Wellsy4HullFC

I'm inclined to agree. We have England, then (daylight) France, then (a little daylight) the Celtic nations, then the other European nations. We have to acknowledge that there will be no credible international competition for England mid season. We ain't traveling. They ain't traveling here. If we want mid-season rep games, we're going to have to look within for a while. Reverting back to GB would be us basically giving up on those other 3 nations. If there was a regional comp mid-season, at least there's a pathway if that's what we do; but then that alienates France further. What then for them? EU All-Stars with France, Ireland, Greece, Italy...? It's a sorry mess that we have only got ourselves to blame for. I long for the days of regular 4N competitions. I was so excited about a possible 8-team confederation cup. The international game up here is in the worst state I've ever seen it since I started watching.

Amber is back... as the secondary colour. Despite bringing the colour back, still doesn't look like a Cas home shirt. Feels like the wrong way around.

Mate, that was 26 years ago. The SL has moved on loads since then... Our team that finished 3rd overall this season beat the NRL's best team of 3 years. That obviously means we have 2 more teams that would finish above them too! NRL slacking.

End of season? What about a 4-way between Cumbria, Yorks, Lancs and South? Get 3 games then, and 2 with majority SL players.

If the expansion to PNG is completely funded externally, then why can't they announce 2 clubs at once (or relatively close)? PNG, Christchurch, Perth in that other for me.

Think the best bet to get France competitive in a mid season game would be to have a a couple of blank weekends in the calendar. One week for a the fixture and another week for a rearranged game featuring Catalans and Toulouse (not necessarily against each other) so that they get a 2 week lead-up to the international and reduce potential dropouts. That 2nd weekend could also be used for the team that competed in the WCC. You could also have another international for England (v Wales?) or York's v Lancs (don't kill me!).

With the World Cup moving to 2026, you'd guess that would bring CI hosting to 2025 instead. But this is RL.

Manu Mau genuinely just looks terrifying.

Yeah, but their now treble Grand Final winners couldn't beat our quadruple Grand Final winners, and ours didn't even win the comp this year. Bang average, the NRL.

I'm sure they'll mix and match for ultimate effect! They'll probably go with a black bunny and white shorts at some point to just to make sure there's as little a clash as possible...

Makes you wonder if the attendance should be split by number of fans purchasing tickets through their club rather than the gate on the day to account for "away fans boost". But then that creates another slippery slope.

FFS!

Unfortunately I don't have the body to pull that off anymore, and barely did over 10 years ago anyway!

If the away kit was white shorts, it wouldn't be as bad. But I cannot see a situation where if a kit clashes with our home kit that it wouldn't clash with that away kit. I saw it in person yesterday and that blue is very very dark. Might as well be black. I'm surprised it's been allowed by the RFL

Don't get me started!...

Maybe it got sunburn...

I can't say I know enough about PNG to comment on what it would from an international rugby league POV, exposing a large population to NRL standards regularly can only improve playing numbers worldwide, but whether they'd get up to scratch within an acceptable timeframe is obviously a huge issue. As said, I can't see many from outside PNG wishing to relocate. I'd like to see it purely to see what happens!

Should hopefully lead to a more fixed schedule too.

Sorry if this has already been asked, but what nights/days are the games likely going to be shown? Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening?

*strong I'm guessing anyway.

Gutted for Toulouse. Thought they had it after that strong first half, but wow London! Absolutely shocked everyone by doing it away from home every game in the playoffs! Goes to show how close the Championship was this season. Wish we could have promoted all 6 of them!

This the exact same St Helens side that failed to win the league this year? The one that Wigan won? Strange logic.