arcticchris

Nice to see an all French 1/6/7 and the team playing so well all round.

If we could get 3 warm up games to allow players to play themselves into the test side then I would like to see a game against an Indigenous select first for the non grand final players then run with the likely test side against Fiji before a game against PNG as the final warm up. If the budget allowed it then a game between other test 1 and 2 or test 2 and 3 against a NSW cup select would allow the fringe players to stake their claim and stay match fit along with give them a purpose to avoid them going into off season mode.

Joey Manu is a fabulous player and a big loss for the Roosters and the Kiwis. I feel like the Roosters are making a mistake in letting him go instead of moving on from Tedesco and freeing up both the salary cap space and the full back role for the more athletic player in Manu.

I think the find his feet comment was more in relation to the need to get more match sharpness and fitness post injury comeback than a suggestion of not being ready for first grade in terms of ability.

Joe Mbu Tyrone May

Not saying he has been playing really well. Nobody has for Hull, I just thought he was the only player in the first half on Good Friday that even looked SL standard in a Hull FC jersey. Always rated him at Newcastle Knights though obviously he was always going to be stuck behind Ponga. i have no idea whether he is a disruptive individual or not as I don’t follow Hull super closely as I am not a supporter of the club but a Wigan fan.

Getting shot of your best player is a unique way of trying to rebuild

Agree that in 5 years time when just about everyone he played with at Souths has also retired and he has gained the necessary experience elsewhere would be the best time to return as the golden boy.

Luai has stated one of the reasons he was ready to move on was to show he can be the ringleader. He wants to run the show and time will tell as to whether he can do so to a high enough level.

Well deserved although I would expect the assistants to have moved on to head coach opportunities elsewhere in the next 3 years if they keep up with the current trophy pace.

Taking corner flag contact out of the game as an in touch call was one of the best rule changes the game has ever made. Someone like Martin Offiah must look back and think if he had that rule he would have racked up another 50 tries in his career.

That was also brilliant but the added factor for the Coates try was he started his jump at least 5/6 metres out from the tryline as well as the contortions to shift the ball from left to right hand and get ball down before supporting arm went down.

Example from other sport - cycling, they never tell you what happened in other races on the same day as they know a lot of viewers are keen enough to watch 1 live then catch up with the stream of another race afterwards

I absolutely agree with you. I find it majorly frustrating as it would be so easy for them to simply stop doing it

So should we take it that you don’t bother with midweek NRL games as they took place when you were at work and unable to tune in at 11am to watch it.

The difference there is Sky are only broadcasting one of those matches so are effectively benefiting from spoiling matches being shown by their competitors. In the case of Super League the only broadcaster Sky are hurting is Sky.

I think the knockdown by the defending side is a fully legitimate tactic and one that I find absurd to be routinely penalised with a yellow card in Rugby Union. I don’t think I have ever seen a penalty for it in RL nor should there be and would welcome a rewrite of the rules.

An option could be to remove that player from the game for the remainder of the match but only reduce the team by a player for 10 minutes. This would be along the lines of how ice hockey deal with serious offences that deserve to end the players participation but doesn’t then destroy the competitive balance of the game. If you wanted to go further you could also dock the offending team 2 interchanges for a red card thus increasing their fatigue load.

Cycling - they are outstandingly good at not informing you of results or events of overlapping races. An example of this was just yesterday in the Alpes-Maritime Tour commentary they welcomed viewers who would have just switched over from their Tour of Algarve coverage stating that race had just finished but didn’t tell us who won as they appreciate that spoils things for a lot of viewers.

Overall Moore had a good game. Personally I thought the worst offence was committed by Parcell rather than Sao and that 2 yellow cards would have been the fairest outcome with red for Parcell if 1 sent off. It is possible that the rules and guidance simply don’t allow that so it is a rules issue rather than a referee decision issue. It would not surprise me at all to see Parcell get the longer ban when it is all dealt with but the match review panel.

Agree 100% with the OP. Will give benefit of the doubt that, maybe with it being so unique to British sport for every game to be shown live including clashing matches, the broadcasters failed to take into account that a lot of viewers would like to be able to watch one game live and then others as live later on without knowing the scores. Cycling commentary is a very good example of this as frequently there are 2-3 races being televised on the same day with broadcast overlaps and the commentators are always savvy enough to give snippets such as things are hotting up over in Spain etc without giving away any clear details that would diminish the quality of the viewing experience later. I have become very good at avoiding spoilers by not looking at social media or sports sections of websites when I want to watch something as live when I get home. For those who want to follow the live scores virtually everyone has access to a smartphone or computer with broadband connection. If also feels counterproductive for Sky as it makes it more likely viewers will just pick one match to watch when there are multiple games at a time and just watch highlights of the others.

RTS is a very good player but Manu is a couple of levels above him and would be a massive loss for the sport, particularly for the Kiwis to lose a true superstar. Its a short career so you can’t begrudge a player taking the megabucks when they are on the table.

Not really sure why Bradford are so high up in the odds. Maybe name value still matters. Quite generous odds for Catalans who look to me, despite the loss of huge players, to be still significantly better than Leeds and Warrington with iffy recruitment (Leeds) and an unproven coach (Warrington).

It would also exclude George Burgess who I am fairly sure moved to Souths as an academy player prior to playing 1st team for Bradford. Fully agree with Jack Reed over Hardaker who struggled in his short spell at Penrith.

Wonderful player but also stroppy and prone to be put off his game by some wily winding up.