Tommygilf

Yeah, an ashes tour of Australia vs England, further proving the point!

Of course the World Cup is a jamboree; particularly in the group stages. For all that you would like to guarantee "quality" Harry, the past 2 World Cup finals have seen the losing side not even score a single try. In this world cup, Wales were all but written off against the Cook Islands whereas Samoa were likely going to beat England, which was the better game in the end? It's swings and roundabouts.

"No history in the game" Go tell me where the first Great Britain Captain to lift the World Cup was from. We only have two anyway, and neither were English!

Scotland need help, and any strength needs to be built on. I've said it before but my massive bug bear that the 2013-2016 Scotland squad success wasn't built on at all. To me this (and other similar nations) is where the RFL have to step up. England are the only nation with the connections and support to get the funding towards these NGBs. We can do it, its in our interests to do it, we need to do more of it.

##### hell

Absolutely. We got rid of the 4 Nations after 2016. How many years did it take to get the Oceania Cup up and running? And outside of World Cups, how many times have (non-England) northern hemisphere nations played NZ or Australia or indeed any other Pacific Island team? Frankly, how many times have they played England too?

Why play less when we play so little anyway? This is a world cup. People don't expect the same as of regular league matches - particularly in the group stages. Martyn's lunatic idea would have repeatedly pitted the proverbial Scotland against Australia, twice a year at least, every year. That's objectively lunacy. The world cup is once every 4 years, and as with every world cup in every sport, some teams are contenders to win, some are unknown quantities, and some are just happy to be there. All comers are fine if they have qualified.

16 teams is here to stay, if nothing else precisely because we now are heading towards a stage where we can genuinely see groups where 3 teams all believe they can qualify for the quarters. We're not that far off having 4 teams in some groups. We play so little international Rugby League. The world cup cannot and should not be cut back. I'm delighted that the Junior WC is being added to France 2025 too.

You do miss 50 tackles if your mostly part timers playing against the best Rugby League squad in the world over 80 mins.

How has the Samoa coach kept a job for so long? The 2017 debacle should have been enough to get rid.

Same difference tbh

It is difficult when there are bids involved. Coventry and Boro I believe won/paid for rights to host specific "high profile non England games". 10k is as you said a good crowd if it wasn't surrounded by 22k empty seats - indeed it is very strong given who was playing. Hopefully the Hurricanes were visible and on top form.

It most likely won't have a collar, see below Leeds 2021 players vs Replicas: Vs

Tbf he was asked

Agreed. I think there is somewhat of a problem that outside of the rugby codes, suitable smaller stadiums with appropriate facilities are hard to come by. Almost all of ours are on top of eachother, and most Union grounds are in places that represent minimal opportunities for "legacy" (save Newcastle or Coventry for example). If you throw legacy out of the window somewhat, there is perhaps some more options open to the Comp like Northampton, Leicester or Gloucester. I do also think that increasingly to the non-RL diehards, the Kangaroos and the Kiwis aren't vastly different in terms of profile and sellability. I'm sure we have had this discussion before but I remember thinking when the venues were announced that the logic didn't seem right. You can't kid the M62 corridor if you get me? A suspected walkover, especially not involving England, just won't get the crowds in. There's much more of a blank canvas and a less negative attitude to be found elsewhere. The Kiwis and Australia are far more likely to have an innate draw in areas we'd struggle to get traction in otherwise, regardless of their opponents.

Tbf they did do a cotton edition with proper buttons and far less sponsors (oddly). Though it does have a ridiculously big elvis style collar!

That is almost certainly the fan edition, the player editions are tighter and have grip things on the front of the shirt. Likely to be similar to Leeds 2021 shirts

10k in Coventry doesn't sound spectacular, but I bet its more than we'd have got in several M62 locations for this game.

I believe Coventry and Boro paid for "marquee fixtures". Not England games, but otherwise marquee. So Kangaroos and Tonga it seems

Whilst Degsy is at the front doing the presentation "Is he drawing a leopard? He's obsessed"

The people you describe in your 2nd para appear to have made the badge for Leigh Leopards (that felt weird typing!)

Yeah I was thinking exactly that.

In fairness to my own comment in that thread, a ball hadn't been kicked and Leigh hadn't made many (if any) major signings of note. Leigh put it beyond doubt as the season went on with recruitment. Fev were blown out of the water.

Indeed, from my investigations it seems they are not only relatively new, they are also new to this sort of thing - particularly on the scale of a Super League club. I'd be wary of attaching myself to this personally, especially if they haven't had creative control or that much input.

MCCM's CEO just happens to be the chairman of Leigh Athletic FC who are based at LSV. Incidentally it appears he also was involved in Bongos Bingo a few years ago - which should be familiar to any University aged folk!