Chris22

I disagree. Leeds have played a full strength team three times in a week and now have another trip to France. With other injuries, fatigue and Martin's form and kicking ability, I think they struggle without him. It's a judgement call and a finely balanced one. You could understand the decision either way.

I made the point on Twitter before but I'd get used to this. The RFL's insurance premiums have quadrupled in a year. You would think this is due to being sued by 75 ex players and the potential for having to pay huge amounts in compensation and legal costs. If we do nothing or are seen to be doing nothing about head injuries, that we keep increasing to the point of unaffordability. No insurance. No sport. It's probably a key reason why the 'double' weekends are going and concussion stand down periods are longer and will get longer still. We may go further still. Look at Union's approach to high contact for a sneak peak. No amount of feet stamping or burying heads in the stands from journalist and ex-brutes who played the sport will change that reality.

I get why Leeds appealed. The risk was an increased ban, but it seems well worth taking that chance to try and get it overturned.

Since the list is 3, I'd probably swap Lewis for Murphy. Not sure if this is my bias, but Welsby looks a clear winner.

Regardless of Rimmer's success or not, he was objectively poor at both Huddersfield and Sheffield. As Wood was at Halifax. That questions how both got the job in the first place. Rimmer was wooden and a poor communicator. His interview regarding academy licensing on Sky was excruciating and then followed a u turn and prolonged absence from any public appearance. I recall another excruciating interview with Dave Woods in 2018 post New Zealand series. That being said, covid was a potentially sport crippling event and he should be credited for avoiding catastrophe in that period. As for a successor, with Moorhouse gone too (who I had as a frontrunner), then Jon Dutton or Simon Johnson look favourites. Dutton oversaw an average 2016 Four Nations but has done good things with the World Cup. Johnson is an excellent communicator but I know little else about him. I'm not as bothered about whether the appointment is external. Roger Draper and Robert Elstone were hardly roaring successes. It's a tough job for whoever does get it. I'd like to see more clear and targeted aims, rather than a scattergun approach. For example, to halt sliding Challenge Cup Final attendances would be one and committing to at least two home England internationals ever year, one in the heartlands and one outside. These are achievable in my view, far more so than delusions of huge growth for the sport.

I'd put Paasi in over Walmsley and Leutele in over Kenny-Dowell, but that's it. You could name at least four wingers who could deserve to get in, but I'd struggle to name one loose forward!

This thread shows that Matt Shaw is getting the desired results. The 'Reach' group, in fact any online media organisations rates their journalists by how many 'clicks' they get and in turn, how much website / ad revenue is collected. That's what makes money. It's also what makes reputable journalists write desperate things designed to provoke a reaction. I doubt he believes half of the guff he writes, but that's what he has to do to make a living and to avoid having to justify his salary to the top brass at Reach. As a result, we get a large volume of articles (more clicks) with ever declining quality (because that's not relevant to media organisations).

Hull KR running with 16 players on Saturday. Would hope some kind of emergency loan deals can be done.

Not surprised to have this news confirmed, yet still disappointing. Like many, I saw the job of taking over from Holbrook as an impossible one. Not just in terms of success on field, but Holbrook's ability to bring fans and club closer. Woolf strikes me as very different personality wise. Very much a gey on with the job at hand man. It's clear from our performances and success that the players have a great deal of respect for him and trust in him. I don't envy Wellens taking over as it's hard to improve on what we've done of late. Hope Woolf goes well in the NRL.

This is a significant problem. You cannot make the process of buying tickets difficult or customers simply won't bother.

With the exception of the slow return of crowds post covid in 2021 and a match in the snow against Salford, think that's our lowest crowd for a Super League match at the new stadium. Must say, it looked probably more than our matches against Castleford and Hull KR of late where 10,000 + was announced. Maybe my radar is off!

With the form of Salford, Peet might even prefer finishing 2nd and avoiding the lowest ranked team in the semi final!

I know the thread was started ironically but I see Huddersfield and Catalans getting dumped out in week 1.

From a Saints perspective, Delaney and Pemberton the stand ours of the young players. I know there are some concerns at Saints that the next couple of age groups to come through are quite a bit weaker than the last few, but those two sides well. Ironically, most of our unforced errors came from more experienced players. A good dig by our lads with the expected outcome. As for Wakefield, I like the looks of Murphy more and more each time I see him.

I didn't think it was possible to make a fool of yourself so many times in just a few sentences but there you go.

I think this tweet sums it up nicely

Going for Wakefield by 20. Our squad is arguably weaker than the one that lost away to Castleford in April. Right call by Woolf to play the reserves and looking forward to the young players getting their chance to play at home. Hope the crowd really get behind them.

I seem to recall Lee Radford comparing the sport to netball earlier this season. A totally ridiculous and borderline misogynistic remark. The clampdown earlier this season not only sought to protect players from forceful and illegal head contacts, but journalists behind a keyboard who haven't taken a tackle in their life weren't satisfied with the idea, so here we are. We were as close to the much vaunted 'consistency' that is allegedly 'all that fans want' too. Now we have an instance where Aidan Sezer is sin binned for a late hit on Theo Fages on Wednesday, yet Jack Ashworth received no yellow card for a near identical offence in Huddersfield's loss at Salford.

Feared the worst before the match and so it proved. The Marshall and Farrell tries were both soft and summed up our night. Thought Wigan's goal line defence was excellent, but we were understandably clunky in attack. I really like the looks of O' Neill for Wigan. For such an inexperienced player, he's all class. Massive prospect. We've played Wigan 4 times this year and each side has won twice. 1 big win for each side and 2 that could have gone either way. With both sides unbeaten at home and having home semis, I'd be surprised if this wasn't the Grand Final. If it is, then the previous meetings don't give much indication about a winner! But Wigan's excellent goal kicking against our hit and miss goal kicking could be crucial.

Scratch that, Batchelor out too apparently. Edit: thankfully, that one was nonsense.

We've been saying that Roby will start reducing his minutes since about 2016. Never actually happens. On the one hand, I'm delighted, he's still top class and we're far better with him here. I just hope he hasn't gone one year too far in the same way that someone like Sean O' Loughlin did.

Rumour is Tommy Makinson out for us. Squad numbers 2 - 5 all out now. I expect a backline something like: Welsby, Bennison, Hurrell, Batchelor, Simm, Lomax, Davies Not fancying our chances with French and Field running at that backline!

Of course, League Express has a history of promoting bigoted views, such as when they published an openly homophobic letter. One of the reasons I decided to stop purchasing the paper. You may call that cancel culture, but I call it finding more efficient ways to spend £1.50 per week.

We pride ourselves on being a game for all. If you have no interest in women's rugby, then fine. But I struggle to understand why it upsets people so much that women have the right to play sport.

A champion side sees that game out in my view. As it would have done in the cup final. Huddersfield are hugely improved on 2022, but those are two examples of why they are still a bit below Saints and Wigan.