welshmagpie

Agree massively on your 9 comment - does it rely on Leeming hitting form on these shores again? (Haven’t followed him in the NRL)

Nigel Wood… brilliant… Who’d have thunk it! (not disagreeing with you by the way, just a hug turn up for Nige’s otherwise unsteady reputation)

I’m not calling them World beaters mate so maybe we’re talking about two very different things here. But then what I will say is that at least 3 of these will be involved in a winning team against NZ, Tonga and or Samoa (not putting Australia in there!) in the next 8 years

Harry Smith Lewis Dodd Jonny Lomax George Williams Sam Walker* Marc Sneyd Jordan Abdull Mikey Lewis Will Pryce** * English born despite have another accent. ** Has many critics but is still only 20 As a Welshman mate, trust me when I say you’re alright for halves. Your stock is generally young too and will grow immensely as individuals over next 5-10 years. Your future’s bright.

The club I run in our area of the Midlands have a committee team consisting of the following ages: 25, 26, 28, 30, 32 How grateful I am for all of them as only two of us are ‘rugby league’ people as such, despite all 5 still putting the boots on.

I think the next, ambitious, step for Welsh RL is inclusion of an academy in the Super League academy League. The existing academy is a ‘college’ set up playing nearby university teams, touring Italy, dual-reg with Salford etc.

There’s a gap between a very strong U16 league and national team and men’s rugby league. A few quality U16s get signed up by Warrington, Salford et al. Other quality one’s return to rugby union academies with Scarlets etc. Some lose interest in sport as work, college and university loom large. The biggest thing though, with Crusaders training in Widnes - why would a young lad from Pontypridd, as an example, see that as an exciting opportunity when he could be pod as much/more playing semi-pro rugby union with his mates and be home in time for a beer with his local mates. League One isn’t the answer I don’t think.

Junior rugby league is booming in south Wales, record numbers for the last three years running. The trick now is ensuring the professional pathway remains in tact. Proof of it is below: 6 Welsh born and bred in Salford’s reserve side last week. 3 in London’s. 1 due to join Warrington.

I was mightily impressed a few years back when they showed the European Cup games between Ireland, Wales, France and Scotland on iPlayer. Was great.

Mike Abbott

Anyone aware of the plans for TV coverage? RLonTV have it down as BBC but saw them tweet the other day that they’ve made an educated guess in absence of confirmation. Have I missed anything?

Big lads and a far better standard than I was expecting! Credit to both teams. You can see that both nations are benefitting from regular and consistent competition at domestic level.

Did some research on this recently. Most recent census has 68,000 Australians and Kiwis in London. Another 32,000 in the ‘South East’

Southern Orcas for me.

The best thing that’s happened down here in recent years is the continuation of ‘regional‘ rugby league through the winter. You couldn’t continue the junior leagues past August as Rugby union and football are king - numbers would be non-existent. What WRL have done however is launch regular ‘east’ and ‘west’ camps for players at U14 and U16 level to attend and Co to year honing their rugby league related craft. It’s through this repetition of skill that we will be able to match out English and French counterparts as we grow.

U16s - Cynon Valley 34-14 Aber Valley A few Welsh junior internationals on display in this game. Kai Sengul one of them and bagging two consolation tries from full back. For the victors, Mason Daniels strong with the boot from half back & Harley Smith going over twice from centre.

Results so far: U8s - Aber Valley 4-16 Pontyclun The sons of Lloyd White & Ben Flower on the losing side in this one. Callan Jones scored 3 tries for the victors. U9s - Swansea 28-16 Cynon Valley The Swansea boys and girls were never behind in this one. U10s - Swansea 4-32 Torfaen Harri Sergent with a hat trick for the Torfaen Tigers. U11s - Aber Valley 16-12 Cynon Valley Closest game of the day so far. An added-time try for Quade Kenvyn Caddick won it in the end. U12s - Bridgend 28-10 Aber Valley Win one for the Blue Bulls today. U14s - Bridgend 28-10 Aber Valley Yep, the exact same score! Exact same clubs.

Anybody know how many fans each of the finalists took to Wembley?

https://x.com/troygrant/status/1691726615880015921?s=46 Quote from IRL Chair, Troy Grant: “Yes @NRL working with me @TheRFL @IMG @EuroRugbyLeague to help shape improved Northern Hemisphere content and development. Work in progress”

Tonga ‘A’ vs New Zealand ‘A’ also been scheduled.

Just found this after a little search:

FWIW, I remember the 2009 Pacific Cup when the Cook Islands shocked everybody in defeating Samoa in Queensland with a bunch of kids - Johnathan Ford was one of them. The tournament was then played in PNG, who went on to win it. Coverage and information was scarce, I remember some highlights eventually emerging online somewhere. Maybe, maybe SkySports showed a replay of the final (May have made that up!?)

Yeah impressive crowds. I looked back at previous grand finals held in Toulouse, Albit etc which only attracted ~3,000. Narbonne seems a winner - I’m assuming due to its location within the Aude region?

Save me starting a new thread mate. When do the FFRXIII usually announce Elite One grand final venue? Is it likely to be Narbonne again?

Matt Haines did an excellent design for them. Both logo and kit.