JonM

1. Over 60 points scored in the Catalans v Salford match NO 2. Either Team To lead At HT and FT in the Wakey v Leigh match YES 3. The team that scores first in the FC v KR game to progress to the SF YES 4. Either Team To Win By 6 points or more in the Wire v Saints match YES 5. Any player to score a hat-trick of tries in CC QF NO Tie Break What will the attendance be in the Wakey v Leigh game 4,998

Reading that, I think most of assume that there is a less than 50/50 chance of either series actually taking place, based on the record of the past decade or so.

My impression was that crowds in Illawarra weren't that great either, but they averaged over 14k across 6 games at Wollongong in 2024 (lowest crowd was 9 240 v GC Titans, highest 18 988 v Penrith). That compares with a 2024 average of 10 885 for 5 games at Kogarah (lowest being 7 517 vs Souths, highest 18 416 for the local derby vs Bulldogs).

Can you explain what Q2 means please? My interpretation is that it means scores won't be level either at half-time or full-time?

It's not the cost of travel (which is in any case covered by Catalans themselves.) It's that the money from the British TV deal is shared with them in spite of there being no corresponding French tv money, and that there are no away fans for Catalans games, a problem which is particularly acute when they reach Wembley or Old Trafford. Obviously both problems are worse, in this sort of petty analysis, when Toulouse replace Salford next year. Although, tbh, I would not be surprised if the real reason was that some club chairs can't get home from the match in time for Antiques Roadshow or something if they have to go to France.

I don't think that's automatically true. You could imagine (random example) a western conference of Wigan, Warrington, Saints, Leigh and a conference below that of say Widnes, Oldham, Salford and Barrow and you have a one week 'rivals round' where say Widnes are randomly drawn against one of the upper conference clubs. Same thing happens between Widnes and the conference below that contains Swinton, Rochdale etc. You don't have to have equal sized conferences, or identical fixture lists for everyone when you have play offs and wildcards and so on. Not advocating for this system, just saying that uneven funding and team strength doesn't have to be an insurmountable obstacle.

I'm seeing adverts for these games on Facebook and elsewhere now, which suggests a bit more marketing than in the past.

Long enough ago that GDPR means they probably legally shouldn't have kept your details anyway. No excuse for not using the challenge cup details though. Perhaps there is a plan for those to follow?

Yep, he played rugby union for his expensive boarding school's team (and also for the one he went to to ' repeat' a year.)

Not sure anyone would call them stable given their history. On the other hand, he's Australia's second richest man, he can afford to run a team considerably more easily than the Australian rugby union can afford to run one (or three). My impression is that he's a proud West Australian more than he is a dedicated rugby union fanatic, and I expect him to fully support a WA NRL bid rather than viewing it as unwanted competition. Locals may be better informed though.

They were cut by the ARU in 2017 and Forrest put up the money to restart them, including organizing a separate competition with teams in Asia for them to play against, before they were invited to rejoin super rugby. It's his money that mostly funds the team, not the ARU or ticket sales. One of his companies (Squadron Energy) is the main sponsor of St. George -Illawarra.

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.