Pulga

England getting a few gift calls here. Try for me. Not to mention offside the play before.

Now now, we wouldn't want to mirror Vichy France..... On second thought...

Talk is of V'landys joining the IRL board. I wish I was making this up.

Yep, for me, Dom is probably the only Englishman that I could see being in the top 3 in his position in the NRL. He's unbelievably gifted in his size, strength and speed. Let's hope he kicks on and puts in the hard yards. Young has hit 38km/h this year. He is super marketable. I'd be prompting him every chance I could get if I was England.

I've been thinking the same.

Nah, I feel the opposite. Rugby League's heritage rules are brilliant. I'd be keen to see a jump to 20 teams. Let's face it, if we have Greece, we could get 4 more teams that would likely be half competitive as well. People forget that Japan, Portugal, Uruguay, Italy and Namibia have all been beaten by 100+ points in the union version. But of course RL has a complete lack of foresight.

Kickoff is 3pm Sydney time which is 5am in the UK. BarTV will be livestreaming the game: https://www.bartvsports.com.au/rugby-league/221009-international-rl-test-match-men-s-el-salvador-v-japan/

Thinking out loud: I'm not sure Chile have had a domestic comp for quite some time either and I'm pretty sure no youth development. Brazil and Jamaica are the only Americas countries that should be allowed to qualify. The IRL is really not fit for purpose.

I don't think Brazil are as strong as Chile. We'll have to see though. Chile beat Philippines who pumped Brazil. The problem is in qualifiers there are more strict quotas. It doesn't really matter how many first grade players you have.

Brazil may not even make the Americas Championship. Malta would be way ahead of Netherlands Lebanon and South Africa way stronger than Nigeria.

The rules are actually much more strict in the qualifiers than in the actual WC. Some qualifying tournaments you're only allowed two or four.

One team played one game I believe and forfeited the rest. You're also supposed to have evidence of junior development. USA, Italy and Scotland shouldn't be anywhere near the WC. It's a bit of a farce really.

The USA don't really meet minimum requirements for affiliate membership. I can't see how they should be allowed to qualify. Also the CDM2025 website has just been launched: https://www.france2025.com/fr/

Interesting.

That's already over and hasn't seemed to do anything. The original California RL seemed to be working towards integration into the USARL. Not sure that's still happening. They seemed to have rebranded as Championship Rugby League and have a 9s tournament at the moment with quite a few teams. Then there is the newer break-away.

There seems to be a new Toronto team starting up: Toronto City Saints. As far as the NARL decimating the USARL, I want to know how the USA plan to enter RLWC2025 qualifications if they don't meet the minimum standards anymore.

Yeah, maybe it wasn't half time... They were up by two until the 18th minute though

Probably not. I was at the last Semi when Fiji went into half time 2 - 0 against Australia. Stranger things have happened.

Let's face it: the draw has been rigged for England.

Agree. But traditionally it hasn't ever gotten much media traction. Hope that changes. A quarter final exit would probably get chins wagging.

A quarter final exit would get some scrutiny I think. It's hard to say because how weak the intl game is.

As an Aussie, I'd love to see the Kangaroos absolutely slaughtered. They need the wake-up call.

Qld has been doing this for a few years already. I guess we were trialling it. My daughter actually played tackle at u6 in 2019, pre-season in 2020 of u7 non-contact when it was changed where the season was cancelled because of COVID, back to contact the last two years in u8s and 9s. It's not a bad thing to introduce tackling from half of u7s.