Barley Mow

As an advocate of on-field base P&R (subject to enforced minimum standards) my suggestion was that grading can be a good idea if the intention is to encourage clubs to improve off field operations, but I don't think it should be used to decide who is in SL. I may have said that central funding could be linked to each club's score, and interestingly I believe they have now adopted that for funding in Championship and L1. I'm not entirely happy with that, as I don't think there should be a large difference in the amount of funding for different clubs in the same division, but I'm not sure what other 'reward' there can be for getting a good score in the grading other than a SL place and increased funding - Of those two options, the funding would be my preference.

Surely the mid-season test against France (with the NRL players not around) was when he tried out other squad members. It was only two years ago when England thrashed Samoa in the first game and then lost in the second against them. Learn the lesson from that and don't take victory for granted. Get the series won with the best team available.

Yes, of course. I wasn't suggesting that they weren't Irish as well as British, just pointing out that they would have been proud to represent Britain and that Carney was a different situation. Interestingly, in watching the Scotland v Ireland match back on youtube yesterday evening I noticed that the Ireland team had a tricolour attached to the back of their replacements bench, despite them supposed to represent all Ireland.

As far as I know the previous Irishmen who played for GB were all Northern Irish (and held British citizenship and identified as British). Foy was born in Lancashire. Carney (I believe) was the first, to date only, Irish (Republic) citizen and first who didn't identify as British.

On the ticketing website you select find by 'section' rather than 'seat map'. It then tells you availability in each area. Currently 1,461 available on south stand terrace, 869 on east stand terrace and 768 on western terrace. No seats still available.

They really are playing the same old tricks - 1,500 new tickets just gone on sale for the south stand terrace for Headingley!

Small numbers of seats going on and off sale this morning (as if there are some returns being put on sale). Currently only 1 available (north stand), but if you're still looking for tickets it might be worth keeping an eye on it if possible.

Are most RL reporters are from the backgrounds that may have class/other bias against the sport or is it that our reporters are like a lot of other followers of the game in this country and seem to have a naturally down beat outlook on it?

Yeah, that's a possibility. I was a little surprised when I first checked about a week ago and there were only about 2,250 available on WT. I've heard of people buying (cheaper) tickets there in the hope that there will be unused seats in the middle of the north stand and stewards won't check their tickets - but still hopeful the numbers are right rather than expectant.

South stand terrace had less than 100 available last night and shows sold out this morning. 45 seats in south stand have come on sale in last hour or so, all seats previously having been unavailable (returns from a sponsor?) Currently 1120 on west terrace and 860 on east terrace available. What we have no indication of is hospitality sales.

You'll know better than me, being on that side of the Pennines, but are you saying that rugby league fans in the north west (fans of 12 Lancashire & Cumberland clubs, etc) would attend at Manchester but would see Liverpool as being too far? I'd assumed it wouldn't make a lot of difference - most are located between Manchester and Liverpool, some closer to one and some closer to the other. And for those coming from Barrow or Cumberland, it wouldn't make a great deal of difference which you were going to after a longer journey.

If you select find tickets by 'section' rather than 'seat map' it tells you how many are available in each area. Currently about 900 on the east terrace and 1,100 on the west terrace.

Okay, the All Golds Tour arrived in September 1907, but only played club sides during the rest of the year before the first match against another national team on 1st Jan 1908 - I suppose I give you that. I agree the international game is at a low ebb, and I also want to see it get back to and go beyond previous highs. But saying it 'has to start somewhere' isn't correct. We don't discard everything up to this point. Otherwise we end up reinventing everything every four years and congratulating ourselves when we don't even have what we've had in the recent past - as the NRL have the last couple of years with the Pacific comp.

What do you mean by 'the international game has to start somewhere?' We've had internationals since 1907.

I checked on the ticketing website. No seats left on sale. About 100 standing in the south stand and about 1,000 at each end. The one thing that isn't accounted for is hospitality places.

Only just over 2,000 currently available.

Another enjoyable read, thanks for that. Interesting to get a bit of a behind the scenes perspective as well, rather than from the stands. Surprised to lean John Kear wasn't there with it being Wales' only chance to make the next world cup.

Getting back onto the subject of the thread, ticket sales for Leeds seem to be going better than Wigan. There have been no seats on sale for over 24 hours, which I assume means they are sold out. About 2,400 standing tickets currently on sale.

Ukraine in for another try in the final minute. Glad they could finish on a high. FT - Serbia 50-10 Ukraine

The stream cuts out for 3 mins and it's 50-4 when it comes back. 10 mins left.

Serbia really starting to pull away now - 46-4. Some good goal kicking too.

About 20 mins left, Serbia 40-4 Ukraine.

I was just about to post that Ukraine seemed to be improving early in the 2nd half after getting a try, but Serbia in again - 28-4 Edit - and again, 34-4

HT: Serbia 22-0 Ukraine

And then Serbia get their next try 22-0 37 mins