Leaderboard

There's a lot of unhappy people on here, and taking that unhappiness out on others. That's not right. This is a community place where people should be able to come and discuss rugby league without getting abuse for just having a perfectly reasonable view. Treat it like a lounge bar in an old-style pub. The gobby loud drunks get quietly shuffled away and encouraged to go to places better suited to their personality. Be civil to each other please. Summer rugby is in full flow, great rugby in the grounds and live on telly. Park the chip on your shoulder for a while, you'll probably find you're enjoying your rugby even more that way.

TotalRL new low

its a real pity that this match will clash with the womens SF match.

Thank you for everything you've done in a Knights shirt Kriss, a fantastic player on the field and a very decent young man off the field. Gutted to be losing you from the game but family and health has to come first. Hope you won't be a stranger to the Knights and we see you in the stands now and then! Good luck for the future

Which part exactly ? The full time Wigan and part time everyone else part, the wigan youngsters getting full time contracts while other clubs youngsters had jobs part, or the Wigan buying all the top players at the other clubs part ? Leeds were the only other club that went full time during that period of Wigan dominance but made a pretty shambolic effort of it, not really being any better than the part-timers. Wigan would not have been as dominant as they were during that period without their unrestricted buying power & salaries and them being able to train full time. Its no coincidence that their dominance ended with the advent of SL and there being a much more level playing field.

Wish I was as optimistic as you PM. I think you are spot on about London, we need to target the easier teams......oh wait a minute.....

I guess the video of Gnash eating his arm wasn’t quite convincing enough for the panel, fair enough

He's been a good un for you. I dare say he'll always be welcome at York.

Fans complaining that refs are not using the red card is a nice, but entirely predictable plot twist.

This may seem pedantic but It really annoys me when people can't get players names right, especially when it's my own clubs fans discussing one of our players. Child(s), Tom(p)kins, Burrow(s) etc, stop it, just stop it! At least get someone's name and spelling of said name correct if you're going to discuss them. Hmmmpph!

Last time I had a complete breakdown in delivery service, I continued using the normal channels but, when it became obvious I was being fobbed off, I started BCCing the company's CEO into the correspondence. Suddenly things began happening, including an internal investigation which established that the delivery driver had taken my order straight from the sorting facility to the collection depot. They'd previously claimed they'd tried to deliver it three times, but it turned out that the van hadn't even entered the borough where I live. Don't abuse it, but Googling "fedex uk ceo email" will lead you to a page with the email address of Alun Cornish.

Our pack will win this game if we keep Adam Lawton quiet… no Dupree who ran the show in the pre season game they’ve also no craven, Owens Grady and Aaron Brown all missing which are 5 decent players there plus maybe Ryan Ince

Always a shame to see someone have to call it day due to injury. No doubt he’s a talented player, especially at Championship level. Probably never quite the same after his serious Salford injury. Has to do what is best for him and his family. All I can do is say “thank you and good luck for the future.”

How is what i've said destroying Wigan's past - its the reality of how things were during that period. They had more money than anyone else with no salary cap, they had a full time professional squad when most others were part time and they went out and bought most of the top players around that time, and on the back of that they achieved utter dominance over the league & cup. I also don't think its unreasonable to suggest that without those things in their favour they wouldn't have had the same level of dominance. It certainly came to an abrupt end at the start of SL when they suddenly had 11 other full time professional teams to compete against every week and a SC that stopped them from buying up any player they wanted.

Wigan's dominance was based largely on their ability to just go out and buy pretty much any player they wanted and they were the only full time team of players for most of that period. While they did bring through a lot of their own youngsters as well those youngsters benefitted by being full time and by being able to develop at a better rate than youngsters at all other clubs. When you then add in the fact they bought the best players from every other club (Gregory, Lydon, Hanley, Platt, Offiah etc.) its no wonder they were so dominant for so long. Its arguably more impressive to be the dominant team now because everyone in SL is full time and everyone operates under a SC meaning they can't just go out any buy up every good player in the league.

Using this as an argument against the Hunters is absolute nonsense, there are 15 Australian NRL clubs, 13 QLD Cup sides, 12 NSW Cup sides and even more junior rep sides at each age group below these levels. There are more than enough opportunities for Australian athletes to make it, it is definitely not arbitrary as to who gets in the system and who doesn't there are many different factors that influence this and failure to identify the correct talent is an issue that has much more to do with individual clubs rather than the NRL itself. The Hunters have 1 club in the QCup that represents nearly 9 million people - a population that is as much of a RL heartland as NSW/QLD. The Papuan talent that populates the QCup/NRL is infinitely more valuable to Australian RL systems than propping up another team of mediocre Australians in QCup, PNG talent raises the standards of QCup which in turn exposes Australian players coming through the grades to a higher level of competition. There's already the entire Hunters squad plus over a dozen other players signed to other QCup sides in the competition, without those player QCup would be undoubtedly weaker which is in no way in the interests of the QRL/NRL. Only recently has PNG begun reforming their schoolboys system to provide a proper structure for junior talent to come through while the Digicel cup is also in the process of expansion. Once some of these structures become further refined PNG will be the largest source of untapped talent in RL bar none and the Hunters will provide the NRL an access point to that talent, it would be grossly negligent of the NRL not to continue fostering this pathway when further expansion is expected in the next few years.

So you are agreeing with jonny that Hurrell and Hopoate "would ever get chance to to see the panthers or storm try line in a month of sundays"? Despite the fact that they have both had successful NRL careers and both represented Tonga the first time a tier 2 nation has ever beaten the Kangaroos (a game that Hopoate scored in), they are incapable of soring against the Panthers and the Storm? Look, I think that both the Storm and the Panthers are a better team than St Helens but some of this hyperbole is silly.

I think those two grounds have a capacity of 15k each. If we could be confident of filling them then I think that should be the approach. Two appropriate semi final grounds with healthy crowds. The problems started when we struggled to sell out grounds like Leigh, Wire, Salford etc. Part of the challenge for me is that semi finals often don't get treated with the respect they deserve. IMHO they are some of the best games of the year, losing in a semi final is worse than a final, and winning a semi final is so exciting. I think we have forgotten how to make these things positive for fans. Just staging a game at Widnes or Salford, with nothing going on to make it an event is lacklustre and isn't really a draw for the more casual fan. They have become events for the more hardcore, which is a dwindling number. I was OK with the double header as it means better grounds and bigger events, but the crowds so far have been only modest success at best.

Jamie Lyon was four times the player Corey Norman is, the clue was in Lyon`s knick-name " killer". Norman`s got plenty of ability but not a fraction of Lyon`s focus and drive, but don`t get me wrong, if they can get him focused he could be a real good signing.

Create a sub text and hope the thread would degenerate onto the OP's main gripe. Classic tactic.

It boils down to whether it is opinion or abuse. Abuse should not be tolerated and should be dealt with accordingly. Now opinion on the other hand! I leave you with that son of Oldham and all round egg head Prof Brian Cox. " The problem with today's world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has a right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense". And to be honest there is a lot of "demonstrable nonsense" on some of these forums.

I think alcohol may play a role in many posts.

I foresee a comfortable victory this weekend for the Rams. It's London who might be the banana skin

Er, you have to beat all the clubs in the NRL too….apparently. Even if you don’t play them. Otherwise you’re not dominating anything.

Jeez, are we still moaning about refs.

We don't tolerate trolling or people who try to use multiple accounts, and both those things are and always have been against the terms & conditions of use on here. But we do rely on forum members actively reporting problems when they find them, so we can look into them and deal with them as necessary at the time. If you spot a problem, or suspect an account may not be genuine, report it.

Hopefully every fan that can go will, and get behind the boys, push them over the line for 2 points. Its a big game for both teams. If play like we did last week and a little bit more, we can do it.

Us by a try and a goal. Important for our push to SL that we get a win.

That's an insult to clowns

That's the spirit! Batley earned a draw with Fev a week after we had put 50 past them. Halifax gave us a fright at Post Office Road. The narrow pitch at Odsal is a great leveller, Bradford were leading Leigh with 5 minutes left in the CC. Unless one team capitulates games at Odsal are always likely to be a close arm-wrestle with the pitch at its current width, the last 3 games have been won by 1, 1 and 3 points. What does it say to the team about the club's ambitions if they're basically conceding defeat in a home game before kick off?

Have we had six home wins yet this season? This could be that week.

6 games for Powell is a disgrace, should have got 10 like Pryce. No problem with Fash getting off totally inconclusive evidence.

To be honest with my England cap on I wouldn’t be too disappointed if he missed a few games as he seems to be knocking his pan in every week & you worry how much juice he’ll have come World Cup time if he continues that all season.

Live sport trump's all H The more I read Ginger John's comments the more it confirms he rarely leaves his keyboard/plasma TV to experience real sport

Carlisle, Colchester, Manchester, Sutton, Ashton? give us a clue

Dewsbury play us this week and London the week after , win both and they will be 6 points clear of us with a far better points difference , losing this week isn`t really an option if we have any chance of stopping up .We need to play out our sets , get a good kick in , and not give pens away.....easier said than done i know . Dewsbury will be well up for it this week and we can`t afford our usual sloppy start .i am sure we have it in us to get a result , so lets hope our season starts this week .UTT.

Crowe and Holmes-a-Court scaled back their 50/50 ownership of Souths so that founder and owner of software giant Atlassian and top 20 world`s richest man Mike Cannon-Brookes could buy a 30 % share. Cannon-Brookes is already a part owner of Utah Jazz NBA basketball team and grew up in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. These one off games in America have been going on for 40 years and frankly are a joke, seemingly ad hoc and intermittent, all the worse things about Rugby League expansion and business planning. I`m hoping this time we are going to a strategically, co-ordinated and on-going plan for attempting to break into the American sports gambling market, V`landy`s is talking about 5 - 10 years. If League can makes in-roads as an NFL off-season contact sport gambling alternative we might then finally see some serious progress in the actual playing of the game in America.

Just took a quick look at the stats for SL - Saints have won the LLS and GF 17 times. Leeds, Bradford and Wigan have each won them around half as often, and none of them show even the remotest signs of winning this year or next. Other clubs have won the LLS once. By the end of 23, Saints are likely (if they can be bothered to win the LLS) to have 21 titles to their name. Given how far they are ahead, and their trajectory, there is no end in sight even beyond that. It will be interesting to revive this thread in a couple of years, to see whether more people are sick of it by then.

I thought they looked a much improved team over last year when we played them in the friendly. They even looked good for the first 10 mins against Barrow on TV and then it seems to have just fallen away. I reckon we can win this by a couple of scores Widnes 14 Dogs 24

could he be the next recruit at Tolouse in their bid to avoid the drop?

Rushton scored a very cheeky try for Canberra reserves the other week. He looks like he’s got a great frame for top flight footy as well. Look forward to seeing how he goes

Time to get some points on the board now- game on!!

While being cleared of biting a Hull KR player this evening, Brad Fash was warned by the RFL Disciplinary Tribunal of treating the disciplinary process without due respect after it was revealed he signed himself in as "Brad Gnash".

However, Fash’s mum is due a visit from Social Services to determine whether she feeds him enough.

Dont you have a club to support. Every word you say show that you dont like toulouse. Boring

Not every new club needs to be as successful as Wigan or Leeds. The sport would be absolutely thriving if we had loads of clubs like Hemel Stags all over the country. Liverpool, and several other cities, could just be places where that level is absolutely fine.

Great appointment, exactly the type of coach Leeds needed, everyone he’s ever worked with speaks very highly of him. The Queensland Cup is pretty much Super League standard of players but with perhaps less riding on the outcome, so it’s a logical step-up for him - and you want people on the way up eh.

I don't think its boring, its up to other teams to step up and get their houses in order. There' s been different teams getting to the finals which I have liked and none have been walkovers, with different Challenge Cup winners and a try or less difference in the last two Grand Finals. I personally found the St Helens v Leeds consecutive Grand Finals (4 in 5 years) far more boring. There's still a long way to go too this season too.

I love sat 6 pm kick off , go to the game , out for a beer afterwards