Black Country Wire

BBC2

I lived through the 80s and most of it was ######.

Sorry, I thought it was the BBL you were talking about. My mistake.

There is a London franchise called London Lions who I believe play out of the Copper Box.

Would love to see Catalans do it but head says Wigan.

Take your point but on the other hand it makes it harder to win from lower down. From memory I think it was only once or twice that the GF was won from 3rd place under the top 5 system. The current system makes it easier to win from (say) 5th place which IMO damages the credibility of the competition.

Bring the French teams back into the Challenge Cup instead then.

As were a lot of us I suspect.

We'll either win by a drop goal or get thoroughly spanked.

Preferred the old top 5 system which gave genuine reward for finishing higher up the table.

League positions are determined over 27 games not one. If you finish the day before and are then relying on other results then frankly you've not done enough. IMO doesn't matter if games are played at the same time or not. Never understood why "knowing what you have to do" is unfair. At the start of the season EVERYONE knows what they have to do - get more points than the other teams. If you haven't necessary secured this when you have played your last game then tough. Not the other team's/teams' problem.

The way Wire have been this season could be a 20 point margin either way or anything in-between.

I was at a Conference North game a few years ago that was abandoned in the 85th minute and a full replay was ordered.

I don't agree. The general public will be largely unaware of the origins of the players 11000 turned out in Coventry for Australia v Scotland. Didn't hear any chat about this.

10 team competition still makes us look 2nd rate though.

I note that the netball World Cup is currently under way. This is a sport largely only played by Commonwealth countries and largely dominated by 3 nations. They have a 16 team competition with the regular "blow outs"* and yet l don't see plans there to reduce numbers. I would have thought that RL should have a marginally wider geographical spell and that alone should be enough to muster 16 teams together which should be the absolute minimum. I can only speak for myself but I don't have an issue with blowouts or heritage players (although I don't believe the general public does either TBH) and I firmly believe that the credibility of the competition is more damaged by imploding in on itself with a (just over) half sized tournament, especially if it includes one of the so called "super groups" which were much derided in previous competitions. *23 of the first 32 games saw a winning margin of 20 points or more.

Personally I 'd keep the CC as straight knockout. Group stages is just getting rid of loop fixtures to be replaced by other loop fixtures as far as I can see.

Back when the FA Cup semi finals were played in outside Wembley it was not uncommon to take a week for the venues to be announced. Granted it was more often than not Old Trafford and Villa Park. (Not that I am suggesting in any way either of those here! )

"Blowouts" don't seem to damage the reputation of tournaments in other sports so why should they do so for the RLWC?

Just like the last one it's always our year!

Placed 2 orders. The 2nd arrived within 7 days, the 1st still waiting after 4 weeks!

Placed 2 orders. The 2nd arrived within 7 days, the 1st still waiting after 4 weeks!

Highs: The wheelchair games 5 new ground ticks Early bird ticket pricing (£356 for my initial 20 tickets - less than £18 each) The men's semi finals. No bloody Mexican waves (apart from that one in the final and at least it was during a break in play) Seeing some new teams. Lows. Whoever decided that we couldn't possibly have 3 seconds between the award and taking of a handover without some random music being blasted out. Let alone scrums, penalties, drop outs and 20m restarts. The game order - should be 1 v 4 in the first group game not the last. Lack of geographical spread.

You are allowed a sighted goalkeeper in the blind football tournament so it may be possible under certain parameters.

Tell you what, play Ireland v Jamaica in Birmingham at a 10-12k stadium with appropriate pricing and you'd fill the place.