Richard de la Riviere

About ten years ago David Oxley told me he still did this!

Wish I’d put 5000 now!

Thanks The crowd figure I gave was a #### up though. It’s a number I heard from the guy next to me. It looked about right, so I slung it in. Think the official figure was just over 2000 as I discovered today.

Click on the link and find out

thanks mate. i much prefer interviewing ex-players because they're more likely to be as you say.

Newlove was certainly (cliche alert) the final piece in the jigsaw for Saints when you look at what they achieved in 1996, but, and I hope you don't me pointing this out, but it's a bit of a stretch to say they bought Newlove with the Connolly money as the two transfers were two years and three months apart. One was a terrible piece of business. The other sensational.

Glad the Connolly interview was enjoyed. The next two interviews are with Matthew Elliott and Olsen Filipaina. Then hopefully, in no particular order, Tim Sheens, Doug Laughton and George Fairbairn.

Just a heads up that my latest ex-player interview in League Express is with Gemma Walsh. Next will be Dick Huddart and then Gary Connolly and Matty Elliott. Hoping to get Olsen Filipaina soon. Here are some from the archives: https://www.totalrl.com/category/rugby-league-heroes/

It's his ex's ex

About ten years ago, an NRL game I had recorded went to golden point. The recording ended just as a winger was diving for the tryline, and the fullback was in the process of tackling him!

Thank you. It nearly killed me though!

Interesting article. Very surprised at the sales figures quoted! I published a magazine called Thirteen in 2005, which lasted six months. I then joined LPL to edit RLW, which I did for three seasons (2007, 2008 & 2009). I worked on the League Express newsdesk as well, up to about 2011. Since then, I've not had a Super League press pass and have just done one or two articles a week from home, including On This Day and Rugby League Heroes, which is still running. Writing about something you love is an awesome thing to do and I'd recommend it to anyone. One observation though. The one thing that was a constant when I was a full-time writer (2005-11) was that I always had such a bad relationship with the RFL. They certainly seemed to want my magazine to disappear in 2005. They couldn't have been any more hostile to me - and that certainly wasn't based on anything I wrote. They just treated me as an inconvenience and I suppose they knew it would ultimately fail. There was one incident that still makes me shake my head with disbelief. When I joined LPL, I hoped or a better relationship with them. Fat chance! I just worked for the trade press. We were bottom of the food chain. They had just withdrawn advertising from both LE and RLW, deciding to give it all to League Weekly for several years. From what I could gather, they would seethe at articles written by Martyn or myself but would never get in touch to talk about them or never try to form a good relationship with us. I suppose that made it easier to criticise them, but I always tried to be fair and objective. I don't think LPL are conservative. And we certainly weren't when I worked full time there. But it's still a difficult balance to strike. Most of the criticism that came my way from fans (and there was a lot!) centred around me being 'negative'. I didn't agree with that, but it came from me writing critical pieces - holding people to account you could say, which is then what the other 50% of fans criticise you for not doing just because you don't single-handedly uncover something akin to Watergate every week. I may be biased, but I think LPL gets the balance right and they have an outstanding track record of producing great publications which have always been market leaders in rugby league.

It was Kitchin who missed. Marwood started the season in the Alliance.

All I know is he played two matches without scoring. I was at the first - Huddersfield winning 10-9 at Workington. That was a real dogfight with Workington missing a penalty goal in the last minute. That result set the tone for the first few months of the season before the fortunes of both teams switched quite rapidly around Christmas.

Yes, Jammes lasted two games. Did you go the the 142-0 game? Always wondered what that was like to be at.

I was so sad to hear this yesterday. Dave was a lovely guy. I met him on a BARLA tour of South Africa in 2010. We went to Serbia the next year. I can’t believe anyone would have had a bad word to say about him.

Don't forget the Scotsman!

I think you might be confusing 1994/5 with 1995/6. The latter was the stop gap season (otherwise known as the Centenary Season) before Super League began. It ran from Aug 1995 to Jan 1996 and was interrupted for a month because of the World Cup. It was an 11-team comp, so just 20 games each at an aggregate of 606,728 according to the Rothmans. 1994-5 was the last 'proper' winter season, running from August to April and the aggregate was 1,330,538, a slight decrease on 1993-4.

Many thanks to those who have bought it - I hope you enjoy it and say nice things about it to others : ) Just an update on where the book can be bought: There's www.totalrl.com/shop obviously, and I have copies signed by Garry Schofield or Andy Gregory on ebay. It's on sale at club shops at Leeds, Wigan, St Helens, Warrington, Widnes and Workington. It can be ordered at any WHSmith or Waterstones and also through Amazon. It's also on sale at Down Under Leisure (Wigan), Philip Howard Books (Leeds), Mad For Rugby (Workington), Whitehaven Embroidery and the New Bookshop in Cockermouth.

Thanks mate, and to the others who have ordered it. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing your feedback!

Both I hope! Here is the contents list: Introduction Foreword by Garry Schofield CH1 International RL 1980-95 ... CH2 International RL 1996-2012 CH3 British RL 1980-1996 CH4 The Super League War CH5 Super League CH6 Summer Rugby - Has it Worked? CH7 Australian Rugby League CH8 The History of State of Origin CH9 The Story of The Golden Boot CH10 The 100 Greatest Players (1980-2012) CH11 Full Statistical wrap-up - full match details of all GB & England internationals, major finals, award winners & a full list of World XIIIs from 1980

They might be soon. If he gets a regular run, who's to say Elliot Kear couldn't get up to that standard quickly? If GB hadn't been scrapped, we wouldn't have had the PR own goals of Danny Brough, Chris Bridge, Ban Harrison, Garreth Carvell and a few others turning their backs on the Celtic nations in order to make themselves available for England. Scotland, Ireland and Wales have been weakened by GB being scrapped. GB should be the top tier of the international game with regular annual European Cup tournaments involving England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and anyone else deemed good enough happening at the same time.

First Town game on Sky since 1996 Hoping for a better result than last time. Lost by 70-odd at Central Park that day...

Bradford was something like 34-12. It was played 3 days after an England game in which Newlove got injured and so missed the Town game. Dave Watson got sin binned and we scored three tries while he was off the field. Seem to remember Shaun Austerfield debuted for them and had a nightmare at fullback. Can't remember any other nillings than Salford.