RP London

Totally agree.. oxen stuff just delivered, amazing service as didn’t pay for next day.. fits well, slightly smaller than some, if you are close to the top end of a size bracket go up I would say but as a large it fits fine for me (I’m pretty much an average large, as in I always buy a large never an xl or medium)

My eagles shirt is a good fit, normal sizing, maybe a little tighter but nothing major. Better than hummel I would say, my himmel England shirt is a terrible fit

I went for it.. let's see if I live to regret it.. should know in 3-5 days

I havent listened to the podcast as yet but in the bbc article (which i assume has been written from it) he does say that the owners need to stop making the decisions in their own self interest https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/58264373 which is frankly music to my ears. The rest is what i would call "white board thinking".. basically sit around a white board and splurge all your ideas out, there are no stupid ideas.. then everyone starts to look at them, tweak them around a bit, and get the good ones so you can work on them.. get rid of the actual rubbish. However, you dont do it in public as there are stupid ideas! All of that should be done by the new board that is independent though and he should be nowhere near it.. so for me after his "we should stop making selfish decisions and have a board that is independent" the rest of what he says, to an extent, is a bit irrelevant..

The thought of gould's smug face if it was postponed/cancelled and there was a NH comp and a SH set of international matches this autumn is enough to turn my stomach. Play the world cup and sue the nrl for as much as you can! Also someone just punch Gould I'm the face... pleeeease

All been covered.. super league is being caught in the track and trace issues. Come middle of August it won't be happening with the change in rules.

terrible idea.. the point of end of season is the players are all "in the groove" a pre season world cup would be woeful

but that wouldnt solve it as the RLWC happens before the FIFA World Cup which is the big problem.. it will get lost in the build up to the FiFA world cup and the whos injured whos not that will be the back pages of the papers in the run up. If it happens it needs to happen this year, if it happens next year i get the feeling it will be a pointless damp squib, more so than it happening this year with indigenous teams or invitation xiii or even bringing in the next qualifiers.

It can be arranged...

No but they are meeting up with people from different teams and then having to isolate when they test positive for covid nearly taking out the entire team... thats fantastic work BTW!

i'm assuming you havent read the thread as the last few questions you have asked have all been answered multiple times during it.. no, no one believes that excuse but its the one they are using and therefore the RLWC have to answer it in the open to show that its bull.

Probably a larger amount.. but its not just that its the intangibles of the fact there will be wall to wall fifa world cup in the papers (even just the build up) where as this is very much stand alone this year.

the sanctioning is done by the IRL not by the governing body. Therefore if the IRL say its a sanctioned team they need to release. Thats part of the issue around the IRL not sanctioning end of season tests played by aus and nz if they dont turn up. Now, of course, that doesnt stop them having ghost surgeries and therefore not being released or just saying "actually i dont want to come". it also doesnt stop the NRL saying to clubs that they need to release players for the Aus v NZ unsanctioned test matches.

I would guess this is one of the many things they are having a look at at the moment and why a decision is not so straight forward.

I'm not sure if it is about the bodies participating. My understanding was if chosen for a team for a game sanctioned by the IRL then you must release. So if the IRL sanction the indigenous sides then they have to release (same as the other nations). If they dont sanction a Tonga v Italy game (for example) they dont need to release no matter who is putting the game on, that is up to the players to sort out a release etc.

i'm not sure how true that is.. if its an IRL sanctioned I understood that they had to release.. that is unless they all need "surgery" in the post season of course.

TBF that horse has well and truly bolted already!

from my understanding talking to someone in the insurance industry the word "sanctioned" is really important. If the IRL sanction a match then insurance is covered he believes there will be IRL or World Cup insurance that would cover this, but he also said it could be the club they are playing for, therefore they would need to get separate insurance for any "rebel" side that played but that wouldn't be difficult and the RLWC would just need to get it (more money but that could be what is being negotiated with the govt). IF they are not sanctioned then there is an issue for the insurance, so IF there are unsanctioned tests at the end of the season there are more likely to be insurance issues of who covers what than if the RLWC goes ahead. As i say, this is from someone who deals with this type of thing and he is confident insurance is not an issue here as it is a recognised and sanctioned event by the international governing body.

I would say there is a bit of all 3.. if you were running a business and something like this happened (we have had similar this customer orders being cancelled etc) then you look at all the options available to you to work out which is the most feasible. Therefore I am sure they know exactly how much it would cost to take place next year and whether that is actually an option, how much cancelling would cost and also all the options to play again this year. They may just be waiting for some of those facts to be made more clear but also there could be some talks by the RLPA with players to gauge which out of the indigenous teams/rebel teams/invite new teams would be the most likely to succeed and what the players views are on that, knowing now that the players will most likely speak out so better pick the most popular one.

@David Dockhouse Host is that true?? i struggle to watch you tube videos like this at the moment but i'm listening to podcasts on my run in and out of work (and running low). if so will download and have a listen.

Sadly if I were the IOC that is exactly how the conversation would be going.. as it would with any sport where this happened.

Anything we can do to do that is fine with me

Love this bit from the BBC article.... pretty much says it all really and maybe Phil (almighty windbag) Gould would like to have a chat with Christian Welch and get his facts straight "The most telling thing is how the NRL was able to come back from Covid and found an amazing way of state border exemptions but it seems the NRL have just wanted to quit on the World Cup," added Welch.

The way a postponement is talked about its as if they think moving the Olympics was a piece of cake.. forgetting that it meant re arranging athletics world championships and re awarding the next 2 or 3 to cities and moving them around at, what I assume, was great expense especially the ones that should have been this year.. other sports will have had to do similar. But you do it because its the Olympics which, pretty much, beats everything else. It funds so much sport, its where sports funding from governments come from. You do everything to get Olympics on... other sports shift themselves to make way. That is not the same for an rlwc ffs.. the premier league, fifa World Cup etc couldn't give a stuff and won't move without incentive which will be extra cost.. Those thinking it would be easy are wrong, that's why this decision is taking so long.. the govt will help no doubt (if they have to) but its not going to be easy and will need the govt to stump up more cash. Why do that when you've already bent over backwards to make it work NOW, and you want to prove to the world you are open for business and safe? You don't... I hope to god we don't cave.. go ahead, give the aussies and nz one more chance to back track but then open it up to new nations.

I wonder if the general feeling was that they will play this year happily but also if it were to be postponed they would support it.. Therefore no announcement to be made but they would communicate it to the World Cup organising committee so they know that whatever decision they make the PIs will stand with them.. also means they arent cutting off their nose with the NRL.