Cumbrian Fanatic

I wish the BBC would show action like this from domestic RL as an opener to Challenge Cup games and The Superleague Show rather than those stupid cartoons

Whilst Glasgow is a great city Hampden Park is an awful place to watch football, every Scot I know and I know a lot, hates it. Neither Celtic Park or Ibrox are in good locations for the event which is a bit of a pity as the city itself would be a great host

Great, getting the VR back to what it should be a quick help to the on field referee. What we need to cap it off is for the commentators to avoid analysing every decision frame by frame afterwards then banging on about it if a mistake is perceived.

Very good article, straight from the heart

I suppose this could have legs, 3 double headers in 3 different cities covers a lot of ground, this would allow 1 in the North 1 in the South and 1 in Toronto/Dublin/New York to test the market(s). All of them could be on a Saturday too, taking away the argument about whether the games should be held on a bank holiday weekend

You must have a later edition than me, in the copy I've got only the Toronto v Toulouse and the Saints v Widnes games are mentioned

One of, if not the all time greatest No 9 On one level I'm sorry to see him finish but on another I'm glad to see him gone

Good news for PNG and for England Knights. While calling it a test series is probably wrong, it may just be bad wording in the original tweet or whatever the announcement was and maybe we should wait for the official announcement. Either way it's a step in the right direction and if we want to compare ourselves to other sports England RU were in Argentina when most of the first choice player were with the British Lions in NZ. As another poster has already said, this doesn't matter too much to PNG as they will be treating it as a test match series

This tends to be my view. Even at National Conference level the line speed is so quick that a 5m defensive line would mean that the attack would be under so much pressure it would probably go backwards. I watched a game last Fri between Egremont A and Wath Brow A where even at that level the line speed was pretty impressive until late in the game. At its most extreme we might even end up with that turgid dross in RU where a forward picks it up or receives a pass and immediately ends up on the ground again, then repeat 30+ times

When are the games to be played?

A Leeds Rhinos academy product who would be most likely out of the game by now if there had been no League 1 for him to drop down into and re-establish himself

One of the games great characters, I loved watching him play. RIP Roy

So they are, I stand corrected so thanks for pointing it out. In my (poor) defence, I looked at the fixture a while ago and noticed how many times all 3 clubs are away or at home at the same time including the 3rd team being at home during a derby, I thought (without checking) that this was one of those times. Hopefully your prediction will be nearer the mark than mine

Could go either way this one. Egremont are playing better this season than for the last few while The Brow are starting to get bodies back and hit some form. Think they will be looking at 1000+ would love to see 1500 but that may be a little out of reach especially with Kells at home. To add extra spice to the occasion the A teams meet on Friday night at Egremont with both teams unbeaten so far this season

I don't think it even hit the ground there

Wonder where she gets that from

Great news for International Rugby League in general and Tonga in particular if true but I am very worried about the welfare of the Australian players https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/australia-set-to-play-tonga-in-qatar-this-year/

A lot of good ideas there, I especially like the one I've highlighted - me and a mate had a great weekend in 2013 doing all 4 quarter finals which was made possible by their location. I'd really be up for doing a Fri/Sat/Sun game during the group and Q/F stages

The RFL should be asking the RLPA if they have consulted with the players who are likely to be playing in this test as they are there to represent the players and every single report of the players opinions I have seen is that they want to play in this test. If the RLPA has not consulted, which seems to be the case, then the RFL should inform the RLPA they will respond to any letter when the affected players have been consulted and their views taken into account.

What's the saying? "When someone shows you who they are, believe them" Pitiful attempt to row back from his comments, Alain Doucet has shown who he is and I believe him

I have no idea what the TV figures are but would be interested to know. I hope they are large and growing for all the teams in the competition. Having watched Egremont, Kells and Wath Brow regularly in the NCL I would estimate a 'normal' crowd to be 200-300 for a home match, and with all 3 teams being within 5 miles of each other, usually more than double that for the derby games when neutrals are taken into account - I've been told by people taking the money that there have been in excess of 1000 at Egremont V Wath Brow games. Of course the above figure are not helped by the NCL regularly having all 3 teams at home (or away) on the same weekend this year, or having the 3rd team at home when there's a derby on, as this prevents people like me going to another game when their preferred team are playing away

Not sure if I am reading you correctly, are you asking that if there had been no television cameras would the crowd be 100 or so? The crowd was typical of what you would get at any game between any of Egremont, Kells or Wath Brow, if anything it was probably slightly down on what I expected to see there.

He's been a very good player for a few seasons now Walker-Taylor, I don't think I have ever seen him have a bad game

I would wager that both sets of wingers will receive more passes than they did yesterday

Should be a great turn out today, looking forward to it. Nice to see it get played on a day when the 3rd Cumbrian team doesn't have a home game also