WN83

Seems like Wane has confirmed one change of Thompson for Lees in his press conference. Not sure how to post a link but saw a piece about it by Aaron Bower just now on Twitter.

Lets hope so because it would be infuriating if the ticket site is that poor it's not giving up tickets people want. I've just had a look for tickets and can't get any £30 tickets but it let you select a couple of £55 tickets in area N9. I must admit I was only tempted in by £30 tickets though and wouldn't pay £55, simply on the basis that I'm going down to London early Saturday and didn't fancy splashing out £55 and doing all the travelling on not much sleep but I could live with it for £30.

I know Manchester United are selling final tickets on their own ticket website but Arsenal are not for this game. I'm not sure if it was possible but it's a shame that has not been the case. You'd love to think they would be targeting that game tonight to try and tempt some of the locals in. How they do that, be it by handing out leaflets, those mobile advertising vehicles, billboards, tube adverts, having the trophy on display, getting somebody on the field talking about it or a mixture of them all, it shouldn't matter but if it is going to slip by without anything being done at all, we don't deserve better crowds.

Just noticed Arsenal are at home tonight against Brighton in the League Cup. Every fan attending that should be made aware there is a game on Saturday where they can cheer their country on. To have no presence at the game tonight would be a real missed opportunity.

A lot of blocks seem to be sold at Elland Road and it feels like that one may keep growing a little quicker than Saturday, on the basis that a lot of heartlands fans would make late decisions on a quick-ish trip to Leeds. If you’re going to London from up here, it’s unlikely to be a late call (or certainly less likely). Any surge in sales for Saturday would need to mainly be from Southerners. I’d love to know if they’re doing anything to push that, especially in areas around the Emirates. I’ve seen the 43k figure mentioned at the start of this week, so I reckon we might sneak up to about 46,000/47,000 for Saturday and I think we’ll end up on late 20’s for Friday, so maybe around 75,000 in total. At the prices they’re charging that’s a solid effort.

Yes, it’s being heard this evening. It’ll get overturned I’m sure and that’s fine. I think people can give some leeway on that and call it an accident. Doing that makes the kid not getting banned for keep raising his knee even more baffling. He’s had his warnings.

I still wouldn't mind the change up option off the bench that Ackers could bring but it looks like the plan is to get Micky Mac, Radley and Knowles around an hour each and due to that we're not seeing a drop off in defensive intensity around the middle. If anything happened to Welsby or Williams at the weekend and we did win, then I'd be more concerned about MM at hooker in a final. If it was then Sneyd coming in to the halves. You're basically then going with one running threat from you 1, 6, 7 and 9 and then it might become a bit predictable. I think there's a really nice balance in those pivots at the moment between youth and experience and between structure and off the cuff and running threat.

Easy for me to say with Micky Mac because I've watched him on a regular basis over the years and he was for successful for my club side but I do think he's a good fit for this side and how we are looking at playing. We'd all prefer Roby I'm sure but with him not available, I'd without doubt rather have Micky Mac than I would Josh Hodgson for example. Hodgson killed our halfbacks space over the Bennett years and it's no coincidence in my mind that Welsby and Williams are thriving. He is getting them quicker ball and he is letting the forwards roll on to the ball and do their thing. Call him 'just a defender' if you want but the lad is intimidating and he whacks people and will go all day. In big internationals you need to mix it and you need to be tight as a drum around the middle. He is intense and helps lead that, along with somebody like Knowles and now Radley. Those guys are making the jobs of Tomkins, Welsby and Williams far easier and I think the proof has been in the pudding in that first game and again last Saturday.

It's the whole issue though isn't it! Would he be biased or would he want to prove he isn't and then in turn be more lenient towards us? Much in the same way that we would ask questions of somebody like Moore or Kendall if they were ref in a game between us and the Aussies. It's just an issue the game needs to come up with a plan of avoiding and to do that they need some sort of programme to bring through neutral referees. It cannot be that difficult surely to get referees from New Zealand over in the NRL? Or for us to to look at getting French refs involved here? The whole point is that no ref should be biased, so it shouldn't matter but you're always open to the discussion when they aren't neutral. It's much the same in Superleague when Liam Moore seems to get the Wigan vs Saints game most of the time. That is a joke and can be avoided so easily (unlike in Internationals). I'm sure some Saints fans would say he favours Wigan and I personally don't believe I've seen a referee as determined to prove he isn't biased to his hometown club but I will openly admit it's probably just in my head and he is reffing games as he sees fit. Ultimately though why put the guy in that position when you don't have to? In the international game currently they do have to put somebody in that position or go with a guy from France with no top level experience. They'll give Ashley Klein the final if it's England v Australia no doubt, to split the difference as best they can, given he has experience reffing in both countries.

I'm coming round to being happy for an Aussie ref to take charge of us should we play them in the final. Kendall was like a star stuck fan on Friday and then you had the Liam Moore shambles on Saturday with the captains challenge try. He seems to have been able to avoid massive stick for that on the basis it didn't matter but wow! That was as bad and as arrogant a mistake as I've seen. What was he doing? He seemed to realise he had totally messed up but wanted to refuse to acknowledge it and was hoping the players would just go with it. I listened to an Aussie RL podcast earlier and they were laughing their heads off at the error.

Fitness looked an issue in the first game. They’ll bring it early doors this time and we’ll have to stick at it but guys like Hill, McIlorum, Bateman, Radley, Knowles, Lees, Cooper etc will just keep going and going all game. It’s one area I’m confident we have a pretty big advantage.

Just saw a report in the Hull Daily Mail saying sales are around 43,000 to date for Saturday. A reasonable figure and it would be nice if we could get that up to 47/48k come the game. Maybe wishful thinking but there are plenty of reasonably priced tickets left. What sort of work they’re doing to get people there from the local areas around London I have no idea.

We have to be confident after the way we’ve played. Samoa have threats across the field though and we’ll need to be switched on. I just can’t see a Shaun Wane coached team not being, not at this stage and not in his first World Cup as coach. England by 12

I think it was Ellgren Shellsuits actually

I think the Aussies will take it reasonably comfortably. I just don’t think you can turn good form on like a tap and for all the hype, I’ve yet to be impressed with the Kiwis. There’s no doubt they’ve got great players and on a piece of paper, you could make a case for them challenging the Aussies in a number of positions and maybe they’re better in a few but I just can’t see it on the field. Australia by 18

Other than the 35,000 sold comments a couple of weeks back, it’s tough to get a grip on it. They seem to have gone underground when it comes to shouting about ticket sales. How they didn’t make more of only having 1,000 or so tickets left for Saturday is beyond me. Even if it tempted an extra few people to go ‘I fancy a bit of that’ just tweet it, get it out there. You can still add ten £30 tickets to your basket on the ticket site but they’re in a £55 area. A sign we’re struggling? Or a weird reward for buying late? Who knows. I’d be chuffed to bits with 50k plus and miffed if we end up under 40k.

Just a factual comment. It’s 50% Englishmen and 50% guys born overseas is it not? I’m with you, it should be mixed between Superleague and NRL guys. I wonder what it was like for the last World Cup? I doubt the Aussies Sat many of our guys on those panels but I could be wrong.

The panel was Jerome Guissett, Paul Dixon, Nathan McAvoy and Phil Vievers, so 50/50 in terms of English and overseas, although admittedly it is Superleague heavy.

Ha ha. Maybe our lads can go round suplexing the opposition and just say "yeah, it's my tackling style, what of it?"

Well there's my answer to this being a new thing or not. How this hasn't been sorted before now is beyond me.

I'd be worried about my collarbone as much as anything with it. I watched him after that first one and it didn't sink in for him but he was lucky he didn't catch anybody else. We need to pile in early on Saturday if he even comes close to doing it again and make sure the ref has eyes on it. I've not seen much if anything of him in the NRL. Is this a new thing or is it what he's been doing all year? Sometimes I suppose these things can creep in to your game and the lad is bumping people off left, right and centre by doing it, so he won't want to bin it but he should have no choice.

You'd be fuming if you copped an injury from that. There's every chance of concussing somebody and ruling them out for 11 days at the very least. The England players can't be shy about calling that out on Saturday if it happens again (and it will going off yesterday).

It wasn't the only incident of him doing this either. It looks to be his style and how he is managing to bump people off so often. Great young player but that needs taking out of his game. I didn't want to see him or Paulo banned but I'm not sure how he's avoided it, especially if he did get a caution for it in week one.

He's been very good. I thought he played a huge part in that second half against France, had his moments against Greece (but only played half a game didn't he?) and then was a handful on Saturday. The big forwards like Hill and Burgess eating up the ground is allowing that bit of space for him to work with and he's doing a good job. Overall I think peoples selections highlight how well we've done. At the start of the tournament everyone was naming different start 13's and 17's and debating those left out against their peers. That's dying off now and pretty much everyone is just 1 or at most, 2 bench players away from agreeing. The starting 13's for pretty much everyone are identical.

It felt like it might be the other way round. I saw somebody saying Sua'ali'i got a caution after Newcastle about the same issue. If that's the case, it's tough to see how he then gets another after yesterday. It wasn't a one off yesterday either, he did it before and after the incident and it's something he clearly needs to work on. We'll see how they go with Paulo. I think they might overturn it but I'm glad it was picked up. It's creeping in to the club game people leading with the non ball carrying arm and it's dangerous.