M j M

Leeds should win comfortably. I'm away for this one and am sort of glad I am given the hostile environment towards their own club the moronic minority of Leeds fans will no doubt again generate.

I know NRL 360 is a bit of a toxic mess but I'd love something similar in this country. I can't imagine who could be on it though, almost all our pundits are either unwilling to operate in anything other than cliches or not smart enough to really give it an edge.

I disagree, it's the sport's decision (maybe not the RFL's) to focus everything on the twelve or 13 current or recent SL clubs. In fact that's probably giving everyone too much credit: it's probably not even be a decision, it's just neglect, allowing the SL clubs all the power and lack of a central strategy. The SL clubs include three, four or five who are genuinely big ones and the rest who happened to be in the right place at the right time and are no bigger than a bunch of other clubs who have been cast to one side over the past 20 or 30 years. That's the biggest problem with the IMG stuff - we have a load of teams who in the long run are all probably much of a muchness Grade Bs. But incumbency is now so huge that we have effectively permanently written the rest off, with the consequent decline in interest and engagement in Rugby League in those places. The sport's core strategy should be AFL-like: as big and strong as possible in the north of England with strategic, long-term expansion plans into select new markets. Rugby League isn't really a northern sport any more. It's a sport that is strong in 11 or 12 towns in the north with a rag-tag bunch of other places where it used to be a dominant force and is now secondary or worse.

They are a classic example of a club - and a town - the sport has managed to leave behind through neglect. Keeping the sport strong in places like Fax should be a cornerstone of the RFL's strategy because people there are so much easier to get as tv viewers and big game fans and young players than anywhere else. The sport's ruthless focus on the motley collection of Super League clubs - many of which are no bigger than Halifax were before they went down - and an apparent disinterest in maintaining its general strength of the rest of the so-called heartlands at all levels is really disheartening.

Who's queried Leeds' figures? From all the home games I've been at this year (I've missed two I think) the announced attendances have looked pretty much where I expected them to be looking around the ground.

You're deliberately conflating two things.

Some Leeds fans being childish morons with their little songs today.

It's not materially worse to be fair, better than it was a couple of years ago when it seemed away fans were even more crammed in. It looks like there's permanent fences up around the seats either side of this corner now so I guess this is the permanent setup for both Rugby League and soccer away fans.

Delay between the screen and live action is really annoying!

I get it from fans of clubs like Cas, Wakey, Bradford, the Hun, our local rivals. But Huddersfield don't really register in that way. To me at least they don't mean anything really.

No, sometimes it is sometimes it isn't, Man Utd have often played Premier League games away on the same weekend.

You're not a Hull or even a KR fan?

That's not the case. Like in our sport soccer clubs flag dates their ground isn't available. Old Trafford isn't always free for the Grand Final by chance.

We still desperately need better summarisers.

You play to the whistle but the ref just ignoring continued obvious foul play is also not good enough.