EastLondonMike

Always felt the same. If he had done a Farnworth and gone to Australia at a young age i feel he could have become something special. Saw him play at 16/17 and he was immense.

Im pretty sure Harry Smith will start again for England. His role is to organise and direct and i think he did that well enough against the Aussies. Discussion should really be - IMO - Williams or Lewis. I guess theres an argument that Lewis should be on the bench to come on for Williams and offer some variety at various points of the game - but that really would only happen when we are losing and chasing the game - as is the norm. I doubt we'd look to build a strategy that utilises both their attacking talents regardless of the scoreline. I'd assume pretty much the same as last week, with the forced changes through injury.

my biggest critique of Newman (petulance aside) is his constant cutting back on the inside when receiving the ball - very much like John Bateman does - which has some impact in SL, but rarely, if ever, will have the same impact on a Kangaroos defence. I'd much rather him use his obvious skill and attack his opposing centre. Of course I'm setting myself up for him to do exactly that and score, or set up a try - but i'll be more than happy to be proved wrong if he does.

Happy enough to see Newman in for Wardle. Wardle has been arguably the best centre in SL for the last couple of seasons, but think its fair to give Newman a crack. I too would prefer to see Trout in over Walmsley, and give Oledzki a proper crack. Other than that i expect it to be the same as last week. Would be very surprised if Wane drops his captain. Even in a dead rubber.

Maybe its just me. But seems we do it a lot - but never with any other sport shown on a Saturday afternoon - not that i've noticed anyway. And to be honest, their game pulling in 333,000 on TNT is arguably more impressive. Interestingly Jon Wilkin mentioned on the Rivalry reignited podcast that RL is now the 8th most popular sport in the UK currently. Not sure how thats been measured - but i can remember a time when we could legitimately claim to be the 2nd/3rd biggest team sport in the country.

Good to see decent viewing figures. Though why we continue to insist on comparing to the union figures escapes me.

Rivalry Reignited podcast has just live streamed on YouTube, with guests Kevin Brown, Gordon Tallis and Michael Chamas joining Jon Wilkin. Well worth a watch. Probably the best one so far. Honest and entertaining, no rose tinted views from any. if we could replicate this weekly we’d have a RL show of some quality.

I don't mind that Bradford logo actually. Few things i would have done differently - for the sake of scaling and reproduction - but otherwise not bad at all. I started talking to the Bulls (through Robbie Paul - who was marketing manager at the time) about a rebrand some years ago - but it never happened. I've been meaning to dig it out - it's on an old hard drive somewhere. But isn't a million miles from whats been produced here. Main critique from me would be the finer detail - which wont translate well when scaled down. Also could be problems replicating cleanly and clearly as an embroidery. Removing the shield would also improve it.

Article on the main site suggesting the NRL are prepared to offer clubs a financial incentive for control of the games Admin.

I saw something on Instagram - though i'm pretty sure it was from a non official NRL related account - celebrating how tough a RL warm up is. The footage that i saw, which was very short and slowed down, looked pretty bad. Why you would go so hard in a warm up - and why he wasn't properly checked properly is beyond fathomable. Heres hoping he's ok and on the mend. Serious questions on this one.

To be honest I think that was the best we can produce at the moment. We lack the same level of confidence in both our attack and defence that Australia have. And it shows. Australia were again poor by their own high standards, but the ingrained process in how they play always puts them in a position to score and defend well enough under pressure. its incredibly frustrating as the opportunities were there. But we couldn’t execute as the Aussies can. Performance was miles ahead of last week. Let’s hope we can see a similar improvement next week.

Straighten up FFS!

That’s poor, but again, They only need one chance. We need four or five.

Great 1st half from England. Though still think we can better in building pressure and looking for repeat sets. We’ve done good job of finding our front when tackled, and putting Australia on their backs. We absolutely need to score first in the 2nd half, as history shows us Australia will score if given any amount of possession in good ball positions. Though you’d like to think all that extra work will reap benefits for us in the last 15mins. Here’s hoping.

My reference to it being pointless wasn't around actually creating it - more trying to build a narrative that its anything other than DB paying a sum of money into the club - its not a sports brand paying a sum of money to work with Leigh, its their owner. And there really is no history of producing anything - producing a couple of sublimated polyester tee's does not amount to a history of solid production i'm afraid. But good luck to them - if they can save some money and produce some nice gear for Leigh fans - Happy days for you guys. Though paying a 'record' sum of money does feel like any savings that could be made have already been balanced out.