Yakstorm

Crowd announced as 2,602 for Toronto game.

For me Errea always make their Vees too low on their jerseys, which both push the sponsors logos down and create a jersey which isn't the most flattering, even on very fit Rugby League players. Outside of that their kits are quite smart, but whether it's Wales, London or Keighley, they repeat the same design flaw. Anyway, I'm happy that Wales has at least kept the green and white V in some capacity. They are slowly building a brand for Wales RL jerseys...

I'm happy for West Wales that they are able to achieve their goal of having a team in League One, and as well happy that Wales will retain two professional clubs, however it's a shame that South Wales ran into the financial trouble that they did. Honestly the preferred option would have been for Wales to have three clubs, but this is the best outcome in what could have been a really bad scenario. Shame the WRL are so short on cash, otherwise you would be trying to encourage them to try and launch another team in the region the Scorpions use to occupy. They were able to run a self-sufficient club.

Kingston has hosted the Patriots and a few touring British sides (BARLA I believe), however yes this is the first full International held in Jamaica. Rather sad really considering the sport was first introduced in 2004...

There was no sneering or snickering or anything of the likes intended in my post and just for the purpose of context, I would love for MY team, the London Broncos, to draw crowds like the Wolfpack whilst in the Championship. My post was simply pointing out, that despite the Wolfhounds having a dip in crowds, their 5.2K crowd was still a great crowd for an L1 team. And whilst my post was not talking about SL, just because you brought it up, do you really think the 11 English SL clubs will definitely not consider Toronto based upon their current offering? You have a club which has underwriten broadcasts for every home and away game, plus can arguably fund themselves without SL money? If I was Catalans, I'd be worried as the English clubs will see the opportunity to divide up their Grant amongst themselves, whilst Sky will be keen for the bonus extra free content.

Pretty healthy position to be in when your worst crowd is still arguably 2-3 times larger than the best crowd anyone else has enjoyed in your competition. I'd imagine Toronto's crowds will be back up around the 6-7K for the All Gold's & Hemel.

Perhaps, but if they had played it at Hindmarsh, they would have been lucky to get 10K. From a transport / accessibility perspective, Adelaide Oval is very easy to get to, Hindmarsh, not as much. Considering as well the match was funded by the SA Government, and they are keen to secure an Origin game, they of course would want the venue they just spent millions on upgrading being the one used for the NRL game. Just for a bit of RL crowd history, the largest crowd any NRL / SL team has drawn at Hindmarsh is just 8,547 (6 games played there total). The average is 7,476. Compare this with Adelaide Oval, where Saturday's crowd was the third largest (28,884 is the record) and the average after 24 games is over 13,500.

It's really encouraging seeing regular Rugby League played in Asia. For a while there, we literally only had a couple of teams in Japan, now the JRL has at least 5 clubs, Hong Kong has four and the recent Thailand Rugby League season had 4. The RLXIII Thailand has also been working on getting clubs active in other areas as well, whilst the Philippines held a four team competition in Dec/Jan/Feb and look like they'll have at least six clubs for their second season. Throw in the random activities in India, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar and we are finally making some traction in this market. Whilst each of these nations are almost zero chance of qualifying for RLWC2021, I do sincerely hope that the likes of Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines and Thailand are given the opportunity to take part in the qualifiers.

Myanmar's interest in RL has been all lead by a UK ex-pat who moved to Yangon for work. The ex-pat actually played for the Coastal Cobras in the HK Nines in 2016 and has been in contact with HKRL and RLXIII Thailand, whilst he tries to create some more local interest. As for Pattaya, the RLXIII is looking to host the Kings Cup internationals there later this year and the Pattaya Sharks who played in the old TRL still claim to be active on social, but unfortunately don't know much more than that at this stage.

Whilst most of the focus for RLXIII has been around the Isaan region, the RLXIII was formed out of the old TRL, which was Bangkok based, so it's not completely surprising to see efforts back around the capital. Southerners have played in a few different Nines tournaments previously, either for the TRL or TRLA.(Thai Stars), so good to see them still interested in playing RL. Positive to see some more interest from Laos. With the Buffaloes having a hit out and the Mekong Fireballs announcing their plans for 2018, maybe a 3-4 team Laos RL might be a reality in the next couple of years.

Only saw the end of the live stream but Limouxin looked to be in control, even when Lezignan decided to play some expansive football in the final couple of minutes. Coverage by L'Equipe was quite a good standard. Shame the crowd in the TV arc wasn'tbigger. Audience for the Live Stream on FB was a solid 90K+

Live stream link (game is currently being played)

I'm surprised by all the negativity that exists around the Summer Bash to be honest. Whilst it is no doubt flawed and for some games it looks like no one is there, in the absence of a Championship GF it is arguably the only event the Championship has. If there was no Summer Bash, most likely there would be zero Sky coverage until the Super 8s, nor any weekend where arguably the Championship actually gets an increase in coverage and attention in the media. It would also mean one less event in the RFLs limited catalogue of events for them to try and sell around to tourist boards / regional governments (there are plenty of regions happy to welcome 16K+ travellers). Now whether or not the RFL is maximising this event or if things could be done better are no doubt fair questions (and ones we unfortunately know the answers to), but in a game which struggles for attention and coverage we can't afford to cut back on our limited events unless we have something else to put in its place (ie. Test Matches)

The end of season Test(s) against the Kiwis would still happen, even on the 'break' years for the Kangaroos. The NRL - RLPA CBA has both an obligation to provide a tour / major international tournament free offseason and to provide a minimum of 1x Kangaroos Test per year. Even in 2015 when the Kangaroos only played 1x Test, they wanted to try and organise an end of season match against the Kiwis, but the NZRL had already locked in their tour. In the other rest seasons (2012 & 2007), Kangaroos played end of seasons Tests against the Kiwis.

The inaugural Hong Kong Super League kicks off tonight when the Hong Kong Scottish Reivers take on the Valley Broncos at King's Park in Kowloon. Both teams are part of established multi-sport clubs, HK Scottish and Valley. They will join HKRL foundation club, the Wanchai Warriors, and multi-sport club, Kowloon in the four team competition. Team lists for tonight's games attached.