Lapsed Leeds Fan

No need. Saw that lame joke coming a mile off.

I actually like this England lion badge. It gets away from the overcomplicated shield design and would give us something simple and recognisable to build on. The England RU rose is hardly a world beating design but they've stuck with a simple recognisable badge and it's paid off. Whether by accident or design I also think it's quite clever how the outline of the lion is an approximation of the shape of England.

Magic sponge - Head Injury Assessment Jerseys / shirts - jumpers

Yes, unfortunately there is an issue if fans don't buy them. The surplus will probably end up in landfill and stay there for the next 1,000 years.

Here's a trio which I don't think have been mentioned before. First we have the obscure sitcom Dogfood Dan & The Carmarthen Cowboy. The character of Dan was a big Hull FC fan as can be seen in the opening credits. Next, for Rovers fans we have a blink and you'll miss it joke in Jonathan Creek at around 16 mins 15 secs. And finally we have some good old cross-code aggro at around 23 minutes in obscure 80s comedy drama The Ritz. No great surprise when you find out it was written by John Godber.

Agreed, they are certainly not the best for the environment but what from a merchandising perspective is? Replica shirts of non-degradable polyester are made in sweatshops then transported halfway around the world. Even cotton t shirts require 2,700 litres of water each to produce. Companies like Oxen's entire business plan seems to revolve around overproduction, hence the numerous sales. There's a huge dilemma here for the future. Continue to buy and give the game much needed income, or have a think about the ethical and environmental impact of the merchandise but then see the game's finances suffer. This is an issue across all sports and at the moment I'm not sure anyone has the answer.

Ultimately the market will decide whether this is a good move by the RLWC organisers but I'm willing to give it a go. Transactions can be in sterling via TiliaPay so it's as risk free as any other online transaction. NFTs may crash and burn or they may hold their value. Either way, surely it's worth trying it for one world cup cycle?

One of the many Twitter exchanges regarding the Peter Smith article went something like this: Twitter user 1: totally agree, the refs in Super League are terrible and biased Twitter user 2: why are they terrible? Are you a qualified ref? Twitter user 1: I don't need to be a ref to see that they get it wrong Twitter user 2: Go on a ref's course and you may realise they get more right then you give them credit for. Plus you will be giving back to the game. Twitter user 1: I'm far too busy for that. Plus I know a mistake when I see it. Sadly many armchair and terrace 'experts' will never get beyond this mentality whatever the game tries to do.

Mansfield Marksman was an interesting one if only for the reason that even after 40 years people are still adamant it was Marksmen.

The commentator is George Riley https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bbc-sexual-assault-mishal-husain-victoria-derbyshire-george-riley-a8025571.html

I was expecting something closer to the ball used in the news article World Cup final clip. Just having a different colour each end would have given the link with Sullivan, even if the colour scheme wasn't brown. Something based on this classic would have been a bit more original and synonymous with the Sullivan name.

It was announced on his Facebook page on the 31st August. I've copied the post Quigs made below as it contains a lot of detail and deserves sharing widely: "BREAKING NEWS... After 19 years (2003 to 2021) www.eraofthebiff.com will be no more. I am drawing the shutters on the website. (21/9/21)The time has arrived to sound the final hooter on the Era Of The Biff website. Over 1000 pages of stories, memories, statistics, and more, contributed to the making up this old website. Most were just shared by punters and fans from both sides of the world who all enjoyed the great game we all used to know and love. The greatest era in the greatest game. It is just not the same anymore. Over the time The Biff site has undergone three rebuilds and the current platform it runs on is closing down on the 26th Sept and can’t be “simply” migrated to another server. (bloody Adobe) It has to be a total rebuild and I no longer have the enthusiasm, time nor money to take on such an endeavour. The whole concept of the site was to share stories, memories and pics of the hardmen and the memorable game and events from the 1950’s through to the early 90’s. I hope you enjoyed the site as much as I did creating it. A lot of the Hardmen are no longer with us and each year we see more legends passing. R.I.P Champions. If you see anything on the site that you might like to ‘borrow’ well help yourself. This site has always been about sharing. How's this for content .... 82 Hardmen Listed = 82 Full Profile Pages 82 Hardman Pages only containing contributed stories about them 82 Hardman Pages only containing links to external Vids and Films (YouTube) Over 800 pages of your stories / memories submitted Over 120 pages of your Favorite Moments from the Biff Era 32 Memorable Matches Pages 23 Yarn of the Months 15 Player Interviews 9 pages of Great Old Quotes from and about the Hardmen 5 pages of The Biff Dreamteam including Selection process"

A perfect example of this was on Five Live this morning. They were discussing the upcoming England - South Africa RU test, and basically saying South Africa's tactics are to bring on a completely new front row in the second half to batter the tired opponents into submission. That's as far as my tactical RU knowledge extends as I haven't watched a game for 20+ years, but what struck me was the response of the presenters. Rachel Burden, as a notorious ruggerphile, was waxing lyrical about these tactics and saying how fantastic it is that they can grind the opposition into the ground through sheer physical force. Rick Edwards, the new presenter and self-confessed 'rugby' novice, didn't sound wholly convinced, and replied something along the lines of 'so it's about getting a load of fresh lumps to batter tired players?'. Burden enthusiastically agreed, as if this is a perfectly legitimate way to play the game. Which I suppose it is is whilst it's still within the laws of the game. There are people like Burden on both sides of the code divide, but I'm pretty sure it won't be them who are waking up in 20 years to a brain which no longer functions.

I admire Warrington for giving it a go but I can't see too many takers. I was seriously considering a bit of NFT speculation myself a few months ago but decided there are just too many pitfalls for a small time investor. If you're not careful any cash you have soon gets swallowed up in broker commissions, plus the reviews of OpenSea are mixed to say the least - plenty of horror stories of user accounts being suddenly closed and the currency disappearing into a void. I decided it was just too big a risk. If RL fans think it's risky buying Grand Final tickets for any more than £20 I can't see there being a stampede for NFTs. The only opportunity I can see in the short term is possibly for NRL clubs to give it a go. There would possibly be a bit more prestige attached to owning an NFT from Souths for example, rather than a British club.

I would guess that Friday sunset being the start of the Jewish sabbath has undoubtedly contributed to this. An overlooked consequence of Leeds moving regular matches to a Friday evening.

Absolutely correct. However, having lived in north Leeds for most of my life I can tell you with 100% certainty that league has reached as far as it can go in in this area of the city, and there would be no support for any second team in anything like the numbers required . All that would happen is current Rhinos fans may double up and watch another team but there is simply not the groundswell of support for a second team in north Leeds, or anywhere in the city for that matter. Once again people not from Leeds are probably greatly underestimating the influence of union in the city. North Leeds is pretty much sewn up by some very established amateur union clubs and all attempts at establishing an amateur RL club have failed north of Meanwood. This should tell you that even a city with an 800,000 population, league does not have the presence to launch another top flight team. Areas of the city which are an RL hotbed support the Rhinos. Areas which are not won't suddenly convert to watching a second team. It's simply a pipe dream.

It's by no means an original observation, but the one huge irritation with Sky coverage for me is the miking up of the refs. Any atmosphere at the game is instantly lost when the volume level of the ref is louder than both the crowd and commentators. It then becomes the same sort of viewing experience as a behind closed doors match. I've never understood why the sound engineers at Sky can't at least mix the ref's mike down and have the crowd and commentary at a higher level. It's like going to see an orchestra and having to listen to the conductor. To me it's such a quick win which costs Sky absolutely nothing but has the potential of pulling in the casual viewer. If I channel hopped onto a game and was met by MOOOVE at high volume every 10 seconds I'd be hopping off again pretty sharpish. I'd even put up with Barrie and Terry if they fixed this.

I haven't watched an NRL game or read any NRL related story since their world cup announcement, and I can't see that changing any time soon. It's not what they said but the way they said it which still rankles. I also still have my doubts they'll be over for the 2022 world cup.

I always loved the old RFL logo. It looked like the sort of thing a bloke would knock together on a notepad whilst taking a tea break from designing 1970s multi-storey carparks.

Unfortunately Ray begged to differ .

There's a game-wide mouthguard study currently in progress. It's an RFL initiative in conjunction with Super League clubs, with research being led by Leeds Beckett University. It's in a pilot stage at the moment with full rollout intended for November 2021. https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/news/2021/04/leeds-beckett-university-links-with-rugby-league-on-head-impact-research-project/

Agreed. From now on I'll treat the game in Australia and NZ as I would an estranged family member. I'll remember the good times but I've no desire to keep in contact or have any involvement in their future.

And the story underneath is about rugby league aiming for the 2032 Olympics as a priority. The game won't be around in 2032 with decisions like this.

An email form Leeds has just landed in my inbox. One of the news items features this interesting passage : "As the 2021 World Cup excitement starts to build, we're bringing the official England Rugby League merchandise to the Leeds Rhinos Merrion store. With the official kit and our latest off-field ranges being made available, you can get ready to support England." This means either Leeds have been told nothing about any postponement or they are doing a very good job of hiding it. Either way, if clubs like Leeds are still promoting the world cup and it gets pulled it makes the game look even more shambolic.

Maybe, maybe not. But a Rhinos resurgence would need to coincide with any United relegation to take full advantage. For those two elements to align is down to luck rather than planning, and even then Leeds United would still be the most popular club in the city.