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Springer does seem to be in now : Le groupe : Bastien ADER – TO Olivier ARNAUD – Avignon Jason BAITIERI – Dragons William BARTHAU – London Broncos Guillaume BONNET – Lézignan John BOUDEBZA – London Broncos Julian BOUSQUET – Dragons Clément BOYER – TO Windy BUCHE – Lézignan Bastien CANET – TO Damien CARDACE – Lézignan Rémi CASTY – Dragons Vincent DUPORT – Dragons Théo FAGES – St Helens Stan ROBIN – TO Ben GARCIA – Dragons Tony GIGOT – Dragons Maxime HEROLD – Limoux Benjamin JULLIEN – Warrington Kevin LARROYER – Castleford Thibaud MARGALET – Dragons Rémy MARGINET – Sheffield Antoni MARIA – Leigh Hakim MILOUDI – Carcassonne Kuni MINGA – TO Romain NAVARETTE – Wigan Eloi PELISSIER – Leigh Arthur ROMANO – St Estève-XIII Catalan Mickaël ROUCH – Limoux Mickaël SIMON – Dragons Gadwin SPRINGER – Castleford Fouad YAHA – Dragons http://www.ffr13.fr/equipes-de-france/32-bleus-en-stage-de-cohesion/

Contributions for Adam's family can be made here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/culchethcarney2017

O Hortaleza held a round robin nines tournament a couple of years back, with Griffons, Custodians and a Valencian side. It is a tidy ground and a large number of kids were there after playing junior union. Being close to the Lycee Francaise, the area has a good few sides and the Lycee pushes union a far bit. I have to admit that I forget to check the website for games and missed the Origin match. I would imagine that no more games will take place now until the Autumn.

Any sport besides soccer is difficult here. As you have pointed out, fields are hard to come by and any with rugby posts are controlled by union clubs. They will not be able to make much impact until they can get kids playing. Touch is one possibility, but that is controlled by union in Spain. Union has been around for years and has not made a huge impact, but to be fair the Spanish RL people have made pretty good progress considering that they have started from scratch.

The picture quality was not great although I should have noticed the lack of hair, Prendiville having a fair bit less.

Interesting to see Gary Kemble kick the ball back straight from kickoff, and Hull scoring off a scrum won against the head. I remember fans chatting to Clive Sullivan near the end, and he looked knackered. There was a decent piece in The Guardian a few years back on the final and reply: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/that-1980s-sports-blog/2014/aug/21/rugby-league-challenge-cup-final-hull-widnes-1982

Pity about that as I would have gone. I looked at their Facebook page, and by chance saw this friendly fixture. It is not too bad to get to on the train. They have played in Perales del Rio before, and that is difficult without a car; nice view of the mountains though. Griffons seem to go under, which was a pity, as they had potential.

I've just seen that they are planning their own state of origin in May: https://www.facebook.com/esprl/photos/a.450461935061392.1073741828.440968562677396/1224678760973035/?type=3&theater

Madrid Custodians are playing a French select side, Ligue Occitanie, this Saturday at 18.00 18th March in Getafe, near Madrid. I will miss it, as I have just found out about it, but the ground is quite close to Las Margaritas-Universidad train line. https://www.facebook.com/custodiansr13/photos/a.1524714971100544.1073741828.1524686484436726/1839333836305321/?type=3&theater Map: http://www.rugbygetafe.com/campos-de-juego-y-entrenamiento/ Good to see that they are encouraging other teams to start up, giving help with training and equipment.

Oh, I'm afraid it was!

Some things don't change. I remember standing on the Stretford End for the GB-Aus game in 1986, with the most electric and incredible atmosphere I had ever experienced, when someone at my side said without a hint of irony: 'We should have played this at Odsal.'

6668 apparently, including season ticket holders who get in for the Anglo Welsh cup games.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%9317_Anglo-Welsh_Cup

A high profile piece in The Guardian, which we don't often get: Donald McRae Sam Burgess: ‘The bottom line is that my heart didn’t lie in union’ https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/nov/07/sam-burgess-rugby-union-league-england-world-cup

If I remember correctly the two Hull clubs were way ahead of the pack averaging 13000 for FC and 9000 for Rovers. No other team averaged over 6000 with Leigh averaging about 5800. I might be wrong, but the second division sides had okay crowds as clubs like Swinton, Keighley, Oldham and York had much better attendances than now. The 80-81 season had Fulham, York, Wigan and a well supported Whitehaven promoted with healthy attendances.

The BBC removed Rugby League from the header of the international version of their website on the same day as the RLWC final between Australia and NZ in 2013. I complained and received a reply a few weeks later: The reason Rugby League has been moved to the second level of navigation outside the UK is as a result of analysing almost two years' worth of audience data. For example, our Rugby League page is not in the top 10 most visited BBC Sport pages outside the UK. And in a global survey in which our audience were asked which sports they most liked to read about on theBBC Sport website, Rugby League was 13th. Rugby League is also the sport most removed by users in our customised mobile app navigation. That same research tells us that Cycling is the sport our international audience are most interested in after Football, Cricket, Tennis, Formula 1, Rugby Union, Golf and Athletics. For that reason, Cycling has been added to the top navigation.