Rugby League (40)2020

[Gulftastic]

Everytime I hear someone say Niall Evalds, I have to stop my self whistling the Van De Valk theme tune.

[Mr Eggs]

Greg Inglis signs for Warrington for whatever of the 2021 season might take place. Seems a strange move, with it not making sense to me for either party.

Warrington likely not the best place for an Australian bipolar recovering alcoholic.  With BMM fucking off, I think Simon Moran just goes into his NFL wankbank

Be Thurston next year.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Fast-paced return for the NRL. The new change - restarting the tackle count instead of giving a penalty for ruck infringements that don't stop the play, e.g. holding down or markers not being square - seemed to work quite well. Felt just as much of a punishment to the offending team and allowed the game to flow. Will be interesting to see what happens in a situation where an applicable offence would've resulted in a penalty that the team in possession would like to kick at goal. Especially at the end of a game if the two points would be crucial.

[Gulftastic]

It's back today. Thank dog.

I've got some beers in for my first drink in 4 months. Can't wait.

[Mr Eggs]

Sacked off the shite streams of Saints beating Le Cats. Gone onto 5 live to see if Jon Wilkin is gonna talk bout if he's on the financial bones of his arse.

[Gulftastic]

I'm gonna need a bigger beer. Piss poor from Leeds. Relieved to be only 8 behind.

[Mr Eggs]

I didn't think Robert Lui could get fatter. Amazing.

[Gulftastic]

How the fuck? Astonishing.

[Mr Eggs]

Fuck my hat. Ridiculous game.

But you'll never win anything with a head coach who looks like a photofit of a rapist.

[Old Thrashbarg]

I should probably know better than to assume a game is done with one team 20 points up with 20 minutes remaining.

[Schrodingers Cat]

That was an even worse collapse that Huddersfield last week. At least they turned up for more than 10 minutes. And yet another game in which we failed to score a try in a full half of rugby. It feels such a long time ago we were the most entertaining side in SL.

We are clearly a team in transition this year (and probably next) but still a worrying performance in many ways. To look so poor missing just a couple of players doesn't bode well for when the fixtures start to pile up later in the year.

[BlodwynPig]

That was an even worse collapse that Huddersfield last week. At least they turned up for more than 10 minutes. And yet another game in which we failed to score a try in a full half of rugby. It feels such a long time ago we were the most entertaining side in SL.

We are clearly a team in transition this year (and probably next) but still a worrying performance in many ways. To look so poor missing just a couple of players doesn't bode well for when the fixtures start to pile up later in the year.

Allez

[Gulftastic]

I know he was up against a world class opponent but it was a shame that Shenton got so badly shown up. I remember his first game at Headingley when he was a skinny young lad. We laughed when we saw him and Keith Senior beat him up all night but Shenton never gave up. I've had respect for him from then. Never the paciest but honest and a great defender. This really is the twilight of his playing career.

[Old Thrashbarg]

I didn't see much of the game after the first 30 minutes, so the final score was a bit of a surprise! Cas looked to be well on top, with Catalans struggling with the pace. And Shenton's first try was an unbelievable piece of skill.

[Gulftastic]

I don't think we'll be coming back this week.

We're just out matched.

[Schrodingers Cat]

6 Hull FC players test positive apparently.

Can't help but think this might have some implications for the future...

We were supposed to be playing them this weekend, not sure that will go ahead now. Seen some people suggesting the season will be called off, but that seems a bit of an overreaction to me. Either way, it,l be an interesting first test case.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Possibly not the right way to be looking at things, and very unlikely in any case, but maybe that was a reason for our abject performance on Sunday.

Positives tests are going to happen so there had to be some plan in place to rework the schedule. And in this case, we've already played more games than anyone else, so a week off was going to be necessary anyway..

[Schrodingers Cat]

Positives tests are going to happen so there had to be some plan in place to rework the schedule. And in this case, we've already played more games than anyone else, so a week off was going to be necessary anyway..

Well, the people I've seen thinking the season is about to be voided are Rugby League fans after all. People for whom "the sky is falling" is not so much a doomsday proclamation, as it is default setting. If nothing else, Cas and Hull are due to play each other the following weekend for the cup game. That could easily turn into a double fixture (cup and league), if Hull can't field a team this weekend, but can the next.

[BlodwynPig]

Is rugby league really more important than controlling a pandemic?

[dr beat]

A lot of clubs including my own are in a serious fix over this.  Only SL is going ahead, the other leagues have cancelled this year.  Lots of worries inside and outside SL about lack of income streams, players and staff are worrying, they can't train properly in many cases (we aren't talking about Premier League type facilities or wages here). I know a number of clubs went on furlough with good reason, dunno what will happen once that ends.  Lots of worries whether many clubs have a future or the sport as a whole.  It wouldn't surprise me if there is a serious crowd-funding effort needed to help across the board.  This isn't just about a mere sport either. Many clubs such as my own do lots of non-sporting work with various parts of their communities.

Sure no one wants a pandemic, but I take umbrage when I see this framed as a simple binary either/or thing.  People's livelihoods are at stake in all sorts of ways in economically hard-hit places.  As I say we aren't talking about minted Premier League football teams in wealthy areas.

[BlodwynPig]

A lot of clubs including my own are in a serious fix over this.  Only SL is going ahead, the other leagues have cancelled this year.  Lots of worries inside and outside SL about lack of income streams, players and staff are worrying, they can't train properly in many cases (we aren't talking about Premier League type facilities or wages here). I know a number of clubs went on furlough with good reason, dunno what will happen once that ends.  Lots of worries whether many clubs have a future or the sport as a whole.  It wouldn't surprise me if there is a serious crowd-funding effort needed to help across the board.  This isn't just about a mere sport either. Many clubs such as my own do lots of non-sporting work with various parts of their communities.

Sure no one wants a pandemic, but I take umbrage when I see this framed as a simple binary either/or thing.  People's livelihoods are at stake in all sorts of ways in economically hard-hit places.  As I say we aren't talking about minted Premier League football teams in wealthy areas.

Livelihoods could be protected in such circumstances. It is the failings and lack of imagination of the government that will put these people in financial distress, not the pandemic. So don't take umbrage. I don't want people to die and I don't want them to be out of cash. State intervention in mid-term is necessary.

[dr beat]

That just sounds like a generic Remain Indoors thread.  If you haven't got anything in particular to say about RL or any specific interest in the sport, perhaps you could just avoid risking taking this thread off-topic, and leave it to us who do care about the sport to have our focused discussions while we still can? Ta.

We've got a nice little beach community here and I aim to keep it that way.

[BlodwynPig]

Well that just sounds like a generic Remain Indoors thread.  If you haven't got anything to say about RL or any specific interest in the sport, perhaps you could just avoid risking taking this thread off-topic, and leave it to us who do care about the sport to have our focused discussions while we still can? Ta.

We've got a nice little beach community here and I aim to keep it that way.

Eh? we were talking about the impact of the pandemic on RL. Sorry to rain on your parade, friend. Beach community sounds like "closed shop" to me. Dangerous stuff.

[dr beat]

I have been talking about the effect of the pandemic on RL.  We can also talk about other aspects of the game. 

[BlodwynPig]

I have been talking about the effect of the pandemic on RL.  We can also talk about other aspects of the game.

Sorry to raise your blood pressure, not my intent.

[Schrodingers Cat]

Livelihoods could be protected in such circumstances.

Could, but won't. And we need to look in terms of what's real. In an ideal world, the government would step in to protect livelihoods and ensure the sport will continue, when safe. But they won't. There has been a £16m loan to spread through the whole game. As dr beat has said, many teams are really worried about their futures, and therefore the employees of those clubs are worried about theirs. I've seen some speculation that not only all clubs outside SL would go part time, but also any team which finishes in the bottom 4 of SL as well. RL was worse affected than many  other sports for many reasons: close contact between players, summer sport (so were only just entering the season when lockdown came into effect), and many (in fact, pretty much all) clubs are in working class areas, without large cash reserves. Often being a central focus of their community (a fact I think often overlooked by some RL fans incidentally). The sport has to find a way to persevere or will cease to exist.

And, you have to remember, we're talking about a sport which fans can get pretty defensive about. For nearly 100 years after it came into existence another sport was actively trying to stop it existing. It has faced establishment opposition it's whole life. To have come through all that, to then be brought down by a virus is almost unthinkable. And it won't get enough support to allow it to down tools for any length of time, so I don't really see any alternative.

[dr beat]

To add to this slightly, my team Widnes were saved in extremely adverse circumstances last year by a consortium of local business-people with a bit of financial help from fan groups (we're not a wealthy bunch though).  I fear many of that consortium could now be facing financial challenges to their own immediate businesses through no fault of their own, which complicates matters further.  I wouldn't be surprised if other teams are in a similar position.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Yep, suggesting solutions like "the government should fund it" or "a revolution" are about as useful as saying "God should make the virus go away". None of them are going to happen, so for the sport to survive, and by extension the well-being of a lot of the communities in surrounding areas, it has to work within the framework available. They've got to adapt to minimise the risks and have a way to handle the inevitable positive tests over the next however many years.

In this case, it sounds as though a Hull player was at the hospital with his newborn, started feeling symptomatic, went to the club physio and was sent home after examination to isolate. But the physio remained with the team and probably infected the others.

If that is what happened, it's incredibly stupid of the player concerned to go to see the club physio, stupid of the physio to do anything other than send him home immediately given the presentation, and then the physio remaining with the team after being in close proximity to someone symptomatic is the stupidest action of the lot.

[BlodwynPig]

Yep, suggesting solutions like "the government should fund it" or "a revolution" are about as useful as saying "God should make the virus go away". None of them are going to happen, so for the sport to survive, and by extension the well-being of a lot of the communities in surrounding areas, it has to work within the framework available. They've got to adapt to minimise the risks and have a way to handle the inevitable positive tests over the next however many years.

With an attitude like that...

Of course it could happen, but many of these people failed to vote in a government that would have made it happen.

Anyway, back to RL. Looking forward to a dribble of a season.

[dr beat]

Players want to train, they want to play and feel part of a team.  Thats what I meant by livelihoods.  No amount of money thrown at them by whichever government will ameliorate that if they can't.  If they can't play in the long run what do they do? Play something else...? Then clubs die and communities lose even more.  Again, livelihoods.

And please don't sneer at fans and people here who are glad we have something to talk about after a long period of inactivity on this thread.  These RL threads have always been positive, non-party political and in the main non-confrontational (aside from a few digs about RU which I'm personally not keen on).  We all support different teams but we've always got on.