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On one hand we've got players wanting contact allowed, leniency on head contact, less red/yellow cards, etc. On the other hand, on the evidence of the last 2 weeks we've got players throwing their hands in the air at any contact, play acting head contact, begging refs to make decisions, conning refs to get players binned. Refs have a ridiculously difficult time with the new rules as it is, and players are choosing to make it more difficult, while also demanding changes. Franky I'm sick of them, they want their cake, want to it gift wrapped with little bows and want to eat it. They can't have this both ways, they can't make demands of the RFL and referees whilst also cheating them at every opportunity, and this also goes for coaches. The hypocrisy is embarrassing, the last 2 matches I've watched (Salford v kr and Leeds v catalans) had this all in spades, so much play acting, pressuring refs etc. I now hope the RFL dig in and tell them to shove their demands.

I have been watching rugby league for 50 years,and between matches in England France and Australia have racked up an estimated 4000 + matches (Maybe more) and this was 100% the most enjoyable rugby league event i have EVER been to was wonderful. What more can one say

What an idiotic statement. Perhaps you should pop down the road and watch Widnes instead.

Outstanding 1 to 17 once we managed to get hold of the ball. Thought Walton was unlucky not to get man of the match, incredible effort, both with and without the ball. Thompson put in big minutes and numbers too. Loved seeing Doran turned inside and out too. Up the Town, Ikes back where it belongs.

Sorry, more rubbish. Only one priority for the club this year. Promotion. Everything else is really a pre season warm up. I appreciate it’s all about opinions but these knee jerk reactions are really poor

I thought Matty as captain was brilliant, constantly having a chat with the ref, questioning things, pointing things out. It's often the opposition captain that do that and we're wondering why we're so quiet. Just a brilliant effort from everyone and a thoroughly deserved win. Haven we're so lacking in creativity, scored off our errors early on and relied on Doran to find gaps for himself. Long hard season ahead for them, relegation beckons.

Wow. After possibly the worst 20 minutes imaginable it looked like it was going to be a 60 point hiding. Then soon as we got some ball and territory we completely took over and there was only ever one winner after Taylor scored, considering we had no sammut, Scholey, lightowler etc the boys were outstanding, how haven allowed Taylor and ecclestone leave for the dross they have out wide is beyond me. Matty henson stood up and took complete control of that game, but my god, Walton, Hutton, burns, Thompson, Taylor, ecclestone, take a bow because that was immense for 60 minutes. Let’s not start haven because they came up against a very very good team today, and lucky to have gotten away 1-1 in head to heads this season. Jamie and Dion were by a mile havens best players, not sure if the other half back touched the ball in all honesty, and at least them two kept it competitive for as long as it was. Up the town

According to my parents my first game watching Salford at the Willows was in 1946 and I am still a fan some seventy eight years later along with all the family and some friends. I can’t remember who we were playing but I do remember the hot potatoes when it was cold and Lucketties ice cream on the warm days and my dad used to say that Albert Lucketti the ice cream man was faster than any of the players if he could see a sale along the touch line.

Haven having money problems already and player's not training doesn't sound good for them as for us what a performance to com back 16 down speaks volumes for the lads and how Muzzy has got them gelling together, thanks lads for making a old man very happy tonight. UTT

Good review from New York! https://nypost.com/2024/03/03/sports/nrl-shows-rugbys-potential-in-america-with-vegas-doubleheader/

Talking total rubbish. We have had a tough preseason seven games. Five against Championship or SL opposition. Four wins, two losses and a draw. This team is ready now for the league. That is the clubs number one priority this year.

Spoke to Jake today and it’s not as bad as feared Hopefully a few weeks

Youre just making yourself look silly now.

Well,well,well,that was ###### awesome,when that final try went in I’m not ashamed to say I lost a little man wee, bring on the league season we seem to have got a great bunch of lads that play for each other, now if you will excuse me while I go get changed utt

Two weeks ago

Cracking win, not just the result but how the lads battled back into it. Could easily have let their heads drop when it was 16-0 so early on. Showed a lot of character to come back from that. You can see how some of the younger lads are growing into their roles, not least Jack Stephenson and Jake Bradley who were both immense today and are a very good 2nd row partnership.

After the game Marc Sneyd was rightly named Man of the Match after his kicking game proved to be the difference against Hull KR. As he spoke to Sky Sports, Sneyd said: “Last week we were very 50/50 in the way that we played against Castleford but got the win. We really wanted to go on and build on that win,” However, as he spoke footage seemed to show fluid thrown at him as Sneyd was surrounded by Hull KR fans where the interview took place. He responded: “I’ve just had a pint thrown at me. That’s nice isn’t it? It’s typical. Leave them to it, they’re alright.” He would carry on the interview professionally saying: “It was one of those games. It’s the perfect conditions for my kind of a player. It genuinely does make it a lot easier to kick a ball. You’ve just got to steer the ship and give them the best instructions you can and make sure you’re finishing how you want to be finishing. “It’s very difficult for any team to throw it around in these kind of conditions. So whoever kicks better and is willing to work hard comes out on top. We’re happy to take the two points and we seem to be moving in the right direction.” Very impressive by Sneyd, not to react or make too much of a meal out of it. Good on him.

Be careful with this, folks. He's got your favourite sports team, plus favourite player and year of birth in many cases. If he just asks your mother's maiden name, too, that'll be a good chance of password and memorable question being guessable ... Leed5Rh1n05...

Looks like over 10 000 average for all 6 games this weekend. Pretty good

There is absolute clear logic to the RFL's system. The lines are not there for aesthetic reasons, they are there due to rules. 10m line - marks the kick restart from a dropout. 20m line - for 20m restarts. 30m line - marks 10m from the 20m line for dropouts. 40m line - marks 10m from the halfway. Literally the only 10m space that isn't important is the 30m to 40m line, as there is no marker required between these lines. None at all. That's why the RFL have used the system of reducing that. Not just for style over substance. It's fine to prefer another system, but it should be clear that you are preferring a system that undermines most pitch basics. In reality, most haven't got a clue why they are saying the NRL system is best. It's simply a chance to bag the RFL.

Does this mean we are not ready to put Oldham in to Super League just yet?

First time Ive seen the bloke but I think he did a good job, seems better than some of the more established super league refs. I didn't see him get a bad call all game

To be down 16 - 0 after 15 minutes when we probably made every conceivable error you could make and then come back and win the next 65 mins 36-12 speaks volumes of the believe, character and togetherness of the team. We looked dangerous virtually every time we had the ball, but we do need to tighten up defensively in our own 20. However we do look as though we are improving with every game so I’m sure we’ll improve in that area as well. All 17 played their part but it’s really good to see the close season signings buying in to what we are doing and they look to have raised the potential within the team as a whole. UTT

Two very entertaining games. Both sides need to look at their goal line defence.! But the best thing is for the first time in many a moon we look like we can score points from anywhere. And that's without Sammut Well done all,,

I wouldn’t expect a team under the CH reign to be 34 points down at HT. Season over

Rumours on Haven’s forum that their players haven’t been paid their February wages and the directors sent the groundsman to tell them they weren’t getting paid

What a result and what a performance (for 60 minutes). One of, if not the best game I've seen from Matty Henson. He was my man of the match purely for his leadership and decision making. Everything from getting the lads together in a huddle to settle things down after havens yellow, the run across field for Eccleston's try, his own try. Thought he was outstanding. Special mention to Ethan, Walton, Stephenson, Burns and Taylor. They all had superb games. Need to take that performance into the league now. As for our neighbours. Sorry, but the £££££ spent on your imports is a MASSIVE waste from what I've seen in the 2 games. Jonty must be fuming. Hope everyone at the club enjoys their evening after an awesome day. UTT

What does that make Hull!

Precisely what a Union journalist would say, and it hasn’t harmed them. Perhaps a lesson for the future?!

and 90s RL didn't resemble 80s RL and 80s RL didn't resemble 70s RL In fact season after season RL changes, its a very dynamic sport that is very adaptable and progressive. Not like some of its followers.

When Foxtel interviewed V’landys and Abdo after the match they said they flew Australian rugby post manufacturers to the US to build, in a US factory, decent posts for the match. When allegiant stadium was built they incorporated footings to hold rugby posts within the movable playing surface. They had to dig around in the pitch to find them as they’d never been used before. The posts will now be stored in the US until the season opener next year.

I won’t pollute this thread with links to AFL content but there are a few annoyed AFL loving sports writers out there right now.

Well done Town, made up to come from 16 pts down against an expensive international 13. We are the people

Schooled by a much better side today. Astley has to be moved to halfback for me. I also expect much more from Jordan Turner who was bang average today. Not convinced by Ellis either. On a positive note, I thought Farnworth played well and Wildie gave it his all. However, the standout performance was by the travelling support who were outstanding from start to finish. We’ve learned quite a bit from this pre-season. Now let’s bring on the stuff that really matters.

Great first half of rugby league today and didn't give Oldham any chance to get a foothold in the game and the game was over by half time,second half was a bit of a mixed bag which maybe down to the players taking the foot of the peddle,but on the whole a whole lot better than last week.

Season hasn't even started!

Very positive reporting on the main Foxnews homepage : https://www.foxnews.com/sports/rugby-star-takes-page-out-rob-gronkowskis-book-try-nrl-dazzles-las-vegas

They should be properly embarrassed, TBH, regardless of how the scoreboard finished. Nobody should really even be in a close game at home against London this year.

Great win, Henson to hooker made such a difference to our ruck speed, thought Bickerdikes best game in a town shirt today. Outstanding minutes from Jordan Thompson

What I've been hearing from people in Australia is that AFL has its season opening game Sydney vs Brisbane at the SCG on Thursday and that fixture has barely got a mention in the Sydney & Brisbane media this week as the Vegas thing has had saturation coverage. So I think they'll be happy on that score.

Don’t know why they were looking so long on the first knock on because he clearly knocked it on on the second effort

Don’t know, can you?

That's fine this week. But explaining why you have 14 men on the pitch next match could be awkward, and the mid-season transition to Union the week after that seems a bit of a radical departure.

In addition to three players and coaches complaining about the new laws/ interpretations and the subsequent bans, which the majority of posters on here understand the reasons for introducing and accept them being introduced, you now have the “tame” reporters supporting the whinging and trying to get the RFL to drop the changes. This is exactly what was mentioned as would happen on this forum when the changes were first announced. I agree that the RFL should dig in and it is has been good to see the likes of Robert Hicks being made available for interviews etc to explain the reasons for the changes etc. That is a welcome change from the normal RFL behaviour which under previous regimes used to just go silent and then give in. All the arm waiving and the deliberate inflaming of “incidents” by running in needs to stop with that either done by the players and coaches ceasing to behave like that or a clampdown for a week or so with the dugout benches or chairs being warmed up for 10 minutes on a regular basis.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Only RL fans could be negative about 45k fans at an RL game in Vegas…

Just watching it now, great first game, looks a very good crowd, noisy, good atmosphere, looks a lot of fun. Had a little chuckle at the announced 40k crowd, it's as though they let the RFL run the PR around this. All the announcements around 45k and hoping for a big walk up crowd, yet it appears literally nobody walked up based on the numbers. But it's a great event, let's see what happens in future year's, exciting events like this are what we need more of.

As ever the outcome of any game depends on both teams' performance and there's no way the current Fev team is giving Wakefield " a good hiding". This is nothing like the Fev teams of the last 2 years, and we've just lost our only creative half back, meaning hooker Harry Bowes, released by Wakefield at the end of last season, is likey to be playing half back on Sunday. We lost against Batley with Reynolds and Minikin (who will miss the game through suspension) in the team, we're still without our two PNG forwards, and we have no long kicking game and no recognised goal kicker, although Lacans stepped up pretty well in that respect last week. Don't get me wrong, I think Fev will be okay long term especially if/when we find a proper half back, and I'd say we'll be a much better team in the second half of the season. I'm sure we'll have a dig next Sunday but having seen Wakefield's previous games I'll be pleasantly surprised if we can trouble Wakefield at this stage of the season with the players available to us.

Sat next to an American tonight, a Vegas resident attending his first ever live experience of "rugby", he knew there were different variants in Union and League so I talked him through the rules, decisions etc and it was "wow!" every time a big tackle went in. He loved both games and said he'll be back again and will look for the sport if it comes on Fox. Most interesting thing though is that he had put a bet on for both games, despite knowing little about RL, so exactly what the NRL are after here.

I am here its wonderful nearly as good as sex. In fact BETTER:))))

How much blanket coverage do you expect to see, as a Canadian, living in Canada for an Australian event taking place in Vegas?