nadera78

I don't really want to get involved in the whole stadium-relocation argument (all over again) but to me there are a couple of stand outs, if anyone had the interest and most importantly the funds. Church Road (Hayes and Yeading FC) holds 6,500, almost entirely terracing, and has lots of room to expand. There's also a huge chunk of land alongside it that is a car park/car boot site, which could be developed to pay for the rebuild. Potential for 12,000 easily. Hayes and Yeading were planning a huge redevelopment with Barrett Homes but nothing seems to have come of it. Major downside is that it is properly in Middlesex, and miles away from any of the amateur clubs in London. Sutton Utd and Carshalton Athletic could both be developed into 12,000 capacity stadia, but only the Borough Ground (Sutton) has room for enabling developments around it. Having said that not sure if the club own the freehold or leasehold. One very prime site, almost touched upon above, is Fisher Athletic's former home ground on Salter Road, Rotherhithe. They had planning permission to redevelop with a small stadium and housing. You could probably fit 8,000 or so alongside the residential units. Big problem would be the, erm, interesting characters that own the site now that the club play in Dulwich. Cracking location if you could get it though. Like I say, there are possibilities, if you have the cash and the intent.

I must have misunderstood then, mate. No offensive meant.

Yes it is. You said we only had two teams worth beating. I replied by saying that competitiveness as an illusion. So what if we always beat France in RL? The All Blacks always beat Wales but no-one complains about it being uncompetitive. It's not an achivevement at all, they do it everytime.

Really? What about in rahrah? How many times have England beaten Australia down under? Or New Zealand anywhere? Sixty years since Wales beat New Zealand. Scotland have never done it, Ireland similar I think. What about the England football team? One trophy in the cabinet, and yet this recent world cup was the first in recent memory where the entire country wasn't convinced we were champions before the kick off. Competitiveness is an illusion. You just need the friends in the media to help you with the slight of hand.

Our friend from Leigh.

I find it staggering that everyone in this thread is talking about the global nature of the modern sporting landscape and yet the solution, according to some, is to retreat into the M62 corridor. Unbelievable.

I'm not sure what exactly the RFL can do about any of this. The media has set it's face firmly against Rugby League, that much is obvious, and no amount of wining and dining will change that. They see us as irrelevant. I vaguely remember Richard Lewis once saying that when he came into the sport he thought we were being chippy when we complained about our media coverage, but he had come to realsie that we were being sidelined and little was changing. I think that form that ppint the RFL strategy became focused upon regional and local media as they saw it as the only outlet available to us. Short of buying Trinity Mirror and a few others, I really don't see what can be done to change things.

"Righto lads, see that Kevin Sinfield? Take his head off. Danny Maguire? Squeeze until his balls pop."

Fans forum at the start of the season.

I don't know where you get that idea from, Quins have consitently said that they are close to the full salary cap. God knows what they spend it on, but they insist it's true. Mc is a great number two, but a poor head coach. He'll do well alongside McLennan, but I hope for their sake Leeds don't have him lined up to take over in the long run. Has to be noted though, that Mc has spent time working with amatuer coaches in the area, and has been a great one for advancing the development structures. As for Quins, they've got to get someone in with a track record. Got to be Steve Folkes or Graham Murray for me, with Rob Powell continuing as assistant.

I didn't know about the RLIF funding - there's never been an announcment regarding the profits from the RLWC and what they are being used for. Then again the RLIF can't even get a website up and running. But seeing as the RFL are by far the dominant ngb in Europe, Richard Lewis and Nigel Wood are on the RLEF board, and if any of the other nations want to progress then they'll need the help and assistance of the RFL in the long term, then I think they'd be in a good position if they wanted to twist a few arms.

Interesting. Seeing as the RFL is the dominant force in the RLEF you would assume they could influence how that vote is cast. The NZRL tends to support the ARL, largely because they are a client nation reliant on the ANZAC test for income. As I recall the ARL and NZRL haven't joined the Pacific body, which would mean that organisations vote could be up for grabs. That could make RLIF meetings a bit more interesting.

I think there's a very good player somewhere in there. To be fair to him most players would struggle playing out on the wing for Quins.

And it's got a big orange sash across the chest!

Perhaps that's because no-one knows the games are being shown?

Not much of a game for the Cook Islands. Is it a warm up for something else?

We're playing them because the NU touring side played them in 1910, because they'll bring in a decent crowd, and because it's probably cheaper for the organisers than bringing in Tonga or Fiji. NZ will be playing Samoa and Australia were rumoured to be looking at the Cook Islands. Hopefully PNG will get a warm up game as well. Lobby the Kiwis have had a number of Maori players in the team recently, but it's usually a mix of Maori, Islanders and the odd white fella. It was only a few years back when the majority of the team seemed to be of Samoan descent.

There is constant baiting of Salford fans over the issue of their stadium, and most of it by Widnes fans. I just find it a little rich that they should criticise another club for not developing their facilities when they themselves only have such a lovely stadium because their local council built it and the EU funded it. You almost make it sound like the club was doing the council a favour. Obviously it was the other way round; a club with no money selling it's only asset to the council who build them a lovely new stadium, and using the money to pay off its debts. That is what happened in the late 1990's, wasn't it? Just to be clear on this, I think it's fantastic that you have a local authority that recognises your role and position within the local comunity and does something to support the club. Many other clubs would love to have that level of support. And I think Widnes would make a welcome addition to SL. But I dont like the attacks on other clubs from some of your fans.

Just a little question about the Widnes fans' baiting Salford for their lack of a new stadium. Didn't Halton Council build (with EU money) your ground for you? While your club was going bust (again) spunking money up the wall on ###### players.

Griffi was a RL junior. He came through at Carcassonne, playing age-group for France all the way, before going to union at 18/19 years of age. He only stayed a couple of years before moving back to RL. Apart from that, it's good news for the froggies to be reclassified as federation trained.

Ice Hockey has a similar rule, whereby you need to be a citizen of the country you play for. If a player changes nationality, having never played for his first country, then he needs to prove he has played two consecutive years in the domestic competition of his new country. If he has already played internationally before switching then this needs to be four years. I could probably live with that. btw Willie Manu is not a UK citizen.

Willie Manu was born and raised in Australia, as a teenager he played for the Junior Kiwis, then as an adult played for Tonga and now seems to want to play for England. That in itself tells you all you need to know about his motivation in all of this; he'd play for anyone who offered him a game at the highest level of our sport. This is also demonstrated in the statement his club released last week. Manu talked about the challenge of playing against the best in the world, etc, etc. At no point did he say anything about this being his home, being settled here, considering himself one of us, wanting to give something back, or anything else approaching a statement of commitment. He simply wants to play test RL and will turn out for whoever will give him a game. To my mind, he has no right to pull on an England jersey. As a point of principle it would be fundamentally wrong.

I agree. I actually find the whole nation-swapping thing quite offensive. Willie Manu isn't English and he never will be, he's got no business pretending to represent me, my family and my friends. He is solely interested in playing test RL, if he was good enough to be doing it for Australia then he'd never have turned out for Tonga, and he'd certainly never have put his hand up for us. I also have a nagging fear that McNamara has got Chris Heighington pencilled in for the Four Nations as well.

He's already been claimed by Tonga.

Manu was definitely listed in the Tonga squad before the tournament, I've seen it on several websites (including the NRL one) but I can't yet find any actual team lists from the games themselves. So I'm not sure if he did play or not. If he did then he's ineligible for anyone else until 2012.