OMEGA

20,000 went across the Pennines to Old Trafford at a weeks notice, 35,000 turned out on the streets of Wakefield to welcome the team back on an open top bus. With lots of notice and time to plan it, I’m sure there will be a sizeable number of Wakefield Trinity fans who will travel 8 miles to Elland Road to see Wakefield Trinity take on Sydney Roosters for the chance to be crowned World Club Champions. Then there’s the fans of other clubs and the casual sports fans, so I think there will be around 30,000 at the game (just my prediction)

The plans can be amended to some degree which is what Matt Ellis has already alluded to doing. He wants the new North Stand to wrap around the corners to meet the East Stand on one side and the proposed West Stand on the other

That’s very sad news and I’m sorry for your loss RIP

No other Refs are worthy

Great effort from Fiji, they undid themselves a little bit with that 7 tackle kick, 2 interceptions attempts late in the tackle count around the half way line. When you’re in an energy battle you really can’t gift the opposition extra sets and make your team mates do back to back defensive efforts. On balance I thought the disallowed try decision was OK but close to a 50/50 decision as Fifita moved forward into the line runner and instigated the contact himself. There was another one as well where Blake almost made the try line but they called it for crossing however both line runners had gone through the line and didn’t obstruct a defender at all. At that point Australia were shot and it looked odds on Fiji would score. A few other inconsistencies that all went in one direction, stuff like walking off the mark and being told to go back, killing momentum while one side got away with the same thing all night. I know a couple of Aussies were rested but they’ve always prided themselves on having world class depth so I’m not having that excuse. If I were an Aussie coach, I’d be very alarmed at how easily Fiji rolled Australia downfield set after set until the last quarter of the game where only a poor in goal kick and a couple of poor decisions to intercept the ball forced Fiji into an unsustainable state of fatigue. On a side note: Fiji have lost a game, New Zealand have lost a game yet both still have their destiny in their own hands while England have lost a game and are relying on other results going their way, it’s farcicle!

The first 22 minutes and the last 10 could really hurt us and we might regret getting bogged down in a turgid arm wrestle during those periods

I still think the Jillaroos would win, they’d have too good a defensive structure and would limit th damage from the big girls up front and gas them out to the point where they’d be a defensive liability. I’ll concede that they’d be much better at line outs though

Which is why we can only compare the areas of commonality everything else bears no relevance

They are but where the games share commonality the Jillaroos are way out in front

I mean Upton looks a great talent but there are about 5 defenders there and not one of them sticks in the tackle. Also there are England players turning their backs and walking away as the Aussie try scorer runs it in behind the posts, absolutely terrible because that’s just about poor attitude and lack of desire

This Jillaroos team would beat any Women’s team in Legue or Union but England are levels below them and from what I’ve seen so far they’re also lacking structure and fundamentals which reflects poorly on their coaches

Who coaches this England Women’s team? They are all over the place

Also PNG have nothing but pride and a victory over Mother England to play for, they may even give a few of the squad players a game

I’ll say it again then, we need to beat PNG by a minimum of 58 points but every point after that reduces the margin by which Tonga need to beat Samoa, if they beat them at all. For example, If we beat PNG by 66 points then Tonga need to win by 8 to draw us level with Samoa or 9 to put Samoa out and us through

Just a quick bit of praise for Walters and Thompson who have played big minutes with Walters in particular having an impact