langpark

I believe it goes; Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, in that order, with not a whole lot separating them. That is just based purely on all the bits and pieces I have been following over the years, so it is by no means gospel.

Both. But silktails being a locally-based team (covid season aside) means their players count as well. That puts them clearly ahead of the pack. Also, I am not sure how many Welsh players play for NWC and West Wales, but I believe it is nowhere near wnough for them to compete with the likes of Fiji. Great topic by the way!

Very hard to split PNG, France and NZ. PNG has the Hunters and then a pretty strong national comp below that. I would be tempted to place them 3rd on the list. But then again, if half of the Warriors team are kiwi, plus all the players in their youth system, then thst is probably still enough to get them over the line. In short, there is a huge drop after #2 then another big one after #5. I am pretty confident Fiji would be #6 Candidates for #7, in no particular order would be: Wales, Serbia, Tonga, Samoa, USA, Jamaica.

Agreed. A few apoilt rich kids playing games and having ego battles, rather than doing something more meaningful with their wealth.

Apparently they ar racing the clock (and Richard Branson) in order to see who can get their first. Branson's company, Virgin Galactic have been at it for years and he himself was planning to go up later this year. But since Bezos' announcement, apparently they are secretly trying to send him up as early as next month (4th of July according to the rumours). Will be interesting to see how it unfolds and in some ways it is a bit reminiscent of the old space race between USA and the Soviet Union.

Why can't they arrange to swap the fixture with Doncaster, so it is played in Doncaster and the Doncaster vs NW fixture later in the season becomes a NW home fixture? I know it's late notice, but surely it can be done, especially seeing as football is now it its off-season, I doubt there is anyone else using Keepmoat stadium this weekend.

Last thread was locked cos we went off-topic. This one now has 3 pages worth of talking about Coventry Bears

Actually, no. The have lost their last 4/4 against Partizan!! So the Serbian league is very much a two-horse race. But yes, circa 2018, when they were aiming for League One, they were bringing in overseas players and coaches, and they were thumping teams there for a while. I am not sure if Partizan vastly improved or if Red Star got worse since Phil Economidis left, or perhaps a combination of both.

It is no chance of happening any time soon, for many reasons. But you can blame SL clubs if it helps you sleep at night.

Arguably they are already there. Pre-pandemic they had two players playing Elite 1 and another 3-4 playing in Elite 2. All of them are forwards and wingers though, so you will always need a "foreign spine" if you want to play League One level. I'd say, if they don't want to be whipping boys, they would need about a dozen overseas players in their squad. I don't think they are talking about League One anymore though, for the forseeable future. I feel sorry for them, they are a club with serious ambition and decent financial backing. Too big for Serbian League, but too small for L

If yesterday's RL Planet article is accurate, then this NARL statement seems very different to what I was expecting. I find excuses like "travel insurance" a bit odd too. There is no way something like that could have been the deal breaker, so why even mention it?

Not sure, but doesn't he also have a role with RFL and/or RLWC2021?

I think you are right. First win, well done to them! Nit sure why they are persisting with BSL though. They have not announced anything and I assume Bulgaria and the Montenegro team are probably the only non-Serbian teams involved. Once the pandemic is over, this competition will hopefully rebuild again.

That nate fella seems to disappear for months on end, re-emerge, disappear and so on. Right now it seems he is in the disappeared stage of his cycle, as his social media pages show he has not posted any content since January.

I am not convinced about your theory, though it is possible. Cleveland were on the receiving end of a similar score a few months ago against North Virginia and would probably not have improved much over these few months (let alone "overnight") given that no imports or marquee players will be coming in.