Whippet13

Wigan specific: Jack Robinson selling Central Park to Tesco and then claiming Wigan were the cash-richest rugby club in the world. Playing home games at Widnes/ Leigh due to the soccer, thankfully Whelan is now long gone. The Tomkins brothers moronic big night out last year and the subsequent video. The whole "Warriors" thing, some nicknames work and some don't.....this one doesn't and never has. Wigan's period of "experimental" shirt designs in alternating years, the unasked for and unloved brainwave of Leneghan I understand, hard to tell if its over yet tbh. Some general ones: Super League chairmen washing their dirty laundry and bickering in public a year ago, made me cringe for the whole game. Woods and Barwick on the TV at big games, they just looked a mess every time and made me think "gravy train". Rimmer making Catalans pay to enter the challenge cup this year, and effectively baring Toronto & Toulouse. Huge self inflicted negative media story at the exact moment we were desperate for a sponsor. From above, any adverts across players bums, it just looks so utterly cheap on every team. Huddersfield are easily the worst here, I know Abzorb don't make incontinence pads, but surely to the casual viewer....

It's just old fashioned Xenophobia, it will fade away with time and exposure and such games will become the accepted normal.

Its a start, hopefully will grow. Good news if its going to make money for the RLIF.

The Would add: Quality of rugby seems better, Ottowa/NY getting voted through so categorically on principle, departure of Barwick, improved MOS system (gets vastly more publicity now), Bradford continuing on the up, Widnes takeover and recovery from near oblivion, Wakefield buying their ground back, some genuinely talented NRL players in SL who are here through genuine choice, Tolouse continuing to build and Nou Camp. Still some significant downsides though: 1895 final scheduling is mad, Internationals remain a shambles, Catalans forced to pay to defend their cup title, recent upsurge in players milking penalties/whingeing and Rimmer is still on board. Overall though, I am more optimistic about the game than say a year ago. People complain Elstone hasn't done much, but SL is a better product on the pitch in my opinion and I think a lot of his focus is long term, which is exactly as it should be.

Some fine crowds today, well done to everyone who attended, great attendances across the board. This thread is too positive overall despite the usual derailers popping up, so can one of the regular forum doomsayers now start a topic about how poor the Easter Monday crowds will be please with Huddersfield, Salford etc being at home and how that proves Sky will drop us like a hot potato in 2021 in favour of televised international draughts. Starter for 10: The Easter Monday crowds are guaranteed to be the lowest for at least a year!

New York Rugby Apples, sponsored by Kingstone Press. Whatever they come up with I just hope the fixtures fall kindly as a Toronto, Ottowa, New York RL road trip over 2 and a bit weeks would be on my bucket list.

Stand them down, pay their wages until convicted and add a clause as standard into every NRL contract to prevent legal challenge.

Well, they are going to say that it'll cost millions to justify standing him down aren't they. I'd stand accused down until they have been tried in a court of law. Pay them their wages as they have not been convicted, no problem with the NRL doing that. If found guilty I'd implement sine die bans, with a truely independent rehabilitation panel to judge if someone is ever fit to return or not - a parole board if you like. Overall, the NRL are doing the right thing in the De Belin case and seem to be finally getting serious about setting some examples. There is similar bad behaviour from players in all major sports all around the world, I dont think Australian RL is unique here.

Some great ideas here. Be great to see a 4 Nations competion with Jamaica, France, Wales and England (NOT the Knights) played on Saturday/Sunday afternoons over 3 weeks, with maybe a top 2 final on week 4. I'd happily go and watch such a tournament. Sadly, I suspect the RFL will more likely plump for the safest and cheapest option of a one-off Jamaica v Knights game on a Wednesday night in Leigh with zero publicity and call it the "2021 Warm-Up Friendly Challenge", maybe streamed on OurLeague. Anything more than that will require some effort and also risk detracting from the "flagship" GB tour.

Its on BBC online now

If it was made of cotton it wouldn't be a replica, as the player ones aren't made of cotton.

Google states: The first places for the event of the season of the Catalan Dragons with this relocation to Camp Nou against Wigan (Saturday, May 18) are available since Tuesday morning at Gilbert-Brutus and on the online ticketing club. The Catalan Dragons finally received the match tickets for the Camp Nou event on Saturday May 18th against Wigan. This Tuesday morning April 2, the first faithful of the Dracs came to recover their sesame. To date, 41 buses have already been booked by the penyes fans Dracs, not counting those offered directly by the clubs. While waiting for the opening of the communication campaign of Barça, it is the Dragons who take the orders of the appointment of the season. "We have integrated the Barça ticket office online on our website, and this is the first time we have co-organized a club match, it's not easy every day, but it's very enriching, "summarizes the head of communication at the club, Yannick Rey. The Dragons do not despair to see 40,000 fans installed at Camp Nou, including 5 to 6,000 English who were given their tickets Sunday in the pre-match between Wigan and the Dragons. "It has nothing to do with Montjuic, Toulouse or Montpellier in terms of demands, the penyes play the game thoroughly and the club is very pleased to see this craze come from within our fan clubs," Yannick adds. Rey. At his side, the sales manager, Christophe Levy is pleased to have already sold "800 VIP packs of the proposed 1,200". This Wednesday morning, the club will sell the collector's jersey and the full range for this historic rendezvous.

Nope, we are still in the EU.

Jamie Jones-Buchanan is on the front page of today's Daily Star, national edition.

I can't think of a single professional sport in the world which only uses domestic players, our game's history is full of great players who have come from abroad and some of this year's signings have generated positive media and public interest. It's also (currently) illegal to discriminate against players who are EU citizens. Completely agree your point that certain British clubs do not develop enough players, but we should always welcome quality overseas players.