Northern Eel

Every element of the women’s game is pushing new boundaries. It’s really entertaining sport in its own right. I prefer it to a lot of mens games to be honest.

NZ very much deserve the win as the Aussies have been way below their best and rode their luck often.

Updated projections for Huddersfield for any other nerds: Core Stand Lower - 4500 Kilner Bank - 4000 Magic Rock - 1750 Big Red - 1500 500 tonight and walkups... = 12.25k I am pretty confident that the crowd will be more than 12,000.

Yes, I agree. I think they will have already sold more than the crowd will be at Huddersfield, and expect to top 16k.

I am assuming the allocated ticket numbers in the standing areas at Headingley (on the ticket website) represent the number of standing tickets currently sold. Therefore, I reckon there are still about 6,000 standing tickets available. Available seating looks sparse, however.

Isn't it great that we are talking about a test series on English soil that could go either way?

Our centres were quite exposed at times in the first game, on a stodgy pitch.

Good old Mick on twitter is saying the 2nd Test is 'moving into 5 figures' for ticket sales and a crowd of 14/15k is expected. One of those statements cannot be correct, surely. If we are only moving into 10k territory, are we really expecting to shift the rest in two days? I know, it's Mick etc..

Hopefully! As, by my reckoning, only 16,000 tickets have actually been available for sale, so if we've only shifted half of them, we're in the do do.

I am pretty confident that, other than the main stand, and a couple of block in the Kilner Bank, we are every other row. Availability in the small stand behind the goal has always been all seats, and there are about half of those sold. That said, I really hope I am pleasantly surprised. I'm looking forward to another good test match and can't wait to get there.

Still on every other row though, so less than half full. The Kilner Bank has some new rows released in Cat 2, which are rows in between, so there is some positive movement there too. We might just reach 10k at this rate, but that's nothing to shout about. My crude estimate so far: Core Stand Lower - 3500 Kilner Bank - 3500 Magic Rock - 1500 Big Red - 500 = 9k

Another close one as both teams improve on last week. England, just.

IMG argue that the long-term stability of a club can be determined by meeting the criteria. I am not qualified to comment on which areas have the biggest opportunities to do this. Reverse the argument; meeting which criteria will make a club weaker?

So you think a club who digs in their heals, sulk and make no effort to improve themselves against the criteria will be better clubs in the long-term than those who work to improve their grading? @GUBRATS

Absolutely spot on, and the rhetoric coming out of clubs is distinctly either 'can do' or 'can't do'. Those who think they can will improve, those who say they can't will dig their own grave.

https://share.synthesia.io/a1e5c780-e6dd-467d-87b1-f6802a0e9cbf

Is this why they have brought the commercial guy in too?

I am not a licensed bookmaker, thank goodness! My statement is based on reaching potential, rather than a specific league position, for example. Remove the club names and think of it this way; one club has accepted the score, knows exactly what it needs to do to improve and has stated its intention to do so over time. Another club doesn't like their score, doesn't acknowledge its shortcomings and blames someone else.

How many points extra would Wakey gain for the missing piece of the stadium that would presumably now be fulfilled?

The contrast between this professional and proactive response from London and those from some other clubs is huge. If I was to put money on it, long-term, I would fancy London to be the team that succeeds, and the whingers to be the ones that fail.

I am certainly with you on that.

If Toulouse had won the playoff and Newcastle’s financial woes had not yet come to light, these scores would be largely very predictable.

I’m putting my optimistic hat on. The criteria are presumably decided to ensure long term growth and stability of each club and the structures they use to produce new talent (both on and off the pitch). So, there are likely to be some casualties/anomalies to the current status quo as previously clubs have been measured solely on one metric; league position. If these criteria are the correct ones to use, we can assume the following: 1. Those higher ranking clubs are in the best overall position to sustain and grow at the top level of the game. 2. Those clubs who are not, now know what they need to do to improve. For some, this will take many years. For those who don’t wish to, or can’t improve, they will suffer. 3. The overall standard of club management, commerce, media footprint and player development will improve, but it isn’t going to be over night.

Now, I have been rather sad too and been checking on progress. One thing I have noted is that the central tickets in the main stand were available at times in more than multiples of every other row. Indeed, the intermittent rows remaining are mostly different from the rows in the outer segment. This is also the same in the Kilner Bank Stand. I am being overly optimistic probably, (and sales behind the sticks still look really poor) but I have an feeling that (some) tickets sold by ticketmaster may be on different rows than those sold directly by the RFL.

Those tickets are still on sale, but for one seat at the stadium in Milton Keynes. This is as a result of the RFL employing a new tactic of AI marketing, based on fan feedback.