JonM

Championship Sheffield E v Oldham 952 Barrow v York 1,760 Halifax v Batley 1,659 League 1 Swinton v Goole 658

This isn't a pattern I recognise. Who do you think the previous "white knights" were? I think Richard Lewis did a great job running the RFL, albeit there were plenty within the sport who really did not like him, and he had the benefit of significantly more government funding and a significantly bigger tv contract. Since then, we've had RFL leadership which has seemingly lacked any long-term vision or strategy other than simply clinging to existence and hoping something turns up. You never get any sense that they have a plan or ambitions for the future at all. And sure, we've had Robert Elstone, Toronto and now IMG, but I don't think any of those have been particularly welcomed as a saviour or on a wave of optimism. IMG do seem to have had some positive impact (unlike Elstone) but obviously operating under a fairly specific remit and are being paid rather than putting money in. While I agree that it's going to be very difficult to grow RL in Britain, even with the best leadership in the world, it would be nice to have someone in charge who actually talked about growing the game and inspired a sense that they actually had some clue about how to do it. Tony Sutton & Simon Johnson as CEO & Chair have been pretty much invisible to me as someone who follows the sport closely. Ralph Rimmer & Nigel Wood before them didn't particularly impress me as leaders either, although Wood appears to be the best of the bunch. An NRL takeover, with some element of rebranding and cross-hemisphere competition, something no other sport has, could generate quite a lot of positive media here, and perhaps do something about the cloud of negativity surrounding RL currently. And perhaps an outside authority with no ties to specific clubs or factions would actually get things done.

Rugby League Manager 4 on Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2837720/Rugby_League_Team_Manager_4/

I think they're probably the best team in the division, but not by the huge margin that Wakefield were last year. A narrow loss in an away game against likely top half opposition while missing some key players doesn't seem unreasonable. I think Lacans is a good signing for them though, because they started the season lacking half-backs and losing Calum Gahan won't have helped.

I don't think Doncaster will lose many games at home this year. Something like 1500 games at SL & NRL level within the squad.

Doncaster 10 Toulouse 6 FT Enjoyable game and a deserved win for Doncaster.

Penalty after penalty for Toulouse, but not really able to find any gaps in the Doncaster defence. Some nice attacking play from both teams.

I think it's just a choice to pick Lacans instead isn't it? Shorrocks was named in the squad. Calum Gahan is out until September.

Doncaster 6 Toulouse 6 HT.

Quite a strong wind. Referee being kept busy by both sides so far.

I do find it strange that a player using unpleasant words on social media results in a 3 match ban (and rightly so), but a coach circulating pictures of the same player in a noose and shouting instructions to injure specific players and where to target them results in the coach missing no games whatsoever. And there were rather more people that heard the calls to target players for injury than there were people reading the player's social media account.

Everton have put a lot of effort into the acoustics - steepest stands in Europe and a special sound-reflective roof. Honestly not sure why Rhodri Jones was talking about Headingley for the homefield advantage. If the crowd get something to shout about at Bramley Moore Dock it'll be something the Australian players will mostly never have experienced before.

If you're a northerner going to Wembley, you've probably looking at similar amounts to the ticket price just for travel and I assume most people won't be bringing a packed lunch and a thermos. Ticket prices are fine, still very reasonable value when compared with football, cricket, rugby union (or going to the cinema or theatre in London). Presumably non-group ones are going to be higher than these.

He doesn't have a financial interest according to the Steve Mascord piece posted earlier. He's advising RL Commercial, not taking on any financial risk himself.

It's not a good look to have a club go under a month into the season and to have to refund a bunch of magic weekend ticket sales (and for clubs to have to pay back any hospitality/ sponsorship packages they've sold for home games v Salford). It's about choosing the least bad option at this point.

Maybe the RFL could buy the stadium lease and then sell it back to Salford in a few years time at a knockdown price?

NRL Indian Pacific, sponsored by a railway company?

All home wins. Some very close looking games though. Thunder v Midlands Hurricanes is my current plan with Widnes having the weekend off (and the players seemingly taking a full week off training too).

World Rugby League Northern and Southern conferences just in case Dubai or Qatar want to join?

1. Will a Super League team win to nil? No 2. Will a Championship team score more than 7 tries? Yes 3. Will Huddersfield be bottom of Super League at the end of the weekend? Yes 4. Will there be a game in League 1 that has a combined points total of 70 or more? No 5. Will there be a match that finishes level after 80 minutes across all 3 professional divisions? Yes Tiebreaker: How many combined points will be scored by teams (place names) that start with the letter 'W' in all 3 divisions? 98

NRL Atlantic rather than NRL Europe would suggest some North American involvement?

GDPR I assume. They can't keep your details for longer than necessary. I've certainly not been in the WoW or whatever it was called, but have bought GF, Wembley & England tickets in the past year and have an email.

Presumably Saints' big derby in the years leading up to WW2 was St. Helens Recs.

Part of the problem with only playing Australia once per generation is that data protection rules mean they won't have a database of (for example), the tens of thousands of southerners who bought tickets for the 2013 RLWC semi-final.