Hanover XIII

We were cutting it fine arriving at that game so I dropped my friends off and went to find somewhere to park. By the time I got in we were 20 points down and it just got worse after that. Was thoroughly, thoroughly depressed. Seems to be a few Widnes fans joining in, so I remember a first round play-off game at Barrow where we got hammered on a miserable afternoon in pouring rain. That was another lowlight.

Very sad news. A true great and one of the first players I remember being in awe of when I saw him play.

Watched it. Was excited by it. Thought there was some superb rugby played. Stadium looked great event at two-thirds full. Proper sense of an event happening.

If I had a spare grand or two I'd have definitely been there, and so would three or four friends. I'll definitely get to at least one if they're going to be there for five years.

The cost, the previous week's result and the general mood around the club will all have contributed. Even taking all that into account I thought it would still crack the 1,000 mark. Fewer than 800 is very worrying.

Not being wise after the event, but said pretty much the same when I heard he was being appointed. Wondered how long it would take him to become the centre of attention.

This is not a `you're wrong, I'm right' view but just shows how we all see things differently. I've always thought he was one of the BBC's poorer presenters.

I enjoyed the piece for what it was, and the mentions of rugby league were an added bonus!

£1.55! Why don't the RFL adopt a similar pricing policy for tests over here.

It's a difficult balance between creating visible, household names and the demands of the sport. I'm surprised we don't see more players attending events as sporting celebrities, even if just in the north of England. Their agents would surely be able to secure invites and then photography from the events, social media follow-ups etc help create the air of someone who it at least on the scene - whatever scene that might happen to be, whether it's a big gig, a fight night and so on. There would always follow some criticism that they were getting above themselves, but sponsors, TV bookers and so on will follow the numbers and if one or two players are starting to cross over into other fields they'll get noticed and the whole thing snowballs. Plus you need a career outside and after the sport. Look how many things Offiah has done as a personality. Although being an all-time great didn't hurt.

In time honoured tradition my dad made us leave this game early `to beat the traffic'. As we got in the car we heard the radio commentator talking about the final, length of the field try that had finished the game. I remember my uncle going nuts because he'd missed it.

Absolutely. My nephew - football first, ridiculous boxing match-ups, fake grudges, pointless re-matches, YouTubers fighting each other a close run second, all consumed on his phone.

Other commitments each week. Will be recording the games and watching later. Makes no odds because I can't go, but I'd like to have seen one game played outside the corridor.

In Widnes many people have hated being in the borough of Halton since Runcorn & Widnes were joined together by local government reorganisation, which also put them in Cheshire, not Lancashire, and then with the arrival of the Liverpool CIty Region, which Halton is part of, they hate that as well.

Widnes announced an attendance on the day. Not sure why it hasn't been released since. Something around 3,200 from memory. Certainly over 3K.