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March 28, 2024, 10:51:36 AM

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Rugby League 2021

Started by dr beat, February 19, 2021, 05:16:27 PM

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Mr Eggs

Jake Connor almost not a dickhead.

Schrodingers Cat


Mr Eggs

Cheers Daryl.

Cannot wait for you to turn up at Warrington and win fuck all.

Old Thrashbarg

In an interesting twist, it seems like Jake Connor will be playing fullback for the Combined Nations team against England on Friday. Clearly the best English fullback in the competition on form, so nice for him to have a direct opportunity to (possibly literally) say "Fuck you" to Wane, though I would rather have him available for Hull given we've only got 18 fit players. With another couple likely being called up for this game as well.

mikeyg27

Just had the current opening paragraph on Shaun Wane's wikipedia page pointed out to me:

QuoteShaun David Wane (born 14 September 1964) is an English rugby league and rugby union coach, and former professional rugby league footballer. He is currently the head coach for the England national rugby league team, and is the former head coach of the Wigan Warriors from 2011 to 2018, where he won 3 Super League Grand Finals. He enjoys talking at Leigh Sports Village about his whole life story about being the world record holder for the person who has ate the most pies in the globe. Wane is currently on a diet programme and had a PT, however it was circulated Shaun said some inappropriate words and actions whilst on his sessions. The Personal Trainer is taking Shaun to court over this in which he will have to face a trial. Wane made a statement regarding this, in which he strongly denied all allegations made about him.

This England vs non-England (except the English players) game is quite fun but I'm not sure what we're learning from it.

Old Thrashbarg

It was an enjoyable game to watch, but a bit embarrassing for England/Wane. Losing against a team of players thrown together a couple of days ago with no real practice time, half of whom are eligible for England.

mikeyg27

'm less worried about this than I was after England lost that 1st Exiles game (remember that?). I thought a lot of the English All-Star players clearly had a point to prove (Leeming in particular must have jumped up a lot). Also, there were quite a few England players that I don't really expect to be near the WC squad.

I was thinking about the 'pick players in position' debate and how when Australia and New Zealand pick non-centres at centre they pick full-backs (pretty sure Australia fielded an entire backline of full-backs at some point) yet when we do it we put in a 2nd-rower, and what that says about our priorities. I'm not against the idea of Tomkins at FB and Connor at Centre.

Gulftastic

Decent bit of biff in the Leeds Salford game. Konrad Hurrel went looking for trouble and found it, getting put on his arse with one punch by Mossop.

Two sendings off and three yellow cards all told.

Good win for my Rhinos, mind.

dr beat

Great win for Widnes away at Bradford, didn't expect that at all.  I was bracing myself for losing by a cricket score.

Old Thrashbarg

Australia and New Zealand pull out of the World Cup. Whilst it's easy to understand their reasons why, it's less easy to understand their timing. No reason they couldn't have made their decision last week before the tournament was confirmed as going ahead.

mikeyg27

What odds that there's an Australia - New Zealand test series in November?

If the other pacific nations follow suit then I don't see how the competition can go ahead. But then Tonga might see this as a golden opportunity to win the cup, so who knows.

The football World Cup being in November / December 2022 really fucks with the ability to just delay by a year too, because if a RLWC takes place and nobody sees it does it really take place at all?

Old Thrashbarg

Yeah, absolutely no way the tournament happens without the other Pacific nations. I imagine the discussions taking place now are along the lines of getting assurances that those nations will still be entering. If they do, they might hopefully be able to field stronger teams with some of the Aus/NZ players with appropriate heritage potentially being available.

I can't imagine there are any particular concerns about player safety from the NRL and it's mostly about disruption to their pre-season. And if that is the case, it's ridiculous that they couldn't just move the season back a couple of weeks to accommodate.

mikeyg27

So, 2022 then. TBH I expected this when John Dutton came out and said it was 50/50 last week.

France seemed they were going to host 2025. Would they want to risk putting in all the effort to organising something that's going to get shafted at a minute's notice if the Aussies can't be bothered?

Didn't think all that much of the restructuring rumours last week either.

dr beat

Maybe the least worst out of bad options.  But yes trying to work around the football WC will be a headache.

On the other hand, maybe not so bad if Qatar gets mired in bad publicity?

yeah_cheers

League is on its arse, isn't it?

I was brought up during the Stones Bitter Championship years, and despite switching seasons, introducing several expansion teams that no longer exist, getting rid of Great Britain/tours, restructuring the league system several times, and changing the rules of the game every year... I'm not sure it's worked out, y'know.

Where do you even begin to fix it?

dr beat

The pandemic has probably been the biggest threat I've known, but the late 70s seemed to be a real low as well.

Other sports have chopped and changed over the years. RL just needs to weather this current storm.  It's a great shame about Toronto in particular. I went over there in 2018 to watch Widnes.  The reports about the ground being packed were absolutely true.

2000 WC was another real low point from which lessons were learnt.  Let's keep fingers crossed for 2022.

RL fans are incredibly passionate and protective about the sport.  We just need to channel it in the right way.

mikeyg27

I'm dogsitting at the moment, and the little bastard suddenly needed a walk with ten minutes of Saints - Catalans left. "No bother, this is over anyway" I thought.

Gulftastic

What a day of drama. Follow that, day 2!

dr beat

Talking about drama, sounds like a game down at Widnes today. 8-all going into the last 5, turnovers aplenty and the usual drop goal fest.  Bradford get a DG over with 2 mins to go, only for Widnes to win it with a penalty on the hooter from over the halfway line.

mikeyg27

Glad that Leeds put Wigan out of their misery. Wigan have just been such a dour, abject team in the latter stages of this season, easily the least entertaining of the playoff sides.

Gulftastic

As much as I enjoyed us nilling Wigan again, that was a dull game. We did what we had to do, I suppose.
Ground out a win against the worst attack in the league.

Gulftastic

To the surprise of no one, it turned out not to be Warrington's year.

Just like the last one, I suppose.

mikeyg27

Not gonna lie, when Warrington somehow conspired to be behind at half-time I had my suspicions. I didn't even think Warrington were that bad but they wasted so much possession. Hull KR were good though and Tony Smith might be the best coach of the Super League era.

Most importantly of all, it guarantees a new team in the Grand Final.

dr beat

Gutted for our yellow and blue friends.

Mr Eggs


monkfromhavana

I know this is Union, not league, but can anyone please tell me how to find out the attendance for today's Wasps game against Bristol? It appears to be a state secret.

Joy Nktonga

According to the front page at https://www.premiershiprugby.com/ under "fixtures & results" the attendance was 8,500. The match report at Bristol Bears says att. was 0! At least they have a match report up; Wasps keeps timing out when I click on it.

dr beat

Edit: incorehent, soz, but looking forward massively to next week at OT.  As much as a marrow.


mikeyg27

As much as I'd love to see Les Cats win next Saturday, history has taught me to always bet on the infrastructure.

dr beat

Thoughts so far? Can't see beyond Saints winning the arm wrestle in the 2nd half.