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On the field we're seeing a number of players playing in the Elite One competition that have been exposed to professionalism at both Toulouse and Catalan. We're also seeing players coming from the NRL, NSW and Queensland Cup comps that see playing in the South of France as a positive life experience. This is great for the playing standard on the pitch and I hope the playing standard continues to improve. My concern with Elite One is it's lack of visibility and branding. There is no Elite One website, no Twitter page, no Youtube channel, no highlights packages, no logo. Some of the clubs rarely update their social media, the leading French club Carcassone haven't posted on Twitter since January, that's six months!! other clubs social media accounts are really, really bad, just poor. You can't blame Rugby Union for this. On top of that you don't see any Elite One clubs actively promoting their home games and trying to get a decent crowd on matchday, the latent support is there I just think the clubs need to be more focused on the casual audience instead of expecting the same committed bunch of supporters to turn up. My other gripe and it's a big gripe is the production of live games. At first it was a novelty that RL fans from all over the world could watch live Elite One games online, I now think it's a problem because the presentation and production of those live games from most clubs is poor and sub standard. These live games are not a good representation of RL. Most games are only filmed on one camera angle with dated graphics. On some games it looks like it's filmed on someone's phone that's shaking all over the place, I've had to turn off many games because they were simply unwatchable. What the Federation need to do now is exercise their ownership as the rights holder of league games and only screen live games if certain standard are met. Such as graphics, camera angles, interviews, analysis, team line ups, tackle counts etc. All games should only be screen either on the Federation's You tube channel, a broadcaster or some sort of app similar to Our League so that if you want to watch a game you know exactly where to go. Getting social media right is the quickest and easiest thing you can do, it's free and it has a big potential reach. I'm just surprised and disappointed that the clubs and the Federation aren't making the most of it.

Most elite 1 clubs have no more than 2 or 3 employees, the rest are volunteers, the camera men and commentators do it for free or a couple of hundred euros, People have no idea how well French RL does with such little resources and money, the number of players they produce etc etc. Some teams are championship level on the field and stadiums nut nowhere near in set up.

Unfortunately he is not available. He works shifts down the gas terminal so it is very frustrating for him at the moment, but he is about to change jobs so he won't have to miss any games anymore. Not seen anything of Holroyd but Workington could have Ado Carr on the wing but if the ball never gets to him whats the point? How many successful teams do we see that do not utilise their wingers? Not many! Just my opinion

The loss of human life is lamentable. I'm struggling to get my head around media coverage of this tragedy, what they were doing at the time, and the prevalence of the word 'billionaire', compared to, say, this..... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-65985001 or this.... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65995796 relatively obscurely placed BBC news items.

56 . 0 for who the cowbell tolls

well he better find it again - its HT soon and he needs to give them a telling off - surley one of the stewards will give him directions

Fair play to Sky here, this is brilliant from everyone rallying behind Rob and his family. They get a lot of stick but this is being done really well.

Rest in peace Bev. What a wonderful servant of the game.

One post and banned... well done. p.s. more flags than the post, dear reader...

Hmmm. Double Edged sword really. Hughes, without a shadow of a doubt, kept the Broncos in business, but in reality they're solely reliant on his benevolence due to his utter contempt for any form of marketing or promotional work. The little that is done is usually a "one off", with no follow up and no patience shown. If something is tried once and doesn't deliver immediate results its deemed a failure. He took over sole control of the club when they had 4k attendances, were in SL with the associated funding and paid £220,000 a year to rent a Rugby ground that they had game day access to as well as office space. Fast forward 15 years and they're nearer 800 attendances, at the wrong end of the 2nd tier with little if any funding and pay (an alleged) £200,000 a year to rent a football pitch where they're banned from playing for 11 weeks each summer whilst renting a Regus office in Richmond? Not sure of the definition of "Lucky", but I'm pretty sure that's not it! I'd say that The London Broncos are "thankful" for David Hughes benevolence, but hardly Lucky. Well, that's my thoughts after 21 years following them anyway.

Quality is more important than quantity in most situations.

Very sad news . Great man , great family

I've been very vocal against grubs who head rub a player after they've made an error and the fact that it's our in form and probably most talented player that did it makes absolutely no difference. Stop this sh*t by sending them to the bin.

Limoux, Albi , Carcassonne and Pia have quality streams with good commentators.

It feels like the right decision, there’s a lot of important life after rugby Great player, we’ll miss him but health comes first

Dual-code international Bev Risman OBE has died at the age of 85, former club Leeds Rhinos have confirmed. Risman was a Lions tourist and played for England in union before following Welsh father Gus in taking up league. He was Great Britain captain at the 1968 league World Cup, and played for Leigh and Leeds, winning the Challenge Cup and Championship with the latter. After injury stopped him playing, Bev spent time as a coach, and received an OBE in the 2012 New Year Honours. Rugby League - BBC Sport

To be fair, I can see what he means. When things are really, really bad, there’s merit in letting the players talk among themselves and take responsibility for trying to fix it.

I’m serious. And don’t call me surley.

I'm proud to boast that I worked with him. What a great man, a true gentleman and a good friend and mentor.

Genuine question why does he tuck his ears inside the cap ??

this pre match mnd awareness entertainment is great - showing there are some wonderful people out there and Robs family are just awesome - very touching build up to the game itself

Tragic news. Lots of good memories of his time at Fax but one sticks out in my memory was a time we were playing Sheffield at home and ben's shoulder had gone and he had been getting treatment on it and it was hanging loose but we had not had time to make a sub and we were defending our line and Menzie Yere ran at him and he had no hesitation in slamming in to Yere with his injured shoulder. Hard not to like a player who is willing to do that for the team. RIP.

I agree about the empty PR part and for me the RLI go about things completely the wrong way and have done for 2 decades and more. I certainly know the junior u16 and student rep setups are going about things completely the wrong way. As much time has been spent in trying to attract English kids as Irish kids. The coaches and managers are based in England and there have been as many sessions in England as Ireland. From the first session in Ireland parents and kids alike where asking for more sessions, more training etc but there have been very few. Kids have left and not bothered as a result as there is simply not enough worth committing too when other sports have full, proper schedules. Generally there is far too much going for the easy option. It is one thing RLI picking heritage players at a professional World Cup to compete at that level. Going down that path is completely wrong at underage level and does nothing to develop the game back. Indeed it is holding the game back by taking away resources and removing carrots for Irish lads to play the game. There are certainly kids are in Ireland who want to play. However as far as I can see RLI cant be bothered actually trying to develop the game at that level. All coaches and managers should be based in Ireland and all of those sessions in England should be taking place in Ireland. Yes the game is way off having a domestic league of teams at underage level but it could build on what it has been doing because those sessions have been good. The problem is there have been less than a handful. Make them a weekly or bi-weekly event and build from that. Then you have the adult setup that still revolves what is essentially RU clubs deciding to play that year. And then fades as quickly when a chairman or RU coach decides it isn't a good idea. Until all that changes nothing will improve.

Rugby union is 10th in participation numbers with 303,000 licences, Rugby league has 11000 licences so way down the list, You need a license to be a water carrier, a coach, a physio, even to be part of the clubs board, so it doesn't really show playing numbers

It’s become big news because lots of people are interested in the Titanic story, and anything connected with it, for good or ill. People have opinions about it and want to express them, as you have done here. You could have ignored the thread, but you didn’t, just as news outlets could have ignored the story, but didn’t. I think it’s almost incidental that the people on the sub were incredibly rich. It’s the Titanic aspect of the story that holds a grim fascination, sadly. My guess is if they had been visiting any other wreck, we’d never have heard about it.

TBF French RL can still command a 10000 + crowd for Dragons matches Internationals and Finals only football and Union would attract more. It is strong where its roots are and this has to be nurtured dreams of big city clubs in far flung places is ridiculous the national team can be used to play international matches in new areas and if someone starts a small amateur club on the back of it then happy days.

I agree, I can't understand why this particular accident has had so much media coverage as opposed to others. Last night there was a live programme on C5 about this rescue and it even ran over and pushed back the programme I had turned on to watch. There are accidents and disasters every single day all over the world and often have multiple casualties but so many of those barely get any mention in the news but this has taken over for some reason. Personally I have no sympathy for the victims. I feel a little for their families but not for them. The Titanic is a graveyard that should be left in peace and I think its disgusting that a bunch of rich people think they can violate that peace simply because they have a bit of money. It feels like their wealth has made these people feel very entitled, an attitude I despise.

I remember saying around the time of the derby defeat that if Tony Smith can turn this rabble around it would probably go down as the biggest achievement of an already very accomplished career. We are unrecognisable from that team at the minute. Since those hard fought wins against Huddersfield and Wigan it's like a switch has been flicked. Great wins against Saints and Warrington, a couple of professional performances against Wakefield and Cas. Even in defeat we have played well. Against Leigh and Salford we just got turned over by the better team on the day, but both games were highly competitive. I also am pretty sure we would have turned over Saints in the cup if not for Griffin's outburst. With Catalans at home next and an opportunity for derby revenge to follow I'm more excited about this team and where it's going than I have been in years.

Doesn't help with the sporadic home fixture fiasco.

Apparently only Saints had a short turnaround from last weekends Hull v Saints game.

A sad end to a great career over here, truly one of the finest Aussie imports we've seen. I was hoping he could have lasted to enjoy a CC and GF triumph with HKR, but given that he failed another HIA after what looked like not much more than a fairly innocuous slap to the face, it's obviously the right decision. He can retire safe in the knowledge that he's given a huge amount of enjoyment to a huge number of fans.

I say it most weeks but I’m still stumped as to what Huddersfield’s recruitment was all about in the off season. They needed quality, to add to what was a really solid team last year but they went for quantity. It felt as though Watson had too many players from the off and he’s never had a settled side. He seems to shuffle the side looking for answers but that’s half the issue IMO.

Another really solid performance esp in defence and play of the game was Brad Graham (?) holding up the Oldham player from 2nd half kick off. Oldham had come to niggle and slow down the ptb but the team stuck to the task. They really dug deep and deserved the win.

Good 2nd half from Wakefield and until the Fifita brain fart it was all about could Rovers hang on. Kendal's inconsistent use of the 6 again rule is somewhat frustrating. It would be nice to rid the game of both.

Fair enough I’ve only heard a piece on the radio claiming it was a Father’s Day present. The guilt trip you suggest is just as feasible. It’s completely ruined my planned trip for the wife to the centre of the earth for Mother’s Day. Looks like it’s vouchers again.

Huddersfield making Leeds look like a slightly above average team.

Is that you Josh Griffin?

RIP. Fine player and great administrator. The Rismans are a tremendous RL family.

Completely agree. Nothing wrong with heritage players wanting to represent Ireland but everything should be based in Ireland. In the last world cup the official account, head coach and players were using the Tricolour as the Ireland RL flag when it's an all-Ireland sport. That's because nearly all staff were English based and didn't have a clue.

Where did you get your misinformation from, Saints didn’t go by jet they went the rough & tough way travelling on the prison ship Neptune. Half of them did anyway, the other half are walking home. They don’t like to talk about it though.

Our friends on the other side of the Pennines have no respect for the 1974 boundary changes. This is why they sing "YOOOORKSHIRE" and not "WEST YOOOORKSHIRE"

RL has been on mix plenty, but they won't put it on all the time otherwise why subscribe?

Schedule for tomorrow :- Wo Women’s Nines Finals fixtures Group 'A' 10.45am – Leeds Rhinos v Warrington Wolves 11.35am – Wigan Warriors v Leeds Rhinos 12.25pm – Warrington Wolves v Wigan Warriors Group 'B' 11.10am – York Valkyrie v St Helens 12.00pm – Cardiff Demons v York Valkyrie 12.50pm – St Helens v Cardiff Demons Semi-Finals 13.45pm – Winner Group 'A' v Runner-Up Group 'B' 14.10pm – Winner Group 'B' v Runner-Up Group 'A' Final: 14.50pm men’s Nines Finals fixtures Group 'A' 10.45am – Leeds Rhinos v Warrington Wolves 11.35am – Wigan Warriors v Leeds Rhinos 12.25pm – Warrington Wolves v Wigan Warriors Group 'B' 11.10am – York Valkyrie v St Helens 12.00pm – Cardiff Demons v York Valkyrie 12.50pm – St Helens v Cardiff Demons Semi-Finals 13.45pm – Winner Group 'A' v Runner-Up Group 'B' 14.10pm – Winner Group 'B' v Runner-Up Group 'A' Final: 14.50pm

Again, you are ignoring what Sky Sports Mix is. It is their non-subscription Sports channel - they will only put premium sports on there a limited number of times. Next Thursday for example - they are putting Wire v Leeds on Arena and Main Event, but not Mix as it is a main live sport. I expect as part of contracts sports have a certain amount that will be shown on Mix, but not loads.

It's novelty unfortunately. People die in accidents, bombings, tragic circumstances all the time. People don't die by implosion on a submarine visiting the wreck of the Titanic, add in that they're billionaires and the whole thing was controlled by a video controller bought from Cex then it becomes a mad story.

I couldn't make the practicalities work for me but the set-up looks amazing. Not sure if the Cardinals are doing the same but the Cubs are doing 2 days of build up across London beforehand with players and broadcasters being available for public meet n greets etc.

If I got a ban as a fan for criticising Kendall I wouldn't be watching Fev for twelve more years. He is the only ref that I have issue with. I have every respect for these young new refs. They make mistakes but so do I. Good on em.

This is an odd one as one of the 60s was against Sheffield and was the week BEFORE we played Cas. Perhaps we just weren't properly focused on that game. We actually beat Swinton in between the Cas and Wigan games but then got whupped by Fax at home the week after.

Think this goes to show how much of a 1 man team Saints really are. They rely on Kendall way too much and just arent the same team when hes not on the field.