st of august (new season start).

Today, the training increase is very linear. You get around 0.2 of a point a week for 17 to 20 years olds. Around 0.125 for 21 to 25 year olds and even less for older players. This means that you need the same number of weeks to jump from level 3 to level 4 as it does from level 17 to level 18.



It has therefore been decided to make a small change to the speed of training. It will go faster than today between level 0 and 10, and slower after this point, for example, it will take 3 weeks to jump from 0 to 1, while the jump from 17 to 18 will take 9 weeks.

Here are some numbers to be more specific:

Week	Next season	Today	Next season	Today	Next season	Today
W	2	2	5	5	9	9
W+1	2.300	2.200	5.263	5.200	9.213	9.200
W+2	2.596	2.400	5.522	5.400	9.422	9.400
W+3	2.889	2.600	5.778	5.600	9.630	9.600
W+4	3.178	2.800	6.030	5.800	9.834	9.800
W+5	3.463	3.000	6.280	6.000	10.036	10.000
W+6	3.745	3.200	6.527	6.200	10.236	10.200
W+7	4.023	3.400	6.770	6.400	10.433	10.400
W+8	4.298	3.600	7.010	6.600	10.627	10.600
W+9	4.569	3.800	7.248	6.800	10.820	10.800
W+10	4.837	4.000	7.482	7.000	11.009	11.000
W+11	5.101	4.200	7.714	7.200	11.197	11.200
W+12	5.363	4.400	7.942	7.400	11.382	11.400
W+13	5.620	4.600	8.168	7.600	11.565	11.600
W+14	5.875	4.800	8.391	7.800	11.745	11.800
W+15	6.127	5.000	8.611	8.000	11.923	12.000
W+16	6.375	5.200	8.828	8.200	12.099	12.200
W+17	6.621	5.400	9.043	8.400	12.273	12.400
W+18	6.863	5.600	9.255	8.600	12.444	12.600
W+19	7.102	5.800	9.464	8.800	12.614	12.800
W+20	7.338	6.000	9.671	9.000	12.781	13.000
W+21	7.571	6.200	9.875	9.200	12.946	13.200
W+22	7.802	6.400	10.077	9.400	13.110	13.400
W+23	8.029	6.600	10.276	9.600	13.271	13.600
W+24	8.254	6.800	10.472	9.800	13.430	13.800
W+25	8.476	7.000	10.666	10.000	13.587	14.000
W+26	8.695	7.200	10.858	10.200	13.742	14.200
W+27	8.911	7.400	11.047	10.400	13.895	14.400
W+28	9.125	7.600	11.234	10.600	14.047	14.600
W+29	9.336	7.800	11.419	10.800	14.196	14.800
W+30	9.544	8.000	11.601	11.000	14.344	15.000
.....
W+50	13.204	12.000	14.804	15.000	16.936
W+51	13.364	12.200	14.944	15.200	17.050
W+52	13.522	12.400	15.082	15.400	17.162
W+53	13.678	12.600	15.218	15.600	17.272
W+54	13.832	12.800	15.353	15.800	17.381
W+55	13.984	13.000	15.486	16.000	17.489
W+56	14.134	13.200	15.618	16.200	17.595
W+57	14.283	13.400	15.747	16.400	17.700
W+58	14.429	13.600	15.876	16.600	17.804
W+59	14.574	13.800	16.002	16.800	17.906
W+60	14.717	14.000	16.127	17.000	18.008
W+61	14.858	14.200	16.250	17.200
W+62	14.997	14.400	16.372	17.400
W+63	15.135	14.600	16.493	17.600
W+64	15.270	14.800	16.612	17.800
W+65	15.404	15.000	16.729	18.000
W+66	15.537	15.200	16.845
W+67	15.668	15.400	16.959
W+68	15.797	15.600	17.072
W+69	15.924	15.800	17.184
W+70	16.050	16.000	17.294
W+71	16.175	16.200	17.403
W+72	16.298	16.400	17.510
W+73	16.419	16.600	17.616
W+74	16.539	16.800	17.721
W+75	16.657	17.000	17.825
W+76	16.774	17.200	17.927
.....

How to read this table: Let's take a player with level 2 in strength. After 5 weeks of today's training, his strength level will be 3, while with the new training, his strength level will be 3.463
Another example: After 8 weeks training, a player starting with a level 5 will have a level 7 while it would have had only 6.6 with today's training ...

On another side, you'lll need 9 weeks to go from 17 to 18, while it requires only 5 weeks with today's training.


Here is a final graph to get a simple overview of the change to come.

RM - Rugby 7's

Recently one of the most prolific users on the forum came up with an idea that while not exactly new, might make it possible to fulfil some of the wishes many of you have.

To be more specific, here are some of the issues often brought up on the forums:-

firstly, the season is too long, especially when you are not fighting for promotion, or to avoid relegation.
secondly, some users want to spend more time on RM, but there is not enough 'management' to fill the time they have available.
and thirdly, the chance to be the biggest and best club in my country is too remote.

The idea is to have, if you wish (and if you satisfy some conditions that are yet to be decided), a “7s rugby” team as part of your regular XV a side Rugby Union club.

The key features could be  (subject to confirmation) :
-    You register your 7s club in a fictitious league of your choice (regular leagues won’t be obligatory, the same as in real life 7s)
-    These leagues will have groups of 6 teams only, which means a season will be 11 weeks long ( 10 games home and away, plus one week without a game, the off season week, as it is today). Games won’t be played on Saturdays and Sundays, but another day (maybe Monday, Friday or Wednesday? We’ll see about that later).
-    No club can enter a league after the season has started.
-    A group starts only when it’s full. No bots and no half-empty groups.
-    You use the same players you have today. Of course, if you get an injury in a 7s game, you won’t be able to play for any of the teams.
-    There won’t be any ticket income from these games, but a little bit of experience will be given, to balance the injury risk (but as injury risk is very low, the increase to experience will also be very small).
-    A good time to start this new feature could be September. You’ll get more information during the summer, when the things are discussed, decided and under development.


Your comments and feedback would be appreciated.

HOW TO organize a friendly game

I frequently get asked how to organize a friendly game, so here is a little tutorial

First, you need to find an opponent.

If you have one in mind, go to their club page and go directly to step 2.

If, however,you don't have an opponent picked out you can choose one from the list of teams that are available. To do this you must navigate to the 'friendly announcements' page.

1. STEP 1

Here, you'll find some announcements from teams advertising for a friendly game on the left side, and a list of teams currently available for (but not actively seeking) a friendly, randomly chosen on the right side. Click on the link of the team you wish to challenge.

1. STEP 2

If the team you selected has no friendly scheduled and is active, you'll see the following near the middle of the page.

Choose the date and place of the game (home or away, or even both if neither team has any friendly's scheduled) and click.. It's as easy as that!

Now, you have to wait to see if the challenged club declines or accepts your proposal. As soon as your prospective opponent accepts, you'll be able to set your line up, and the game will happen at the scheduled time and place.

*Note that you can cancel your pending invitation by clicking on the red cross on your club main page.

Please, let me know if this tutorial was interesting or not, and if you need another one concerning some problem you may have.

Cheers

Chris

Note about birthdays

I regularly get some questions about the recent introduction of player’s birthday's. It’s true that I haven’t given much information when this was done, that’s why I’m writing this message now (better late than never).
You all know how it worked before, don’t you? All players got their birthday when the last day of the season was reached. This had 2 big effects:
- The transfer market was like a rollercoaster between the end of the season (before players get one year older) and the beginning of the new one (when fresh 17 years old players arrive and when some training slots suddenly become available)
- The new user, getting his team right before the end of the season, saw his players getting older before they even played a single game.. while the another, getting his team right after, was able to play a whole season before his players turn one year older. This was very unfair.

The birthday has been introduced to fix both effects (even if the silly season had a kind of spicy taste and wasn’t really a problem when you were used to it).

Each player has now a birthday and ‘lives’ 133 days (19 weeks of 7 days) before getting older, whenever in the season they are created. This will make the transfer market more balanced during the season, but you’ll have to be extra careful when you buy a player, and watch out for his birthday because he may get older the day after you bought him, even if the season has only started.

Each player created before the introduction got a birthday too. The way it has been calculated could have been different … but whatever. The important thing is that they got one, please don’t worry (and don’t ask about ‘how’ and ‘why’). More than 95% of the existing players get their birthday on the day 133, which means no change for them: They'll keep getting older on the last day of the season.

Did this explanation help?

Chris.

World cup format change

To make upcoming World Cups, as well as national teams (NT) friendlies more exciting, it has been decided that:

- The next World Cup will be split in two: First and Second division World Cup, each containing 16 nations (4 groups of 4 nations each, as previously).

The 8 nations who qualified to the quarter-finals in the previous World Cup are automatically qualified for the next one, and will play against each other in a round robin tournament in 7 pre-determined fixtures to define their seedings in the next World Cup. These 8 teams are Italy, France, New Zealand, Romania, Scotland, Australia, Sweden and England

The remaining 24 nations will have to go through a qualifying tournament, to be played in a 7 round Swiss system. The seedings will be defined using their rankings after the next friendlies (July 21st). The top 8 teams in the qualifying tournament will play the first division World Cup, whereas the remaining 16 nations will play in the second division. The final positions in the qualifying tournament will be used to define the seedings of these 24 nations both in the first and second division World Cups.