UTK

https://europeanrugbyleague.com/articles/2161/road-to-france-2025-announced Some interesting notes in here. Not sure whether to take this as a confirmation that England are returning to the European Championships for the first time in 19 years or whether this is simply a backup plan for the unlikely event they don't auto-qualify. I'm guessing it might be the former and in such a case the two pools of 4 described could be troublesome but a massive step in the right direction nonetheless.

Unsure where to put this but this seems as good a place as any - Albi young gun Baptiste Fabre has headed back to Australia to join the Easts Tigers who play in the QLD Cup as a feeder team for the Melbourne Storm. Clement Boyer also headed to Australia following the Elite 1 season and is playing in the BRL (Brisbane RL) which is a level below QCUP, he's playing for Pine Rivers Bears who feed into Redcliffe Dolphins QCup side and looking at recent team lists there's quite a few players who have played regular QCup in the side. Probably not a bad club to get a start at given the Dolphins will be entering the NRL next year and no doubt will be looking for more talent to play in their Cup side next season.

Agreed 5/9 of Wakefields last 9 are against the top 4 while 7/9 are against the top 6 - Two games against KR will be crucial. Toulouse have 3/9 against top 4, 5/9 against top 6 and the same amount of games against the bottom 4 (KR, Wire). No guarantee of either team getting any wins from the last 9 but the amount of top teams Wakey has in hand is highly unlikely to be good for their F/A moving forward.

I agree, I don't think Arrow was aware of the situation but at the same time an approach of strict liability should be taken here because players aren't doctors and acts such as Arrows are entirely unnecessary even if Tedesco wasn't injured. If he really wanted to rip in to Teddy he could've simply given him a verbal serve which removes all risk of interfering with an already injured player. Same with Mitchell, I don't think a referee will ever be convinced that a player is feigning injury by the offending tackler picking him up and dumping him again so it really was a pointless exercise that could've carried risk. Media here love to rip into Latrell but I haven't seen this particular incident of that game analysed when it perhaps should be (just about everything else he did has been).

For whatever reason I don't think moving an injured player is on the radar down here which is pretty disgraceful to be honest. The most high profile incident I can think of in recent times was Jai Arrow on James Tedesco in the 2020 Origin series - Arrow only received a fine for this which is woeful, he likely wasn't aware of the seriousness of Tedesco's injury but whenever you take an unnecessary and positive act of moving a downed player you should be liable to the consequences if they are in fact injured. The Arrow incident in question is contained in this article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-19/state-of-origin-queensland-arrow-fined-for-tedesco-incident/12900204 Unfortunately this might just be a case of the NRL's reactive approach to implementing officiating directives in response to specific types of foul play. As such until we see an incident where a bloke has a serious injury worsened by the actions of a negligent player I doubt much scrutiny will be applied to these types of incidents.

Absolutely agree with that, something of the sort needs to be a staple of the calendar and I think most would agree. My preference would be a re-structuring of the top tier of the European Championships to accommodate this but I struggle to see it happening. One scenario which would force it is France doing the unthinkable in the group stages at the World Cup - forcing England to qualify for 2025 by playing in the European Championships.

Any chance of a Gigot/Fages halves pairing with Mourgue at fullback? If Mourgue/Fages in the halves is it just Escare at the back or does Gigot perhaps slot in there..

I am in no way going to argue that Australia shouldn't be playing more games but the fact that England would rather make up a fake team than actually do something for the International game says a lot.

Exactly, current rankings are rather redundant due to covid as the movements here are largely dictated by results dropping out of the window of recency that impacts rankings. England have only played 1 test since 2018, I believe they have played the least amount of tests since 2018 out of all teams in the top 30 which is pretty insane - happy to be proven wrong if someone can point it out but having a quick scan I believe the stat is correct. Paints a very bleak picture of Englands stance on the international game.

Wonder where this leaves Yaha and Davies in a world where TJ stays fit, both Langi and Whare out of contract with the latter almost certain to go so a move to centre for one could be on the cards I guess.

Yeah he's out for the entire season - needed a shoulder reconstruction I believe. Between Turbos absence and To'o electing for Samoa the Australian back 5 becomes a bit less clear. IMO it's beginning to look like: Tedesco Josh Addo-Carr Latrell Mitchell Burton/Crichton/Holmes/Wighton Holmes/Cobbo/Taulagi Dane Gagai appears to be well past international selection now, Tedesco and Holmes are the biggest certainties but I think Addo-Carr and Mitchell will be in that category too despite not playing Origin this year. The 4th outside back becomes a choice between Burton/Wighton/Crichton at centre (If Crichton chooses Samoa which he may well do given he is actually Samoan born we can rule him out) and Cobbo/Taulagi at wing with Holmes taking the other spot.

Interestingly Oliver Gildart is listed as having played fullback for Wests Magpies in NSW Cup, registering 19 carries for 138m, 3 tackle breaks and a line break assist. I wouldn't know enough about his time at Wigan but I didn't recall him playing fullback very often if ever.

Whitehead could probably be considered one playing himself out of a guaranteed spot so far this season. Would be understandable to keep him for incumbency/experience reasons but with some compelling options like McMeeken, Farrell and even Batchelor waiting in the wings I don't think it's an overly outlandish conversation to consider having.

Even though he's come out and said this now his allegiance isn't officially locked in until he's named in the 19-man gameday squad for Samoa, just a couple of months ago To'o indicated he would play for Australia if selected. While like this could be a definitive statement of his intention for the WC for the purpose of eligibility rules he is still yet to make an election.

Speaking on radio to James Graham today Brian To'o has confirmed that he will play for Samoa at the World Cup even if Australia selects him. Best in his position in the game for the last couple of seasons, likely 5 Penrith players in Samoa's starting backline now which is a big win on the cohesiveness front for them.

Absolutely, we've already done this with the Melanesian nations in the form of the Hunters and Silktails - it's much more feasible to do so with Fiji and PNG due to their populations but now that both those pathways have been established we should be turning our heads toward a suitable equivalent for Polynesian nations. The heritage players have presented an opportunity for this to happen, without the success of Tonga and Samoa's international sides RL would never have gained the recognition domestically to drive their populations toward RL. Taking advantage of that recognition by developing these pathways is the next step in the process of developing these nations. Specifically on Tonga, we actually have seen an increase in the "domestic" Tongans coming into the NRL over the last 2 years - Eliesa Katoa, Viliami Vailea and Taniela Otukolo were all born and raised (to a point - I believe the first two were there til late high school, unsure on Otukolo) in Tonga. All three are at the Warriors and Katoa was in the wider squad for this match.

Yes that's what I was initially assuming was the case, for what it's worth I highly doubt he makes the French side anyway but it shines a light on the potential problems the rule could cause.

It appears Catalans are part of some French plot to assume control of Cumbria as Florian Vailhen and Romain Franco head out on loan to Workington. Now out on loan from Catalans: Barrow - Matthieu Cozza Whitehaven - Corentin Le Cam, Cesar Rouge Workington - Florian Vailhen, Roman Franco

I totally agree but luck could've landed you a quarter against Lebanon/Ireland/Jamaica (As Australia will), instead England have to go PNG/Tonga (in either order) in consecutive matches before a potential final against Aus/NZ in all likelihood. One of the harder runs of all time I would imagine so If you win the cup it'll be very well earned.

England landing PNG and Samoa as the second seeds on their side of the draw is a bit rough.

Well I respect that is your opinion but people have been saying this about Tonga forever and yet they've done it with Lolohea against Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain already. All they have to do is get to the final because anything can happen on the day and I'm more than happy to say they're capable of doing that.

Yes, you're underselling the difference a lot here. Their halfback/chief playmaker and two players selected for Origin will replace three 19, 20 and 21 year olds with 19, 25 and 13 NRL games experience respectively. TPJ was also one of the best on field in their win against Australia. This is without considering potential commits such as David Fifita as well.

Miles off is a big call, lost by 20 to what may well be the best team in the world with Talakai, Tupou, Lolohea and Tevita Pangai as all guaranteed first-teamers missing. They'll be disappointed but at the same time gave debuts to some quality players, unfortunately Amone was a bit out of his depth and Kotoni can't be expected to cover those playmaking duties. NZ is a bad matchup because their pack the best in the world and their go-forward that underpins their playstyle just wasn't there.

Tonga missing Lolohea big time.

I was very surprised last week after I was rightfully informed by another poster that Mark Kheirallah was no longer eligible for France following his move to Featherstone this season. I had been been assuming that once a player is capped for a nation on residency grounds their eligibility was confirmed and therefore they were perpetually available for the country in question. The reason why my assumption was wrong is contained within the definition of "residence" as described within the IRL's official eligibility rules: "Subsequent to establishing his/her initial residency eligibility the Player must in each year prior to the year of his/her selection for such country be resident in the country for a minimum of 210 days in the preceding 12 months to maintain his/her residency eligibility". I had a quick look and couldn't find anything concrete so to be honest I have no idea if this provision is the norm in other sports but it seems peculiar that following 5 years of residence to establish eligibility a player can lose said eligibility after 210 days. In international RL there are 4 ways a player can be deemed eligible to represent a country - The players' birth nation, their parents birth nation, their grandparents birth nation and residency of 60 consecutive months prior to playing an international match. After being informed of this provision for maintaining eligibility based on residence a few players that could be uncomfortably caught in no-mans land here came to mind. In respect of England, Mikolaj Oledski as we know was born in Poland but has now spent most of his life in England, now I've not confirmed Oledski doesn't have English heritage but for the sake of this hypothetical let's assume he doesn't. Even though Oledski received his first England test cap against France last year and is likely to receive more in the future, in a scenario where Oledski made a move to the NRL or France he would then under the current rules become ineligible to represent England. As such we could be left with an England regular having to sacrifice an international career in favour of moving to the NRL/Catalans/TO. Personally I think this may be an area that the IRL needs to look at refining and potentially implementing a "cumulative" residency eligibility provision as I did see exists in RU (10 years cumulative residency confers eligibility in this case). The IRL eligibility document is linked below and if there's something glaring I've missed that renders all this all null and void then by all means someone can point me in the right direction. https://www.intrl.sport/media/2wkkftdm/irl-eligibility-rules-2020-to-publishpdf.pdf