giasf

Fifita at Gold Coast.

Wilkin and O'Connor doing my head in. Sky need to take a leaf out of C4 coverage.

Backed Catalans at 3.5 on the Betfair Exchange. Far too wide at that price.

It completely ignores the fact that Super League players are not in a position to live in a bubble. If I'm a Premier League footballer, my missus (or fella...) can afford not to work, and I can afford to pay whatever I need to do (or the club will do it for me) so that I don't really have to interact with the general population - drastically reducing the chance of catching COVID. There are very few Super League players who can afford to not have their family work, or relatives assist with childcare or even in many cases not run their own business on the side. There will be outbreaks, in many instances that won't be the fault of the players and some teams are going to be very unjustly punished. Total nonsense IMO.

I like away but it does look more like a referee kit than a club kit.

Martin Offiah was transferred in 1991 from Widnes to Wigan for £440,000. In today's money that is equivalent to £930k (based on the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator). Will we see any real transfer fees in the foreseeable future? Is it a good thing that we don't really seem to have transfer fees anymore? Is the fact that no club could actually pay that amount an insight into where we are as a game?

Love the crest and wish them all the best with this as I am an expansionist at heart, but I can't see how they're going to last more than a season or two given the circumstances of their founding.

Visited the Sydney Morning Herald website to get a feel for what the Aussie press think. No mention on the homepage. Fourth story on the sports page — lower than a player being investigated for a breach of a bubble. Speaks volumes.

Should be referred to the Police.

For reasons that have nothing to do with RU, I went to watch London Irish (low to mid-table Premiership) vs. Exeter (decent side) at the new Brentford stadium the other week. It was only the second time I've ever seen live (professional) RU - the other being 25-30 years ago watching Sale roll around in the mud at Heywood Road vs I've no idea who. I worry where we'll be in 25 years time if RU continues on its current trajectory. Almost everything about that run of the mill RU game - on a Tuesday night, with COVID restrictions - was better than any (non-play-off) SL game I've been to since the mid-00s. The stadium was better than any SL stadium I've been to (even if it doesn't belong to London Irish), the crowd felt more diverse and more interested in what they were there to see, the club made more effort to provide a professional "experience" off the pitch. Even the on-field product really wasn't that bad. As ever with RU the basics were at times lacking, but both sides were throwing the ball about and playing expansive rugby that was largely entertaining to watch. Not a patch on the best RL can offer but frankly not far off the average SL fixture. Rugby League needs to play to its strengths and make a committed effort as a sport to promote what is unique about it. The sport should be pushing to develop more of a presence in the south, but only because there is room for both codes down here - not in any attempt to dislodge RU from its heartlands. Invest in the sport in the north at a grassroots level and make sure that kids want to play our sport. Participation numbers are worrying. Promote the amateur game and make sure community clubs are just that - the focal part of their local area -- with proper facilities that they can generate revenue from. Reduce the number of top flight sides and ensure that the teams that are there have the strength of personnel to showcase the best of our sport at club level. The simple fact is that we don't have the quality of players coming through to support the numbers of teams and fixtures we have in SL currently. Until then reduce the number of sides to 10 and play home-and-away. Market the Challenge Cup and Play-Offs/Grand Final more heavily. Commit to a proper representative calendar -- regular GB tours, get England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales playing each other regularly -- if that means playing fast and loose with eligibility rules to bring up the level of competitiveness of the other Home Nations then do it. Bring back Lancashire v Yorkshire and commit to it for 5 years. Create a programme to improve the quality of media personalities around the game - get eloquent ex-players the right media training so we can show our sport in the right way in the press/media. There are some decent ex-players starting to float around (Carney is great, Wilkin is very good although a little fond of his own voice, etc). Support French RL -- it's the more obvious place to expand vs. the South. The objective should be to have Catalans and Toulouse return to their own comp in 25 years with 6 to 8 other clubs that can comprise a meaningful competition that can capture interest locally and enable France to field a competitive international side.

Yes -- which was utterly ridiculous. I hope this situation doesn't result any sort of similar outcome.

It was clearly not meant in a derogatory way towards any particular group of individuals but on the assumption it was used in the way it would be generally interpreted by a UK based audience then a swift apology for any offence caused and a formal but quiet word in the ear from someone like Karl Fitzpatrick should suffice, before we all move on with our lives. Reminds me of the Cavani incident in football more than Clubb in RL.

To paraphrase Dominic Cummings; if Chris Kendall is the best we can muster than something somewhere is seriously wrong. Salford were always going to struggle in this game but our thin confidence was shot by an atrocious decision early on from the referee. We've got our own problems to go away and address but it's poor decisions in games like this that can really break an already fragile team.

A lot of the drive around this seems to be coming from people who have never played the game. Attempting to completely eradicate contact to the head is nonsensical. There has to be a degree of acceptance that it is possible you may be accidentally hit on the head whilst playing elite level rugby league. If you're not on board with that don't play the game. The logical conclusion I can see from this is that you will get more old fashioned tackling around the legs. I can recall far more occasions recently of defenders knocking themselves senseless by getting their timing/positioning wrong in waist high tackles than I can of players in possession being knocked out ball in hand. This is also going to really impede on the ability of the defence to be effective -- expect to see lots of ridiculous scores like 60-40. The timing is also poor in the context of the lopsided nature of the NRL currently anyway. According to Wikipedia the record score in the NRL/top flight Aussie RL is 91-6. I can see a team surpassing that this season on the back of this rule change. Manly ran in 50 vs Brisbane at the weekend. Can you imagine Melbourne against this Brisbane team with 11 or 12 players?

Why? One (1) person, who is no position of power whatsoever, has made a stupid comment. I would suggest anyone who is so fragile as to crumble in this scenario needs to seek their own help. It was evidently so damaging to Savelio that his immediate reaction was not to sit and cry, but to seek an opportunity to belt Clubb in retribution. This is not at all comparable to — for example — the situation faced by Karen Carney recently. Clubb has seemingly rightly been found guilty of something he should not have said and has subsequently been handed a substantial punishment. Savelio has rightly been supported by his employer and the rugby league community generally when he has been wronged, and his abuser has been brought to justice. I appreciate it makes everyone feel much more virtuous to want to see Clubb hung drawn and quartered but the fact is that it just draws attention away from some of the more fundamental and damaging problems that need to be addressed in this area. Why bother to ask what the RFL is actually doing to increase participation amongst different communities when we can focus on being outraged that Tony Clubb has not been banned from the sport forever?