Exiled Wiganer
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Posts posted by Exiled Wiganer
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1 hour ago, Saint Toppy said:
You mean the Naiqama thats captain of Fiji !!
Naiquama was great in attack but defensively he was awful. He cost Saints so many try's by being out of position or racing in and taking nobody leaving his winger exposed.
Top Toppy!
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2 hours ago, Saint Toppy said:
When fully fit Percival has real class as shown by match winning try's & performances. His biggest issue throughout his career though has been his fitness or rather the sheer number of injuries. He showed glimpses in 2021 of what he can do when fit so fingers crossed he has an injury free 2022
Though if you were picking the England team, there would be no need for any non Saints players at all, even if they had won the Dally M.
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2 minutes ago, super major said:
Possibly the potential problem of unvaccinated players not allowed into France could be decisive at both ends of the table.
Maybe East Yorkshire could have a similar ruling?
I am not sure we are allowed to comment on that, but assuming we are, then if those are the rules so be it. All clubs should have seen it coming, and planned accordingly. If it makes the difference between, say, Trinity staying up or not then that is on them. I think that the 4 good sides are so much better than the next 4 I can’t see that issue making any difference to who finishes in the top 4, but it’s certainly a factor in the Cats’ favour.
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Of course we can have double headers, if we think it’s a good idea. Or triple or quadruple headers. There is no reason why good organisers can’t sell loads of tickets for Cook Islands v Jamaica. I was in a large crowd in Bristol who loved watching a Cook Islands match in 2013. The beauty of our game is, of course, that when people see it in the flesh they realise they are seeing something special. Anyone who under estimates the ability to sell a Jamaican team has spent too long in lockdown.
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2 hours ago, Tommygilf said:
Literally this year lol
It doesn’t appear on the AFL guide to “world” sport, so he couldn’t be expected to know.
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Saints
Cats
Leeds
Wire
Hull
Hull KR
Wigan
Huddersfield
Cas
Salford
Toulouse
Trinity
I am pretty confident as to which teams will be in each block of 4, but not that confident as to how they will finish within those blocks. With Wigan, honestly it could be anywhere between 1st and 12th. We should know pretty soon after the Wire pre season game and the HKR and Leeds matches how they’ll go. Among the good sides, Leeds’ squad looks really good, and all eyes will be on what Powell can do with more resources available to him.
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I would also like to note, in case anyone only looks at the last couple of pages of this thread, that the organisers of the 2025 World Cup have NOT proposed any double headers. That was my (I think) suggestion, when thinking about how a France women’s game alongside a men’s game not featuring France could draw in a bigger crowd than either game would attract individually.
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There is a character in They Live in the Shadows called Colin Robinson... for some reason the last post made me think of him.
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Meanwhile, for those of us who have been exasperated by the French administration’s seeming inability to get its act together, I should say how impressed I am by the current people in charge. One massive upside of this level of ambition is that is gives the whole game a single aim - make the World Cup in France be the greatest event it can be. Chapeau to Luc.
I am tempted to brush up my Franglais. I would love to be able to hold a basic conversation with a proper treiziste - my most recent attempt ended with my “explaining” to a bar man that my friend had lost his wallet tomorrow. Which only works in an episode of Doctor Who. There is such a beautifully sad story around French rugby league that deserves to be re told - and now we have a chance to re write the ending.
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If Farnworth jumps ship for the Dark Side, will there be counselling available for everyone on here affected by the loss?
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52 minutes ago, Damien said:
The RL obsession with double and triple headers never ceases to amaze me. If anything smacks of small time it's this.
Normally, I would agree, I was simply thinking about whether the France women’s games could act as a boost for other events.
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One thing that we should consider carefully is how well the french will do in all 3 competitions - a competing France women’s side playing alongside the men’s competition in the later stages as a double header could draw in the crowds.
It won’t be easy, but they will be building on great work from 2013 and 2021/2, and have time and inclination to make the local bases work for us. My oh my, there is a lot to like.
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I expect a lot of Brits will watch more than one game, and so they wouldn’t need 100k visitors.
If we stayed a couple of weeks, we would look to watch as many games as we could - maybe half a dozen if we could work out the logistics. That’s 24 tickets already! The key for us, and I am sure many others, is announcing the schedule as far in advance as they can. Allez les Bleus!
I can see it being a great success off the field - it would be greatly enhanced if the french sides can be competitive...
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It’s such a good news story. The level of aspiration, and buy in across the board is fantastic.
France once loved our game in huge numbers, and can do so again.
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12 hours ago, Josef K said:
I would sooner have a greasy meat pie at Saints instead of the free pint they’re offering season ticket holders for the Catalans match.
If they served Pimbo’s pies they’d sell out every week.
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We are so much further on than 2000. The French will be able to build on what worked in 2013, and what will work in 2022. Plus, they will be able to see what has worked for the Football World Cup. As I touched on above, they could adopt the tried approach taken to stages of the Tour de France of making each game an event. With other major municipalities to follow, the foundations are very strong indeed. They would also come to our game fresh and enthusiastic, without the occasionally jaded approach we saw in places like Sydney in 2017.
Finally, one thing we all know is that, once it is marketed and people are in the ground, the games will sell themselves.
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Trent Robinson is an example of all that is good about our game.
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2 minutes ago, Davo5 said:
Can’t wait,a month travelling around France watching RL could be the perfect start to retirement,just need to convince the ball & chain.
Hopefully Roanne gets a game & I can go back 43 yrs after playing there.
Sounds great. They will have probably repaired the club house by then from the damage you caused last time.
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It does no harm at all that the top IRL employee is based in France.
I don’t know what the French is for “Build it and they will come” (le construissez et ils venerant???).
One thing that I didn’t appreciate until recently was the level of financial autonomy that local French municipalities have, and the extent to which winning the right to host a game is a badge of honour to a town/city/region. We can treat each game as a TdF stage, and make it a real community exercise - I know that John Dutton’s team is working on that basis, but the French seem to get the idea even more. Plus, they can build on the expertise over here, and pick the brains of the people who have already delivered, and will deliver later this year, wonderful world cups.
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It is a marvellous day for the game. Credit must go to the IRL, of course, but the level of professionalism shown so far by the organisers - 3 years out - suggests that they will give this their very best shot. I would also be interested to see whether we could pull off an Emerging nations tournament around it, perhaps a 9s tournament. Something to give the stalwarts in, say, Serbia, Turkey, Morocco to aim for... I am probably just being greedy now.
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1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:
Might be time for you to find a new forum where you can only hear the opinions that match yours.
I will happily do so when you get a life.
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15 minutes ago, NW10LDN said:
And? What is your issue here? I'm sure the college and school comps will be back once Covid is behind us. So much negativity on this forum.
Lebanon are a shining light for our game, fighting against all the odds to keep the flame of The Greatest Game going.
As for the negativity, it comes pretty much from the same group of “people”. The “no domestic league” c—- is the first shot in the “PNG is a tiny third world country/nobody wants to watch Tonga” fantasy island attacks. This thread is an international rugby league good news story, the best news story our game has had in a long time, with the real prospect of France building on this to retake their place as a top tier treiziste nation. Keep that in mind.
I give it 3 pages before it gets completely bogged down by the “know your place peasants” brigade.
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Sadly, it looks like the usual suspects are massing on here again...
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I would look into the eligibility rules again, and work out whether there are established “overseas” stars who could be encouraged to qualify to play for France. I think that’s what other sports do - certainly, they used to do it a lot in cricket.
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Clubs with a positive feel good factor
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
Just get a kid to do a minecraft ground, and send a screen grab to the RFL. If it’s good enough for Cas...