Drop-kick contest to decide semi-finals
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Your support makes all the difference.It ain't the OK Corral, and it ain't football either, but rugby union has still decided to give the OK to a soccer-style shoot-out to decide the outcome of the Tetley's Bitter Cup semi-finals on Saturday should either tie at the Madejski Stadium in Reading end level on points and tries after extra time.
The ties feature a double- header on the same afternoon between Bristol and Wasps, followed barely an hour later by London Irish and Northampton. Five players from each of the teams will be nominated as kickers and if the scores in either match are level after the standard 80 minutes and the 20 minutes of extra time, then the players will attempt to land drop goals from the 22-metre line. If they are all-square after those five kicks then the tie will move into sudden death.
"It was something that was agreed by the four directors of rugby," Dick Best, who holds the post at London Irish, explained yesterday. "Originally the plan had been to say that the 'home' side - which was us in our tie even though we were playing on a neutral ground - would be the losers in the event of a draw on all counts. We did not like that. The alternatives put to the four of us were the toss of a coin, a penalty shoot-out, or the drop goals. I am very happy with the last idea, as was everyone else."
If the shoot-out is a first for the 28-year-old competition, so is the concept of back-to-back semi-finals on a neutral ground. The Cup holders, Wasps, will be attempting a seventh final appearance, while Bristol last played at Twickenham in 1988 when, like Northampton in 1991, they lost to Harlequins. London Irish were runners-up to Leicester in 1980.
Saturday's stadium capacity will be 24,500 and fewer than 1,000 tickets remained on sale yesterday.
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