Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

A linguistic pedant writes, "Shouldn't that be 'charges down'?" OK, I'll go for a long walk...!

Thanks, understood. One of the advantages of trying the charge-down is that, if successful, the player who has done so has directional momentum in his favour; he is travelling the same way as the ball now is, whilst his opponents' momentum is collectively in the opposite direction. That will normally give you an extra second or two in which to gather the ball cleanly. As to incentive, well, maybe it is a desperate last throw of the dice for the reason explained in your original post, so it's just a calculated risk, I suppose, a bit like the attempt at a fingertip interception of a long pass down the line of backs.

I didn't know that, SL17. Between or among which parties is the contract, and for how long is it intended to last? it raises interesting issues including whether, if TWP survive but are meant to revert to the championship, the RFL are willing and able to accommodate them there. Also, if TWP are not in SL, how you decide, and when, who takes their place?

I agree.

I thought the same, DD. I would have thought, as a general rule, that a northern hemisphere website should not have headlines about southern hemisphere sides that don't explicitly indicate that it is the southern side to which a reference is being made.

I don't understand what you are saying, TR. A charge-down is neither illegal nor a simple knock-on. So you can gather the ball having charged down your opponent's kick. Here is the extract of the laws that confirms this: https://www.rugby-league.com/the_rfl/rules_and_regulations/laws_of_the_game/knock_on__forward_pass However, if you have failed to gather cleanly, or indeed at all, after charging down, then it becomes like any other scenario in which a defender has touched the ball during an opponent's set of six. I, for one, am not persuaded that the risk of having the tackle count wiped out should be removed.

You say that Gulliver's World is appealing, Scubby, but I believe it has its travails!

I take your point on derbies, WCL, but like Wollo Wollo Wayoo, I recall the rivalry in the mid-60s between Trinity and Wigan being intense.

Toulouse aren't undecided; they will not be entering. There has been a statement on their website for a few days to that effect.

In the 1960s, when I began watching, Wigan -v- Saints was a very strong rivalry. In February, 1965, almost 40,000 (me included!) packed central park for a cup tie, which Wigan won by 7 points to 2. The crowd paid, on average, 3/5d for the privilege of being there! As a lad, I would have got in for something like 6d (2.5p in that there new fangled money!)

I imagine that between Carcassonne and Limoux is pretty keen, as they are only about 15 miles apart.

Of the hirundine species (swifts, swallows and martins), swifts are the last to arrive and the first to go. In my experience, their departure is pretty much as regular as clockwork. They leave from mid-July onwards and there will be none after either 31st July or 1st August. Sure enough, here in south-west Wiltshire, there were one or two still about yesterday, but none today that I can see. Autumn is here!

I don't know all these, Griff, but agree with you about Buttertubs. Last year in early summer, my wife and I stopped at the Buttertubs themselves and were delighted to discover that we had the company of a newly fledged family of ring ouzels. By contrast, decades ago when I worked for the North Riding County Council, a colleague and I were driving over Buttertubs and the wind and rain were so fierce that the wind was lifting the rain in sheets off the road and its verges. We were glad to reach Hawes, which was very wet but merely breezy, in one piece!

In a sense you are right, Chris22, but arguably the lockdown-induced withdrawal of the Wolfpack benefitted the Giants most in the short-term, as I think I am right in saying that they alone of the then top five teams had not played them. Expunging the Toronto playing record has thus moved Huddersfield up to third.

I am a little surprised that Matthew Shaw's piece, being dated as recently as three days ago, reckons that Toulouse were undecided. Bernard Sarrazain's statement on the club website, which I think pre-dates that, sounds pretty emphatic to me, especially when he says to make up for the shortfall of no TO to watch, try following the reserve team in Elite 1 from November.