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It does seem odd to say we can have video ref and indeed use the Match Review Panel to hand out bans, but not Captain's Challenge, based on the number or quality of the cameras. I think we have seen this season that the camera angles we have and quality of image leaves a lot to be desired.

To be fair to the club we haven't had any highlights this season until Bradford !!

So are we decided and it’s going ahead?

I think the idea was always to go for promotion but when you've got two big spending clubs hogging the promotion spots what do you do? If you've got investors and new sponsors on top of a solid financial base then why wouldn't you? We were unlucky to meet Oldham and Keighley in an injury crisis but there's a long way to go yet. Put the pressure on and see if they crack.

I absolutely hate the Union VR process. It is long winded and committee based with the ref, two touch judges and the VR looking at the same video and trying to come to a conclusion together. Very painful to watch.

I assume all this "Captains Call" stuff, you are actually talking about the Captains Challenge? I don't really understand what your "case" is, you want us to go back to 3 games a week on Sky rather than all games, because they don't have the same amount of cameras as the NRL does? I think we could still get the captains challenge come in over here, I believe it is a good thing that the NRL does, and it actually seems to take some pressure off the referees IMO. It's harder to do here, as yes, we have less camera angles, so we would most likely get the result of "insufficient evidence to overturn a decision" calls. But there are some clear cut errors that could be helped with it.

Zarrin Galea Visa approved. Check out facebook/ X for a cool welcome video! UTT www.townrlfc.com for early bird offers for Sunday's Double header!

Would rate this as the best CC final I have ever attended. Prior to leaving the UK in 1966 I was at them all from 1948 and came from Aus to see another half dozen or so- most involving Hull. Agree on your strip comments.

Are you his accountant?

Another round of games which will be closer in reality than they look on paper... New Zealand Warriors v Gold Coast Titans Bad result for the Wahs at the 'gong last week and Shaun Johnson is playing injured. Though the Wahs have home advantage, Keiran Foran walked the Titans around the park against Manly and playing the way that they did in that game you can see them getting a result sooner rather than later. Titanic upset on the cars? St George-Illawarra Dragons v Sydney Roosters At Allianz Stadium, and a sellout as the In-form Dragons take on a moulting Roosters outfit. Who would have thought at this stage in the season the team with the 4-3 record would be the Dragons and the 3-4 record Roosters. If this was at the 'gong I would be going Dragons ,but its not and although Zak Lomax turned in all all-world performance by all accounts last week,.. after signing for Paramatta. An injury to Ravalawa means a return to the wing for the departing Dragon. Roosters get Sam Walker and Dom Young back. Defeat for the Roosters would laeve them 3-5 on the season and perhaps bring Trent Robinson's coaching credentials under scrutiny. - Choker for the Chooks? Melbourne Storm v South Sydney Rabbitohs Melbourne, as with all well coached sides, ground out a result against the Roosters. Souffs must have enjoyed the bye week afterthe shenaigans of the past few weeks with the "unsanctioned" coaching approach and the Blake Solly vote of confidence in Jason Demitriou who has Damien Cook back in the side along with Jai Arrow. Yes, the Bunnies have never won in Melbourne, but I do think this is going to be closer than people think. - Bunnies ride out the Storm? Manly Sea Eagles v Paramatta Eels. Last wekk was a really poor result for the Paramatta Eels against a depleted Dolphins side. Paramatta are a big club and an unsuccessful one under Brad Arthurs tenure. Changes have been made heralding the return of the Count of Commbank - Maika Sivo to the side. Manly finished the stronger side against the Titans but I am still not convinced by them and if Paramatta can win the forward battle, they are the more desperate team. - Eagles wings clipped ? West Tigers v Brisbane Broncos. Adam Reynolds and Payne Haas in Selwyn Cobbo and Ezera Mam out for the Bronx. Now while I am of the view that Wests under Benji are a vast improvement on previous seasons they are up against a Broncos side which is one of the top three sides in the comp - Bronx Cheer ? North Queensland Cowboys v Penrith Panthers Another team with a really poor result at Shark Park, the Cowboys have slipped in the table and in the premiership odds and it does not get any easier against the Penny Panthers with Nathan Cleary returning. Even in tropical Townsville. - Panthers to pounce? Dolphins v Newcastle Knights The Dolphins result was the WOW moment of round 8, given how depleted the side was and without the unwell Benny in the Coaching Box. No Kaylin Ponga for the Knights who need a win badly and, on paper have the side to get it. A potential upset here as the Dolphins are nowhere near full strength. Fins Knightmare? Canberra Raiders v Cronulla Sharks Sharkies without Bradon Trindall (booze) and Dale Finucane (retired), Canberra without Jamal Fogerty. Memories of Round 4 linger and though it appears I have Rickly as a target he is a proper Aussie Coach all cigarettes and VB as oppose to the Cafe Latte types, and he will have the Raiders fired up for revenge. Craig Fitzgibbon cannot write off the Raiders here in this one - Capital Comeback?

Today is Anzac Day and the football codes will be full of fixtures. The NRL does a great job of honouring the Australian and New Zealander veterans of conflict since the Boar War. Unforgotten are all the British and other veterans who have made the same sacrifices as our veterans to defend our freedoms. I hope as many of us can take the time to watch the pre match ceremony of one of today’s or this weekend’s fixtures and take time to consider how lucky most of us are to have had such brave people stand up for us all. Lest We Foget

Sounds like an interesting one: https://wrl.wales/richard-hibbard-appointed-as-chief-executive-officer I had not heard of him as I don't follow RU, but he seems like he was quite an accomplished player and now businessman. Let's hope he goes well!

Did the swear filter really catch "tugging"?

The game against Bedford was closer but yes it is sad and it is very hard to see how there could be any realistic route back into higher levels. I have to say, on a personal level, I and my son have gone from someone who avidly followed the game a few years ago to someone who now occasionally watches a game on the BBC. All my attempts to follow a RL club in London have not been a very joyful experience. It is such a shame the powers that be cannot help RL have some sustainable and realistic presence in the capital that is a drama.

Pratt is actually useless and should be sent back on loan to York ASAP, if you ask me...

i wind forward the goal kicks as well unless they're ultra important

I just don’t think it adds anything and is a bit of a long winded talking shop or committee meeting

That is how it works.

It would be easy enough having a clause within the captains challenge that if there is insufficient coverage such as an incident being off camera or too obscured for the VR to make an assessment, you lose the challenge but keep your review. It's basically the same as an 'umpires call' in cricket DRS reviews.

Agree that we shouldn't throw out the VR just because it's not perfect. We should try to improve the quality of the tools we give to the VR and throw out the 'on-field call' because this stops the VR considering a decision objectively. Instead, I'd want the VR to tell the ref what he/she thinks the decision should be and their level of confidence (e.g. (a) 100% confident the ball was grounded, (b) ball appears to be grounded, but picture unclear, (c) ball not visible but no evidence it was knocked on) and give the on-field ref the final decision. On the Captain's Challenge, again I think it is inevitable that occasionally it will be a close-run thing. I marginally prefer it because it gives the referee the chance to tell a team to 'put up or shut up' when they are complaining about a decision.

Great stuff, so thats one here and apparently 2 more, not 1 more?

Don't come here with all of your reason and logic

Looks like he wants to stay and play so i am glad he has found another club.

I have been known to visit Derwent park when I've been unable to attend away games to watch town I'll have you know, done the same at a few barrow games as well. It's a shame the RFL don't seem to look at the logistics of it as I'm sure alternative weeks at home for both town and haven would probably see an increase at home games for both

Yeah, Wales are in a decent(ish) position. They've got a good schools, Unis and clubs scene, a handful of lads have moved to SL academies, and have a fair scattering of players around the leagues. There is an issue that the generation of players who came into the game via the Crusaders have now almost all retired, but that happens. The national team needs some re-generation - and hopefully a new coach with fresh ideas - but they'll be assisted in that process by Scotland etc finally being dealt with by the IRL and consequently not coming up against teams exclusively consisting of ex-pats. They could really do with some financial assistance, but then the said could be said of everyone else.

So we're five games into the Championship season, some eyecatching scores at the weekend and perhaps a picture starting to emerge. Wakefield are perhaps about what was expected - they are steamrollering most teams like we did last year, which is what you'd expect given their reported spend is close to £1.5 million, but they don't look anywhere near as good at this stage as the 2022 Leigh team. To be honest they're almost an irrelevance to the Championship this year - they'll walk the league leadership title, may or may not win the Grand Final (they probably will but as we well know, one-off play-off games at the end of the year can be unpredictable), but either way, they'll be back in SL next year. Bradford were just staking a claim to be in pole position for second spot when they did the most Bradford thing and lost to an 0-4 team in York. I think that showed again that 2 or 3 tough, close games in a row against strong opposition can have a knock-on effect - just as we played poorly against Bradford having been in 3 brutal games with Wakefield (twice) and Leigh, Bradford had a number of very tough games, especially the last two, and presumably that told at York (not taking anything away from York who yet again have had a long injury list). Sheffield have made an impressive start to the season and will probably rack up another big score against Barrow this week, we'll know a lot more about just how good they are when they face Wakefield the week after. Halifax have a lot of injuries to key players but losing 46-0 at home is still an eyepopping scoreline. Hard to see them being a top 6 team this year unless there's a huge turnaround. Widnes competed very well against us and their improvement looks genuine at this stage. Interesting to see if they can maintain that form as they have tended to drop away after a prominsing start in previous years. Toulouse have taken a while to find their form as they sometimes do and clearly aren't the force of 2019 or 2021 but I think they'll still be a top 6 team and probably top 4 as the season progresses. With some teams (us, Halifax, Toulouse, maybe York and Batley to an extent) not looking as strong as in previous years, it's certainly a harder league to predict from week to week than in previous years, barring Wakefield.

AJ had one poor game, at Doncaster, Brown has had 4 in my opinion. He cost us the first try on Sunday. For what it's worth, I think ,that looking at the opposition, Hendo will be totally focused on having our ' big guns' fully fit for the Sheffield semi final, he won't be playing anybody who is not 100% fit before then.

Brilliant we`ve got the ANZAC Day clash in New Zealand now, that will be another big event game every year. I can`t wait for tomorrow, 3 ANZAC Day matches spread across New Zealand and Australia. All we need now is an ANZAC Day eve clash in the nation`s capital Canberra every year, loads of dignitaries in Canberra at that time of year who would attend and it could be another big annual event game.

Will keep an eye on any SJ announcements. Yes there’s talk he could be rested. I’m hoping he plays in this one. Warriors need a comeback performance after last week. They can rest him then against Knights so he’ll not have to travel abroad and he’ll have a decent time off. That’s what I’m hoping anyway!

I hope it is NZ rather than Australia. Ride the Wahs wave and launch NZ2 (Christchurch) into the NRL straight after.

Isn't TNW still at Leeds, anyway, I wouldn't consider including him if he is going to keep getting recalled? I'd bring AJ back, give Brown a rest, otherwise I'd leave the team as it was on Sunday, with Ata on the bench if he is fit.

When has a full rebuild in RL took a decade? Various big clubs have done it in a fraction of that time. Obviously the money and backing has to be there, which would be the case if the investment that has been alluded to happens.

Good post as always Ox. I've found some of the posts on here to be quite disrespectful to Salford, probably unintentionally so. Well done Paul Rowley for your loyalty and professionalism. I hope Salford kick on from here (after this weekend).

I have been saying this for a few weeks now, Haven given a load of home games in March and April when crowds are lower due to clashing with big Premier League games and the weather being poor, exactly like what happened to us in our disastrous Championship season when we had 7 of our 11 home games within the first 8 games of the season. The cynic in me would wonder if it was done in purpose to make the clubs to run out of money and push for a merger!

It would certainly be a weird turn of events if Hull KR offered Salford compensation for this.

I dunno what people seem to have against Holmes, always plays well for us, has great pace still for a forward and our win % with him in the squad is much higher than without. He'd always be in my 17, whether it's 2nd row or prop.

Im actually pleased for Salford.

Updated this list a bit, thought I’d post on this thread why not. FB- 1-Arthur Mourge 2-Morgan Escare 3-Robin Brochon 4-Baptiste Fabre 5-Thomas Lasvens HM-Tony Maurel, Pierre Monteil, Quinten Crunel, Christopher Hellec, Alan Baby, Bruno Castany WG- 1-Fouad Yaha 2-Tanguy Zenon 3-Paul Marcon 4-Benjamin Laguerre 5-Nittim Pedrero 6-Georgy Gambaro 7-Romain Franco 8-Ilias Bergal 9-Corentin Rey 10-Benoit Jasmin HM-Mathieu Pons, Elie Sastre, Alexis Escamilla, Baptiste Pourchi, Kylian Benavent, Jordan Flovie CE- 1-Arthur Romano 2-Matthieu Laguerre 3-Hakim Miloudi 4-Vincent Albert 5-Matthieu Jussaume 6-Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet 7-Louis Carre 8-Enzo Griffier 9-Pierre Jean-Lima 10-Hugo Pezet HM-Maxime Grosson, Thibault Marty, Paul Marty, Adrien Salies, Clement Martin, Thomas Ambert HA- 1-Theo Fages 2-Cesar Rougé 3-Louis Jouffret 4-Thomas Lacans 5-Clement Herrero 6-Tony Gigot 7-Lucas Albert 8-Allan Torreilles 9-Mathis Dall’asta 10-Maxime Rostang HM-Alexis Alberola, Julien Laporte, Joan Guasch PR- 1-Julian Bousquet 2-Romain Navarette 3-Justin Sangaré 4-Jordan Dezaria 5-Gadwin Springer 6-Lambert Belmas 7-Hugo Salabio 8-Mattthieu Cozza 9-Dimitri Biscarro 10-Tiaki Chan HM- Clement Boyer, Franck Maria, Mathias Leveille, Bastien Scimone, Axel Rodrigues, Damel Diakhate HK- 1-Alrix Da Costa 2-Ugo Tison 3-Justin Bouscayrol 4-Eloi Pellesier 5-Valentin Fernandez HM-Yacine Ben Abdeslem, Mathieu Liauzun, Nolan Lopez-Buttignol, Lucas Ribas ?-Amir Bourouh SR- 1-Paul Seguier 2-Mickael Goudemand 3-Maxime Stefani 4-Yann Belmaaziz 5-Benjamin Jullien 6-Corentin Le Cam 7-Jayson Goffin 8-Walid Bouregba 9-Lucas Vergniol 10-Hnaloan Budden HM-Leo Llong, Luc Brocas, Tristan Dupuy, Leo Laurent, Audric Le Cam, Leandre Torres LK- 1-Benjamin Garcia 2-Anthony Marion 3-Loan Castano 4-Anthony Ors 5-Wail Skoundri HM-Jason Baitieri, Djibryl Dauliac, Louis Grossmey, Paolo Dall’asta

It does look like Laurent Frayssinous will be able to pick his strongest side with full cooperation from Toulouse -- and it could be a great event, with a big crowd. It would be a shame to discourage supporters by talking this event down. Sylvain Houles, Toulouse coach, said: 'I have spoken to Laurent and he will take any of our players that he chooses. Of course every player wants to play for his country and I fully support that.' He he added 'We will be clear with our players that the priority is the French team.' Cedric Garcia (Director of Sport at Toulouse) and Olivier DuBois (Toulouse Chairman) see the triple header as a great way to attract media attention and to grow the sport. Dominique Baloup, FFRXIII President, has long seen this event as key in the celebration of 90 years of French rugby league and in the promotion of the sport in France. It would be great to make the Toulouse vs Featherstone match as French as possible, with Toulouse using their dual reg with Catalans to bolster their squad. This could be a very special day for French rugby league. It would also be great to build the game up as much as possible and to hear the French clubs repeat, and repeat, and repeat as early as possible and as publicly as possible that all players will be available for French and that they can't wait to get stuck into this challenge.

Doesn't need the money Gooley, and lives in a very salubrious area about 10 mins from the AJ Bell. I would be very surprised if he took it.

Barrow won’t go down, you heard it here first.

Good hard old school centre . That’s a shock

Isn't that the case with all the clubs especially your last word, but then again that 'investment' is somewhat lopsided in what teams are 'allowed' to spend, if it was a specific 'salary cap' spend which no club could exceed then that would be more of a level playing field. Albeit, I can think of one in the not to distant past where the appointment and investment didn't mesh, at Salford when the good Doc came in, he had the money but then not knowing what he was doing with the coaches appointment took advice from some who also seemingly didn't know what they were doing who told him to employ Brian Noble who proceeded to gather together at no little expense a squad totally not fit for purpose. Incidently, just on that Dr Koucash involvement, he wanted the 'Salary Cap' abolishing so he could spend what he wanted on team building but there was a resentment to it from Chairs and fans of many clubs including the bigger clubs, but now have the authorities gone half way into this with the 3 marquee rule we now employ? Was Dr Koucash a visionary that got derided? I wonder what the game would look like today if the RFL had granted The Good Doc his wish, would we have had more BIG money men willing to invest, would we have the ability to compete with the NRL for the best player's in the world, would we ............ the questions are numerous.

The last mid-season international between these teams in Toulouse (2008) got 8.3k. A year later in Paris it got 7.6k. The crowds don't tend to be horrendous considering the organisation.

Agreed. You only need to look at Wigan's demise in the mid-00s. Nearly relegated in 06. They got a new coach and signed one player (on the face of it). Seemed to make a huge difference! *I'll ignore the fact they also broke the salary cap...* And again, a few years later they changed owner, head coach and suddenly became the blue print! With the right people and investment, the change can be pretty quick. By the looks of it, we're willing to fork out some money (which we weren't sure about before) to get the right people. That's a relief at least because the feeling was we were skint and doing it all on the cheap. Turns out, we're just doing it really really really badly!

Taufua did it as well - just looked like hesitancy (and good kicking by Liam Harris) rather than a deliberate ploy to me.

TIPPING LADDER AFTER ROUND 7 1 Jeff Stein 40 2= Dunbar 38 2= R L Winger 38 4 The Red Rooster 37 5 Llangennech 36 6= Graham 35 6= Wests Tigers Rule 35 8 Spotty Herbert 34 9= Dee Deuce 33 9= StormGirl 33 11= Barney 32 11= Irish Saint 32 13 Roo 28 14 The Future is League 22 15 Lucky 7 20 16 StandOffHalf 15 17 My Missus 9

he did on facebook