Chris22

Widnes are 26-0 against Coventry after 15 minutes. This could end up at 100!

Hull KR have now released a statement: http://www.hullkr.co.uk/hull-kingston-rovers-statement-on-thomas-minns/

https://www.featherstonerovers.co.uk/news/next-thursday-fans-forum-JpYzE Begin your speculating! I wonder if this will actually be something major, or something underwhelming as with the majority of major announcements

Selfish amateurs 17 - 16 Angels of the north Who'd have tipped that one!

I don't know the agreement between Bradford and Proper Sport, but their statement provides an indication: Therefore, by Bradford's own admission, the home club has to provide permission to stream the match. Workington are therefore within their rights to decline permission. Some may disagree with the decision, but it is Workington's prerogative to say no. The statement continues: Although the statement is worded terribly, and doesn't recognise that short-sighted is not one word, they are entitled to express their disappointment. The statement should have been left at this point. But Chalmers, clearly with steam coming from his ears, as he typed furiously at his computer keyboard before prematurely clicking "publish", in all his foolishness decided to continue: I'll try not to labour the point about the butchering of the English language...But Bradford earlier admitted that the decision to broadcast is Workington's. They clearly will not be privy to the full reasons for the decision, yet decry Workington. Chalmers also seems not to understand the concept of irony. For a chairman of the Bradford Bulls to describe a decision and or management of another club as "amateur and completely selfish" is laughable. I did actually laugh out loud at this part of the statement. And he also seems to think he can speak on behalf of other rugby league fans. And from what I've seen, nobody aside from him has expressed this opinion. Whilst I can accept disappointment at the decision, to attempt to undermine a club's future or ambitions as a consequence is unacceptable. Again, Chalmers has transferred his opinion, not only to all rugby league fans, but this time to all sports fans. Somehow I very much doubt that cricket, ice hockey, tennis fans etc are aware of this, nor care for that matter. To give Chalmers credit, he does sign off the statement in his own name, leaving fans in little doubt that it is he who is the boorish oaf leading an allegedly professional club, rather than signing the statement off as being from "Bradford Bulls". However, for Bradford to top this off with misleading, childish Twitter polls as a pathetic means of points-scoring does little to enhance their already tarnished reputation. By comparison, Workington's statement is proportionate and logical. The interesting points I have taken from this include: For Bradford to encourage abuse to be aimed at a community club, reliant on the goodwill of volunteers and local people is an outrage. Such intimidatory tactics are also unacceptable, and must surely be against RFL rules. If I was in charge of Workington Town I would not allow Chalmers to enter the stadium tomorrow until a written apology is published on the Bradford website. And if I was in charge of another League 1 club, I would be tempted also not to allow Bradford to stream their away match, in solidarity with Workington. League 1 clubs rely on a lot of goodwill and Workington could potentially be damaged by such recklessness. This surprises me considering the goodwill the entire sport showed Bradford, particularly bucket collections by clubs (including League 1 clubs) to keep the club afloat. In summary, Bradford's conduct is this matter has been childish, unprofessional and damaging to their reputation, good name and incredibly loyal supporters.

I haven't seen the game so can only provide a limited comment, but if you are winning by 19 points within around 30 minutes remaining, it's hard to blame the referee if you lose. Positively for Catalans, a few weeks ago they would have been incapable of even building such a lead, so seem to be showing some signs of improvement.

The game at St Helens drew the 3rd largest crowd in the Group Stages for a match that did not involve a host nation, with a crowd of 14,137. It was only marginally bettered by Warrington (New Zealand vs Samoa) which also had a crowd within the 14,000's and Leeds (New Zealand vs PNG) with a crowd of 18,000+.

The number of people who sit near me are that one eyed they don't seem to understand any rule! The worst offenders are not knowing that you have a minute to take a kick before time off is called, not knowing that the touchjudges have to be in position before time off can be called at a kick off and not knowing a 20m tap must be controlled if the ball is thrown back. One rule that I would like clarification on myself. When there is a possible obstruction and an attacker surrenders, sky tell us this negates a penalty. I don' think that's a rule and just has started occurrng recently. Can anyone shed any light?

I don't have a problem with spreading games across a number of venues. In 2013, Leigh, St Helens, Wigan, Bristol, Rochdale, Huddersfield, Halifax and Hull FC hosted one game each I believe. In my opinion, having one game only made the game in your town/city a more must-see event. If you host two or three games there, in October and November, I worry that at some venues at least, the crowds may spread over the few games. It would also reduce the number of areas of the country that could host games, which would be shame when considering the apparent large interest expressed to date. I think we need to spread the tournament as widely, and as far across the nation as we can. Whilst it has its critics, I wonder if the Magic Weekend and economic boost it provides to the host city has encouraged more cities to bid for rugby league matches.

Trademark?

It depends how far we want to stretch matters. I'm sure that I could watch the match back (or any match for that matter) and micro-analyse every decision to such an extent and highlight numerous examples of incorrect decisions to try and justify a swing in favour of a team. My impression at the game was that we are two very evenly matched sides who are more than capable of beating the other on any given day. On this occasion, we took the limited chances we had in the second half to get the win. I have little doubt that Wigan will get the better of us at another point this season, we'll have some great battles before the season is out and both sides are capable of challenging Leeds for the title this year.

Swings and roundabouts... Wigan had their chance to win the game but scuffed a drop goal, which came from an incorrect knock on call.

A further example of "missing the boat"

I'm a Saints fan and complacency is something we are definitely guilty of. At Knowsley Road in the final few years we would get around 8,000 for lesser matches and 12-13,000 for the bigger games. Against Leeds we sometimes got 14,000 and sold out against Warrington a couple of times. Now, our lesser matches get 10,000, but the likes of Leeds/Warrington games barely ever get above 12,000. We seem to have converted some of our old walk-up crowd into regulars. Our attendances now rarely fluctuate, but apart from Wigan, we never trouble the capacity. The club is probably happy with this as they have a greater, regular income, but it does affect the atmosphere and apart from Wigan it doesn't seem like the other matches are "big" occasions any more. I'd love to see us put in a big effort to push a big, non-Wigan match because we could get a great crowd, a better atmosphere and it would pay off for us in the long term. Some things we do as a club are nonsensical. For example, Eddie Hemmings announces on national TV on Friday night that he has been speaking to Mike Rush, who told him that Good Friday had sold out. It hadn't. The club had not announced this and tickets remained on sale on the club's website. Yet our Chief Executive is telling people we have sold out. Many would just not have bothered to look for tickets, and whilst it will sell out, we could have turned potential fans away! When clubs put in the effort, we can do it. Wigan's marketing efforts with "The Big One" a few years ago drew big crowds, and Leeds did well on Friday. A problem we sometimes have is we don't stick with something, but pat ourselves on the back and hide behind the "innovation tag". If Leeds stick with one match per year at Elland Road, then there's no reason they can't get the Super League record next year and in years to come trouble the 30,000 mark. I'd like to see us take a Saturday afternoon TV slot. With the live football blackout, Sky have a bit of a dead slot. It would mean that our matches are regularly on Main Event, which draws greater viewing figures. For example, last year Warrington vs Halifax drew significantly greater viewing figures than other Super 8 matches which were not on Main Event. Assuming Catalans stay up (foolish, I know), we could also have Saturday double headers. If I was negotiating the new TV deal, I would make this a priority. Marketing is a game wide problem though. I've said it before, if we want the sport in the national psyche, we need to focus on internationals. That's where the media attention focuses on RU and Cricket. We have a great World Cup in 2013, and then England didn't play a home international for over two years. Again, England haven't played a home international since October 2016, so another two years without an international home match. If we don't address this, we'll just tread water.

Out of interest, what kind of crowds are London getting this year? The rugby that their playing you would hope they could be around four figures?