Steve Smith

Well done to Liam Finn for making the Ireland squad, the lad deserves it.

Asolutely right, don't tar all Featherstone fans with the same brush. What a team needs to 'bring to the competition' is finishing top and thus earning the right to promotion, nothing more, nothing less. This appalling 'management-speak' which has crept into our sport is, quite frankly, sickening.

A bit like the school bully praising you for taking a punch well. Not all praise is necessarily worthwhile.

I meant relative to yours...obviously (and your lass).

This excerpt from the Wakefield Express would suggest otherwise: "DREAMS of two new stadiums for the Wakefield district have been shattered after the Wakefield Wildcats and Castleford Tigers were told they must share. The original plan was to build a stadium for the Tigers in Glasshoughton and one for the Wildcats in Stanley, each getting

We don't need two teams in Hull, all teams should be a minimum of 20 miles apart. Expansionism has no place for derbies. These are the games that really show what RL is about...passion!

So Wakefield & Cas have been told by the council they either share a ground, or relinquish the potential funding the council were offering. There is to be an independent study to ascertain which of the two sites would be best and quickest to realise, then the clubs have to make a decision as to whether they share or not. Interestingly, the chap from Stadium Wakefield Action Group has said they wouldn't move to the Glasshoughton site if that was the result of the study, they would be 'tackling life at Belle Vue and whatever that throws at it'. So perhaps the deal isn't done on BV after all. In the event that a joint stadium is developed, could we not use that in any application to SL if we so wished (in the even that POR wasn't deemed good enough under whatever rules the RFL were choosing to apply at the time); we are under the same council, after all.

fairy snuff.

Is that because you know he isn't coming, or just that you don't rate him? I'd say he could do a good job for us. Seeing him play in sl on sky, I rate him highly myself. But if he's not coming here then so be it.

So the issue of a club claiming they should be in SL and at the same time chasing overseas players isn't a problem to you then? I'm not trying to be awkward, but that's pretty much what you said.

I thought Whitehaven decided the only way they would have a chance was intimidation and it patently didn't work. Although I'd love to know what Jim Gannon did or said to Howard Hill at the first scrum, 'cause he didn't half come out fighting! Doran had a great game for Widnes, showed some great skill. Is he contracted for next year, or might he fancy a trip over the pennines to Featherstone?

But your point was that a club like Workington looking to sign overseas players doesn't belong in SL. It's almost compulsory for SL clubs, it would seem. I'm surprised that one of the criteria for a license doesn't involve signing half a dozen kolpacs.

But of course, it's perfectly acceptable for SL clubs to pack their squads with overseas players, whilst simultaneously boasting about the amount of local talent they're developing... Does this suggest that any team looking for overseas players doesn't belong in SL?

Bearing in mind Wakefield have already sold Belle Vue, where will they play if the new stadium doesn't happen? (Which is looking likely) I'd say They're looking pretty much doomed at this stage, and that could save Cas. It's all very well the RFL having these edicts, but if there aren't enough teams with what they consider to be an adequate stadium, then what? House of cards springs to mind...hope it's not too breezy at Red Hall.

Same info is in the Wakefield Express. Apparently Catalan's ardour has cooled due to the compensation due to Wakefield if he breaks his contract.

I'd agree with your last statement and I can think only of one exception. I think Shad Royston would look good in a Rovers shirt next season. I have no idea what contract he's on or anything else, but out of that Fax team, he's the one I'd have at POR.

The Lin-pac one was my favourite by far, but I reckon that's as much to do with the team at the time as the design of the shirt. I still have two playing shirts from that era, one given to me by John Gilbert, the other by Kenny Kellet and I can't get into either of them....by men were thin in the 70's and 80's!

http://twitter.com/leighupdates

Have we?

Oh, I don't dispute that the issue of playing Keighley this week instead of Toulouse is no great issue, personally, I'm just glad we didn't lose our Sky game because of it. I don't have anything against the French at all in general, I positively like France and the French, I'm just not convinced (to put it mildly) that putting overseas teams in is the right way forward. But I accept that this argument has possibly been done before.

It's not specifically the volcano eruption that is an indicator of the unsuitability of French clubs in the english league, it's a more general 'travel disruption' issue. It's far more likely that there would be travel issues between the south of France and the north of England than between say, Leigh and Featherstone. The fact that it's a natural occurance that has caused this particular disruption is largely irrelevant, there are plenty of other possible disruptive elements, be they natural or man-made. All that said, as has been pointed out, they are in this league and we have to make the best of it, doesn't mean we have to like it!

But there's a danger that we play against Warrington and not do well, I'm not sure that being on the wrong end of a 60 point thrashing would do the confidence any good at all. If we put up a good showing, I agree, it'll boost the confidence,but Warrington are a damned good side, from a league above, even with half a dozen first team regulars out.

3pm Sundays, because for my generation, that's when rugby's played. Plus our lass won't let me out on a night...

Hehe... Antonyms are opposites, up and down, wet and dry, ingress and egress, or rovers and cas. But like you say, preventing their egress from the street! Not long now to our sixth victory...