fighting irish

Where is Eric Perez?

I love this idea.

"Who said I can't?"

Great stuff.

Any idea why Microsoft edge is blocking access to this twitter stuff?

Troll mate, troll.

Great news. Reading about the growth of the game is really heart warming. Thanks to all for these reports.

I thought he'd declared bankruptcy?

What a terrific match.

I'm proud to boast that I worked with him. What a great man, a true gentleman and a good friend and mentor.

I'm behind the eight ball here. Can someone give me a quick run down of what's happened? Is the Colwyn Bay ground a RaRa club ground? Have they (Crusaders) been dislodged due to a new pitch being laid? Or have they been bumped for a (series of) Union game(s) to take place? I thought they were secure there and welcome, has something undermined their position, or was it always precarious? Some inside information would be very much appreciated.

How did it ever become tolerable? Not only didn't we (my peers) talk to the ref, it never even entered out heads! We didn't engage in small talk with them, and we wouldn't even dream of questioning their integrity nor criticising them for an error of judgement. They weren't part of our world. They were part of the game, but not our part. It was like they were in the Phantom Zone, we could see them and hear them but they were on a different plane. Beyond reach, beyond influence, untouchable, incommunicado. We tried to do our best. The ref allowed us to do that and prevented us from doing our worst. It always worked well. Let's get back, (for the love of Jesus) to that attitude.

What's going on here? I thought they were settled in (and welcome) at Colwyn Bay. What's happened?

If an auction between Newcastle and Cardiff could be set up and the event awarded to the highest bidder then I don't think the spectacle would suffer (no matter who won the day). Cities bidding would add some cash to RL coffers, the swing from one to the other would introduce some novelty and keep the concept fresh, and would provide the secondary benefit of helping to promote Welsh RL (if Cardiff proffered the most attractive bid). Cardiff has been a popular well attended venue in the past. I feel the game is quietly growing in popularity in Wales (as it is in Newcastle, but apparently not in Liverpool), so let's give the Welsh fans a boost and the heartland fans another great weekend away. I'd be sad to see the concept scrapped. If I'm allowed to dream, I'd circulate between London, Newcastle and Wales, the three prime development areas in the country, possibly introducing the Midlands sometime not to distant.

Well if that's true Dave, we're in a much worse state than I thought. Look at the match stats. You'd expect better control and wiser decision making from an under 11's side. That a table topping team can't perform better than that is an indictment. The odd thing is that with anything like "average" stats they would have won comfortably.

I agree broadly. It's just a very sad incidence of Murphy's law, that we save the worst showing in decades for our largest audience. There's something gravely amiss at the Halliwell Jones.

When we so often moan about poor marketing of our game, I could cry when a golden opportunity to promote rugby league like this one, results in accelerating the games image in reverse. How can we claim our players are "world class athletes" when they put on such an embarrassingly inept performance? It all started so well too, with the "need for speed" intro, which looked great. Damage was done yesterday. Warrington should be ashamed of themselves.

Worst performance I think I've ever seen. Reminiscent of England's semi final performance but much worse.

How did it finish?

Isn't this great? How can they possibly do it? How can they afford it? How can they (ordinary people, simple human beings), coordinate such a monumental enterprise without standing by and waiting for the RFL to do it for them? Surely it couldn't be a result of their own initiative? Their own efforts? That can't be right surely? Whatever next? Does the forum think we should ask them if they would consider advising BARLA how to grow the game over here?

Great result.

Yes indeed.

Hear hear!

That costs a lot of money up in London.