Josef K

I can’t fault the effort by the Welsh, especially Walker who has stood out for me. But i think all the part time players in this competition have put in 100%.

Some of the executive boxes at Saints didn’t look as if they was in use last night. There was two police vans parked outside the away end though they must’ve been expecting a large Italian hooligan element to turn up and KO. But thankfully the night passed off peacefully.

I totally agree with you Chrispmartha and id imagine a lot of fans who were at the England Vs Greece game perhaps hadn’t attended many RL matches, or even watched England live in any sport. I hope that the next RLWC we have here we might’ve learned some lessons from this one and perhaps we can have more matches outside the heartlands. Then we can entice curious sports fans to come and watch RL internationals. After the match a mate hung around with his lad to have photos with some of the players and he said “they were fantastic, really polite and happy to have photos taken”. He said his lad was thrilled because he got his photo taken with one of his Aussie heroes Latrell Mitchell.

I have just got back from the Australia/Italy match as i nipped into town for a pint after. Italy gave it a go but too many errors against the Kangaroos is not recommended, the Aussies scored some nice tries though. I have to admit the match dragged and i couldn’t wait for the FT hooter. My young granddaughter who came the match wasn’t impressed with the one sidedness. She had only just come back from a week in Spain, i asked her which did she enjoy most the week away or tonight’s match. It was quite clear it was tonight’s big match. The big positive was the match kicking off on time, i don’t know why we can’t do that for the League campaign. My next match is the final.

My mate text me yesterday telling me the match tickets for the three games at Saints had arrived, which is nice.

You’re not missing anything TMP.

I only liked one record by the Boo Radleys “Does This Hurt?”. It’s a cracking song, but all their other tunes are Booooo.

I’m not a fan of the WCC so id rather Saints didn’t bother.

I hope not.

I thought there was a good atmosphere last night, the Tongan fans were brilliant again and the fella who is dressed like Father Christmas and walks round the ground with the big Tongan flag attracts loads of attention as it seems everyone wants their photo with him. A very big positive is the matches are virtually kicking off on time, the players come out well before 7.30pm so then they can get everything out of the way and then be ready for 7.30pm. I wish the top tier over here would do that. The scoreboard was working this time which was good news, but they didn’t have a clock which meant a lot of people didn’t know how long was left. I thought Wales put in a brilliant performance and they should all be proud of themselves. Kyle Evans and Anthony Walker played really well, none of them took a backward step, but in the end Tonga just had too much for them. I don’t think it was that bad of an attendance last night. It’ll be interesting how many turn up for the next match at Saints.

I went to my second RLWC match tonight and it was another mild evening with no rain which is a very big bonus. I went over the Stevie Prescott bridge and they (id imagine the organisers of the RLWC) had put on the booming music with some lights again. Then as you get closer to the ground there was another place with more booming music and two women dancing, whilst a fella was on his own twirling a couple of things with fire in them. I don’t know what that is all about and i don’t know who it is meant to impress. There was two separate groups from a religion handing out leaflets, and it is amazing how many people get their phones out to pretend they’re on their phone just before they get to them. Two mates who i went with did exactly that, how bizarre.

I enjoyed that match.

I watched the Torquay/Altrincham game (i always say Altringham) and what a match. Torquay are bottom whilst the robins were just above the drop zone. Altrincham went 0-2 up after 29mins, but then Torquay hit back to pull level, then on 81mins Torquay went 3-2 up. The robins pulled level on 85mins, but then Torquay had a player sent off on 88mins. Altrincham then took the lead again in the 90th minute, but in the 97th minute Torquay grabbed a point with the last kick of the game. It was a grandstand finish.

I don’t follow any u****, but what type of crowds do they get for the club rugger up in Scotland. I know they won’t be anywhere near the gates Celtic/Rangers get, but are they near or the same that the likes of Aberdeen, Motherwell etc etc get ?.

The Leopards could put a photo of Bet Lynch on the front & back of their shirt in one of her leopard outfits.

I like that it’s a cracker.

I like that.

A couple of much needed wins tonight for Hull City, Coventry, Middlesbrough at the bottom of the table. It’s tight at the top with QPR in first place but will Michael Beale make the right choice if he joins Wolves. It might be his only choice to manage in the Premier League, it’s a tough one for him.

I’ve had loads of programmes that ive marked down but not got round to watching them yet. The some shows i have marked down from the last week or so which i’ll have to watch on catch-up “Westminster Abbey Behind Closed Doors - Ch5”, “Raising The Mary Rose : The Lost Tapes - Ch4”, “In The Shadow Of Mary Seacole - ITV”.

If id have had the vision of “Steve Austin - The Six Million Dollar Man” Matt it wouldn’t have been a problem seeing how long was left on the big screen.

What i really enjoyed about tonight wasn’t just the first class RL, but also the atmosphere as well. The kids getting behind PNG & Tonga did so right until the end and was brilliant. It was also great to see the diversity of the crowd which was really heartwarming. Another positive for me was there was no vile or abusive language and know one plastered”. Like i said in my last post i was talking to a Salford fan and i saw a few of them, but i also saw “Wire, Leeds, Wakey fans, and loads of Leigh supporters. I am going the game next Monday and i hope it’s the same again. Another positive for myself was the 7.30pm KO, as i was home for 9.45pm. The match nearly kicked off on time which would’ve been a first for years & years at a RL game. I don’t know who the ref was but i thought he was excellent, there was hardly any stoppages and he let the game flow. The only small negative of the night was the scoreboard wasn’t working which meant most fans didn’t know how long was left or even the score. That was my only gripe.

When i got home from work i was bushed and i was thinking of giving it a miss and watch it at home. But with persuading a couple of people to go the match i thought “it’ll look well if i stay at home”. I am glad i went now because it was a cracking game and night. I got onto the ground at about 6.55pm and i met up with my mates, and at first it was all negative because we thought it’d be another poorly attended match. But a couple of mins before KO fans started streaming into the West Stand RL style, i said to a mate “they must have the same people going through one exit and out another and back in again to make it look like it’s really busy. But i was talking to a Salford fan at HT and he said “the East Lancs was closed and it took ages to get to Saints”.

France come first for me with having the best kit of the competition. I love the red & blue Vee.

I have managed to persuade a couple of people to go tomorrow which is a start.

You may think it’s a pathetic excuse but they don’t and they class themselves as RL fans. If they could’ve visited Saints to pickup some tickets they would’ve gone, as that would have been the easiest thing for them to do. They didn’t want to setup an account, people like to do things differently and there should’ve been more choice for getting tickets other than doing it online. Hopefully when we have the next RLWC we can learn from the mistakes that have been made in 2022.