17 stone giant

It is, yes. And I was forgetting that we lost day one. My bad.

There's still three days to go, so let's not give up hope just yet. I don't know what the forecast is from now on, but if we can get them out tomorrow quite cheaply, there might still be a chance of victory.

Didn't know that was on. Thanks. Will watch it.

Yes, it says BBC Sport. If I had to guess I reckon it will probably be streamed on the Sport website, with possibly a highlights tv show in the afternoon UK time.

I think one of the things that both codes of rugby can be proud of is the conduct of their players (most of the time at least) when interacting with referees. It just shows that all the excuses made by footballers as to why they can't control themselves are a load of ######. For me it's truly an awesome sight when a 6ft something hard as nails rugby player stands quietly before an official and accepts respectfully the decision to send them off. I've watched so many times those opening seconds of the test in the early 2000's where Adrian Morley clotheslined the Aussie. "Adrian, it's a real bad one. You're off mate." He just turns and jogs off. If that was football he and half the rest of the team would be shouting and jostling and acting like spoilt brats.

By far the worst shirt ever. Brings nothing but misery every time I see it. Glad I won't be seeing it this year.

Spent ages designing some more ideas for your consideration:

That shirt is alright. It's actually quite neat and tidy in its design. I can remember several shirts from other clubs from the 1990's that were far worse than that. I think you got off lightly if that's the worst Southend had.

I agree, but that's the way of things whenever you do something like this (call it positive discrimination or whatever). It's not possible to please everyone and yes some people will rightly feel it's unfair. Like I say, I can only put forward the suggestion that the thinking is about the bigger picture. By having female officials at this game - and because it's got attention from everyone - it means that if you go to a 'normal' game and there are one or more female officials, hopefully people will be more accepting of it as a result. Obviously we want the officials to be predominantly selected on merit, but I expect there probably exists a bit of an attitude from some male football fans that women shouldn't be involved, or aren't good enough to be involved. I think that would be a minority view - I think most men don't really care either way - but maybe this situation will help convince the few detractors. I honestly don't know with these sorts of things. I think sometimes we can think and worry ourselves into creating problems that don't really exist. It seems to be the done thing nowadays to constantly be looking at everything and asking if it's a problem that there's not enough women, men, ethnic minorities doing a particular job or activity. I appreciate there needs to be a concern as to whether people are being given a fair chance, but at the same time people do make different choices. My mum loves line dancing and goes regularly - there's maybe one man in all of the classes she goes to. Likewise my niece loves ice skating/dancing - I've been to watch her and it's noticeably 95% girls doing it. Step outside and look across at the five aside football pitches and it's all boys having a kickabout. As far as I can see, nobody is stopping the boys from joining in with the ice skating, and nobody is stopping a group of girls from hiring a five a side football pitch. Both groups just choose not to do so.

I suppose it's about making a statement that women are perfectly capable of being football officials, and it's sending a message to women and girls that they will be given an opportunity. She maybe is a bit lucky to get given such a game, and she's perhaps benefitting from the above aims as opposed to having proven herself through the normal channels. But even if that is the case on this occasion, it's ok by me - these things are necessary sometimes, just to make the break through and influence the bigger picture. I would expect her to get given most games on merit going forward.

It definitely looks like England are keen on the match having a decisive outcome.

Better pic. I think it's ok. Nothing special. I do quite like the idea of referencing that rugby league is 13 players as opposed to 15 in RU.

I just watched episode 2, the GB Lions special. I enjoyed it. I like Jon Wilkin a lot from BBC etc. and I thought Gildart was great Obviously I've only seen one episode, but I would make an observation that it did seem like a lot of enthusiasm (which is good), but I did feel myself wanting a fact checker in there too. For example, it annoyed me a bit when Mark Flanagan spoke unchallenged about how Great Britain used to sell out Wembley and suggesting that England might not be able to. It was rose tinted spectacles stuff. We didn't used to sell out Wembley for GB. For a start, we hardly ever played there anyway. We got close in 1992 for the one off World Cup final (73000 out of 78000 ish capacity?), but 1990 was about 54000 and 1994 was 57000 for Ashes. 1993 was only 36000 for New Zealand. 1997 GB v Australia Super League was 41000. I like passion, but let's not just talk from emotion and false memories. I'm all in favour of finding a place for GB in rugby league, but let's not act as if bringing back GB is a sure fire way to fill out Wembley whenever we want to. A quick look at the figures from the past 15 to 20 years and the reality is that there's virtually no difference between support for GB and support for England. Which isn't surprising given that it's mostly the same set of fans, whichever team it is. Overall though, I really liked the show and I will definitely be watching more of them. Thanks to The Daddy for starting the thread and alerting me to it.

Who cares about traditional fans from northern English pit towns? They don't have any money. We're talking here about a glamorous future for global rugby league. Let's not drag it down with teams from places like Hull and Castleford. Let's keep it upmarket. Man of Kent has the right idea, although I think even he needs to broaden his horizons somewhat. Where's Rome, Madrid and Berlin in his list? Personally, I think we should be looking at a North American conference and a European conference, with the winners of each meeting for the Rugby League World Series Grand Final Super Bowl Challenge Cup at the end of the season.

Surely if rugby league grows to that extent it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to add a few more major cities to replace the likes of Hull, Warrington and Castleford? Maybe Wigan and St Helens should be kept to preserve the origins of the sport, but apart from that let's just have major cities. Much more glamorous that way.