The Blues Ox

Agreed, Ive watched it a lot too and have the same opinion. It's unfortunate that a player has come out of it with a very bad injury but I'm struggling to see the foul play. Contact is high enough and defenders are taught to get tight in to the attacker with their lead leg and the technique in the video does not look great but I still don't think it is a reason to ban someone. Interesting to hear that Cas defense for this is going to be their player taking a head knock just before this and saying he remembers the contact but not much after it. I can't see that helping their case, I think they would have done better if their player could fully explain his actions. The worry is that you will see maybe 2 or 3 tackles similar to this in each game that go unpunished so what is the difference and will we be seeing a potential rule change. interesting as well people quoting the twist, bend, or otherwise part of the rules but in the new tackle safe video put out by the RFL a couple of weeks back there is a lot of talk now about coaching players to lift a leg of a defender and a motion that certainly could be deemed twisting on the standing leg when the tackle is effected is going to happen with this most of the time.

Fev Women retired the No. 12 shirt in memory of Natalie Harrowell.

Totally agreee regards Widdop and said the same many times on our fans forum when it became clear it was going to happen. It is a "nice" signing but we needed a centre and at least a couple of props and although I don't believe Widdop is on a fortune, I would imagine that money would have brought in those players.

We should get the final that most people will want to see so its hard to argue with that. Also again...bloody huddersfield.

I didn't go today but we appear threadbare. Couldn't name a 21 man squad and 3 players named in the 20 man squad we already knew were not playing. Said at the start of the season that with a full team we would make the playoffs but that pointless game against Hammersmith where we lost 3 of our best players for the season wrecked the season before it started and it seems our new board either don't have the resources or are totally oblivious to the fact we look a bit of a shambles. Been in the relegation mix I don't think is out of the question.

Wigan 44-4. Bloody Huddersfield.

Had far too much faith in Huddersfield. I'm surprised they are so far off the pace this season, they look further behind than before.

Nice to see Skybet still offering odds on these games. Had a bit of a punt today:- Leeds -48 V Warrington Saints V Huddersfield +40 Wigan -36 V Cardiff York -68 V Fev For Leeds its just a case of how many points against Warrington and the ame for York V Fev. I think both look good to cover the handicaps comfortably. Saints V Huddersfield is an interesting one, Hudds with their signings should no longer be getting hammered by the top teams although the Leeds results suggests that may still be the case. I just fancy Hudds to be a lot closer than 40 points to Saints. Wigan are going to win but I think its a hard one to judge by how many but plumped for Wigan to cover the handicap.

Some tough ones this week with only the York game standing out as a potential drubbing. SATURDAY 13th APRIL Bradford Bulls v Toulouse Olympique Bulls by 4 SUNDAY 14th APRIL Barrow Raiders v Dewsbury Rams Barrow by 20 Doncaster v Featherstone Rovers Fev by 8 Swinton Lions v Sheffield Eagles Eagles by 2 Whitehaven v Batley Bulldogs Haven by 4 Widnes Vikings v Halifax Panthers Fax by 6 York Knights v Wakefield Trinity Wakefield by 34

Technically not true with some of the years we have been in this league there has been no promotion. Unfortunatley for us our purple patch came in the years when there was no promotion. I think they said there was a possibility that it would expand rather than it certainly would. End of the day the SL clubs have the power and when we do have 12 clubs which will likely be in 2 or 3 years then unless the TV deal has gone up there is not a chance in hell that the SL clubs would vote to expand the league.

Personally feel like we will be at 12 Grade A clubs within 2 or 3 years but thankfully for the Super League teams who will vote against an expansion to a 14 team league, there is realistically very little hope of a Championship been able to gain a Grade A because of the way the criteria is set up.

They are but the format is in favor of the teams that are the best over the course of a number of games like it should be. This compared to a randomly drawn cup which only has 4 teams from outside the top flight in it when the SL teams enter. The variance in that is always going to provide a larger number of winners than the play off system.

Missed an opportunity......FYP

As the young uns say, I actually LOL'd. I'm the same I really can't wait, it is going to be a total mess when it comes to the announcements, threats of legal action, none of the clubs involved been able to plan for the following season. I would hate to see it but the fact Leigh could drop out of the top division is funny as anything(not for their fans), we can have a forward thinking progressive club been booted from the league in favor of Toulouse or Bradford would just be the funniest thing and totally the opposite of what the new system was supposedly brought in to do. The RFL if they have anything about them really need to be planning the TV build up for how these things will be announced. They could draw it out for a week or two to increase viewers and like I have said before, they seriously could do with bringing in Ant and Dec to make the announcements.

We had a closed shop for many years so that really does not explain the fact of why only 4 teams have won SL. The fact is that people love to rubber neck and I do agree the focus should be at the top end of the tables but people just love car crash TV and some people could not accept that relegation battles, no matter how bad they were in terms of skill levels, are just far more entertaining than watching a couple of teams flirting with the playoffs play against each other. Ive no idea what the answer is and Im pretty sure the IMG system as we know it will be gone in a few years just like everything else.

Due to its format there should be plenty of different winners of a cup competition or at the very least many different teams competing in the final especially with it basically been an all Super League comp anyway. Having a draw basically makes it about short term luck where as the league format makes it more about skill hence why we have seen less winners. It's a nice thing to push though if it's going to help put bums on seats.

Thats a shame as I think Lois V Amy could have been an interesting battle. One of the games greats who may be in her last season against someone who has the potential to play at the very top levels of the game.

For me personally I would want to see more of those games if relegation were at stake. I know now every game is televised so we can pick and choose but if they were not then I would not bother tuning in for half of the games with the bottom teams from around this point of the season with nothing at stake. Its just watching teams happy to collect their money and get by knowing they are in no real danger.

Would you be so kind to help me with my lottery numbers sir? For Fax poor first half full of indiscipline and mistakes and 2nd half Widdop took the game by the scruff of the neck and it ended up not been the nail biter that we are normally used to against Batley. Swinton obviously a big shock for the weekend but I still think the barrow win is seen as a shock despite so many of us predicting Barrow to win. I think the manner of Sheffields win is a surprise and you wonder if they could challenge the Bulls for that 2nd spot.

46-6 with 20 minutes to go. Giants squad numbers suggest they are near full strength and as above looks like Leeds used the game to give some fringe players a run. I didn't think that the Giants would bridge the gap but I thought they would be a lot closer than it looks. Still early season though.

Yeah the middle 8's were only a car crash if you were one of the bottom 4 SL teams. Some of the teams that ended up in that situation kicked on and did improve. Others just continued to do the same thing and those are the sort of teams that probably should not be in SL and give other teams a chance to see if they could do better.

Yeah the quality at the bottom end of SL is so low this season you would have to feel 3 or 4 teams could be in danger. I guess the flip side is that the quality near the top of the Championship outside of the top team is lower than it has been in maybe 4 or 5 years. Not to say the Cahmpionship isn't a great league its just that it is levelling down to be more competitive rather than leveling up like it had done year on year.

Good game, skill levels not that high probably because of the conditions, but just shows you can have an absorbing game all the same.

What does it say in the rules?

Through the line. They can't end up sat in the defensive line. 1st one goes through clear, the others just sort of end up there. Thought it could have gone either way, if it were ruled out then you could quote letter of the law etc.