phiggins

Definitely. I’d also be telling refs that if they’re about to refer a try to the video ref, and send it up as a try and a defender starts appealing to them, they should just give the try and tell the defender that they can either challenge it, or that they shouldn’t have wasted the challenge.

Some clubs will undoubtedly have wanted that. But it seems unlikely that all clubs will have been so naive. Yet no club seems willing to be an advocate of them. Vegas and Ashes happening independently of them was probably the writing on the wall. Unfortunately, Wood was appointed to these positions, and not Danson or Moran.

But there is a middle ground between a leap of faith, and a prescribed formula. For example, have any of the recommendations in the reimagined project, e.g. centralised operations, been planned, costed and feasibility investigated? Have they communicated any details of what would put them in a better negotiating position with broadcasters for any of the next two TV deal cycles? They said London and France were key growth areas. Have they said anything of what that means and what can be done to realise that? There are of course no silver bullets. But there can be a vision and a plan to achieve that. I'd say that IMG have either not come up with, or articulated that vision / plan. Of course, some of that may have been the responsibility of RLCom. And to be honest, the biggest surprise of Nigel Wood's new position was that it existed in the first place, with the first many hearing of Slevin was when he departed. Clubs are pretty well far removed from perfect, but it looks like the client / stakeholder management from IMG has been poor.

I'm not sure that offsets the benefit of an extra game against a club that is currently a complete train wreck though. But fair play to saints, they were more clinical yesterday than a number of clubs would've been, including my own.

Leeds have joined in with the teamsheet on a video trend. Albeit with a bit more creativity in using a background video than other clubs have used. But still not a fan. Very difficult to see who the replacements' names when viewing on mobile, due to scale of font size, and the video doesn't really add anything, just distracts. Feels like another case of user experience being sacrificed for IMG numbers to me. https://x.com/leedsrhinos/status/1938651039218991576

Is that really the only reason it is being torn up? I may have missed something, or forgotten something. But I've not heard a single club express any praise or confidence in IMG in the last year to 18 months. I think if they had laid out a plan to the clubs that would lead to income being generated within a particular timeframe, then Johnson would still be RFL chair, until the end of the season anyway.

Yet Super League clubs are happy to use loan and dual reg systems to develop younger players in Champ / league 1. We need the second tier to be of a decent standard for a number of reasons. There’s a player pathway, a better cup competition but most importantly, reducing the perception that being outside of SL as being Armageddon which might in turn stop the constant debate about structures.

Are we going to find top 6 places decided by Salford’s loop fixtures this year?

I think that we don’t have enough referees of a suitable standard to have a 6 refs and 6 video refs every week. Did they get a pay rise when this new TV deal came in that meant they would have double the workload?

How much longer is Walker out for? I think Warrington can push for the 6, but they’ll likely need to win 8 out of 11 and not sure they have the consistency to do that.

so where was Smith’s arm then?

It wasn’t a collision. It was a player wrapping his arm around and holding back a player that has never been in possession of the ball. Maybe if both players were travelling in the same direction as the ball it could be ok, but that wasn’t the case in this instance.

Refs have a difficult job, and more decisions to make than many of us will appreciate. But there are some errors that refs, and especially video refs simply shouldn’t make, and that call made on the captain’s challenge was one of them. Nearly as bad as the foot in touch / inconclusive call in the Hull - Leigh golden point game. That said, players also make plenty of unforced errors as well.

Reducing the quota right now would be a disaster. Non-quota forwards are already on too high a premium as it is. Whether it increases or not, there needs to be something brought in that measures how much a club is doing to increase participation numbers. Work they’re doing in schools, events etc.

What’s happened to Kavan Rothwell? Notice he’s not been in your squad for a while. Injured?