The Blues Ox

Im disappointed in the amount of increase in the womens game. There are now more junior teams than ever playing girls rugby and the transition to adult rugby seems to be stalling a little. I think the RFL needs to get its act together when it comes to the structure of the womens game, how many U18's teams have folded this season alone?

As an added bonus its cheaper for clubs to bring through already developed talent from a better system (AUS) than it is to develop their own players. What a fantastic day for RL in this country.

Tell me the pro game is dying over here without telling me the pro game is dying.

I often see things like this quoted and we honestly believe that young people playing the game fully understand the risks involved?

They brought the new tackle laws in to the amateur and academy games and it was such a farce that they decided not to bring it in to the pro game and cited that early indications were that law changes had reduced the number of concusions that were happening. Might be a hot take but there was nowhere near enough data to support that conclusion.

I mean sign a long term contract at a basket case club and get paid out when you get sacked, there will be huge demand for this job.

I know we jest but this could actually be the case. Ive heard of a few cases where players have been unable to advance in the concussion protocol because they are basically a bit dim.

Yeah I love the angle that the drone gives but with the constant movement it just gave me a headache.

Put them all in one league, it will be ace........

FRIDAY 4th JULY Bradford Bulls v Hunslet Bradford by 72 SATURDAY 5th JULY London Broncos v Halifax Panthers London by 10 Toulouse Olympique v Doncaster Toulouse by 20 SUNDAY 6th JULY Featherstone Rovers v Barrow Raiders Fev by 4 Oldham v Widnes Vikings Oldham by 6 Sheffield Eagles v York Knights York by 20

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrlw/nrlw-2025-round-1-teams-squad-ins-and-outs-predicted-ladder-tamika-upton-brisbane-broncos-canterbury-bulldogs-and-new-zealand-warriors-inclusion-jo-barrett-season-preview/news-story/8c1d2927a27f4ed8933688114ae830f4

Total waste of time unless England use this to put out a development squad which knowing Stuart Barrow, they won't.

When are the games on? I wouldnt mind watching more of the NRLW. Think a round by round thread a good idea.

Maybe but if the game has player welfare at its heart like we constantly hear, then neither should be happening. In my head one way around any shenanigans at the play the ball trying to work out if someone is injured or not would be a live review by the VR as the game went on. Play could easily be brought back and time reset if its an incident that warranted a card. Its not like the VR is doing anything else in their down time apart from maybe drinking tea and eating cookies.

I didn't agree with the length of ban that Titus Gwaze got for lifting an injured player, I think he got 8 games, so in that respect Horne got off lightly but I still think its a bit of a shambles. On one hand we are saying do not lift an injured player and then in the next breath ref's are actively encouraging injured players to stand up and play the ball so we don't have a stoppage and a VR review of the incident.