gavin7094

But we haven't been overtaken in any conventional sense. All that has happened is that qualification rules changed ten years ago that massively improved the competitiveness of some nations (e.g. Tonga, Samoa, Fiji) much more than others (e.g. England, France). We wanted competitive, meaningful international matches so we can't really then complain when we don't easily beat the teams that we used to. We can't have it both ways. Personally I think that Tonga will win on Saturday, but if they do I'm not going to wail and gnash my teeth about the state of English rugby league. The result on Saturday will not tell us anything useful about that.

That doesn’t really say anything about the state of English Rugby League' though, just that Tonga and Samoa have improved enough in 2 WC cycles to beat us. In fact, with about half the team being Aussies anyway, it would tell us even less about the English game. If we were to lose to France though...

The funding issue is, in my opinion, a bit of a red herring. It was brought up quite a bit last season when discussing the performances of York and Toulouse, but all it really means is that those clubs will make a smaller loss/borrow less money to be competitive.

Why?

"There's not a lot of rugby being played, we've tried to play it". "They (York) don't pass the ball so we don't have to worry about our edges".

Same criteria that were used for the Woman of Steel award then.

Magnificent game. Stunning win.

Fantastic compilation. Thanks.

Has Connor missed now?

York had a 42 page thread because of rumours of 'financial difficulties'. In other news, Wigan borrow £4.6m to run the club.

Even better, do away with the league table entirely and replace it with an 'IMG live ladder', with IMG scores updated in real time.

Sensational win 26-12.

Shared between 13 clubs...

York have been a much better team this season when he has been on the field. Blake Lawrie has some big boots to fill.

Then maybe no contact should be until puberty is finished (usually 17ish in males)? In either case, the number of potentially concussive collisions over the player's playing career would be much reduced. The cumulative effect of many 'small' concussions is at least as important as fewer larger ones.