Barley Mow

This was originally listed as a two game series (over two days). Am I right that they play each other again today?

It real does seem it doesn't it. The only justification I can think of is that it may be a house rule that comments must relate to the subject of the article - if the subject of the article is the 2nd England v Tonga test, then technically it is off topic. Nonetheless it seems over the top.

I think it'll have to have been somebody directly related to the South African governing body who notified them. ERLF would surely have told them about Greece v Ukraine, Czechia v Netherlands and Malta v Philippines as well. Nonetheless, there should be a better way for the BBC to find out the fixtures - when NRL is on, they always show the club fixtures.

Greece v Ukraine and Czechs v Netherlands rugby league matches didn't take your fancy then?

I don't think there is a solution to this issue. They may end up with something along the lines you suggest (although if that had been thought of I think it would have been mentioned in the interview as it is directly relevant) - even that would be like looking at the league table with 5 weeks of the season to go and judging the odds of going up or down. Clubs still might not have any certainty until the final grades are in after the grand final.

Only because movement between SL and Champ is likely to end (or be significantly reduced) - as you can imagine, I don't really see that as a positive either. That was essentially the answer in the interview - it didn't reflect the fact that the clubs involved won't know what improvements their opponents will have made to their grade. Although I am not in favour of this system, I am trying to remain objective, give it a chance and engage with it constructively. I had hoped there would be something in the interview that I could take away as a positive, a question came up that had been discussed on here and I hoped there was a positive answer to - unfortunately not.

Yes. But a new system that prolongs that uncertainty (even slightly) has a harder task in convincing people it is an overall benefit, than one that reduced the length of the uncertainty. Reduced uncertainty was afterall supposed to be a benefit of to this system.

Yes, I realise that is your preference. I'm still not convinced by the system as a whole and was glad when this question was asked because I hoped he would have an answer that would be an improvement on the current situation - that might've started to win me round. Unfortunately he had no answer.

The issue he was trying to address though was whether promoted clubs would have longer to prepare a squad for SL than under on-field P&R. I hoped he would have a solution, but the answer seems to be that they're likely to have less time.

The clubs around the 12th/13th place are unlikely to be A grade though (at least in the first few years). They will be B's - they will know how they're doing compared to last year, but can't know if they are promoted until later than at present because they won't know if other clubs have improved their grade.

I picked up on that as well. He didn't seem to accept that clubs wouldn't find out whether they are in SL til later than at present (because they won't know other clubs' positions until the grades are released post-season). I was disappointed Tanya Arnold didn't press him on it.

If you want to watch it back at some point, there will be a free full match replay on the NRL's youtube channel some time after the middle of the coming week.

Particularly bizarre considering the South Africa v Italy match was played in Australia as well.

Play by play updates here: https://www.nrl.com/draw/pacific-championships/2023/round-3/australia-v-new-zealand/

If you can find it, please do - I'd be interested to know people's reasoning for thinking women shouldn't play. I can understand people not being interested in every version of the game, but can't think why anyone would think any group 'shouldn't' be playing.

Such a competition might be a good idea under the circumstances (10 team world cup), but Lebanon are one of the eight who have already qualified for the world cup. Cook Islands also look likely to qualify.

Isn't that to avoid clubs being penalised for having an academy (and spending money on it)?

Oh no - you've gone and jinxed him now!

Population of Yorkshire - over 5.2 million (https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Yorkshire) Population of Lancashire - over 4.9 million (https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Lancashire)

Don't worry, the one on the left will have black shorts, the one on the right will have white shorts - it'll be fine!

Yes. They are updated after every season. The ones released this week are what clubs would get if the system was being introduced now. Next year's scores will actually be used to decide who is in Super League for 2025.

Merging Councils can work just as well as merging clubs. When IMG first became involved with RFL, three clubs (Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington) would all have got the lowest score for catchment. Changes to their Councils in April this year have actually benefitted the catchment score for all three clubs.

Go into the house building industry and increase the housing stock (and population) in their local area!?!

I was glad to see that they have matches organised for Pretoria as well as Sydney this year.

Who knows. But that seems to be what they've done for now.