gingerjon

https://bears-store.northsydneybears.com.au/merchandise/p/hoops-ls-jersey-knitted Sort of.

Didn’t Hull KR have some sort of arrangement with Amsterdam? That seems like another easy to do one given transport connections and the draw of the city. Of course, whether the clubs would be able to keep their players under control would be a separate issue.

I will be happy to be proven wrong but that kind of performance heavily indicates that no one at Wakefield believes they will win a trophy this year.

The sport really doesn't care about hits to the head at all.

Yes, because anyone with an ounce of knowledge, or the ability to understand basic things, knows that the letters of a postcode are a distribution reference area not a place. All of West Wales isn't the city of Swansea, for example.

You'd have 10,000 RL fans on the roofs of the flats on the far side and 5 individuals dotted around the stadium.

I disagree that playing Wales and France becomes viable with a "bit" of TLC. But then I think mostly so does the writer.

The people who I am talking about in the wider media/social media have mostly played the game to international standard, or at least very high professional standard.

I very specifically framed my reply around video officiating. When did you stop reading the posts you're replying to?

I think you get 8-10k from Wigan, 6-7k from Wire. Flights are pretty cheap, Holyhead-Dublin exists, etc etc

That's what wiki believes

I’m going by the broad reaction among fans, which seems to be positive. The fact that the clubs involved tend to show up in decent numbers to our event games and that Dublin is a reasonably sized city where it shouldn’t be too hard to sell a few thousand tickets to locals.

That is fair. A smarter and more coherent organisation would have space in the schedule for club-led on-the-road/big event games whilst also having several untouchable weekends for game-wide ones like Magic. But, on this specific, and with this happening when it is, I'm not seeing anything being done that 'the NRL' would need to do better. It will likely sell out, it will be a good time for those who go, it will get some nice coverage on British and Irish socials.

Actually, I am quite intrigued by what the NRL could do for two British clubs playing a match in Ireland. Take money off the table - do they get more coverage for this launch (which, ultimately, just needs to sell 20,000 tickets) than the clubs did? And does the match need that? Because, to repeat what has been said, this is not, and never has been, about expansion into Ireland in any meaningful sense.

You can criticise. And, especially around the video officiating, there is getting to be an awful lot that makes you go, "Really? No ... really?" Also with the absolute determination that there will always be mitigation when it comes to any time someone has to decide between a yellow or nothing, or a yellow or a red. The problem is where does that criticism lead. There is not a tranche of officials stepping up to replace, our current officials do not seem to be properly supported nor are the directions given to them consistent or long-lasting, the sport has no money to change any aspect of officiating for the better and, lastly, our mostly moronic (social) media has to focus on referee decisions because far too few of them would be able to talk about a game in the context of tactics and strategy.

Quite a few budget carriers fly from the north to Madrid. Return ticket is cheaper than the train to London.

A dignified "we're going to pause Magic" may be the best option, TBH. The Dublin weekend should be a massive success, though.

We did. They're the additionals in the grading handbook. No need to keep coming up with ideas. Rugby league has lots of ideas. It needs to focus on delivery.

Interestingly, genuinely because I am surprised, the Wigan-Saints women's game is among their top headlines on the main sports page now.

But if your main broadcaster can’t broadcast from the ground … I think Odsal is now okay all round, standards wise, isn’t it? I mean, obvious comment about the standards aside …

Indeed. There is usually a get out.

Have we established whether Dewsbury meets minimum standards? Because if it doesn’t, that should really be the end of the debate.

I mean, it kinda was an issue in each of those cases. A terminal issue in most.

That is 30 years ago. It’s quite a long time.