Colin James

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. There's no player left out who transforms this side into being better than Australia. The idea that one or two minor changes swapping one SL standard player for another would tip the balance is fanciful.

Think it said a lot when first set we had backs taking the first few carries.

Reduce the fixture list by reducing the number of teams in Super League?

Limiting overseas players will reduce the quality of SL. Sky will be delighted when we go for a new deal and tell them we're deporting Bevan French and Jai Field. Needs to be a carrot for homegrown players rather than a stick against imports.

Wane getting slated but I don't think there's any combination of players he can pick that gets us to more than a 35% chance of victory. The player pool we have is weaker than it has ever been at the highest level relative to the benchmark. For the second test I suspect Smith will be back in, Wane wasn't happy with the end of set plays and I think he'll take 'Magic' Mikey out. Overall we played ok but we need to be close to perfect to have a chance and we weren't. Some positives but equally they were in second gear and still battered us.

The 14th placed team will be increasing their score by virtue of being in SL. Higher position, bigger crowds, bigger commercial opportunities. I think the three promoted teams would have to make a tremendous mess of things to lose any grading points. So it's Huddersfield, Cas or another Salford situation that London will be looking at.

End of next season? We don't know what's happening at the start of next season outside of SL.

We will never have a solid international scene in the Northern Hemisphere without putting the work in. 2 teams in SL is a start. Play over there every year. Take women's, wheelchair and age group teams over so that it's a proper festival of rugby.

Flabbergasted they made the right decision. Genuinely surprised, I was convinced TO would be shafted. Looks tough for London to increase their IMG score enough to get in next time though. The promoted teams will all score better next year naturally so who is it that is going to decline enough to finish below London? It's quite a gap to make up to Huddersfield and Cas

There's been no leak because they've probably not even decided yet.

Perhaps a 'have staff been paid on time and in full?' clause should be added to the finance section. Along with: 'Is your pitch full size?' to the facilities section

By design or by chance? Feels to me like reserving the ability to hand pick two clubs outside the gradings was done so they don't have to stick to it. Convinced they didn't want Toulouse, calculated they wouldn't make the 12 and kept this panel decision for the final two so they could shaft them.

Toulouse go up begrudgingly but are deliberately hampered by the central funding handicap and they go straight back down? After which the door is locked and the clubs get shot of them once and for all. I hope they've enough scope for IMG score improvement to get in on that going forward, would make it harder for SL to kill them.

My view is it's a year too soon for London. There's new ownership in place but if we've learned anything from Salford it's that you need to treat new ownerships with extreme caution. Lets see how they go, how serious they are about the longer term project and then look to get them in. It could all blow up on us if we put them in now, they lose every game and consequently can't build crowds because people don't want to watch a losing team. That said, off the back of what I hope will be a big Ashes series it does seem an opportune time to try and capitalise in London.

Won't be buying SL grand final tickets again if they conspire to keep Toulouse out. Even if you ignore all the benefits of having another presence in France, they've earned it on the pitch. The greater good of the sport has to come ahead of 'no away fans' but sadly the game is run by the pie and peas brigade who can't see past the end of their own noses.