Chris22

I imagine Catalans will run next year with: 1. Tomkins 2. Broughton 3. Gigot 4. Mead 5. Yaha/Tierney/new signing 6. Drinkwater 7. Smith Williame to second row, Thornley to a Championship club? Alternatively, Mead to the wing and WIlliame sticking at centre?

That final match between Huddersfield and Wakefield could be decisive. But, Catalans have a rough run in with Wigan and Warrington away still to come, they may need to win one of them to get in the 8.

I cannot recall a side of greater contrast in one season than Catalans. Their performance against Warrington at home was especially abject. Towards the end of last year and start of this year, they seemed almost unable to score a try! Now they are winning and playing good rugby too. I have been highly critical of McNamara in the past, so it is only right to credit him for the turnaround and Guasch for his patience in not sacking him. Our upcoming cup semi final against them could be a cracker!

And that's how it's finished - a result that gives little away in the race for the top 4. But I imagine London will be the happier of the two.

Make that 20-20 as London kick a penalty!

20-18 73 gone. Big 7 minutes!

Toulouse 12-12 London now. A huge match for London, and they aren't giving up on the top 4 without a fight!

I imagine Sinfield will be the one doing the actual coaching with Lowes being the assistant. Lowes showed in his time as Bradford coach that he doesn't have the temperament for such a high profile role.

Incredible that the official NRL website would publish an article that is baseless. And that's a nice way of putting it, malicious is probably more accurate. Barba may well leave at the end of the year, but his wife's alleged homesickness is not the reason. She wants to stay, particularly as she thinks their kids have great educational opportunities here (no obvious jokes please...) Barba' s kids are also by all accounts enjoying being part of the community, settling in to the Saints junior cheerleading squad. And rumours suggest that an improved, longer contract may be on the table for Barba at Saints, so we may hear something soon..

So the Super League clubs will increase their share of central funding, leaving some non-Super League clubs to, best case scenario, struggle. Protectionism. Short term thinking. It'll work for the Super League clubs for now but if the rapid growth doesn't occur, I sense that this may backfire.

Run In Toronto vs Leigh - Saturday Barrow vs Halifax - Sunday Batley vs London - Sunday Featherstone vs Rochdale - Sunday Sheffield vs Toulouse - Sunday Toulouse vs London - 7th July Toronto vs Sheffield - 7th July Batley vs Leigh - 8thJuly Halifax vs Featherstone - 8th July Toronto vs Batley - 14th July Barrow vs Toulouse - 15th July London vs Halifax - 15th July Rochdale vs Leigh - 15th July Swinton vs Featherstone - 15th July Toronto vs Rochdale - 21st July Featherstone vs London - 22nd July Halifax vs Toulouse - 22nd July Leigh vs Swinton - 22nd July Toulouse vs Dewsbury - 28th July Toronto vs Featherstone - 28th July Barrow vs London - 29th July Halifax vs Rochdale - 29th July Leigh vs Sheffield - 29th July With the number of teams battling for the top 4 set to play each other, it makes it difficult to predict. A shame that barely any of these crunch games will be on TV and that after next year maybe we won't have such an interesting battle at the top of the Championship.

I'm afraid I'll have to add my agreement to the dissenting voices. In 2015, we drew a crowd of 8,300 at Leigh for the warm-up match on a Saturday. Realistically, the best we could hope for is to match this crowd, although with it being on a Wednesday I reckon we're looking at a crowd of 6,000 as a maximum, no TV coverage, and no-one really knowing the match is on. For the 2021 World Cup, we have reportedly had 40 venues bid for matches with many outside the heartlands. I'd wager that if you gave a match to one of these towns/cities, they would make a better effort at promoting it than Leigh in an attempt to secure a match for 2021, and the associated TV coverage and sponsorship that this would provide. If 2021 is to be the success we want it to be, then in my opinion any England friendly should no longer be played at a stadium with a capacity less than 20,000, and any competitive England game should no longer be played in a stadium with a capacity less than 30,000 (as a minimum. And we extend our run of having 1 England game played in London between 2014 and 2019. Yet the RFL will scratch their heads about why the sport doesn't get national recognition... EDIT: Just received an email from the RFL about the match which states: This in itself is unacceptable, and probably not something that we should be highlighting!

Interesting insight here from a fan who was at the game http://forums.redvee.net/showthread.php?30491-England-team-for-Denver&p=735123&viewfull=1#post735123

Yes. Although I would suggest you have not. I have issues with our international planning in the past in that we have not capitalised on good opportunities. That's separate to yesterday's test. We are in agreement that yesterday was a big positive.

There isn't one. The point was that we have missed great opportunities in rugby league over the last few years. Last night has provided another great opportunity and I really hope we build on it. And I'm pleased to see from yours and others recent posts (and Bennett's post match comments) that all parties are keen to do so.